Netanyahu adviser’s book on Jerusalem unity to be published in China
(JNS.org) A book on Jerusalem by Dore Gold, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is being published in Chinese and will soon hit the shelves in Beijing.
The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City explains Israel’s historical links and legal rights to Jerusalem, and emphasizes the need to keep the city united and under Israeli sovereignty. The book, first published in 2007, made The New York Times bestseller list.
Gold is the former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. and current president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA). The request to translate his book to Chinese was born out of a 2012 visit from the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee to the JCPA.
The book passed through the usually rigorous review process of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s publishing house, the World Affairs Press, without being changed or edited.
“The timing of the book’s release is especially important with the growing interest from China in the Middle East and its future role in the region,” Gold told Israel Hayom. “Regardless of what happens with the diplomatic process, Israel needs to defend its essential interests in the international arena.”
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March from Auschwitz to Birkenau marks Hungarian Holocaust
(JNS.org) Israeli and international youths marched Monday between the former sites of two notorious Nazi-era concentration camps to mark Yom HaShoah.
The march from Auschwitz to Birkenau—which also included former Israeli Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Israeli Supreme Court justices, Israeli police officers, and other officials—commemorated the passing of 70 years since the annihilation of Hungarian Jewry.
A special train to Auschwitz from Budapest also brought marchers and followed the same route of the “death train” that had carried more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews to extermination camps.
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NBA owner Donald Sterling: In Israel blacks ‘treated like dogs’
(JNS.org) A recording of a conversation between Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his girlfriend revealed Sterling to say that in Israel, blacks are “treated like dogs.”
The 80-year-old Sterling tells V. Stiviano on a recording revealed by Deadspin.com, “You go to Israel, the blacks are just treated like dogs… there’s white Jews and black Jews, do you understand?”
Sterling also complains about Stiviano’s Instagram photos with basketball star Magic Johnson. “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people,” he says. “Do you have to?”
When Stiviano confronts Sterling with a comparison of his views to the prejudice of the Holocaust, he responds, “Oh, it’s the same thing, right? … There’s no racism here. If you don’t want to be… walking… into a basketball game with a certain… person, is that racism?”
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Jewish mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city shot, airlifted to Israel
(JNS.org) The Jewish mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, was in critical condition after being shot in the back by an unidentified gunman on Monday.
Gennady Kernes, 54, was going for his morning swim when he was shot and was immediately rushed to a local hospital, journalist Zurab Alasania—who works for the state-run National Television Company—wrote on his Facebook account. On Tuesday, Kernes was airlifted to Israel for emergency treatment.
Kernes had been a strong supporter of deposed pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. But after Yanukovych’s overthrow, Kernes became more supportive of the new Ukrainian government and called for Kharkiv, located 25 miles from the Russian border, to remain part of Ukraine.
Kernes had become more connected to Judaism in recent years, receiving a Hebrew name and a brit milah, said Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Kharkiv Rabbi Moshe Moskowitz, according to Chabad.org.
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On Yom HaShoah, world leaders call for combating of anti-Semitism
(JNS.org) On Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, world leaders called for the combating of anti-Semitism.
President Barack Obama said in a statement, “On this Yom HaShoah, let us recommit ourselves to the task of remembrance, and to always oppose anti-Semitism wherever it takes root.”
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called on the world to “combat anti-Semitism in all its forms.”
“Yom HaShoah reminds us that the Holocaust must never be forgotten and that we must remain vigilant against all forms of prejudice and hatred to ensure that such unspeakable acts of inhumanity never happen again,” Harper said.
At a Yom HaShoah ceremony, Israeli President Shimon Peres addressed the rise of radical movements in Europe, saying, “One cannot turn a blind eye to any expression of anti-Semitism. We cannot ignore the rise of far-right [political] parties with Nazi creeds, as they pose a danger to every man and every nation.”
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Palestinians to seek membership in 63 U.N. bodies and international conventions
(JNS.org) The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) central body decided to adopt a plan to pursue membership in 63 United Nations bodies and international conventions, following the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
“We want the occupation to cost Israel dearly in political and international terms,” a senior PLO official told Haaretz.
The PLO plan was adopted during a two-day closed session by the group’s central body. The central body also voted to call on the U.N. Security Council to condemn Israel “for settlement construction, anti-Palestinian actions in Jerusalem, and harm to the status of churches and mosques, especially Al-Aqsa on Jerusalem’s Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” and affirmed its “absolute rejection” of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, Haaretz reported.
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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 targsets 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, Waleed Alian, 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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