Poll: 52% of eastern Jerusalem Arabs prefer Israeli citizenship
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Half of eastern Jerusalem’s Arab residents—52 percent—would prefer to be Israeli citizens, while only 45 percent of them would prefer to be citizens of a future Palestinian state, a recent survey by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy found.
A similar survey held by the institute in 2011 found that only 40 percent of eastern Jerusalem’s Arab residents preferred Israeli citizenship over “Palestinian citizenship.”
Institute fellow David Pollock, who conducted both surveys, presented the findings at a conference hosted by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies on Tuesday. Pollock said the 2015 poll found “modern” and “more realistic” views among eastern Jerusalem’s Arabs, compared with those living in Judea and Samaria as well as the Gaza Strip. The poll found that 70 percent of eastern Jerusalem’s Arabs support a two-state solution and “recognize the Jewish people’s right to a state,” while only 13 percent of Judea and Samaria’s Arabs and 11 percent of Gazans said the same.
But while 40 percent of the Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem “recognize that Jews have some rights” to Israel, Pollock said almost no Arabs residing in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza agreed.
Pollock believes the desire to become Israeli citizens stems from social benefits afforded to eastern Jerusalem Arabs who have an Israeli resident status. Nevertheless, the survey found that the majority of Arabs residing in eastern Jerusalem have radical views: 61 percent support armed conflict with Israel, including vehicular terrorist attacks, and a majority said they are politically affiliated with the Gaza-ruling Hamas terrorist group, not the Palestinian Authority.
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Israeli woman wounded in Samaria shooting
(JNS.org) An Israeli woman was lightly injured when a car in which she was traveling came under fire on a road south of Nablus in Samaria on Wednesday.
The shooting took place on Route 60 near the Palestinian village of Hawara. After the shooting, the driver of the car, a resident of the Jewish community of Yitzhar, continued on to the Tapuach Junction checkpoint. The wounded woman, who was the passenger, did not require hospitalization.
“Suddenly we felt a blow, boom,” the driver said later, Israel Hayomreported. “My friend, who was sitting next to me, started shouting that she had been injured in her back. My car is reinforced against rocks and at first I thought that it was a rock, but once she said she was feeling pain, I drove quickly from there toward Tapuach Junction. At the same time I reported the incident and held her. When I saw that there was no blood, I understood that the bullet had not struck her.”
Both of the women who were in the car work as nurses at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak. Following the shooting, Israeli security forces launched searches in the area for the perpetrators.
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Holocaust survivors in Netherlands severely beaten in anti-Semitic attack
(JNS.org) Two elderly Holocaust survivors in the Netherlands were brutally beaten and robbed in an apparent anti-Semitic attack.
The victims—Diana Blog, 86, and her husband Shmuel, 87—were beaten last month but only this week started to speak to the media about the incident. They already had scars from being attacked by Auschwitz concentration camp guard dogs.
Two masked men, apparently of Middle Eastern descent, posed as police officers in order to gain entry to the couple’s home in Amsterdam. They subsequently beat the couple viciously, ransacked their home, and stole $15,000 worth of jewelry and money. The men also called the couple “dirty Jews.”
Diana was severely bruised from the attack, while Shmuel lost his vision and broke his thigh bone. Both Diana and Shmuel are now wheelchair-bound.
“I have extreme pains,” Diana told Yedioth Ahronoth. “They wanted to chop off my finger because the rings didn’t come off fast enough. They called us ‘dirty Jews’ and said: ‘You don’t need your jewelry anymore. You’ve been wearing it for too long. Now it’s all ours.'”
The couples’ son Emmanuel has offered an award of $11,000 to anyone with information about the robbers.
“This is a shocking incident, a brutal robbery that extremely affected the victims,” the Dutch Embassy in Israel said in a statement. “In general, it’s important to emphasize that everyone should feel safe in the Netherlands. We will not tolerate any incident of discrimination and anti-Semitism.”
“I don’t feel like eating anymore,” Diana told the Dutch Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad (New Israelite Weekly), explaining that she could still taste the barbiturate the robbers had forced her to drink at gunpoint.
“I am broken from the inside,” she said.
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Israeli man goes missing in Yemen, family fears Islamic State abduction
(JNS.org) A 64-year-old Israeli man who left Israel to visit Yemen three months ago is missing amid concerns he may have been captured by the Islamic State terror group.
The man—a Yemenite Jew living in Ashkelon whose name has not been revealed—made aliyah 20 years ago after he had been imprisoned back in Yemen for hanging an Israeli flag outside his home. Since then, he has visited Yemen four times using a foreign passport. His family in Israel is concerned that he was captured by Islamic State while on his latest trip.
“I’m very concerned about him,” his daughter said, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. “If he had arrived there, I believe he would’ve contacted us. I’m very much afraid he was captured by ISIS. Unfortunately, no one is helping us.”
During his previous visit to Yemen in 2013, the man was detained on suspicion of spying for Israel. He was only released when rebels attacked the city, forcing authorities to free all prisoners. The man decided to travel to Yemen again in order to bring his brother back to Israel.
“We tried to convince him not to go but it didn’t help,” his daughter said. “He told me not to worry because he would only be there for a few days.”
The daughter became extremely concerned after her father told her he could not find a connecting flight from Jordan to Yemen, and was taking a ride with three Saudi men who refused payment.
“That’s when I started suspecting. Why are strangers not taking money? He didn’t listen to me, and I don’t know what has happened to him since. After a few weeks, we made inquiries and we were told he didn’t make it there. I contacted someone in Jordan and I was told he left Jordan, but they didn’t know where he went,” she said.
The Israeli government is unable to help the family locate the man because Israel and Yemen do not have diplomatic relations. In the past, Israeli security officials had warned the man not to travel to Yemen.
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South African Jewish community: dual citizenship ban intends to target IDF
(JNS.org) South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) political party is considering a change in the country’s policy on dual citizenship. The South African Jewish community believes the initiative is an effort to prevent Jewish citizens from serving in the Israel Defense Forces.
The ANC is set to discuss the measure at a general council meeting next month, according to Obed Bapela, head of the ANC’s national executive committee’s subcommittee on international relations, theSunday Times reported.
The measure will not only affect many in South Africa’s Jewish community who hold dual citizenship, but also millions of other South Africans.
“Obed Bapela has undermined the very core value of South Africa’s democracy by proposing a change to our law purely to prevent one sector of our society, in this case South African Jews, from having a relationship with Israel,” South African Jewish Board of Deputies and South African Zionist Federation spokeswoman Charisse Zeifert said.
Zeifert noted that Jews comprise only 0.1 percent of South Africa’s population, and accused Bapela of political grandstanding that is motivated “by his own narrow understanding of the Middle East conflict, which is based on religious fundamentalism and the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) lobby within the ANC.”
The Jewish community has sought a meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma to clarify the measure.
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Ahead of Rosh Hashanah, Israel’s population hits 8.4 million
(JNS.org) In advance of Rosh Hashanah, Israel’s population has reached 8,412,000 people.
According to data released by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel’s population over the past year grew by 158,000—a 1.9-percent increase. Jews comprised 6.3 million of the population (74.9 percent), with Arabs comprising 1.746 million (20.7 percent) in addition to 366,000 other residents (4.4 percent).
Additionally, during the past year, roughly 168,000 babies were born and 42,000 people died in Israel. The Jewish state also saw a net migration of roughly 32,000 people, of which 28,000 were Jewish immigrants, representing a 35-percent increase over last year. Most of these Jewish immigrants came from Ukraine (26 percent), France (25 percent), Russia (21 percent), and the U.S. (9 percent).
The Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that between the years 2025 and 2030, Israel’s population will exceed 10 million.
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