Israeli Foreign Ministry’s ex-director slammed over push for pressure on Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Former Israeli Foreign Ministry director general Alon Liel was slammed over his push for international institutions—including the United Nations and FIFA (world soccer’s governing body)—to put more pressure on Israel.
“Alon Liel served for many years in senior roles in the Israeli diplomatic system, including several months in the position of Foreign Ministry Director general. The years that have passed since then have caused him to forget his duty to the state, and unfortunately, he has become active in helping those who wish to harm the State of Israel,” said Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely.
“His active participation in the [anti-Israel] boycott movement and the cynical use of his status as a former Foreign Ministry official in the diplomatic arena tarnishes the foreign service and actively serves those who hate Israel,” Hotovely added.
Hotovely’s comments follow the secret recording of a meeting between Liel and the left-wing NGO Breaking the Silence, taped by the right-wing Ad Kan movement. In the recording, Liel is heard comparing “the occupation” to apartheid-era South Africa and suggesting that the organization help turn public opinion against Israel’s policies.
According to the recording, Liel said, “Imagine FIFA saying, ‘No problem, Israel. You have a great soccer culture, but the Beitar Ariel and Beitar Givat Ze’ev teams [from Judea and Samaria] should play in the Arab League, in the [Palestinian] territories.’ That would be enough for us. The government in Ramallah is recognized as a state by FIFA, yet in the heart of its territory, there are soccer teams that do not play in its league.”
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Holocaust survivors in Israel inundated with repossession claims, report says
(JNS.org) Some 2,000 Holocaust survivors reportedly approached the Israeli Justice Ministry’s Legal Aid Department over the last year for assistance, after lawyers who were hired to help them claim benefits billed them at rates higher than the funds they would receive.
According to the survivors, the lawyers misled them and did not explain the full significance of the power of attorney documents they signed. Israel Radio reported Wednesday that hundreds of repossession claims have been filed against Holocaust survivors by a small group of these lawyers.
Gilad Samama, an attorney who heads the Justice Ministry’s Legal Aid Department, told Israel Hayom that 40 percent of the cases have been closed, either in court or after the Holocaust survivors agreed to pay the fees they owed without taking the matter to court.
In December 2014, an amendment to Israel’s Nazi persecution law went into effect, limiting the fees that could be imposed on Holocaust survivors who hired assistance in filing benefits claims. The amendment allowed for the retroactive correction of fees until December 2015.
This past December, the Legal Aid Department published notices in various media outlets, reminding survivors that they had about a month left to reclaim the money they had spent. Some 1,000 Holocaust survivors approached the Legal Aid Department in December alone. The department is now looking to extend the amendment by another year.
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EU funds illegal Palestinian construction in Area C, Knesset member says
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Findings regarding the European Union’s funding of illegal Palestinian construction in Area C—the parts of Judea and Samaria that are under full Israeli military and civil control—were presented on Wednesday at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria.
Member of Knesset Moti Yogev (Jewish Home), the chairman of the subcommittee, said, “We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of illegally constructed buildings. Quite simply, this is construction terrorism directed by the Palestinian Authority and deliberately funded by European Union countries with around 110 million euros ($120 million) per year.”
Yogev accused the Civil Administration—the Israeli governing body that operates in Judea and Samaria—of “inaction, incompetence, irresponsibility, and abandonment” in Area C.
Col. Uri Mendes, deputy head of the Civil Administration, said, “There is no illegal construction that is not dealt with by us. Just last week, we demolished five buildings and confiscated tents that were donated by the European Union.” According to Mendes, 904 buildings were illegally constructed in 2014, and 408 of them were subsequently demolished.
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Qatari-funded Al Jazeera America shutting down
(JNS.org) Al Jazeera America—the cable news operator that along with its parent company, Al Jazeera, is funded by the government of Qatar—has announced that it will be shutting down its operations by the end of April.
In a memo to his staff, Al Jazeera America’s chief executive, Al Anstey, said that the “decision by Al Jazeera America’s board [to shut down] is driven by the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the U.S. media marketplace,” the New York Times reported.
The network—which was launched in 2013 after buying former vice president Al Gore’s Current TV for $500 million—has struggled to gain viewers, with an average of only 30,000 people tuning in during its primetime shows.
The network has also been beset by internal turmoil, with many top executives leaving. Last year, a former employee of Al Jazeera America launched a $15 million lawsuit against the network for alleged sexist, anti-Semitic, and anti-American policies and remarks by an executive there.
Qatar, a U.S. ally, has been scrutinized by the pro-Israel community over its funding of the Palestinian terror group Hamas.
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Israel: Swedish FM ‘not welcome’ in Jewish state after ‘incendiary’ comments
(JNS.org) Israel said that Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom is no longer welcome in the Jewish state, a day after comments she made calling for an investigation into Israel’s “extrajudicial killings” of Palestinians involved in the ongoing wave of terror.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that “given the incendiary and aggressive nature” of Wallstrom’s remarks, “we have made it clear that she is not welcome in Israel.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, meanwhile, had said before Nahshon’s comments that Israel would be “closing the gates” to officials from Sweden. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it wasn’t aware of that decision, Haaretz reported.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry also summoned Swedish Ambassador to Israel Carl Magnus on Wednesday to reprimand him over Wallstrom’s comments.
In December, Wallstrom had also accused Israel of carrying out “extrajudicial killings” of Palestinians during a discussion in the Swedish parliament. In November, she linked the Islamist attacks in Paris to Palestinian frustration with Israel.
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United Methodist Church to exclude Israeli banks from pension portfolio
(JNS.org) The United Methodist Church (UMC) on Tuesday said that its pension board will exclude five Israeli banks from its investment portfolio due to concerns over human rights.
UMC lists Israel and the disputed Palestinian territories as a “high risk” region with “a prolonged and systematic pattern of human rights abuses.” But UMC continues to invest in 18 other Israeli companies, according to M. Colette Nies, a spokeswoman for the pension board.
While many Methodist leaders oppose divestment, a coalition of UMC members called the United Methodist Kairos Response has been advocating for divestment from Israeli companies in Judea and Samaria as well as eastern Jerusalem.
“This is the first step toward an effort that helps send a clear message that we as a church are listening and that we are concerned about human rights violations,” Susanne Hoder, a leader of United Methodist Kairos Response, said Tuesday.
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, described UMC’s divestment as an act of desperation by a shrinking religious movement. In its 2014 religious landscape survey, the Pew Research Center showed that mainline Protestants represented 14.7 percent of the U.S. adult population, down from 18.1 percent seven years earlier. The survey included United Methodists among the group it called mainline Protestants.
“God is clearly honoring the churches that stand with Israel and the Jewish people by bringing about huge growth with them, and at the same time Methodist churches are sitting empty and their affiliation is way down,” Eckstein said, adding, “For years millions of Christians have faithfully stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel and the Jewish people, despite cynical and hate-filled attempts to demonize Israel, and for that we remain deeply thankful.”
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) also denounced the pension board’s decision.
“Targeting Israeli businesses is precisely what BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) activists seek, though this kind of action does nothing to bring about real Israeli-Palestinian peace,” said Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC’s Director of interreligious and intergroup relations. “The Methodist Pension Board action against Israeli companies is deeply disappointing, and goes against the UMC’s rejection of BDS at its 2012 General Conference.”
UMC’s General Board of Pension and Health Benefits will exclude Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank, and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank.
The pension board had already voted in 2014 to divest from Israel by selling the stock of a security company, G4S, because the company supplies equipment to Israeli prisons.
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Israeli debt burden falls, high-tech exits see increased profits in 2015
(JNS.org) Israel’s Finance Ministry on Tuesday estimated that the Jewish state’s debt burden dropped from 66.75 percent in 2014 to 64.9 percent in 2015.
“This is an achievement for the Israeli economy,” said Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon. “Decreasing tax burdens and interest payments will allow us to increase budgets for education, health, welfare, and security.”
Meanwhile, Israeli high-tech companies generated $9.02 billion in profits from 104 exits last year, according to figures released Wednesday by the IVC Research Center and the Meitar Liquornik Gev Leshem Tal law firm. Although the number of exits decreased by 10 percent compared to 2014, total profit from the exits rose 16 percent last year, with the average exit deal in 2015 amounting to $87 million.
A successful exit occurs when a firm goes public or is acquired by another firm.
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Arab man from Jerusalem gets 1 year in prison for Facebook incitement
(JNS.org) An Arab man from northern Jerusalem was sentenced to one year in prison for incitement on Facebook.
As part of a plea deal, Obida Twil admitted to inciting violence and terror through the social network.
“The defendant’s statement that he was prevented from carrying out his act because he knew that he could expect a prison sentence proves the need for deterrent punishment. Making it easier to carry out such crimes requires a real and deterrent punishment,” Judge Eitan Kornhauser said during Twil’s sentencing.
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Pew Research Center: more Muslims than Jews in the U.S. by 2040
(JNS.org) The American Muslim population will surpass the number of Jews living in the United States “even before 2040,” the Pew Research Center projects in a recently released study.
Muslims currently make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. adult population, but according to Pew estimates, that number will grow to 2.1 percent by 2050—outnumbering those who identify as Jewish by religion in America (excluding Jews who identify as secular).
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in America, followed by Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism.
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Israel condemns North Korean nuclear test
(JNS.org) Israel, already a frequent critic of Iran’s nuclear program, condemned North Korea’s recent nuclear test in the aftermath of a unanimous U.S. House of Representatives vote to toughen sanctions against the Asian nation.
“A clear message must be sent to the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and to other countries, that such activities are unacceptable and cannot be tolerated,” Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“Israel condemns North Korea’s nuclear test, and joins the international community in expressing concern of the danger that this act poses to regional stability and international peace and security. This act by the DPRK must be met with a swift response by the international community,” added the statement.
South Korea on Wednesday fired warning shots at a North Korean drone that crossed its border. South Korean President Park Geun-hye said regarding sanctions that the U.S. and its allies are working on inflicting “bone-numbing pain” on North Korea, according to Reuters.
Last week, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test, described as a powerful hydrogen bomb.
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