Obama urges Erdogan to renew diplomatic ties with Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama spoke on the phone with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday and discussed with him the “importance of quickly concluding the normalization agreement with Israel.”
According to a statement issued by the White House, the two leaders discussed several other issues as well, including cooperation “to address the growing terrorist presence in Syria.”
Two weeks ago, Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reported that Israel and Turkey were “closer than ever” to normalizing their diplomatic relations. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quoted by the paper as saying, “There has recently been a momentum and new approach in compensation talks. We could say that most of the differences have been removed recently in these discussions.” Several days later, however, Erdogan demanded that Israel lift the sea closure on the Gaza Strip.
*
21 MKs urge Netanyahu against Judea and Samaria construction freeze
(JNS.org) A group of 21 deputy ministers and Members of Knesset sent a letter on Thursday to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on him to not freeze construction in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria.
The letter followed reports that the U.S. may demand that Israel freeze settlement construction outside the main blocs as part of a deal with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to extend the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations by a year.
“We oppose any kind of freeze, including a freeze ‘outside of the blocs,’ and we will view any such Israeli commitment as deal breaker,” the letter said, according to Israel Hayom.
The letter was signed by MKs from Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Habayit Hayehudi, including deputy ministers Ofir Akunis (Likud), Zeev Elkin (Likud), Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), Danny Danon (Likud), Faina Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beytenu), Avi Wortzman (Habayit Hayehudi), and Eli Ben-Dahan (Habayit Hayehudi).
*
Germany arrests three suspected Auschwitz guards
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) German police arrested three men Thursday suspected of having participated in the murder of Jews at the Auschwitz concentration camp while serving there as SS guards.
The arrest was made as part of a series of home raids across three German states, searching for former Nazis suspected of murder, The Guardian reported.
According to the report, the three men arrested are aged 88, 92, and 94, and are suspected of having served as guards at Auschwitz from 1942 to 1944.
The crackdown on concentration camp guards comes following the landmark 2011 ruling sentencing a former Nazi guard at Sobibor camp, John Demjanjuk, to five years in prison for complicity in the murder of Jews at the camp. Demjanjuk died two years ago, while waiting for his case to be appealed.
Prior to the ruling on his case, Nazi war criminals were only prosecuted if there was evidence showing that they had personally carried out the murders.
“This is a significant undertaking,” said Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office. “Considering the age of the suspects, every effort must be made to ensure they stand trial quickly.”
*
BDS supporter Judith Butler withdraws from event at The Jewish Museum
(JNS.org) Anti-Israel professor Judith Butler on Thursday withdrew from an event at The Jewish Museum of New York that she was scheduled to address, the museum said.
The March 6 event titled “Wish You Were Here: Franz Kafka” was set to feature several experts on 20th-century literature speaking on the works of Jewish existentialist author Franz Kafka.
Butler, a professor of comparative literature and critical theory at the University of California, Berkeley, is an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies and a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Despite the event being non-political, critics contended that hosting someone who advocates against Israel at a museum that receives charitable contributions from the Jewish community crossed the line.
“The hosting of [BDS] advocate Judith Butler by The Jewish Museum is a slap in the face to every Jew,” Richard Allen, head of JCC Watch, told JNS.org.
The museum said in a statement, “[Butler] was chosen on the basis of her expertise on the subject matter to be discussed. While her political views were not a factor in her participation, the debates about her politics have become a distraction making it impossible to present the conversation about Kafka as intended.”
This is not the first event involving Butler that has sparked controversy in the New York region. Last year, pro-Israel groups at Brooklyn College sought to pressure the school to drop Butler from an event there. Brooklyn College, however, held the event, citing academic freedom.
Butler said in The Jewish Museum’s statement, “I was very much looking forward to the discussion of Kafka in The Jewish Museum, and to affirm the value of Kafka’s literary work in that setting.”
*
Pro-Christian bill advances in Israeli Knesset
(JNS.org) A bill that would allow the Israeli government to legally recognize Arab Christians as a separately national identity has advanced out of the committee phase and may be headed to the Knesset floor for a vote.
Specifically, the bill allows Arab Christians to identify solely as a Christian, separate from the larger Arab community, which is mainly Muslim, and give them their own representation on the Advisory Committee for Equal Opportunity in the Employment Commission.
The bill also calls for more representatives from other minority and underrepresented groups such as Druze and Circassians as well as haredi Jews, immigrants, soldiers, senior citizens, and women, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Likud MK Yariv Levin, who serves as coalition whip, along with several Israeli Christian leaders has been the main proponent of the bill, which has been heavily criticized by some Israeli Arabs and on the left for seeking to divide the Arab community.
Recently, at a committee hearing on the bill, Israeli Christian leader Shadi Halul of the Christian IDF Officers Forum, a group that promotes Christian recruitment and integration into the Israeli military, was threatened by Israeli Arab MK Haneen Zoabi. Responding to the criticism, Levin told the Jerusalem Post, “I don’t try to change the reality; the reality is there. There is a big difference between Christians and Muslims, and they deserve recognition and separate representation.”
*
First-of-its-kind Jerusalem film workshop begins in July
(JNS.org) The Jerusalem Film Workshop, which organizers are calling the first program of its kind, announced that it is opening its inaugural summer class on July 6. The workshop is an initiative by Gal Greenspan, Roi Kurland, and Kate Rosenberg of Green Productions, and will be taught by major figures in the Israeli film industry, including Oscar-nominated filmmakers.
“Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular offer the types of settings that are truly ideal for storytelling and filmmaking…Our concept is to introduce students to the country while providing them with the tools and education to express themselves through the medium of film,” Greenspan said in a statement.
The workshop will include three courses. One course will focus on documentary and fiction filmmaking, and two shorter courses will focus on just one of these two film disciplines. The Jerusalem Film and Television Fund, the Maaleh School of Television, Film and the Arts in Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem Cinematheque are coordinating the workshop. At the end of the workshop, students will participate in the Jerusalem International Film Festival.
“Jerusalem is known as a city of dialogue, opportunity and challenge and is literally an environment where at every corner there is an iconic spot that just demands to be captured by camera…To become a truly experienced and accomplished filmmaker, this is an ideal location,” Greenspan added.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org