Archive for February 15, 2013

Polish Culture Ministry ends grant for Holocaust journal

Holocaust Studies and Materials has been funded by the Ministry of Culture since its inception 8 years ago. The Center for Holocaust Research filed an appeal against the ministry’s decision to discontinue assistance.

By JTA

 

WARSAW — Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage will not continue funding a Holocaust journal.

Polish Center for Holocaust Research

 

The decision not to renew funding for the journal Holocaust Studies and Materials, published by Polish Center for Holocaust Research, was announced last week.

The Ministry of Culture provides grants for what it considers to be the most important national magazines. This year, however, the ministry changed the rules by which it allocates grants. Continue Reading »

Bulgaria Police deport Hamas delegation, ‘persona non gratae’

The Police raid on the residences of visiting Hamas delegation was allegedly prompted by Israeli, British & US political pressure.

A Bulgarian gov’t spokesperson denies reports of meeting with Hamas representatives, reporting that the Palestinians were in Sofia on “private visitation.”

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Bulgarian security forces on Friday raided the temporary residences of a visiting Hamas delegation in Sofia, and then expelled the officials from the country, Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.

Bulgarian PoliceMa’an quoted a statement released by Hamas’ Change and Reform parliamentary list as saying the that the Bulgarian move was at least in part prompted by Israeli, US and British pressure.On

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Synagogue near Auschwitz may Collapse

The head of the Jewish center in nearby Oswiecim reports that the only shul near the former Nazi death camp may give way if sloping ground beneath it isn’t reinforced.

Associated Press

 

An official says the only synagogue near the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz may crumble if the sloping ground it stands on is not reinforced soon.

Entrance to Auschwitz death camp Photo: AFP

Entrance to Auschwitz death camp – Photo: AFP

The Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue is the only one still in existence in Oswiecim, the southern city where Nazi Germans ran the Auschwitz camp during World War II. It was rededicated in 2000 to try to rekindle the Jewish life that was vibrant in the city before the war. Continue Reading »

Stolen Paintings to be Returned to Jewish Owners

The heirs of 2 Jewish families whose paintings were stolen during World War II will receive 7 paintings from France.

By Elad Benari

 

France will return seven paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries to the heirs of two Jewish families whose artworks were stolen during World War II, the French culture ministry told AFP on Thursday.

Six paintings by Italian and German artists will be returned to Thomas Selldorff, the octogenarian grandson of Austrian textile magnate Richard Neumann, who was forced to flee his country in 1938.

Neumann came with part of his art collection to Paris but fled to Spain when the Nazis occupied France and eventually reached Cuba, where he settled. Continue Reading »

How Easy it was for Brooklyn College to Legitimized BDS

Op-ed: Few institutions in the US are as anti-Israel as the average American campus

By KC Johnson  and Asaf Romirowsky

 

The controversy over a “panel discussion” at Brooklyn College has little to do with free speech, and everything to do with politicization of the academia — in this case, by disingenuous anti-Israel ideologues.

archivesBack in December, the political science department at Brooklyn College, a public institution partially supported by taxpayers’ dollars, formally voted to sign on to a talk that took place on February 7th. A student group had scheduled an address by University of California professor Judith Butler and graduate student Omar Barghouti to propagandize on behalf of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Continue Reading »

Contrary to Hamas declaration, Bulgarian gov’t denies inviting, meeting Hamas

Gov’t denies official meetings with Hamas legislators in 1st visit to EU country since its 2003 terrorist classification.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

 

BERLIN – The Bulgarian government flatly rejected on Thursday meetings between official representatives of the government and Hamas. Vessela Tcherneva, the spokeswoman for the Bulgarian foreign ministry, told the Jerusalem Post that “the news about an official visit of Hamas is wrong and false” and no one has invited Hamas from the side of the government.”
Hamas spokesperson MUSHIR AL-MASRI

Hamas spokesperson MUSHIR AL-MASRI – Photo: REUTERS

She added that the Hamas representatives are “on a private visitation of a NGO” in Sofia.

Continue Reading »

Turkey requests cooperation with Israel in importing Israeli natural gas

Turkey’s building conglomerate Zorlu Group will construct an undersea pipeline from Israel’s offshore gas-platform to Turkey’s southern coast.

By Itai Trilnick and Avi Bar-Eli

The Turkish conglomerate Zorlu Group has been working in recent months to convince the Israeli government and the Leviathan gas field partners to approve energy exports to Turkey, TheMarker has learned.

Bloomberg

Zorlu is also a giant in real estate: Pedestrians by the huge 65,000 square-meter business center it’s building in Istanbul. – Photo by Bloomberg

Zorlu’s plan is to lay an undersea pipeline from the Leviathan field 130 kilometers off Haifa to Turkey’s south coast. The pipeline would deliver between 8 billion and 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Continue Reading »

UN ‘Concerned’ For Imprisoned Hunger Striking Arab Terrorists

A UN official has voiced concern over the health & well-being of hunger-striking Palestinian Authority terrorist prisoners.

By Elad Benari

 

A United Nations official on Wednesday expressed concern about the well-being of Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist detainees in Israeli prisons and in particular about the condition of hunger striker Samer Issawi, AFP reports.

A UN statement quoted in the report said that Humanitarian Coordinator James W. Rawley met in Ramallah with the PA’s prisoner affairs minister, Issa Qaraqe.

During the meeting, Rawley “expressed the United Nations’ continued concern about Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody,” according to the statement.

“They discussed the situation of four Palestinian detainees currently on hunger strike and, in particular, the critical health condition of one Palestinian detainee, Samer Issawi, who has been on hunger strike for more than 200 days,” it said, according to AFP. Continue Reading »

Brooklyn College investigates the ejection of Jewish students from its BDS event

The host of the event was the Brooklyn College Students for Justice in Palestine, who’s aim is “helping end Israeli apartheid and the illegal occupation of Palestine.”

 

By JTA

NEW YORK — Brooklyn College launched a probe into allegations that Jewish students were wrongly ejected from an event hosted by the school in support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Palestinians call for a boycott

Palestinians call for a boycott – Photo: REUTERS

Karen Gould, the college’s president, on Wednesday ordered officials to conduct a “thorough independent review” of allegations that four members of the Jewish student group Hillel were told to leave the gathering organized by a pro-Palestinian group on campus last week. Continue Reading »

Canadian newspaper: Burgas terrorists are related

The ‘National Post’ reports that the culprits of the Burgas terror bombing that killed 5 Israeli tourists & a local bus driver, are related & that one grew up in Vancouver.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

 

Two of the three suspected Hezbollah operatives accused by Bulgaria’s government of killing five Israelis and a Bulgarian national have familial ties. The Canadian daily National Post reported on Tuesday that a Canadian, who is believed to have participated in the bombing of an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, “is a relative of the unidentified terrorist who died while planting the explosives.”
Continue Reading »

Iranian General killed in Lebanon

Iranian news website reports the death of a General of the Revolutionary Guard, by ‘mercenaries of the Zionist regime’

By the Associated Press

 

An Iranian independent news website is reporting that a senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has been killed in Lebanon.

Revolutionary GuardsThe website, mashreghnews.ir, says General Hassan Shateri was killed by “mercenaries of the Zionist regime,” but provided no details about his death.

Shateri led Guard forces in Lebanon and oversaw Iranian-financed reconstruction projects there.

Iran is a close ally of Syria and the militant group called Hezbollah, which is a powerful player in Lebanon. Tehran provides political and military support to both. Continue Reading »

Human Rights Watch: Israel committed war crimes during offensive on Gaza

New HRW report says Israel mounted multiple airstrikes on civilian targets & used disproportionate force during Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza’s rocket attacks, which claimed the lives of over 40 non-combatant Gazans.

 

A U.S.-based rights group said Israel violated laws of war in a series of airstrikes it conducted during an eight-day military operation last November against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian girl stands next to a relative's house after it was destroyed

A Palestinian girl stands next to a relative’s house after it was destroyed in what witnesses said was an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, Nov.

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Lapid and Bennett Become a Package Deal

Bennett & Lapid have a 31-seat bloc, & reportedly agreed to join the coalition together, or be left out together.

By Maayana Miskin

 

Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have created a pact between their two parties, agreeing that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will have either both of their parties in his coalition or neither, political sources have told Arutz Sheva.

Together, the two have 31 seats. Netanyahu’s chances of putting together a coalition without either party are not considered good.

Bennett and Lapid banded together due to a shared interest in preventing Netanyahu from creating a coalition that excluded one of them in favor of hareidi-religious or left-wing parties. Continue Reading »

Morsi floods Gaza’s smuggling tunnels, hurting Hamas’ profits

Since the Muslim Brotherhood took control of Egypt, up to 200 smuggling tunnels have been closed, curtailing Hamas’ clandestine and nefarious projects.

By REUTERS

 

Egyptian forces have flooded smuggling tunnels under the border with the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip in a campaign to shut them down, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said.

Smuggler in tunnelReuters reporters saw one tunnel being used to bring in cement and gravel suddenly fill with water on Sunday, sending workers rushing for safety. Locals said two other tunnels were likewise flooded, with Egyptians deliberately pumping in water.”The Egyptians have opened the water to drown the tunnels,” said Abu Ghassan, who supervises the work of 30 men at one tunnel some 200 meters (yards) from the border fence.

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Egyptian security forces deny Hamas an office in Cairo

Iraqi paper reports the Muslim Brotherhood’s request on Hamas’ behalf was rejected due to fears it could spark further disturbances during a time of nationwide unrest.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON

 

Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo Photo: Mohamed Abd el-Ghany/Reuters
Egyptian security forces have rejected a Muslim Brotherhood request to establish a Hamas office in Cairo after leaving its headquarters in Damascus, according to Egyptian security sources quoted by the Iraqi paper Azzaman on Tuesday. The security sources were quoted as saying that they put national security considerations first, especially now when Egypt is in the middle of unrest and the new office could lead to further disturbances.
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