Proposed Israeli bill requires NGOs to disclose foreign funding sources
(JNS.org) Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is sponsoring a new bill that would force nongovernmental organizations to disclose foreign funding sources if they make up more than half their budgets.
Shaked said Sunday that the proposed bill “follows publications and data indicating that a high number of Israeli NGOs receive significant contributions from foreign countries or entities, which often try to influence government policy and blatantly interfere in Israel’s internal affairs,” Israel Hayom reported.
Foreign entities using their financial ties to Israeli groups to influence policy “is done to an unprecedented scope and in a way that undermines Israel’s sovereignty and undercuts the authority of an elected government,” Shaked wrote in the bill’s abstract.
The bill stipulates that any NGO primarily funded by foreign donations would need to state that fact clearly in its publications, reports, and formal communications with any public or government body. It also stipulates that such NGOs’ annual reports, and their communications with state bodies, would need to include the full details of their funding sources.
NGOs would be fined $7,500 for any violation of the proposed requirements, the bill states.
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Terror victim Eitam Henkin ‘saved his children’ in struggle with assailants
(JNS.org) Thousands of friends, neighbors, and family members attended a traditional 30-day memorial ceremony for terror victims Eitam and Naama Henkin in Jerusalem on Sunday, where Eitam was remembered as a hero for saving the couple’s young children.
The Henkins were murdered in front of their four children—Itamar, 6 months, Neta, 4, Nitzan, 7, and Matan, 9—when Palestinian terrorists attacked them while they were driving on a Samaria road in early October. Their children now live with their maternal grandparents, Hanan and Hila Armoni, in the community of Peduel.
Hila Armoni spoke of the challenges in raising the four newly orphaned children and said, “They were saved by their courageous father’s heroic actions.”
Police investigations revealed that after the first round of gunfire stopped the car, the gunmen came up on both sides of the vehicle to ensure they had killed the family. Eitam Henkin got out of the car and began to fight one of the terrorists. The second gunman tried to shoot Eitam, but instead accidentally hit his partner, injuring his arm. The two terrorists then fled. The wounded terrorist’s gun was found at the scene, and finding it enabled police to catch the attackers.
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Israel ranks 6th on list of world’s healthiest countries
(JNS.org) Israel is the sixth-healthiest country in the world and is the only Middle Eastern country in the top 10, according to recent world health rankings compiled by media outlet Bloomberg and reported in the British newspaper The Independent.
The rankings, compiled data from the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, placed Singapore in first place among 145 countries, with a “health grade” of 89.45 percent. Italy came in second, followed by Australia, Switzerland, and Japan. After Israel came Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany.
The rankings were determined using a points system for positive and negative indicators of health, including life expectancy from birth, smoking rates among young people, and immunization rates.
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Israeli economy minister’s resignation paves way for gas deal
(JNS.org) The Israeli government on Sunday approved the resignation of Aryeh Deri (Shas) as economy minister, paving the way for an offshore gas deal that had hit a snag.
The Israeli cabinet already approved the deal in August, in a 17-1 vote. The deal would set a price cap for natural gas sales to Israeli companies and require the gas companies to finish developing the Leviathan field by the year 2020. The deal would also resolve a pricing dispute in which former Israeli antitrust commissioner David Gilo had threatened to designate the Delek Group-Noble Energy partnership for operating Israel’s offshore gas fields as a monopoly.
Despite the cabinet’s overwhelming vote in favor of the deal, the agreement’s implementation still requires the Israeli economy minister to invoke Article 52 of Israel’s 1988 Restrictive Trade Practices Law, which allows the circumvention of objections of an antitrust commissioner in matters of foreign relations or national security. Deri had refused to invoke Article 52, but his resignation means the deal now has a clear path.
Speaking at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “This is a significant step toward prompting [natural] gas supplies in Israel. Natural gas will be Israel’s No. 1 growth engine in the coming years. This means billions of dollars in investments in the next two years, and the creation of supporting industries, meaning jobs for the Israeli public.”
Deri will still head the Negev and Galilee Development Ministry, which the government voted to expand and rename the Negev, Galilee and Periphery Development Ministry.
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Palestinians celebrate upon receiving bodies of terrorists from Israel
(JNS.org) Israel’s political echelon was outraged when the dead bodies of five Palestinian terrorists were received in the Palestinian Authority (PA) with celebrations, in violation of the PA’s pledge not to do so.
During a meeting of the Israeli diplomatic-security cabinet about a month ago, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan opposed returning the bodies of terrorists, but Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon insisted on it, arguing that keeping them was tantamount to “body trafficking” and could prompt further violence.
Ultimately, the cabinet agreed on a split policy: In Judea and Samaria, which is under the jurisdiction of the defense minister, Ya’alon will decide the fate of the bodies. In eastern Jerusalem and within the Green Line, Erdan would be the deciding figure.
Appearing on Israel’s Channel 2, Ya’alon voiced disappointment that “the Palestinians did not live up to their word that there would be no celebrations.”
During funerals for the five terrorists, mourners waved Hamas and Fatah flags and called out, “In blood and fire, we will liberate Palestine!” After the funerals concluded, rioters began throwing rocks at IDF soldiers who, in turn, used riot dispersal gear to calm the situation.
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Israeli judokas win medals but hide flag in Abu Dhabi
(JNS.org) At the Judo Grand Slam competition in Abu Dhabi over the weekend, Israeli judokas yielded to Arab pressure and donned uniforms bearing the International Judo Federation insignia rather than the Israeli flag or anything suggesting their Israeli nationality.
On Friday, after 40 years of boycotts, a judoka from Algeria agreed to face Shira Rishoni after being assured that the Israeli opponent did not represent Israel but rather the International Judo Federation.
On Saturday, Israeli judokas Yarden Gerbi and Sagi Muki won bronze medals, but at the medal awarding ceremony, they were honored without any mention of their Israeli nationality.
In response to the incident, Gerbi issued a statement saying: “I always represent my country, whether my flag is concealed or not….To win on this soil is far more important than refraining from competing at all.”
Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev said Saturday, “The Israeli team, like any other team in the world, has a right to represent Israel with its flag and its national anthem at any competition on any continent. I will not stand idly by….When the judo team returns to Israel, we will find out what happened there.”
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Abbas urges ICC to ‘expedite’ war crimes charges against Israel
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “expedite” a probe into allegations of Israeli abuses and war crimes.
Abbas, along with other senior Palestinian officials, met with ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda at the Hague in the Netherlands on Friday.
“It is extremely important to expedite the process…because if Israel feels impunity, what will deter Israel from multiplying the victims?” Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said, AFP reported.
Al-Maliki apparently handed over a dossier to Bensouda “making reference to the extra-judicial killings, home demolition, and collective punishments” carried out “in the last 40 days of Israeli aggression.”
Over the past several weeks, there have been a spate of stabbings and other terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Israeli leaders have blamed Abbas and other Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Islamic Movement for inciting violence, particularly through their rhetoric over the Temple Mount holy site.
The meeting between Abbas and Bensouda was the first since the Palestinians joined the ICC earlier this year. Soon after joining, the Palestinians urged the court to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes during last year’s conflict in Gaza.
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New Zealand circulates U.N. resolution on peace talks while Israel objects
(JNS.org) New Zealand, which is currently serving a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council, has circulated a U.N. resolution aimed at renewing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The draft resolution asks the Israelis and Palestinians to take steps to “end the violence, avoid incitement and protect civilians,” the Associated Press reported. It calls on both sides to refrain from “provocative acts, including acts which threaten the historic status quo of holy sites in Jerusalem,” seemingly parroting Palestinian claims that Israel is trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied.
Calling the current 17-month absence of peace negotiations “unacceptable,” the resolution urges the Quartet of Middle East mediators – the U.S., E.U., U.N., and Russia—as well as Arab states and the Security Council to play a role in restarting talks.
On Oct. 28, Israeli officials summoned New Zealand’s ambassador to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Jonathan Curr, to express their displeasure with the proposed resolution, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon called the proposal “destructive instead of being constructive.”
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Israel accepted into U.N. space agency despite Arab outcry
(JNS.org) Israel was accepted into the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) despite an Arab attempt to thwart the Jewish state’s membership.
On Thursday, 117 U.N. member states supported Israel’s bid, with 21 countries—largely Muslim-majority states—abstaining and one voting against. Syria, home to an ongoing civil war that has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people, attempted to block Israel’s bid by forcing a vote on Israel’s acceptance, claiming that Israel is attempting to militarize space.
“Israel, with over 30 years of activity in space, has much to offer COPUOS,” said U.S. diplomat David Pressman, Fox News reported. “It has collaborated internationally with many space agencies, including the United States’ own NASA. And to suggest that their intentions are not peaceful is to perpetuate an inflammatory claim designed to advance an agenda that is something other than advancing the important technical work of COPUOS.”
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