GAZA – More than 4,000 people have been evacuated from flood-damaged homes in northern Gaza in what the United Nations has called “a disaster area”, officials said on Saturday.
Palestinian civil defense members evacuate people from flooded houses in the northern Gaza Strip. – Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Flooding has been so severe that access to many homes is by rowing boat and water is reported to be two meters (more than six feet) high in some places. Continue Reading »
Preeminent British universities Oxford and Cambridge raised 1.2 million pound to purchase the Lewis-Gibson genizah collection, the BBC reported Wednesday.
Text from the Cairo geniza. – Photo: Olivier Fitoussi
The universities, two of the oldest and highest-ranking institutions for higher education in the world, decided this February to put aside their historic professional rivalry and launch their first joint fund-raising campaign. With the immense sum raised, the “ancient universities” can now purchase the collection from its current owner, the United Reform Church’s Westminster College. Continue Reading »
An Arab man from Gaza was wounded by IDF gunfire on Saturday evening after approaching the border fence, sources on both sides said.
A Hamas health ministry official told AFP, without elaborating, that the man was hit east of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza by Israeli tank fire.
Eyewitnesses said Israeli tanks and one bulldozer were near the border at the time.
The army confirmed the incident, with a spokeswoman telling AFP “a suspect approached the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip and was engaged in suspicious activity along the fence.” Continue Reading »
If international legitimacy for the settlement enterprise were a horse, one could say that it’s been long out of the barn. Those roaming the halls of power worldwide — from the White House in the era of Barack Obama and John Kerry to the United Nations — have for years regarded the territories of Judea and Samaria as Palestinian territory that is currently under occupation. Continue Reading »
Finally, after some 4-1/2 months of Israeli- Palestinian negotiations, some kind of game plan is beginning to emerge. Finally, some sort of indication about how this is all supposed to work – the logistics of the process, what a number of the key actors (namely the US and the Israelis) are thinking – is coming out into the open. Continue Reading »
By Noam (Dabul) Dvir
As snow continues to pile up in Jerusalem and northern mountain tops, tens of thousands of Israeli households are still without power. The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) said 35,000 households across the country are without power as a result of the tough weather conditions.
Armored carrier in Jerusalem – Photo: Almog Melichi
They include 12,900 in Jerusalem, 7,000 in the north, 2,000 in central and southern Israel and thousands more in the West Bank. Continue Reading »
A Spanish hotel built on the remains of a 15th century synagogue opened a new synagogue on its seventh floor last week.
The western wall of the Synagogue of Córdoba, Spain. – Photo courtesy: Wikipedia Commons
The opening at the four-star Parador de Lorca hotel in Lorca, a city in the southeastern region of Murcia, was the result of negotiations between management and the Sefarad Beitenu Jewish association, which will run the shul, according to a report in the Murcia Economia newspaper. Continue Reading »
Yoav Zitun
Israel set up a joint command center with Palestinian security in the West Bank to handle storm-related traffic and electricity problems.
Photo: Reuters
Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories verified a Mekorot transfer of water pumps to the Gaza Strip due to heavy flooding across the strip.
The IDF said on Friday it had opened a crossing with Gaza in response to a UN appeal to let in aid supplies. Continue Reading »
A Palestinian Authority (PA) source on Friday told AFP that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas formally rejected US proposals for Israel to keep troops in a future Palestinian state along the Jordan border. The source further formally stated Abbas’ position of refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish state.
Abbas’ rejection of US Secretary of State John Kerry‘s proposals in Ramallah Thursday night came after similar remarks to a public radio station earlier in the night. Continue Reading »
The Israeli Opera is bringing Giuseppe Verdi’s much-loved opera, La traviata, to Masada in June 2014. Conductor Daniel Oren will take the podium as he has done in years past at the Masada International Opera Festival, while Polish director Michal Znaniecki – who specializes in open-air productions—will meld the Paris salon with the Judean Desert.
Aida at Masada: The desert backdrop was perfect for the improbable love story of the Ethiopian princess and the Egyptian army officer.
US Secretary of State John Kerry addresses the Saban Forum in Washington, December 7, 2013. Photo: Ralph Alswang/Courtesy Saban Forum
A secret US Joint Chiefs of Staff (USJCoS) Memorandum from 1967 has been uncovered by Arutz Sheva analyst Mark Langfan. Langfan says the report proves that US Secretary of State John Kerry’s current proposed security arrangements are a “military security fraud on Israel and the Jews.”
Kerry is currently in Israel, pushing his proposals for the Jordan Valley which Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas again rejected on Friday morning. Langfan has revealed in the past that the arrangements are based on the 1967 “Allon Plan,” and are a “death-trap” for Israel. Continue Reading »
Fifty centimeters (19.7 inches) of snow fell in Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday (as of press time), leading to a state of emergency in the city, to which entrance and exit roads have been closed.
A Jerusalem light rail train pushes through the snow on Thursday – Photo: Lior Mizrahi
“I’ve heard of making guests welcome and feeling at home. This is as far as I’ve seen anyone go, giving a nice New England snow storm,” said U.S. Continue Reading »
PARIS — A suburb of the French capital honored a man imprisoned for helping to murder diplomats from Israel and the United States.
George Ibrahim Abdallah – Photo: France24
A majority of aldermen in the city council of Bagnolet east of the French capital voted on Wednesday to make the Lebanese citizen Georges Ibrahim Abdallah an honorary resident, calling him a “communist activist” and “political prisoner” who “belongs to the resistance movement of Lebanon, his country,” French media reported Friday.
Israeli and Palestinian officials held a meeting in Hebron this week, the first of its kind, to improve joint coordination in responding to civilian emergencies such as fires and accidents, and to figure out ways to protect the local environment together.
A FIREFIGHTER uses a fire extinguisher during a drill at a school in Jerusalem. – Photo: Reuters
The understandings reached by the participants found expression already on Thursday, when two Palestinian bulldozers joined Israeli bulldozers in clearing routes 36 and 60 after a heavy snow storm blocked the two roads that serve Palestinian and Israeli drivers. Continue Reading »