Tel Aviv terrorist Nashat Milhem vows to ‘die’ and ‘kill’ in cellphone videos
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Several hours before going on a killing spree in Tel Aviv on Jan. 1, Arab terrorist Nashat Milhem lost his cell phone in Ramat Aviv. Newly released videos recovered by Israeli police from his phone reveal a strong hatred for the “enemies of Islam”—Jews, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims—and the use of terms compatible with Islamic State rhetoric.
Milhem murdered two people at a bar in Tel Aviv on New Year’s Day before going on to murder a taxi driver not too far from there. Though he managed to evade police for a week, he was eventually located and was killed during a shootout with police in his home town of Ar’ara.
In one of the videos, which were distributed by the Shin Bet security agency to various media outlets on Wednesday, Milhem is seen saying, “Downing a Carlsberg [beer] and smoking weed,” while walking down the street and listing various kinds of illicit drugs.
In another video, he addresses the American president, saying: “Obama, you [Christian] crusader…convert to Islam…convert to Islam…Not converting? Let’s see if the cross will save you, you son of a whore.”
Milhem continues, “I am rising up to our lord, the Prophet Muhammad, prayer and peace be unto him. Today, it is very simple….You love our lord, prayer and peace be unto him….You feel like these eyes [points to his eyes] want to see him….It is very simple…. Die!…Kill!”
In another video, Milhem is seen breathing heavily, holding bullets, saying, “In my name, Nashat Muhammad Ali Milhem, resident of the Daharat neighborhood, from here, this village, this house in the heart of Daharat where I sit….’You did not shoot when thou didst shoot, but God did shoot.’ You are wrong about us….Fine, we don’t matter, what are we? You are wrong about our lord, the prophet….We…our souls…live like a mother on the soil. This won’t happen, it won’t come to be, with the help of Allah….There will soon be a second terrorist attack in Tel Aviv….So the Jews finally understand whom they are messing with…sons of whores.”
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Egyptian ministry cancels planned screening of award-winning Israeli film
(JNS.org) Egypt’s Culture Ministry canceled a planned screening of an award-winning Israeli comedic film, “The Band’s Visit,” Haaretz reported Wednesday.
A screening of the 2007 film about an Egyptian band visiting Israel was scheduled for last Sunday at the cultural center in the city of Beni, Egyptian media reported.
The film’s director, Eran Kolirin, told Haaretz that the screening was a private and unofficial event.
“A few people, maybe students, organized the independent screening of the film, probably in some community center. In fact, because it was unofficial, it was exciting and gladdening. I received an invitation for the event on Facebook, and after that one of the organizers approached me and asked if I could send a video, so they could show me before the screening or afterward. But before I managed to do it, a journalist called to ask for my response to the cancellation,” Kolirin said.
“The Band’s Visit” has won eight Ophir Awards, the Israeli equivalent of America’s Academy Awards. The specific motive behind the screening’s cancellation was unclear from the Haaretz report.
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Israeli Knesset caucus honors Christian filmmaker and tour organizer
(JNS.org) The Israeli Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus and the World Jewish Congress on Thursday presented special awards to Christian leaders Jay Rawlings and Duke Westover for their commitment to Israel at the 10th annual “Night to Honor Our Christian Allies” ceremony.
Rawlings, who has produced more than 130 documentary films about Israel and runs the Israel Vision TV network, was recognized for his efforts to educate a global audience about anti-Israel bigotry.
Westover received a tourism award for organizing, with his wife Carlene, more than 75 trips to Israel for thousands of Christians, politicians, and advocacy organizations.
“Today it is Christians, not countries, that stand with Israel. We must recognize the importance of that support and encourage it whenever we can,” said Knesset Christian Allies Caucus Director Josh Reinstein.
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1,700-year-old Galilee inscriptions refer to ‘rabbis,’ affirming Jewish presence
(JNS.org) Three 1,700-year-old funerary inscriptions referring to “rabbis” were discovered in Moshav Zippori in Israel’s Galilee region, a finding that affirms a Jewish presence in Israel during the Roman period, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Wednesday.
“The importance of the epitaphs lies in the fact that they reflect the everyday life of the Jews of Zippori and their cultural world,” said Dr. Motti Aviam of the Kinneret Institute for Galilean Archaeology, which partnered with the IAA on the discovery.
Two of the Aramaic inscriptions were found buried in a cemetery in Zippori, but their names have not yet been deciphered. One of the inscriptions bears the name “The Tiberian,” Aviam said.
“This is already the second instance of someone from Tiberias being buried in the cemetery at Zippori,” said Aviam. “It is quite possible that Jews from various parts of Galilee were brought to Zippori to be buried in the wake of the important activity carried out there by [the Mishnah-era sage] Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi.”
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Israeli ZAKA emergency response group secures official U.N. status
(JNS.org) The Israeli emergency response organization ZAKA has received official consultative status from the United Nations after three years of trying to secure that designation. The status means that ZAKA will now be recognized as an official body in the U.N., which gives it the right to participate in official U.N. discussions.
The U.N.’s NGO Committee meets twice per year to approve the list of organizations that receive consultative status. Countries that are hostile to Israel, such as Iran, Venezuela, Sudan, Pakistan, and others, are members of the committee that decides on recipients of the status. Last tear, the Palestinian Return Center advocacy organization received the designation, but ZAKA did not.
With the assistance of diplomatic efforts by Israel’s U.N. delegation and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, ZAKA finally received the votes needed to obtain the status.
“ZAKA is a moral and ethical organization, and its acceptance by the U.N. is a natural result of its activities around the world,” said Yehuda Meshi Zahav, ZAKA’s founder and chairman, Israel National News reported.
He added, “Today, ZAKA works in a large number of country to save lives and ensure the dignity of disaster victims. Its acceptance by consensus is a joint product of a diplomatic effort with the [Israeli] U.N. delegation, under the leadership of Ambassador [Danny] Danon.”
“I congratulate the members of the Foreign Ministry and our staff at the U.N. embassy, led by Danny Danon, for their success in securing U.N. advisory status for the ZAKA organization,” said Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, Ma’ariv reported.
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On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Obama honors Righteous Among Nations
(JNS.org) To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama posthumously honored Americans who saved Jews during the Holocaust at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC. This was the first time such a ceremony is held in the U.S.
“Too often, especially in times of change, especially in times of anxiety and uncertainty, we are too willing to give in to a base desire to find someone else, someone different, to blame for our struggles,” Obama said. “So here tonight we must confront the reality that around the world anti-Semitism is on the rise. We cannot deny it.”
The Americans honored Wednesday were Roddie Edmonds of Knoxville, Tenn., and Lois Gunden of Goshen, Ind., in addition to Polish citizens Walery and Maryla Zbijewski of Warsaw. They were recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and research institute with the Jewish state’s official “Righteous Among the Nations” title, awarded to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Edmonds served in the U.S. military during World War II. He was taken captive by Germans along with other prisoners of war. When the Germans wanted to send all Jewish prisoners of war to report for deportation, Edmonds kept the Jewish POWs from being singled out by telling the 1,000 U.S. servicemen to step forward and declare, “We are all Jews here.”
Gunden, who was a French teacher, founded a children’s home in southern France in which she hid Jews smuggled out of a nearby concentration camp. The Zbijewskis also hid a Jewish child in their Warsaw home.
Obama’s participation in the ceremony is “a worthy tribute to the worthiest among us,” said Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.
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Mort Zuckerman launches fund for U.S. students’ graduate studies in Israel
(JNS.org) Real estate magnate and media mogul Mort Zuckerman, who publishes the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, has founded a new scholarship program that will fund U.S. students’ graduate studies in Israel.
The Zuckerman STEM Leadership Program will provide more than $100 million in scholarships over the next 20 years, which will go toward graduate studies and postdoctoral research by Americans at Israeli academic institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
“At a time when collaboration is essential to advanced scientific research, this program gives the next generations of leading American and Israeli academics the ability to work together on cutting-edge research in ways that stand to benefit their fields for years to come,” Zuckerman said Monday in his announcement of the scholarship fund’s launch at the Harvard Club in New York City.
“By helping some of America’s best and brightest students work and learn alongside leading researchers in Israel, this program gives us a new model for cooperation and partnership that will ultimately better society as a whole,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who attended the news conference along with Nobel Laureates Richard Axel, Aaron Ciechanover, Eric Kandal, and Ada Yonath.
“This project will help bring back home some of Israel’s most brilliant sons and daughters, allow them to advance their own careers here, and in so doing contribute to Israel’s growing scientific excellence. It will also enable some of America’s brightest young scientists to conduct their research in Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message.
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