102 Gazans unable to enter Bethlehem for Palestine Marathon

 

Israeli authorities say ‘Palestinian officials are being provocative’ since the Palestinian Olympic Committee submitted the Gaza runners’ names late, leaving insufficient time for COGAT to prepare permits, then exploiting the sport for political gain by blaming Israel.

By Elior Levy

 

4,300 runners competed in the fourth annual Palestine Marathon on Friday in Bethlehem.

Despite the festive atmosphere, the event was not free of political tensions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. 102 Gazans requested permission to participate in the race including Nader Al-Masri, who represented the Palestinians at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and won the Palestine Marathon last year. Continue Reading »

Israeli Navy sinks smuggling vessel off of Gaza’s coast

 

Before Israel’s Navy destroyed the suspicious smuggling vessel, the crew threw the contents of the boat overboard, then jumped into the sea.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Israel’s Navy sunk a suspected smuggling boat that was approaching the coast of the Gaza Strip overnight on Saturday, an army spokesperson said.

Archive photos of Navy Squadron 916 – Photo By: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT

The IDF spotted a suspicious fishing boat loaded with sacs approaching Gaza from the direction of Egypt and called for the vessel to stop. The IDF fired warning shots in the air and in the water but the boat continued on its course. Continue Reading »

US voices opposition to Israel destroying illegal EU construction of Palestinian homes

 

view videoCompletely ignoring said structures were illegally constructed, without proper license and placed on state or public land, a U.S. State Department spokesperson voiced concern the demolitions of EU constructed Palestinian homes in the West Bank by Israeli authorities ‘undermine the possibility of a 2-state solution.’

By Reuters

 

The United States is “concerned” about Israel’s demolition of Arab buildings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a State Department spokeswoman said on Friday, adding that it raised questions about Israel’s commitment to a two-state political solution to the Palestinian conflict.

Israeli forces bulldozed a school in the Bedouin village of Khirbet Tana in the West Bank early in March, leaving 23 children with nowhere to study in the community overlooking the Jordan valley. Continue Reading »

Israel’s PM Netanyahu Hosts Journalists From Largest Muslim Nation

 

Calling for official diplomatic relations between the Jewish State & the largest Muslim country, Israel’s Prime Minister personally hosts delegation of Indonesian journalists.

By Israel Today Staff

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week personally hosted a delegation of senior journalists from Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu with visiting delegation of Indonesian journalists in Jerusalem at the Prime Minister's Office on 28 March 2016. - Photo: Haim Tzach:GPO.png

PM Benjamin Netanyahu with visiting delegation of Indonesian journalists in Jerusalem at the Prime Minister’s Office on 28 March 2016. – Photo: Haim Tzach:GPO.png

Official relations between Israel and Indonesia are cold, at best, though the two nations have long maintained quiet trade, tourism and security contacts.

Netanyahu hopes this visit will encourage warmer, more open relations. Continue Reading »

Palestinian teacher with ‘No To Violence’ curriculum wins $1mn prize

 

The Global Teaching Prize winner developed her philosophy on non-violence education after her children witnessed their father shot by the IDF and subsequently jailed for providing bomb-making materials for attack that killed Israelis.

 

Hanna al-Hroub attends a public reception upon her arrival in the West Bank city of Jericho from Jordan on March 16, 2016 – Photo: ABBAS MOMANI/AFP

A Palestinian teacher who won a $1 million global teaching prize for her nonviolence pedagogy will keep her prize, despite the fact that her husband was convicted as an accomplice in a terror attack that killed six Israelis.
Continue Reading »

Israel delighted as tourism from China & India continue to grow

 

Tourism from China grows 43% to some 50,000, from India up 13% to nearly 40,000 visitors in 2015, and with Chinese carrier to launch nonstop flights next month from Beijing to Tel Aviv, the Tourism Ministry sees visitors doubling by 2018.

By Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff

 

Israel is looking east to China and India to help drive tourism, as visits to the country have yet to fully recover from the 2014 Gaza war, Tourism Ministry Director General Amir Halevi said.

Travelers at Ben-Gurion International Airport [Illustrative] – Photo: Yehoshua Yosef

In 2015, tourism grew 43% from China to some 50,000 visitors and the ministry sees that doubling by 2018. Continue Reading »

Jerusalem conference exposes BDS propaganda shortfalls

 

Mid-East expert explains to young Jewish leaders fighting an intellectual war against BDS that, “you have to reclaim the narrative of liberalism… that if you are a liberal, you have to be against BDS, because BDS is against co-existence and negotiations.”

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD

 

As the BDS movement and other anti-Israel propaganda continue to gain traction on college campuses around the world, young Jewish leaders are increasingly becoming the most important first line of defense in an intellectual war defined by dueling narratives.

Neil Lazarus teaches students from the Masa-GLI Leadership Development Initiative in Jerusalem how to effectively counter BDS proponents.

Continue Reading »

US to disregard UNHRC resolution to blacklist companies working with settlements

 

US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US is opposed to the resolution on West Bank settlements the UNHRC approved last week in Geneva under the highly anti-Israel Agenda Item 7.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF

 

The United States does not intend to provide the United Nations Human Rights Council with information for its new blacklist of companies doing business with West Bank settlements, US State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

The United Nations headquarters. – Photo: REUTERS

The Obama administration, he said, is opposed to the resolution on West Bank settlements the UNHRC approved last week in Geneva, as it wrapped up its 31st session. Continue Reading »

REPORT: Palestinians Never Stopped Paying Jailed Terrorists with Foreign Aid

 

Despite assurances to stop paying terrorists with foreign aid received from US, EU, UK, & a dozen European countries, a recent report documented that Palestinian Authority is paying no less than $116 million a year in monthly stipends to convicted terrorists and their families.

 

The Palestinian Authority has continued to award lifetime payments to convicted terrorists, despite a promise to end the practice, an investigative report published Sunday by The Mail on Sunday (MoS) revealed. The report was part of a broader investigation into what the paper described as the “wasteful” use of British taxpayer money. Continue Reading »

Dubai woman names newborn after IDF officer who helped deliver, Hadi

 

Dubai woman traveling to West Bank goes into labor at Allenby border crossing, receives emergency medical assistance from an IDF Druse officer who delivered baby, named Hadi, after himself.

By MAAYAN GROISMAN

 

An Arab woman who delivered her baby at the Israeli-Jordanian border crossing on Tuesday named the infant after the IDF officer who helped her give birth.

The woman from Dubai accompanied by the Israeli officer. – Photo: ARAB MEDIA

The woman, heading from Dubai to the West Bank, arrived at Allenby border crossing when suddenly she started feeling contractions. An Israeli IDF officer who was present at the scene gave her initial medical treatment at the border crossing, after which he accompanied her to a hospital in Jericho. Continue Reading »

Egypt destroys a 3km long smuggling tunnel originating in Gaza

 

While reconciliation talks between Egypt & Hamas regarding their common border was ongoing, the Egyptian security forces found and destroyed a 3 km smuggling tunnel containing weapons, generators, and engineering equipment.

By Roi Kais

 

The Egyptian border guard destroyed a three kilometer long tunnel between Rafah, Egypt and the Gaza Strip, one of the longest tunnels discovered at the border between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, according to Egyptian security sources Thursday.

Hamas tunnel

The tunnel’s opening point, located in the house of an Egyptian smuggler from the Al Barazeel neighborhood in Rafah, Egypt is made out of concrete and steel. Continue Reading »

Israel pulls the plug to Jericho over PA electricity debt of $450 million

 

Beginning Thursday, Israel Electric Corp will reduce the power supply to Jericho due to the Palestinian Authority’s more than 1.7 billion shekels of unpaid electric bills.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

Israel’s state-run electricity company was set Thursday to reduce the power supply one of the Palestinian Authority’s major cities over a debt of $450 million, an Israeli official said.

The decision by the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) applies to the city of Jericho near the Jordanian border, and comes after the Palestinian Authority and the private Jerusalem District Electricity Company failed to pay longstanding dues, the official said. The Jerusalem District Electricity Company operates in eastern Jerusalem and the surrounding villages.
Continue Reading »

US cannabis firms invest millions in Israeli patents on medical marijuana

 

Already a pioneer in cutting-edge agriculture, the Jewish State has been attracting American companies looking to bring Israel’s medical marijuana know-how to an ever-growing market back home.

By Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff

 

Already a pioneer in high-tech and cutting-edge agriculture, Israel is starting to attract American companies looking to bring medical marijuana know-how to a booming market back home.

A nurse holds a medical marijuana cigarette at a Tel Aviv clinic belonging to Tikun Olam, Israel’s largest medical marijuana supplier – Photo: Reuters

Since 2014, U.S. firms have invested about $50 million in licensing Israeli medical marijuana patents, cannabis agro-tech startups and firms developing delivery devices such as inhalers, said Saul Kaye, CEO of iCAN, a private cannabis research hub. Continue Reading »

Quartet envoys met in Jerusalem set on restarting Israel-PA peace talks

 

Middle East Quartet, made up of the US, Russia, EU & UN, met with officials from Israel’s Prime Minister’s office & the Foreign Ministry, as well as representatives from the PLO & Palestinian Authority.

 

Envoys from the Middle East Quartet, made up of the US, Russia, EU and UN, met in Jerusalem earlier this week to work on a report it is expected to release in a number of months on the steps needed to create a political environment conducive to a relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Continue Reading »

U.S. State Dept. condemns the UNHRC for seeking to ‘blacklist’ Israeli companies

 

Once again the U.S. exposes the UNHRC, calling it biased against Israel, and condemns their resolution calling for a blacklist of businesses operating in Judea and Samaria.

By Ben Ariel

 

The United States on Wednesday condemned last week’s United Nations Human Rights Council resolution that calls for setting up a blacklist of businesses operating in Judea and Samaria.

UN Human Rights Council – Photo: Reuters

Speaking to reporters at his daily briefing and quoted by Reuters, State Department spokesman John Kirby criticized the motion.

“We continue to unequivocally oppose the very existence of that agenda item and therefore any resolutions … that come from it,” he said, accusing the body of “bias against Israel.” Continue Reading »