Senate bill removes presidential waiver of Israeli embassy’s move to Jerusalem
(JNS.org) U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Dean Heller (R-NV) on Tuesday proposed legislation that would remove the president’s authority to waive the relocation of America’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act of 2015 also requires official government documents to identify Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The U.S. embassy remains in Tel Aviv two decades after the passage of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 on Oct. 23, 1995, with overwhelming majorities in the Senate (93-5) and the House of Representatives (374-37). The 2015 legislation removes language from the 1995 law that gave the president authority to delay the embassy move in the interest of national security.
“It is my hope that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle support this important bill,” Cruz said. “It is long past due for our government to finally and unequivocally recognize Israel’s historical capital both in word and deed.”
“This legislation further confirms America’s support for one of our strongest allies by recognizing Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel,” Heller said. “The United States must continue to stand beside Israel and this legislation honors promises our nation made years ago.”
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Israeli minister wants Judea and Samaria to absorb new French immigrants
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Construction Minister Uri Ariel announced Tuesday that he would promote a plan to encourage new French immigrants to Israel to settle in Judea and Samaria.
Israel expects an increase in aliyah from France in 2015, following the recent Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris. Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky on Sunday pegged the potential number of French immigrants to Israel this year at 10,000.
In a letter sent to the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of municipal councils of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, Ariel wrote, “French Jews immigrating to Israel undoubtedly sympathize with the Zionist settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria. Surely, they would want to settle in one of Judea and Samaria’s communities.”
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Hamas’s grip on Gaza falters as workers riot over stalled wages
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Hundreds of Hamas employees whose wages have not been paid in more than six months staged a sit-in demonstration outside the offices of the Palestinian government in Gaza City on Tuesday, vowing to stay there until their salaries were paid.
The sit-in followed a protest rally, which quickly turned into a riot during which dozens of Hamas functionaries broke into the Palestinian government’s offices, causing significant property damage. Palestinian media reported that several government vehicles parked nearby were torched. No injuries were reported.
The unity government agreement struck between Fatah and Hamas in September prompted the dismissal of thousands of Hamas employees in Gaza, as the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority government informed Hamas it would not pay their wages. Hamas recently said the unity government had ended.
The coffers belonging to the Hamas government in Gaza are nearly empty, and the financial crisis has seen it default on the severance pay owed to those who were dismissed, as well as on the wages of thousands of other employees. Tuesday’s riot was similar to a wage protest staged by Hamas employees in June, when thousands of unpaid Gaza government functionaries stormed banks across the Strip, demanding their money.
Jewish foundation asks CNN to apologize for anchor’s disability slur
(JNS.org) The Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation, which promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish community, has asked CNN to apologize for a tweet by anchor Jim Clancy that included a disability slur.
Last week, after the Charlie Hebdo shooting but before the terrorist siege on a kosher supermarket Paris, Clancy tweeted that two Twitter accounts—@elderofziyon (for the popular Jewish-themed blog) and the anti-Semitic handle @JewsMakingNews—are colluding to promote an anti-Muslim and pro-Israel agenda. He received heavy criticism for the tweets and later deleted some of the remarks.
But according to the media watchdog Honest Reporting, when later confronted about his claims, Clancy tweeted, “@HumanRights2K Get a grip, junior. It’s my Friday night. You and the Hasbara (Hebrew from public diplomacy) team need to pick on some cripple on the edge of the herd.”
Ruderman Family Foundation President Jay Ruderman on Tuesday called the “cripple” remark “appalling,” questioning how “in this day and age a senior anchor at CNN, a world leader in the media, would use a word such as ‘cripple’, which is a derogatory term for people with disabilities.”
Ruderman also wrote a letter to the president of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker, requesting an apology.
“If a news anchor had hurled a racial epithet, CNN’s response undoubtedly would have been swift,” Ruderman said in a statement. “The disability community expects CNN to extend the same sensitivity to people with disabilities as it does to other minority communities.”
Israel closes three Muslim charities suspected of funding terrorism
(JNS.org) Israeli authorities have closed three Muslim charities suspected of funding terrorist organizations, police said.
The charities—Muslim Women for Al-Aqsa, The Al Aqsa Champions, and the Al-Fajr Foundation for Culture and Literature—are suspected of financing “organizations which identify with Hamas” and of “paying activists who go every day to the Temple Mount and when groups of visitors arrive they use verbal and even physical violence against them, in a manner that threatens the personal safety of the visitors and strikes at religious freedom,” according to an Israel Police statement.
Police removed computers, documents, and bank records from the offices of at least two of the charities, and detained multiple suspects for questioning on financing terror, money-laundering, and tax offenses, Reuters reported.
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