Palestinian Authority owes Israel Electric Company $389 million
(JNS.org) If the Israel Electric Company (IEC) were a private entity, it would shut off electricity to the Palestinian Authority because of the PA’s outstanding bill of 1.37 billion shekels ($389 million), IEC Chairman Yiftah Ron-Tal told the Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday.
“People complain about the perk of free electricity that company employees receive. But the users that get the most free electricity are the Palestinians,” Ron-Tal said, Israel Hayom reported.
“Their outstanding bill increases by 70 million to 80 million shekels ($20 million to $22 million) a month,” Ron-Tal continued. “If a regular citizen didn’t pay his electric bill, we’d cut him off within a week. But here—despite the company’s enormous debt—we are forced to keep supplying the Palestinian electricity grid. Our hands are tied.”
Ron-Tal warned that a failure to collect payment from the PA would require the IEC to raise tariffs for Israelis.
Finance Committee Chairman MK Nissan Slomiansky (Habayit Hayehudi) said, “It’s possible that we might have to urge a consumer revolt. If there are some people don’t pay the IEC and that’s OK, then we can’t pay, either.”
Angela Merkel says boycott of Israel ‘not an option for Germany’
(JNS.org) In a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her government’s opposition to boycotts of Israel.
“We do not support the demands for a boycott,” said Merkel, who was on a two-day visit to Israel. “This is not an option for Germany.”
Regarding the Iranian nuclear issue, Merkel said Israel’s risk “is real and not simply abstract.”
“Iran declared that it would destroy Israel, and while its tone has changed recently, the actions to prove so are still missing,” Merkel said. “Iran will not have nuclear weapons. There must not be a threat to Israel, to Europe and to the rest of the world. We have a diplomatic opportunity to act, but we must ensure that Iran stands by its commitments.”
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Israeli official confirms airstrike on Hezbollah-bound weapons
(JNS.org) The Israeli Air Force struck a Hezbollah-bound weapons convoy in the Syria-Lebanon border region on Monday night, a senior Israeli security official told TIME magazine, confirming previous speculation that Israel was behind the strike. Lebanese media, meanwhile, reported that the shipment destroyed in the Israeli strike included Russian-made SS-26 Iskander missiles, which are advanced surface-to-surface ballistic missiles with a range of 280 kilometers (174 miles). A Hezbollah terrorist was also reportedly killed in the airstrike.
The terrorist was identified as Hajji Hassan Mansour, also known as Abu Haitham, who served as a field trainer for Hezbollah. Mansour was set to be buried in his hometown of Ansar, NOW Lebanon reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the target was a Hezbollah “missile base.”
When asked about the attack by reporters, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Our policy is clear—we will not speak about reports of what we did or didn’t do—but we do all that is necessary in order to defend our citizens.”
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Israel and Germany agree to expand joint cancer research
(JNS.org) Germany and Israel signed an agreement Tuesday to expand scientific cooperation between the two countries in cancer research and to expand joint water purification projects.
Science and technology ministers for the two nations, Johanna Wanka (Germany) and Yaakov Peri (Israel), signed the agreement in Jerusalem. A 16-member delegation of ministers from Germany, as well as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, arrived in Israel Monday.
The two ministers expressed their desire to raise the joint cancer research program’s budget from its current level of NIS 2 million ($568,000) per year.
“We have come here with almost the whole of our new government and we wanted to show you (Israel) in this way that this is indeed a very strong friendship,” Merkel said, reported the Times of Israel.
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U.S. rejections of Israeli visa requests rose 80 percent in 2013
(JNS.org) U.S. State Department data from 2013 shows that the number of rejections of Israeli visa requests rose by 80 percent over that year.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported the figures showing that 125,000 Israelis requested tourist visas to the U.S. last year, and that 9.7 percent of these requests were denied. In 2012, 5.4 percent were denied, and in 2007, only 2.7 percent got rejected.
The U.S. has a “white list” of countries whose citizens can come to the U.S. without a visa, but only countries with a visa rejection rate of less than 3 percent are put on this list. The recent growth in U.S. visa request rejections forced Israel off that list. Some Israeli officials believe there is a political motive behind the increased rejection rate for Israeli requests.
“We meet all the requirements to receive an exemption [from visas], aside from the rate of rejections,” noted an official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, reported Israel National News.
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Honor killings in Palestinian Authority territory double in one year
(JNS.org) Director of Coordination in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for the Palestinian Authority (PA) Nabila Rizq said that the number of Palestinian women being murdered by families in “honor killings” doubled in 2013. The official criticized PA President Mahmoud Abbas for not doing enough to address the PA law that protects the perpetrators of these crimes.
According to Rizq, in 2013 the number of women murdered in PA-controlled territory through family honor killings rose to 27 from 13 in 2012. A clause in the PA penal code acknowledges extenuating circumstances that would allow such murders, despite ongoing demands submitted to Abbas asking to remove that clause, Palestinian Media Watch reported.
On Sunday in the official PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, member of the PLO Executive Committee Hanan Ashrawi called for an end to granting allowances to murder women for extenuating circumstances.
“Women are not a symbol of men’s or families’ honor, but are an equal member [of society], like all other individuals in society. Categorizing these dangerous crimes under misleading titles is an exploitation that provides cover and protection for those who carry out these crimes and encourages them to carry out additional attacks and crimes against women,” she said.
The same PA newspaper article also reported that honor killings are often a cover for killings of women who are seeking to get their rightful inheritances.
“[There] are signs of increasing awareness among women about demanding their right of inheritance. This [is happening] even if this demand may encounter many obstacles [caused] by [their] brothers and family, [obstacles] which may even sometimes result in murder, and recording it [the murder] as if it was committed as a family honor [killing],” the article said.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org.
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