CAMERA rebuts LA Times op-ed that urged boycott of Israeli education system
(JNS.org) The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) has rebutted an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that made claims of inherent racism toward Palestinians in Israel’s educational system.
The op-ed by comparative literature professor Saree Makdisi—titled “Why Israel’s schools merit a U.S. boycott”—claims that an academic boycott of Israeli institutions is justified because according to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, “Israel maintains two separate educational systems” for Jewish and Palestinian children. The op-ed also cites an assertion by the Israeli NGO Adalah that Israel invests “three times as much on a per capita basis in the education of a Jewish as opposed to that of a Palestinian citizen.”
Palestinian children are “denied access to adequate kindergartens” and “do less well in elementary school,” states the op-ed, which also claims that “there is not a single high school in the Palestinian communities in the Negev desert in southern Israel.”
According to CAMERA’s rebuttal, some facts cited by the op-ed are entirely false, and others are omitted to create a skewed picture. For instance, Suzie Ben Harush, a southern district spokeswoman for the Israeli Education Ministry, has noted the presence of more than 40 government-supervised high schools for the Negev’s Bedouin population.
The Los Angeles Times article ignores that Christian Arabs actually outperform Jews in Israeli education, with 70 percent of that sector eligible for matriculation, compared with 61 percent of Jewish students, the Times of Israel reported in 2013. The op-ed also omits a 2014 decision by Israel’s Council for Higher Education to create a $1.65-million scholarship program for 650 Arab students seeking an undergraduate education, CAMERA notes.
Furthermore, while Council for Higher Education data cited in the op-ed to demonstrate educational gaps between Jewish and Arab Israelis is correct, the column does not make clear that the data was collected for the purpose of closing such gaps, according to CAMERA.
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French-Jewish teacher attacked with machete in Marseille
(JNS.org) A Jewish man was attacked with a machete by a teenager in Marseille, France, on Monday in an apparent anti-Semitic incident.
The victim, a school teacher who was wearing a yarmulke, was on his way to work. He was followed by a teenager who attacked him with a large machete, causing injuries to his back and hands.
The teacher then managed to scare away the teenager, who ran off and left the machete at the scene. Before he ran off, the teenager reportedly yelled Allahu Akbar (“God is greater” in Arabic), according to the Marseille branch of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).
“We know that it is a clearly anti-Semitic act, a serious act committed a few dozen meters” from a Jewish school, said local police chief Laurent Nunez, according to the thelocal.fr website.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called the incident a “revolting anti-Semitic attack” on Twitter.
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Foreign Golden Globe goes to Hungarian Holocaust film ‘Son of Saul’
(JNS.org) The Hungarian Holocaust film “Son of Saul” won the Golden Globe for best foreign film on Sunday. The movie tells the story of Saul Auslander, a prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau who was a member of the Sonderkommando, the unit of Jews who were forced to clear out corpses from gas chambers and move them to the crematoriums
Saul finds a body of a young boy whom he believes to be his dead son, and tries to save the corpse from burning in order to give his son a proper Jewish funeral, while the members of the Sonderkommando plan a rebellion. The actor who portrays Saul is Hungarian Jew Geza Rohrig, who also founded an underground punk band when Hungary was under Communist rule. He currently lives in New York.
“Son of Saul” won over films from France, Chile, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Germany, and Estonia.
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Netanyahu announces crackdown on crime in Israel’s Arab communities
(JNS.org) Ten days after Arab Israeli terrorist Nashat Milhem shot dead two Jews in central Tel Aviv, while also allegedly murdering an Arab cab driver during his escape, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would introduce a series of measures to boost law enforcement activities in Arab communities.
Among the steps being considered are constructing more police stations and extending their hours of operation, confiscating unlicensed firearms, and reducing illegal construction. Netanyahu met with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan on Sunday to discuss the matter and asked the minister to report back to him with a comprehensive plan. Israel Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Roni Alsheikh, Shin Bet security agency chief Yoram Cohen, and Prime Minister’s Office Director General Eli Groner also took part in the meeting. It was decided that Groner would oversee the resources and budgets to implement the plan.
“Israel will enforce its laws and its sovereignty over all parts of the state—the Galilee, the Negev, the [predominantly Arab northern area known as] the Triangle, and everywhere else,” said Netanyahu. “We will build new police stations, recruit more police officers. We will enter every community and demand adherence to the laws of the state.”
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Body of first Israeli F-35 fighter jet unveiled in Texas
(JNS.org) The body of Israel’s first F-35 joint strike fighter plane was unveiled at a festive ceremony in Fort Worth, Texas, over the weekend. The plane, named Adir, will now enter the advanced production stage, which is set to last until June.
The ceremony was attended by officials from U.S. aerospace company Lockheed Martin, which produces the F-35, and Israel’s Defense Ministry.
Israel has ordered 33 F-35s at the average cost of $110 million per plane. The first two F-35s are scheduled to arrive in Israel in December. The rest of the planes will be delivered to Israel by 2021.
At the ceremony, the head of the Israeli delegation, Aharon Marmarosh, signed the frame of the first Israeli F-35, writing, “Onward and upward. May you succeed in your mission.”
Marmarosh said, “This is a historic day….The F-35 will improve Israel’s ability to defend itself from a variety of threats.”
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IDF creates new cutting-edge unit to combat unconventional weapons
(JNS.org) Against the backdrop of a changing battlefield, the Israel Defense Forces is in the process of establishing a new initiative within the Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom (“Diamond”) commando unit to combat the threat of chemical weapons on land, Israel Hayom reported Monday.
According to an officer familiar with the details, the decision to create the “Sayfan” company was based on the IDF’s most up-to-date intelligence assessments. The new unit’s mission will be to detect, identify, and treat unconventional materials in a combat zone. The officer said soldiers in the new unit will have very high security clearance as well as a unique and advanced set of capabilities.
“We need fighters who are responsible enough to operate this equipment; fighters who know how to think on their feet and use good judgment,” the officer said.
Recruitment to the elite company began some eight months ago, and in another eight months the first class of recruits will complete their professional training. Soldiers in the specialized training course are required to undergo chemistry and biology studies.
The decision to create Sayfan was made after the IDF decided more than a year ago to change the mission of the Engineering Corps’ unconventional weapons unit, the 76th Battalion, which had been tasked with “identifying and cleansing” areas contaminated by chemical and biological weapons on the battlefield. One IDF official told Israel Hayom that the decision to shift the battalion’s designation was made because the “threat of chemical weapons isn’t what it used to be.”
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Israeli forces shoot Tel Aviv pub terrorist who was wanted for killing 3
(JNS.org) Israel’s Shin Bet security agency and police counter-terrorism forces on Friday found and shot dead Nashat Milhem, the Arab terrorist who fatally shot two Jews at a Tel Aviv pub on Jan. 1 and was also suspected to have murdered an Arab cab driver during his escape.
Milhem was hiding in the Arab town of Ar’ara in northern Israel for the past week, but changed his specific hiding place twice, likely with the assistance of his family. Israeli agencies, including the Shin Bet, analyzed and determined a number of possible hiding places, which then allowed them to find Milhem at a mosque on Friday.
Authorities were still investigating whether Milhem acted alone, whether he was influenced by the Islamic State terror group, and whether the attack was part of a plot by a larger terror cell.
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