CEO of French telecom company Orange expresses desire to boycott Israel
(JNS.org) Stephane Richard, CEO of the French telecommunications giant Orange, said at a news conference in Egypt on Wednesday that he would have his company boycott Israel as soon as “tomorrow,” but isn’t yet prepared to make that move.
French advocacy groups have been pressuring Orange to cut ties with Partner Communications Ltd., its affiliate that provides cell phone service in Israel. France’s government has a quarter stake in Orange.
“I am ready to abandon this (business in Israel) tomorrow morning, but the point is that I want to secure the legal risk for the company,” Richard said. “I want to terminate this, once again, but I don’t want to expose Orange to a level of risk and of penalties that could be really sizable for the company.”
In Egypt, a campaign to boycott Orange is claiming that the telecom company sponsors Israel Defense Forces units.
“I know that it is a sensitive issue here in Egypt, but not only in Egypt,” said Richard, who added, “We want to be one of the trustful partners of all Arab countries.”
Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Aryeh Deri responded to Richard’s comments by saying, “Boycotts will not succeed in imposing anything on Israel—the only way is communication and negotiations. I plan to approach the CEO of Partner Communications and its senior managers and offer them all the assistance I can provide in confronting the global boycott efforts.”
Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, sent a letter to Richard urging him to “avoid taking part in the industry of lies against Israel,” Israel Hayom reported.
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Israeli president awards Unity Prize in honor of 3 slain Jewish teens
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and his wife Nechama hosted the inaugural Jerusalem Unity Prize award ceremony on Wednesday at the President’s Residence in honor of kidnapped and murdered Jewish teens Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach, and Naftali Frenkel.
The prize is the joint initiative of the boys’ families, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, and Gesher, a non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the gaps between different segments of Israeli society. Its purpose is to recognize individuals and organizations who contribute to unity among Jewish communities and Israeli society, and it was distributed on the newly declared Unity Day, also created in memory of the teenage boys killed by Hamas last year.
The Unity Prize is awarded in three categories: Israel-Diaspora, Social Initiative, and Individual. The Chabad House in Bangkok, Thailand, under the leadership of Rabbi Nechemya Wilhelm, won in the Israel-Diaspora, category; “Nifgashim Beshvil Israel” (“Meeting for Israel – on the Israel Trail”), an annual hike of the Israel National Trail initiated by Raya and Yossi Epner in memory of their son Avi, who died in the 1997 military helicopter tragedy, won in Social Initiative; and the Meetchabrim (“Connecting”) organization’s founder IDF Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Ram Shmueli as well as musician Rabbi David Menachem won in the third category.
“Different as we may be, we have a bright future here together,” said Rachel Frenkel, Naftali’s mother, at the ceremony. Rivlin said that “thanks to the prize winners, we are reminded that mutual responsibility, unity, and solidarity are important challenges during difficult times and even during mundane times.”
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Two rockets launched at southern Israel from Gaza
(JNS.org) Two rockets were fired at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
“Confirmed. 2 rockets were launched from #Gaza at southern #Israel, Ashkelon & Netivot home to approx. 139000 people. Luckily no injuries,” IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner wrote on Twitter.
Wednesday’s rockets come about a week after Palestinian terrorists fired a Grad rocket into Israel on May 26. That rocket landed in an area outside of Gan Yavneh, which sits east of the city of Ashdod, and was fired by Islamic Jihad amid infighting between two commanders in that Palestinian terrorist organization.
Escalating rocket fire from Gaza around this time last year, as well as the Hamas terror group’s kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teens, triggered that summer’s war between Israel and Hamas.
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U.K. university umbrella distances itself from student union’s Israel boycott
(JNS.org) Universities U.K., an umbrella group representing 133 British universities, has come out against the decision by the country’s largest student union to boycott Israel a day earlier, saying that academic boycotts are “inimical” to academic freedom.
“The board of Universities U.K. is committed to the free exchange of ideas between universities and between academics, regardless of nationality or location,” the group said in a statement. “The board therefore firmly opposes academic boycotts on the basis that they are inimical to academic freedom, including the freedom of academics to collaborate with other academics.”
On Tuesday, the U.K.’s National Union of Students (NUS), which represents millions of students at universities across that country and is the largest British association of its kind, passed a resolution to affiliate with the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the decision “hypocritical” for singling out the Jewish state after NUS previously rejected a resolution condemning the Islamic State terror group.
“They boycott Israel but they refuse to boycott ISIS. That tells you everything you want to know about the BDS movement,” Netanyahu said.
The British government also criticized the NUS decision, with Deputy U.K. Ambassador to Israel Rob Dixon saying the country “firmly opposes calls to boycott Israel” and is “deeply committed to promoting the U.K.’s trade and business ties with Israel.”
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Netanyahu to New Zealand FM: Iran ‘continues to grow’ its uranium stockpile
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully in Jerusalem on Wednesday as the Pacific island nation prepares to assume a leadership role at the United Nations Security Council in July.
Rebutting U.S. President Barack Obama’s interview that aired Tuesday on Israel’s Channel 2, in which Obama said Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium “is gone,” Netanyahu told McCully there have been reports that Iran “continues to grow its nuclear stockpile as the negotiations [with world powers] proceed.”
Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, said that Iran’s nuclear fuel stockpile has increased by about 20 percent over the last 18 months, despite claims by the Obama administration that the program was frozen.
Netanyahu’s meeting with McCully comes ahead of New Zealand’s scheduled appointment of an official from its country to serve a one-month term as president of the U.N. Security Council in July. New Zealand has traditionally shied away from bold moves in the international arena, but the country has signaled a willingness to wade into issues facing the chaotic Middle East region during its brief moment of international prominence this summer.
“This visit [to Israel] will ensure New Zealand is well-placed to engage on the Middle East peace process, having heard directly from the relevant parties in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories,” McCully said last week before departing for the region, notably using the Palestinian narrative’s “occupied” descriptor for the Palestinian territories, rather than “disputed.”
While New Zealand—whose prime minister, John Key, has Jewish roots—has been an ally of Israel, the country has worked with France on drafting a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the restarting of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. France has signaled that it will officially recognize Palestinian statehood if the Security Council passes its resolution and the two sides fail to forge a peace treaty after 18 months.
Netanyahu wished New Zealand luck as the nation presiding over the Security Council, saying that “the main thing that we have learned is that peace is achieved, as we did with Jordan and with Egypt, through direct negotiations between parties and not by fiat.”
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