Netanyahu slams PA for condemning terror in France while encouraging it in Israel
(JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of encouraging terrorism in Israel while condemning terrorism abroad.
Speaking at the start of Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that “like Israel, the Palestinian Authority extended condemnations and condolences” after last week’s truck attack in the French city of Nice, which killed 84 people.
“But there was one key difference,” Netanyahu said. “Here, not only do they fail to condemn car ramming attacks, they encourage them.”
At the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the PA “aggrandizes murderers and car-ramming terrorists, pays them and, if they are killed, pays their families.”
“Terrorism is terrorism, whether it is perpetrated in France or in Israel,” Netanyahu said. “[The PA] needs to adopt a uniform attitude toward condemning and combating terrorism, here and anywhere else.”
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UNESCO postpones vote on resolution that ignores Jewish ties to Temple Mount
(JNS.org) The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided Sunday to postpone a vote on a resolution that would have referred to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as a site that is holy only for Muslims. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee will now deliberate the matter when the forum reconvenes in October or later.
The heritage committee’s 40th session was set to conclude July 20, but was suspended Saturday due to the attempted coup in Turkey. On Sunday, it reconvened to discuss several final items, but it left other matters for the next session in October. The draft resolution, which refers to the Temple Mount as Al-Haram al-Sharif (“The Noble Sanctuary”) while ignoring the Jewish ties to the site, had been expected to come up for a vote, but due to the shortened timetable and Israeli efforts, this did not occur by the time the session was over Sunday.
At the start of Sunday’s discussions, Lebanon’s UNESCO ambassador asked that the committee discuss the Jerusalem draft resolution. But the Israeli ambassador, Carmel Shama Hacohen, asked that the issue be deliberated at a later date. That view—supported by the European Union ambassador as well as the envoys of Finland, Poland, and Portugal—ultimately prevailed, and the body delayed further discussions on the matter until October.
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After Nice attack, Christian-Jewish group expects rise in aliyah from France
(JNS.org) The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship) humanitarian organization, which has been helping French Jews make aliyah, is receiving thousands of inquiries from French Jews who want to immigrate to Israel and is expecting that figure to grow after Thursday’s terror attack in Nice.
The Fellowship has reported more than 5,000 phone calls and hundreds of emails from French Jews asking about aliyah in recent months. The organization brought 82 French Jews to Israel in June and is preparing to bring more than 150 others this month.
French Jews who were attending a Fellowship-organized aliyah meeting in Nice on Thursday met just one block away from the site where the terrorist drove a truck into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day and fired munitions, killing at least 84 people. Five Jews were among the many additional people who were injured, but no Jews are reported to have been killed.
“Sadly, this horrific attack underscores the pressing need to help bring as many Jews who wish to leave France to their homeland in Israel, and this is what we will continue to do,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of The Fellowship.
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Israeli envoy suggests that United Nations adopt Knesset’s disability program
(JNS.org) Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon has suggested to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the Israeli Knesset’s decade-old initiative to hire more people with disabilities could be implemented at U.N. Headquarters in New York.
“The United Nations should reflect the makeup of society as a whole,” Danon said. “The parliament of nations should be accessible to everyone. We should give every citizen of the world an equal opportunity to contribute to the organization’s goals, making us [the U.N.] an exemplary model for morals and values.”
The Israeli legislature’s program has been run with the help of Israel Elwyn and SHEKEL, two organizations that cater to people with special needs.
According to Danon, Israel’s U.N. mission believes that this issue should be front and center. At a recent U.N. event that showcased Israeli society’s progress on disability inclusion, Israeli experts described what they called a disability-focused ecosystem that harnesses technological innovations to integrate people with disabilities. The Israeli U.N. mission’s event was a collaboration with the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and Beit Issie Shapiro, another Israeli organization that assists people with disabilities in Israel.
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New Israeli law: dissuading Christians from IDF service carries prison term
(JNS.org) In a vote of 39-9 with one abstention, the Israeli Knesset passed a law stating that a prison term will apply to anyone who tries to dissuade Israeli Christians from serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The sponsor of the bill, Member of Knesset Yoav Kish of the Likud party, said the measure intends to fight negative social pressure against Christian Arabs who choose to enlist in the military. While Jewish Israelis are required to serve in the IDF, Israelis of other faiths enlist voluntarily.
Israel’s penal code already stipulates a term of three to 15 years for anyone who convinces Jews against IDF enlistment, or tries to persuade or help a soldier to leave the military. But the new bill will apply the same punishment for anyone helping or persuading volunteer soldiers to do the same.
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