PA vows to prosecute Israel in International Criminal Court over E1 construction
(JNS.org) Equipped with the eligibility to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) following its status upgrade at the United Nations last November, the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday said it would prosecute Israel in that court if the Jewish state proceeds with construction plans in the 4.6-square mile E1 area between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem.
“If Israel would like to go further by implementing the E1 plan and the other related plans around Jerusalem, then yes, we would be going to the International Criminal Court,” PA Foreign Minister Riad Malki said, according to Israel Hayom. “We would have no other choice. It depends on the Israeli decision. Israel knows our position very well.”
Israel argues that it will hold on to the E1 area in any peace agreement and compensate the Palestinians with land swaps. Israel needs the area in order to maintain a connection with the large Jewish commuter city of Ma’ale Adumim, which is east of the E1 zone. The Palestinians, meanwhile, say that the E1 area is essential for continuity of a future Palestinian state and their proposed capital in eastern Jerusalem.
In order to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court (ICC)—which deals with charges of genocide, war crimes and other human rights violations—the PA must first apply for membership in the court, and then refer Israel for investigation.
Jewish Home party leader calls for change in status quo in religion and state
(JNS.org) The day after the new Israeli party Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) won 12 Knesset seats, party leader Naftali Bennett called for a change in the status quo in the relationship between religion and state in Israel.
Bennett made his comments at his first party meeting after the elections, on Wednesday in Tel Aviv. Bennett described the meeting as an opportunity to put the issue of religion and state on the table, an issue he considers urgent issue and hopes to work on while in the Knesset.
“We tripled our power from previous elections,” Bennett said, according to Israel Hayom. “We united. On all issues of religion and state there has been a status quo for decades. I think it’s time to open up all the issues of religion and state, to sit and have a dialogue about them, with mutual respect for all the factions, to find a new, complete way to deal with this matter.”
Bennett’s proposal would run into fierce opposition from the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, if they were to enter into coalition negotiations. The accepted wisdom in the political arena is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will try to form a government that includes both Bennett and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid first, but would also want to add the ultra-Orthodox.
Bennett said he would consider adding Sunday as a day of rest in addition to Shabbat.
“We need to at least be open to discussion,” Bennett said. “This is the role of religious Zionism in my opinion, and of Habayit Hayehudi, to act as a bridge. On the one hand, we live in the real world, serving in the military and working; on the other hand, we live in the Torah world. That’s our role and I think that only Habayit Hayehudi will know how to do that.”
‘Start Up Nation’ author tweets Obama tried to sway Israeli election
(JNS.org) Start Up Nation author Dan Senor tweeted on Tuesday, the day of Israel’s Knesset election, that two U.S. officials in Israel admitted that President Obama’s recent statements to Atlantic columnist Jeffrey Goldberg were intended to influence the results of the election and weaken Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Senor tweeted on Tuesday, “two US officials in Israel quietly conceded that: 1) O’s comments to @JeffreyGoldberg intended to hit BB in elex; & 2) it probably backfired.”
Just last week Goldberg reported that Obama said, “Israel doesn’t know what its best interests are,” in an apparent jab towards Netanyahu over continued Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria. Later Netanyahu responded in an interview that he is “confident that President Obama understands that only a sovereign Israeli government can determine what Israel’s interests are.”
Relations between Obama and Netanyahu are known to be contentious. If what Senor claims is true, his “tweet reveals that U.S. officials understood that what President Obama was doing was issuing a not so subtly veiled threat to the Israeli people that the U.S. may be willing to really put daylight between itself and Israel unless they choose a less intractable prime minister,” wrote the Jewish Press.
Since then Israel’s Central Elections Commission confirmed that Netanyahu will regain his position after his Likud-Beytenu party alliance won 31 Knesset mandates Tuesday, a major drop from the 42 seats the party alliance had in the previous Knesset, followed by Yesh Atid at 19.
Christian Egyptian woman and children sentenced to prison
An Egyptian woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison together with her seven children for converting to Christianity. Her supporters are now appealing to the U.S. government to stand up for religious minorities being persecuted in the Middle East.
A judge in the Egyptian city of Beni Suef, 75 miles south of Cairo, sentenced Nadia Mohamed Ali with the harsh punishment. Ali was actually raised Christian and converted to Islam before her marriage. After her husband’s death she thought to return to Christianity. She was singled out when authorities noticed her application to change her and her children’s religion on their national ID cards.
“[Egyptians who] change from Islam to Christianity, or come back to Christianity, face difficulties,” Ishak Ibrahim, a religion expert with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, told Fox News. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ariel Vaagen said the administration of President Barack Obama calls “upon the Egyptian government to promote and protect universal freedoms, including freedom of religion, for all its citizens.”
However, Rep. Frank Wolf, (R-Va.), co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, criticized the Obama government for failing to address the issue. About 8.5 million Coptic Christians currently reside in Egypt. Since the election of President Mohamed Morsi last year, there has been a marked decline in religious tolerance in the country. “Too often we in the West have turned a blind eye to the suffering of persecuted people of faith,” Wolf said.
Ali’s sentence was “a major step backward in terms of laws and policies in Egypt,” said deputy director for policy at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Dwight Bashir.
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