Israeli satellites to be eyes in the sky for international disaster aid
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel will start providing satellite data as well as images that will help rescuers operate at disaster scenes around the world, increasing the nation’s contribution to international search and rescue efforts.
The idea for Israel’s satellites to serve as eyes in the sky at disaster sites came about as part of the ongoing cooperation between the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses for Outer Space. Daniel Brook, an advisor to the ISA on international relations, learned about the U.N. Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (SPIDER), which serves as a data transfer hub in the event of international catastrophes. Nations can voluntarily submit their own images and SPIDER will forward them to the relevant authorities.
Seeking to join the effort, the Israel Space Agency hired ImageSat, a company that operates Israel’s EROS A and EROS B satellites from the Israel Aerospace Industries building and Elop, respectively. When necessary, ImageSat will aim the satellites at disaster-struck locations. Images captured will be immediately transferred via SPIDER.
ImageSat has already photographed many disaster scenes, including the tsunami in Thailand, but until now there has been no organized manner in which to get the data to the right people in an expeditious manner.
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Rolling Stones give legendary Tel Aviv performance despite BDS pressure
(JNS.org) The Rolling Stones performed their first concert in Israel on Wednesday night before a crowd of 50,000 fans despite Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists pressuring the band to cancel the show. Most notably, Pink Floyd frontman and anti-Israel activist Roger Waters in May had publicly called on the band not to perform in Israel.
The band took the stage in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park and performed 19 songs during the two-hour show.
“Good evening Tel Aviv, Happy Shavuot, We are the Rolling Stones!” frontman Mick Jagger said in Hebrew, reported Israel Hayom.
The start time of the concert was pushed back by half an hour to allow those observing Shavuot to arrive at the event comfortably after the holiday ended that evening.
Prior to the concert, Rolling Stones band members visited the Western Wall and took part in the tradition of placing notes in the wall upon arriving in Israel, Israel National News reported.
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Australia: eastern Jerusalem is not ‘occupied’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Australian government has stopped using the term “occupied” when referring to eastern Jerusalem, Australian media outlets reported on Thursday.
In a statement released on Thursday, Australian Attorney-General George Brandis, speaking for Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, said, “Australia supports a peaceful solution to the dispute between Israel and the Palestinian people, which recognizes the right of Israel to exist peacefully within secure borders and also recognizes the aspiration to statehood of the Palestinian people. The description of areas which are subject to negotiations in the course of the peace process by reference to historical events is unhelpful.”
“The description of east Jerusalem as ‘Occupied east Jerusalem’ is a term freighted with pejorative implications which is neither appropriate nor useful. It should not and will not be the practice of the Australian government to describe areas of negotiation in such judgmental language,” the statement added.
The statement was made after Brandis caused a stir at a Senate Estimates hearing on Wednesday when he said that no Australian government “acknowledges or accepts” the use of the term “occupied.”
Brandis’s words were prompted by Senator Lee Rhiannon’s repeated references during questioning to ”occupied east Jerusalem.”
Brandis responded to Rhiannon, saying, “The tendentious description that Senator Rhiannon is using… is not the descriptor that the government uses. I don’t profess view on this matter. I’m merely correcting the use of a term… by Senator Rhiannon which prejudges the issue about which she inquires.”
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MLA members reject resolution condemning Israel
(JNS.org) The membership of the Modern Language Association (MLA) did not ratify Resolution 2014-1, which condemns Israel for denying “academics of Palestinian ethnicity entry into the West Bank,” in a vote that concluded at midnight June 1.
The resolution stated that the entry restrictions violate international law, disrupt “instruction, research, and planning at Palestinian universities,” and restrict “the academic freedom of scholars and teachers who are United States citizens.”
But a report issued by MLA members opposing the resolution states that in 2012 only 142 Americans were denied entry to Israel and the disputed territories out of 626,000 who wanted to enter, a refusal rate of about 0.023 percent. The U.S. restricts entry to its own borders at a much higher rate—5.4 percent in 2012 for Israeli applications for “B” visas.
In order for a resolution to be considered the official position of the MLA, it must be ratified by a majority vote in which “the number of those voting for ratification equals at least 10 percent of the association’s membership, which was 2,390 votes this year,” MLA said on its website.
“There were 1,560 votes in favor of ratification and 1,063 votes against ratification. The vote therefore fell short of ratification by 830 votes,” said MLA.
Peggy Shapiro, an MLA member and Midwest Director for the Israel education group StandWithUs, said in a statement, “Like other anti-Israel resolutions, the MLA resolution also erased all context to manipulate voters… It had only one purpose: to defame Israel. This resolution was discriminatory, singling out Israel for unfair and dishonest attacks.”
“We strongly support the principle of unrestricted scholarly travel, however this resolution only served to divide and politicize the MLA, rather than empower the organization to address more urgent matters facing higher education,” Israel Action Network Managing Director Geri Palast said in a statement.
MLA Members for Scholars Rights called the decision “a victory for responsible advocacy.”
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Brussels shooter refuses extradition from France
(JNS.org) The French man arrested in connection with the shooting at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels is refusing extradition from France, prosecutors and his lawyer said Wednesday. Four people were killed in the shooting, including Israeli tourists Emmanuel and Miriam Riva.
Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, had been incarcerated five times in France before spending most of 2013 fighting in Syria, prosecutors said. He was arrested again Friday in Marseille, France. Authorities said he is being held under anti-terror laws on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, and possession of weapons, reported Reuters.
Nemmouche refused to be extradited when presented with a European arrest warrant before a court hearing in Versailles outside Paris.
“We would like him to be tried in France first because he is French, and he is in France,” Nemmouche’s lawyer Apolin Pepiezep said in a press statement before the hearing, according to AFP.
Furthermore, “nothing connects him to the murders,” because Nemmouche had stolen the AK-47 assault rifle and handgun that were discovered in his possession May 30 and planned to sell them, the lawyer said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, a senior French intelligence source told Israel Hayom that there could be as many as 20 jihadist terrorists currently living in Europe and capable of committing violent attacks.
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Jewish Democrats organize effort to encourage Hillary Clinton presidential run
(JNS.org) Jewish Democratic activists have organized an effort to encourage Hillary Clinton—the former first lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state—to run for president in 2016.
Leading Jewish Democrats Marc Stanley, Fran Katz Watson, and Steve Rabinowitz are behind “Jewish Americans Ready for Hillary” and its website. The initiative—a constituency group of the broader “Ready for Hillary” initiative—seeks to “organize and activate Jewish Americans to volunteer, speak out and give and raise money to the premier effort encouraging the would-be campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” according to a press release.
“We love [Hillary Clinton]. It’s that simple. We want her to be president. And now, we have one more way to show her that we want her to run,” said Rabinowitz, a former White House press aide for President Bill Clinton.
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Syrian shells activate Iron Dome in northern Israel
(JNS.org) At least two mortar shells were fired from Syria into the Golan Heights in Israel on Wednesday, which activated the Iron Dome missile defense system for the first time in the north of the country.
The Iron Dome fired at least two defense shells, but operators called them back when it became clear that the Syrian shells were going to fall in open fields. The shells caused wildfires that had to be put out by the fire department, reported Yedioth Ahronoth.
Authorities have reported that no injuries were caused by the shells and believe that they were most likely fired by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces while they celebrated his election victory.
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U.S. intends to work with Palestinian unity government
(JNS.org) The United States says that it intends to work with the new Palestinian unity government formed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the terrorist group Hamas, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said.
“We will be judging this government by its actions. Based on what we know now, we intend to work with this government, but we’ll be watching closely to ensure that it upholds the principles that President Abbas reiterated today,” State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said earlier this week.
Psaki was alluding to the Middle East Quartet principles that include recognizing Israel, rejecting terror, and honoring previously signed agreements, conditions Abbas said the new unity government would adhere to, despite the inclusion of Hamas.
On Wednesday, Israel’s Housing Ministry announced that it was advancing plans for 1,500 new housing units in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem in response to the new unity government. Housing Minister Uri Ariel said in a statement Thursday that the move was a “fitting Zionist response to the formation of a Palestinian terror government,” reported Israel Hayom.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “deeply troubled” by the U.S. decision to work with the new unity government.
“All those who genuinely seek peace must reject President Abbas’s embrace of Hamas, and most especially, I think the United States must make it absolutely clear to the Palestinian president that his pact with Hamas, a terrorist organization that seeks Israel’s liquidation, is simply unacceptable,” Netanyahu said, the Associated Press reported.
Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday defended the U.S. position on the unity government, saying that America “will work with it as… is appropriate.” He noted that the new government “does not include any ministers who are affiliated with Hamas.”
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Founder of solar products company wins $100,000 Charles Bronfman prize
(JNS.org) Sam Goldman, founder and chief customer officer of the solar products company d.light design, on Tuesday was named the winner of The Charles Bronfman Prize, which comes with a $100,000 award.
D.light is a for-profit social enterprise that designs, manufactures, and distributes solar light and power products throughout the developing world, including a lantern that replaces kerosene with solar light. The company, founded in 2006, says its work has reached 33 million people in 62 countries.
“Replacing expensive and dangerous kerosene, which produces low quality light and noxious fumes, with affordable solar products that provide greatly improved lighting, transforms an unhealthy and dangerous environment for some of the most impoverished people in the world,” former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Stuart E. Eizenstat said on behalf of the prize’s judges.
The Charles Bronfman Prize, in its 10th year, was established by Bronfman’s children to honor “his commitment to applying Jewish values to better the world and to inspire the next generations,” according to a press release. Goldman, 34, is the prize’s first Canadian recipient.
“I am delighted and humbled to be The Charles Bronfman Prize 2014 recipient, becoming part of the prize’s legacy of innovation and humanitarian service tied to Jewish values,” Goldman said.
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