Four Palestinians indicted for throwing firebombs at synagogue, Hebrew U.
(JNS.org) Four Palestinians were indicted on Sunday in Jerusalem for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails at targets on Mount Scopus and French Hill, including Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a synagogue, Israel Hayom reported.
The Jerusalem District Court indicted 18-year-olds Mohammad Abid, Ibrahim Darbas, and Waleed and Mohammad Alian from Issawiya for arson, aggravated assault, manufacturing weapons, carrying a weapon, and attacking a police officer. Prosecutor Yifat Pinhasi said the attack was carried out with nationalistic motives.
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John Kerry: Israel could become ‘apartheid state’ without two-state solution
(JNS.org) Israel risks becoming an “apartheid state” if a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not reached soon, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, according to a report by The Daily Beast published Sunday.
“A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative,” Kerry said, according to a recording The Daily Beast obtained of remarks he made at a closed meeting of the Trilateral Commission. “Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state.”
The Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) said Kerry’s usage of the “apartheid state” term was “no gaffe.”
“[Kerry’s] latest prediction follows other statements in recent months that have in effect threatened Israel—never the Palestinians—with a list of disasters should his diplomatic efforts fail: violence, isolation, delegitimization, boycotts—and now ‘apartheid,’” ECI stated.
Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman called it “startling and deeply disappointing that a diplomat so knowledgeable and experienced about democratic Israel chose to use such an inaccurate and incendiary term.”
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For Yom HaShoah, library reveals last letter by executed paratrooper Szenes
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The National Library of Israel unveiled the last letter written by iconic Holocaust-era paratrooper Hannah Szenes (Senesh), just prior to her execution in 1944. The letter—donated to the library by Szenes’s mother—was released along with other artifacts for Yom HaShoah.
Szenes, one of 37 Jews sent by the British Army to assist in the rescue of Hungarian Jews, in 1944 parachuted into Yugoslavia and joined a partisan group. Soon after crossing into Hungary, she was captured by Hungarian soldiers and imprisoned and tortured, but refused to reveal details of her mission. She was eventually executed at age 23.
The letter, dated May 20, 1944, was written in English to Szenes’s brother, George, and was sent from Yugoslavia.
“My dear George,” Szenes wrote, “I send you again a short letter to make you know that I am quite OK and that’s all. I guess all my acquaintances and relations are cross with me, that I never write. Please try to explain the situation, if possible.”
“This letter is important because Hannah Szenes wrote it when she was clearly in danger and about to cross the border into Hungary,” said Dr. Hezi Amior, curator of the Israel Collection at the National Library. “It illustrates her acceptance of her mission and her sense of responsibility.”
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Hamas calls Holocaust ‘made-up story’ ahead of Yom HaShoah
(JNS.org) Ahead of Yom HaShoah (Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day), the Hamas terrorist organization—which last week signed a unity pact with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party—issued a statement Saturday that called the Holocaust “a made-up story without foundation.”
On Sunday, Abbas was quoted by the Palestinian news agency WAFA as calling the Holocaust “the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era.” But at his weekly cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas’s alignment with Holocaust-denying Hamas is more notable than his remarks.
“Instead of issuing statements designed to placate global public opinion, Abu Mazen (Abbas) needs to choose between the alliance with Hamas, a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel and denies the Holocaust, and a true peace with Israel,” Netanyahu said.
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Obama blames ‘both sides’ for failure of peace process
(JNS.org) President Barack Obama on Friday blamed both the Israelis and Palestinians for the failure of the peace process. The latest U.S.-brokered peace talks fell apart after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party signed a unity pact with the terrorist group Hamas.
“There may come a point at which there just needs to be a pause and both sides need to look at the alternatives,” Obama said from South Korea. “What we haven’t seen is the political will to make tough decisions, frankly, and that’s been true on both sides.”
Before the talks collapsed, Abbas signed applications for “Palestine” to join 15 international conventions, violating the parameters set for the negotiations last summer. Israel proceeded to cancel the fourth release of 26 Palestinian terrorist prisoners, a release it had delayed in the absence of a Palestinian agreement to extend the negotiations beyond the April 29 deadline for an agreement.
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Iran praises ‘any act of unity’ by Palestinians against Israel
(JNS.org) Iran, a funder of the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas, on Saturday praised the unity pact between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, without directly mentioning the deal.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes any act of unity, solidarity and national reconciliation among Palestinians against the Zionist occupiers (Israel),” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
“Iran backs any decision toward realization of precious ideals against an aggressive and expansionist regime,” Afkham added.
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Cleric denounces Jews and Zionism at major French Islamic conference
(JNS.org) A prominent Swiss Muslim cleric reportedly denounced Jews and Zionism at France’s largest Islamic conference.
Michele Tribalat, a French sociologist who attended the Union of Islamic Organizations in France (UOIF) 31st annual conference, in an article for the French daily Le Figaro highlighted a heavily anti-Semitic speech at the gathering by Hani Ramadan, director of the Islamic Center of Geneva.
“All the unhappiness comes from Jews who have one thing in mind, realize the dream of Greater Israel,” Ramadan reportedly said.
“[In the] United States, no one can be elected president without having to kowtow to AIPAC,” Ramadan also said, according to Tribalat. “Same thing in France…[nobody can be] be elected without the approval of the CRIF (the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France).”
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Chief Palestinian negotiator claims Hamas not a terrorist organization
(JNS.org) Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief negotiator in its now-defunct peace talks with Israel, said in an Arabic-language interview with Sky News Arabic that Hamas “is not and will never be a terrorist organization to us.”
Israel called off negotiations with the PA over the unity deal between Hamas and PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party.
“Instead of choosing peace, Abu Mazen (Abbas) formed an alliance with a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“Hamas has fired more than 10,000 missiles and rockets at Israeli territory and has not halted terrorist actions against Israel even for a minute,” Netanyahu added.
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Israeli-American journalist released by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine
(JNS.org) Israeli-American journalist Simon Ostrovsky, who had been detained by pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk on April 21, was released Thursday.
Ostrovsky, a reporter for Vice News, was in Slovyansk to cover the unrest in the region. Prior to his detention he interviewed Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed “people’s mayor” of Slovyansk and leader of the pro-Russian separatists there.
“Vice News is delighted to confirm that our colleague and friend Simon Ostrovsky has been safely released and is in good health. We would like to thank everyone for their support during this difficult time,” said Jake Goldman, the outlet’s deputy communications director.
Ostrovsky tweeted, “I’m out and safe. Thank you all for your support. Had no idea I had so many good friends.”
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Anti-Israel student group distributes mock eviction notices at NYU
(JNS.org) The anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) distributed mock eviction to up to 2,000 students at New York University, claiming its notices mimic those that the Israel Defense Forces hands out before home evictions of Palestinians.
“If you do not vacate the premise by midnight on 25 April, 2014, we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings,” read the SJP notices, the New York Daily News reported. “Charges for demolition will be applied to your student accounts.”
The Anti-Defamation League said the notices “inaccurately alleged that Palestinians in the West Bank are evicted from their homes ‘for no other reason than their ethnicity,’ when in fact the Israel Defense Forces conduct evictions when there are serious security concerns and when homes are built illegally.”
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Israel divestment votes at California schools garner mixed results
(JNS.org) Resolutions to divest from Israel were resoundingly defeated in votes by the student governments of two California state schools, but a divestment measure was passed at one school, following marathon debates last week.
On April 23, a divestment resolution against companies doing business in Israel was defeated by a vote of 16-3 with three abstentions at San Diego State University. Early on April 24, after nearly eight hours of debate, a similar divestment resolution was defeated 16-8 at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
But the student government at nearby University of California, Riverside narrowly voted in favor of an Israel divestment resolution, 8-7, following another protracted debate.
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