Hamas bans Gaza orphans from peace-building trip to Israel
(JNS.org) The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has barred a group of 37 orphans in Gaza from visiting Israel as part of a peace-building trip meant to heal wounds between the parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to trip organizers, the group, which included children ages 13-16, was turned back by Hamas authorities at the last minute at the Erez border crossing into Israel. The group had received approval from Israeli authorities for the week-long trip.
“This was a suspicious visit that aimed to normalize our children with the Zionist occupation,” said Hamas spokesman Eyad al-Buzom, the New York Times reported. “In order to protect our sons, we prevented them from visiting the occupation,” he said.
Yoel Marshak, an Israeli who helped organize the trip, said he was shocked and saddened by the last minute cancelation by Hamas.
“In 20 or 30 years, these children will be the leaders in Gaza,” Marshak said, the New York Times reported. “The idea was to give them a positive experience in Israel,” he added.
The children were scheduled to tour Arab towns in Israel as well as areas in southern Israel that are under threat of Gaza rockets. They were also scheduled to attend a performance by a Jewish-Arab band, to visit a mixed Jewish-Arab school, meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and take part in a Tel Aviv beach party as well as a safari.
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Turkish PM backs Palestinian claim that Israel reduces Jerusalem’s ‘Islamic character’
(JNS.org) Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday that Turkey supports the Palestinians’ “common stance” that Israel is trying to “reduce the Islamic character” of Jerusalem.
“We back this stance against the reduction or the elimination of Jerusalem’s Islamic character,” Davutoglu told reporters in the central Turkish city of Konya. “Turkey will not accept any impositions concerning Al-Aqsa and will do whatever needs to be done internationally to protect Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque.”
The situation surrounding the Temple Mount compound and the mosque on its grounds, Al-Aqsa, has recently been used by Palestinians as a reason to riot or carry out terrorism—despite the fact that Israel bans Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. Israel has blamed Palestinian Authority (PA) officials for inciting violence through their false claims about the Temple Mount.
“All Israel wants is to Judaize the Holy City, take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, destroy it, and build the alleged Temple,” PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s minister of religious affairs, Sheikh Yusuf Ida’is, said this month.
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New photos from International Space Station shed light on Israeli topography
(JNS.org) New photos posted on the Facebook page of the International Space Station (ISS) paint a detailed picture of Israeli topography.
The photos—taken by NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore, commander of the current Expedition 41 to the ISS—were shot as the station passed over Israel from a height of 268 miles.
“Israel—completely clear—on Christmas morning from the International Space Station. Astronaut Barry Wilmore woke up early on Christmas to reflect upon the beauty of the Earth and snap some images to share with the world,” stated a caption that accompanied the photos.
One image shows the contrast between the Negev desert and the greener parts of Israel. Another, taken directly above the Dead Sea, shows how the world’s saltiest body of water is shrinking. A third picture shows the Sea of Galilee amid green fields and orchards.
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Netanyahu warns against Iranian suicide drone and funding of terror in Israel
(JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against multiple aspects of the threat posed by Iran over the weekend.
After the Iranian army said on Saturday that it deployed its first-ever suicide drone, Netanyahu said in a press conference with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), “Iran today conducted an exercise with a suicide drone. I don’t have to convince you, Senator, that the most important task before us is to prevent this dangerous regime from having nuclear weapons.”
At his cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu noted the recent Iranian effort “to intensify terrorist actions in Judea and Samaria.”
“None other than the Palestinian Authority ambassador in Tehran said that he was enthused by Iranian ruler [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei’s instructions to send weapons to the West Bank, and he added, and I quote, ‘The Zionist regime is an aggressive cancerous growth which, sooner or later, must be eliminated,’” Netanyahu said. “Now I emphasize, it was not a Hamas man who said this, it was the Palestinian Authority ambassador in Tehran.”
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Sen. Lindsey Graham vows ‘violent pushback’ against U.N.-backed Palestinian state
(JNS.org) There will be “a violent pushback if there’s any effort by the U.N. Security Council to set the terms of peace negotiations” between the Israelis and Palestinians, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Saturday night during a press conference in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Graham’s comments came against the backdrop of the unilateral Palestinian push at the Security Council to pass a resolution that would set a deadline for the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines. Graham said he would act to halt U.S. funding for the U.N. if the U.N. backs unilateral Palestinian actions.
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