Four Israelis wounded in Gush Etzion in latest car-ramming attack
(JNS.org) Four Israelis ages 16-25 were injured Thursday when a car drove into a bus stop outside the Jewish community of Alon Shvut in Judea and Samaria. A Palestinian suspect from Hebron was arrested in connection with the attack, according to reports.
Israel Radio reported that one person was seriously injured, one was moderately injured, and two were lightly wounded. Moshe Savil, deputy head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, urged security forces “to return the sense of security to the Gush, increase security, and limit the entrance of Palestinians to crowded places,” according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
On Wednesday, Israeli investigators named a suspect in a different car-ramming attack on April 25 in the A-Tur neighborhood of Jerusalem. Three Israeli police officers were wounded in that attack. According to the Shin Bet security agency, evidence gathered at the scene of the crime and throughout the investigation pointed to Majdi Mahmed Salah, 31, a resident of the Shuafat refugee camp who holds Israeli citizenship. The Shin Bet said Salah, who turned himself in to the police, had nationalistic motives for the terror attack.
Also in April, an Arab man drove into a bus stop in Jerusalem’s French Hill junction, killing 26-year-old Jewish man Shalom Yohai Sherki.
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Anti-BDS bill advances in Illinois state legislature
(JNS.org) The Illinois State House of Representatives Executive Committee on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill that would prohibit state pension funds from including companies that participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel in their portfolios.
The 10-0 committee vote follows the 49-0 passage of the measure in the Illinois State Senate and precedes a vote among the full Illinois House, after which point the bill would go to the desk of Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner for a signature into law.
B’nai B’rith International said in a statement that it “applauds Illinois citizens and their representatives for taking such a strong stance against a movement rooted in anti-Semitism that ultimately impedes the peace process by opposing constructive dialogue between Israel and Palestinians.”
State legislatures in Indiana and Tennessee last month passed resolutions condemning the BDS movement, but those measures were non-binding, as opposed to the Illinois legislation’s concrete economic action against BDS. According to B’nai B’rith, the Illinois bill’s proposed removal of BDS-participating companies from state pension portfolios “is based on existing legislation that the Illinois Investment Policy Board currently enforces, mandating that state pension funds be divested from foreign firms doing business in Iran, Sudan or other countries with known human rights violations.”
The Christian Zionist organization Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), which initiated the anti-BDS resolution in Tennessee, has released a list of 17 U.S. states that are considering or have already passed legislation that opposes BDS.
“I am calling on Christians, Jews, and people of conscience in the remaining 33 states to add their voices to this groundbreaking initiative by contacting PJTN.org and launching this initiative in their states. It’s time to confront these people (BDS proponents) and call them what they are—anti-Semites!” PJTN founder Laurie Cardoza-Moore said in a statement.
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Vatican treaty recognizes Palestinian statehood
(JNS.org) The Vatican officially recognized Palestinian statehood on Wednesday in a statement about a new treaty.
The treaty, which was finalized but not yet signed, signals the Vatican’s diplomatic switch from recognizing the Palestinian Liberation Organization to the “State of Palestine.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to visit the Vatican on Saturday.
On Wednesday, the Vatican’s statement cited “the Bilateral Commission of the Holy See and the State of Palestine.” In 2012, the Vatican had officially supported the United Nations move to upgrade the Palestinians’ status at the world body to “non-member observer state.” Israel has long maintained that pre-emptive and unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood would damage hope to forge a negotiated solution with the Palestinians.
The Vatican’s move follows a growing push among Western European countries to recognize Palestinian statehood. A number of European parliaments—including those of the European Union, the U.K., Spain, and France—have recently passed symbolic resolutions calling for Palestinian statehood recognition. The Swedish government, meanwhile, has gone further by formally recognizing a Palestinian state.
“We believe that this action by the Vatican, like similar moves by other countries, serves to undermine the prospects for peace, which can only be achieved by direct negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The prospect for such negotiations is diminished by this action,” said Robert Sugarman, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, said, “Formal Vatican recognition of Palestine, a state that, in reality, does not yet exist, is a regrettable move, counterproductive to all who seek true peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”
“We are fully cognizant of the pope’s good will and desire to be a voice for peaceful coexistence, which is best served, we believe, by encouraging a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, rather than unilateral gestures outside the framework of the negotiating table,” Harris added.
In May 2014, Pope Francis made his first official trip to Israel as pontiff, in addition to visiting Jordan and the disputed Palestinian territories. In one enduring image from the trip, the pope received some criticism from the pro-Israel community for an unscheduled stop at the Israeli security fence in Bethlehem, which led to a controversial photo-op in which he touched the fence next to anti-Israel graffiti.
Last June, Pope Francis followed up his Middle East trip by hosting then-Israeli president Shimon Peres and Abbas in Rome to “pray for peace.”
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Two Jews among those killed in deadly Amtrak derailment
(JNS.org) Two Jews were among the seven people killed in the Amtrak train derailment on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, a crash that also injured more than 200 people.
Citing a text message from her family, the New York Times on Wednesday reported the death of Rachel Jacobs, a 39-year-old CEO who was commuting back to her Manhattan home from her job with ApprenNet, an online education start-up in West Philadelphia.
Also killed was 20-year-old Justin Zemser, president of the Jewish Midshipmen Club at the U.S. Naval Academy.
“Everybody looked up to my son and there are just no other words I could say,” said his mother, Susan Zemser, NBC News reported.
Jacobs was very active in the Jewish community near Detroit, where she grew up. In a 2011 interview, she spoke about her deep connection to the Jewish community.
“When we think about what it means to be Jewish, it’s very much focused on building community,” she said in describing Detroit Nation, a non-profit she co-founded.
Federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are still looking into the cause of Tuesday night’s crash. The train’s “black box” device was taken to an Amtrak center in Delaware to learn more about the final moments.
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Helen Mirren to be honored by World Jewish Congress for ‘Woman in Gold’
(JNS.org) British actress Helen Mirren will be honored by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) for her recent role in Woman in Gold and for raising awareness on Nazi-looted art. Mirren will be presented with the award by WJC President Ronald S. Lauder in New York later this year.
In Woman in Gold, Mirren plays Austrian-American woman Maria Altmann, who won a lawsuit against the Austrian government in 2006 to reclaim five paintings by renowned Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. One of the paintings, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” was a portrait of Altmann’s aunt. These paintings were confiscated from the husband of Adele Bloch-Bauer by the Nazis because he was Jewish. After the painting of Altmann’s aunt was returned to her, it was purchased by Lauder. Currently, the painting is displayed at
the Neue Galerie in Manhattan.
“The history of the ‘Woman in Gold’ painting exemplifies the immense suffering, painful loss and, for a prolonged period, the injustice that many Jews were subjected to during the 20th century,” Lauder said in a statement.
“Being a part of this film and preserving Maria Altmann’s legacy has been a truly exceptional experience from the start,” Mirren said. “I am utterly moved to be receiving an award from the World Jewish Congress, an organization that does such important work all over the globe in advocating for Jewish rights.”
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Israeli high schoolers win silver, bronze medals in physics competition in China
(JNS.org) Israeli high school students won two silver medals and four bronze medals at the 16th Asian Physics Olympiad in Hangzhou, China.
The Israeli delegation to the competition, which ended Monday, ranked eighth overall in the competition out of 23 participating national delegations. Eight students comprised the Israeli team, which was led by Dr. Eli Raz, the head of the department of physics and optical engineering at ORT Braude College in Karmiel and a physics lecturer at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
“The members of the science Olympiad delegation are role models for other students and their success is a great contribution to the state of Israel and to the entire education system,” said Dr. Ofer Rimon, head of the Israeli Education Ministry’s science and technology administration, the Jerusalem Post reported.
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Israeli Knesset narrowly passes bill to add more government ministers
(JNS.org) In a third and final reading, the Israeli Knesset narrowly passed, 61-59, a bill that amends Israeli law to enable Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition government to have 20 cabinet ministers instead of 18.
“The formation of the current government has proven that the coalition system in Israel makes it impossible to endure a limit of 18 ministers,” governing coalition chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“Such a limit harms the stability and flexibility required for governing,” he said.
The bill is an amendment to Israel’s Basic Law and overturns a previous law enacted by the last government, which set a cap on the number of ministers.
Netanyahu now plans to meet with Likud party members and other parties to decide ministerial posts in the government, which is expected to be sworn in on Thursday.
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