Zionist Union MK under fire for saying Palestinian stabber ‘not a terrorist’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Member of Knesset (MK) Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union) drew sharp criticism, including from his own party, for saying Thursday that a Palestinian who recently launched a stabbing attack against Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Hebron was “not a terrorist.”
The attacker in that incident was shot in the head after he was already immobilized, prompting a storm of debate. Criminal charges are being considered against the IDF soldier who shot him. Speaking to Army Radio on Thursday, Bahloul—an Israeli Arab—said, “I agree that the stabber is a murderer, but he is not a terrorist. My issue is that this word has become too generalized, turning every Arab into a terrorist. In the eyes of Israelis, anyone who fights for their freedom and independence is a terrorist.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Bahloul’s remarks “shameful.”
“IDF soldiers defend us from these bloodthirsty terrorists with their lives. I expect every Israeli citizen, and especially Knesset members, to fully support them,” Netanyahu said.
Zionist Union lawmakers were quick to distance themselves from their party member’s remarks, with party leader MK Isaac Herzog saying he “strongly rejects and condemns [Bahloul’s] comments. The Zionist Union’s stance is that a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist, and it doesn’t matter if he set out to kill Arabs or Jews.”
Prior to Herzog’s response, Zionist Union members said in a joint statement, “We are in the midst of a terror wave, and the government of Israel should begin to deal with it effectively. The terrorist in Hebron was the same as any other terrorist. The comments made by MK Bahloul do not reflect or represent the stance of the Zionist Union.”
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900-year-old Passover haggadah fragments go on display in Jerusalem
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Remnants of one of the oldest surviving Passover haggadahs in the world, which was discovered in the trove of archived Jewish texts known as the Cairo Genizah, are currently on display as part of an exhibit at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. The haggadah, hand-scribed on parchment, dates from the 12th century CE.
Dr. Aviad Stollman, head of the collections at the National Library, said, “This haggadah is particularly exciting for me since it’s 900 years old. Only a single page of it remains, on which can be made out four small columns [of text] of eight lines each, with four or five words in each line. What’s surprising is that even though 900 years have passed, the text is nearly identical to the text we read today.”
Offering some background about the Cairo Genizah, Stollman said, “In the women’s section of the ancient Ben Ezra Synagogue, there was a room that had an opening that couldn’t be reached without a ladder. The room functioned as a genizah (a storeroom for sacred texts that are no longer readable or usable but cannot be destroyed). As early as the 8th century CE and until the genizah was discovered in the 19th century, they would throw worn-out holy texts in there. Today, we know that there were about 300,000 pages and partial pages there. Nearly all the fragments were handwritten in the past 1,000 years. Today, the [contents of the] genizah are divided among libraries throughout the world, including the National Library.”
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Bomb explodes near IDF bulldozer at Gaza border
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An Israeli military bulldozer on routine assignment near the Israel-Gaza border was hit Friday when a roadside bomb that had been placed in its path exploded. No injuries were reported among the soldiers in and around the vehicle.
Israel Defense Forces combat engineering troops are routinely deployed with other troops to clear the area along the Gaza border fence of explosives planted by terrorists. Friday’s incident took place as the armored bulldozer, an IDF Caterpillar D9, was clearing a path along the fence.
Residents of nearby Israeli communities reported hearing a powerful blast. The military issued no special instructions for those communities, asking only the local security coordinators be on alert.
A terrorist plot to target Israeli troops patrolling the border was thwarted last month, when combat engineering forces discovered a cluster of roadside bombs planted near the fence. The explosives, rigged to a cell phone, were discovered as military sappers were examining the scene of an explosion that had taken place the day before.
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Lebanese teachers call for revised stance on Israel in national curriculum
(JNS.org) Lebanon’s national school curriculum, which has traditionally defined Israel as the country’s sole enemy, is currently under review after several teachers asked the Lebanese Ministry of Education to make revisions, the Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Akhbar reported Thursday.
The Lebanese teachers said they “do not want to involve politics in the education system, which should be neutral and not subject to political perceptions.”
“We do not want to educate our children to hate, even if the enemy (Israel) occupies our land, violates our sovereignty, and overlooks our border,” the teachers added.
The Center for Educational Research and Development, a national organization within Lebanon’s Ministry of Education, organized several discussions last week regarding the goals of the Lebanese school curriculum. Members of a curricular committee for Arabic-language studies said in the discussions that they oppose including the phrase “animosity toward the oppressing Zionist entity” in the curriculum. Additionally, a professor from American University of Beirut expressed that the curriculum should include a notation of Lebanon’s fight against “religious extremism that threatens Arab states.”
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School twinning network announced as recipient of Jerusalem Unity Prize
(JNS.org) One of the recipients of this year’s Jerusalem Unity Prize—founded in memory of kidnapped and murdered Israeli Jewish teenagers Gilad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach, and Naftali Frenkel—has been awarded to the Global School Twinning Network, a program of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Partnership2Gether (P2G) initiative.
P2G was created to build connections between students at more than 650 schools in Israel and the Diaspora. The program’s participants engage in educational activities and online interactions.
“The Global School Twinning initiative showcases the very best of Jewish communal life through its efforts to bridge gaps and is proof that the Jewish people remains as united as ever. This is a strength that enables us to overcome any challenge,” said Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, the unity prize’s committee chair and one of the prize’s founders following the 2014 Gaza war, along with the Gesher non-profit and the families of the three slain teenagers.
The prize—whose creation was inspired by the unity displayed across the global Jewish community during the period when it was unclear if Hamas had killed the teens or was still holding them captive—will be awarded at an official ceremony in Jerusalem on June 1, which has also been designated by the prize’s creators as “International Unity Day.”
The Global School Twinning Network will receive the unity prize in the “global” category, while additional winners be announced in the “local” and “national” categories.
The Jerusalem Unity Prize will award a total of four recipients amongst local, national and global initiatives.
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Hamas reportedly using 1,000 diggers to rebuild terror tunnels
(JNS.org) Hamas is reportedly using more than 1,000 operatives to dig underground terror tunnels in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Thursday.
The Gaza-ruling terror group is reportedly smuggling in building materials and excavation machinery, while paying each individual who is digging tunnels between $300 and $400 dollars per month for the work.
Meanwhile, Hamas’s elite terror unit, “Nukhbah,” is conducting drills simulating attacks on Israel through the tunnels. Several members of the unit were killed when some of these emerging tunnels collapsed in recent months.
Israeli officials have said that the money being used for rebuilding Hamas terror tunnels should instead be used to rebuild civilian infrastructure in Gaza. Earlier this week, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which makes sure that cement supplied to Gaza is not used to construct tunnels to attack Israel, suspended the delivery of cement to Gaza after discovering how Hamas was stealing materials from the cement supply that was intended to rebuild destroyed Gaza homes, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s deputy political bureau chief, vowed in February that Hamas will never stop preparing for another confrontation with Israel by digging terror tunnels and upgrading its rockets. Israel had destroyed Hamas’s tunnel network during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry reports that in 2015, there was an increase of more than 120 percent in the amount of goods entering Gaza. That year, a total 139,364 trucks entered Gaza carrying construction materials (more than 3.7 tons), medical equipment, and other goods. On Thursday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced that it will disburse more than $5 million for reconstruction and repair works for 720 Palestinian families in Gaza.
“We regret that Hamas continues to exploit and harm the entire Palestinian population in favor of the personal interests of the organization,” Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said Monday, the International Business Times reported.
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Alleged Israeli drone seen over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area
(JNS.org) An alleged Israeli-made “suicide drone” was reportedly deployed to the renewed Azerbaijan-Armenia battleground in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area.
A YouTube video has surfaced showing the drone, which “based on its distinct wing shape and nose, looks like an Israeli Aerospace Industries Harop loitering munition,” the Washington Post reported.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnic Armenian region located inside Azerbaijan. The two nations have been feuding over the area for several decades, with the most recent armed conflict erupting last weekend.
Various foreign media have reported in the past that the Harop system has been sold to nations such as India.
Azerbaijan and Israel are known to significantly collaborate on security. In 2014, Mammad Talibov, counselor of political and legal affairs at Azerbaijan’s embassy in Washington, DC, told JNS.org that his country and Israel “have robust economic relations, especially in the area of technology, [and] defense ties.”
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