Jerusalem: 30,000 take part in ‘Flag Dance’ parade

Israelis celebrate Jerusalem Day in festive procession; rightist activists clash with Palestinians

 

More than 30,000 people on Sunday took part in the traditional “Flag Dance” parade in the capital, in honor of Jerusalem Day. Several violent clashes between the marchers and leftist activists and residents of the Muslim quarter were recorded.

In Damascus Gate, several hundreds of marchers gathered as police separated them from the Palestinian residents. Leftist activists held a counter protest at the site.

Many of the marchers chanted “Am Yisrael Chai” but others used the parade to voice hate messages. Several were heard making slanderous calls against Prophet Muhammad. Continue Reading »

Netanyahu: Israel will continue to build Jerusalem and keep it united

Marking Jerusalem Day, PM says ‘Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart’; thousands of religious-Zionist youths march through the city and Arab neighborhoods.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during a ceremony marking Jerusalem Day that the Israeli capital will never be divided and that building in Jerusalem will continue.

Netanyahu during Jerusalem Day - AP - May 20, 2012

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a special cabinet meeting marking Jerusalem Day at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem - Photo by AP

“We will protect Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said. “Israel without Jerusalem is like a body without a heart. Our heart will never be divided again.”

“A nation willing to sacrifice it’s heart will convince its enemies that it is willing to give up on everything,” he warned, and said that he does not believe that abandoning the Temple Mount to a different power will preserve the freedom of religion.

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Russia: More Countries Now Favor Iran Attack

Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov says Russia is worried by “signals” of growing support for an attack on Iran.

Russia is concerned about a shift in the positions of some countries that now favor a military attack on Iran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Sunday.

Iranian Warship, Suez Canal

Iranian Warship, Suez Canal - Reuters

“We [Russia] are concerned that the opportunity to try to solve the problem [in Iran] by military means is still real. We get signals, public and from private channels, that this option is now considered in some capitals as much more applicable to the situation than it was before,” Ryabkov said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency. Continue Reading »

Rice: Israel is where the US learned about homeland security

On 25th visit to Israel, former secretary of state recalls the first panicked moments of 9/11

The world changed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told an audience in Israel Sunday, and so did the relationship between the United States and Israel.

While Jerusalem and Washington were always good friends, after the attacks they became allies “with a common cause in the fight against people who would seek political gain by attacking civilians, parents and children,” she said.

 

 

Former US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice speaking in Israel on Sunday (Courtesy)
Former US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice speaking in Israel on Sunday (Courtesy)

 

Rice also described the first panicked minutes for the US administration on 9/11, including the moment she raised her voice to president George W. Continue Reading »

Lebanese soldiers kill two anti-Assad group members

Residents of northern region of Akkar block off roads to protest deaths of Sunni cleric and anti-Assad activist; Switzerland opens investigation in Syrian money laundering.

 

TRIPOLI, Lebanon – Lebanese soldiers shot dead a Sunni cleric and a second member of an anti-Assad Lebanese political alliance in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources said.

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid and Khaled Miraib, members of the the March 14 alliance, were shot in their car as they sped through an army checkpoint without stopping, the sources said.

Residents of the northern region of Akkar said that they had blocked off roads to protest against the deaths.

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Shin Bet: Palestinians tried to kidnap mother, baby

Security service arrests terror cell members who attempted to kidnap Israelis in West Bank in order to use them as bargaining chips in prisoner exchanges

 

Nine Palestinians from the Ramallah area have been charged with attempting to kidnap Israelis, it was cleared for publication on Sunday.

The Shin Bet internal security service said in a statement that in mid-March the Palestinians tried to kidnap a mother and her baby daughter near the West Banksettlement of Beit El.

Palestinian terror cell leader, Ramdan

Palestinian terror cell leader, Ramdan

The terror cell members were arrested by the Shin Bet with the help of Israel Police and the IDF. Continue Reading »

Denmark to ban labeling West Bank products as ‘Made in Israel’, report says

Report comes after South Africa says only recognizes State of Israel within borders demarcated by UN in 1948; move is in line with U.K. recommendation from 2009.

 

Denmark is planning to ban labeling products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “Made in Israel,” the foreign minister told Danish media on Saturday. The move follows reports of similar plans announced this month by South Africa’s government.

“This is a step that clearly shows consumers that the products are produced under conditions that not only the Danish government, but also European governments, do not approve of,” Foreign Minister Villy Søvndal Søvndal told Politiken newspaper. Continue Reading »

Reference to Israel’s National Bird Sparks Outrage

Anti-Israel activists criticized a British publication for mentioning Israel’s national bird.

Anti-Israel activists harshly criticized the British publication the Morning Star for publishing a quiz in which one of the questions referred to Israel’s national bird, the Hoopoe.

In a letter to the newspaper, George Abendstern Chairman of the Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign (MPSC) expressed his dismay by stating, “I often wonder why so many of its readers find the Morning Star so exasperating. Despite its condemnation of zionists (sic) it yet finds space to include an item in its daily quiz about Israel’s national bird.”

bird

Hoopoe bird - Reuters

“Is the Star not aware there’s a cultural boycott going on? Continue Reading »

Israel fixes, returns four aerial drones to Turkey in possible sign of warming ties

 

Failure to repair the Herons has been a bone of contention with Ankara for years

 

In another possible sign of a thaw in the icy relations between Israel and Turkey, Israel has fixed and returned to Turkey four of the five unmanned aerial Heron drones which were sent to Israel for repairs several years ago.

Ankara purchased the drones several years ago, signing a contract with the Israeli government which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Jerusalem of breaking when the Herons were not promptly fixed and returned to Turkey. “Are they even ethical?” Erdogan asked of Israel last September. Continue Reading »

After 4 months, largest UAV remains grounded

Officials fear prolonged grounding could scuttle sales to France of Heron TP, dubbed the drone “that can reach Iran.”

The Heron TP, Israel’s most advanced unmanned aerial vehicle, remains grounded almost four months after one crashed during a test flight near the Tel Nof air base outside Rehovot.Two panels set up independently by the Israel Air Force and Israel Aerospace Industries, the drone’s manufacturer, are still investigating the cause of the crash and there is concern that the continued grounding will affect a possible sale of the Heron TP to France.
IAI Heron UAV aircraft - Photo: Tim Chong/Reuters
IAI Heron UAV aircraft – Photo: Tim Chong/Reuters

At the time of the crash, officials said it occurred after the UAV performed a maneuver that was beyond its capabilities, causing one of its wings to break off. Continue Reading »

‘Palestinians will lose jobs if boycott persists’

Owners of factories in West Bank say South African decision to mark settlement products will only harm local employees. ‘Ideology is a nice thing, but economic interests eventually prevail,’ says factory manager

 

The South African Trade and Industry Minister’s decision to mark products from the settlements did not surprise factory owners in the West Bank, who are accustomed by now to boycott attempts; however, some of them are concerned that the current move will be followed by other countries, potentially leading to substantial damages for them and for their employees.

Settlement product boycott Photo: Issam Rimawi

Settlement product boycott - Photo: Issam Rimaw

Ironically, those who would get harmed the most by the move are some 15,000 Palestinian workers who are employed in these factories and depend on them to make a living. Continue Reading »

Secular residents win one in the big battle for Jerusalem

Jerusalem’s mayor scraps plan to build Ultra-Orthodox preschools in Kiryat Hayovel in south-west Jerusalem – and opts to build a secular yeshiva instead. 

Jerusalem’s secular residents have won an important victory in an ongoing battle against ultra-Orthodox groups over the fate of an open field in Kiryat Hayovel. Mayor Nir Barkat announced last week that the contested tract of land in the southwestern neighborhood of the capital would be used for a yeshiva – a secular yeshiva, that is.

The large barren field in Kiryat Hayovel has, in recent years, turned into a flashpoint between secular and ultra-Orthodox groups. The neighborhood has become a symbol of secular opposition to the increasingly Haredi character of Israel’s capital. Continue Reading »

Jewish Birthrate Up, Arab Rate Down in Jerusalem

The Jewish birthrate in Jerusalem is higher than the Arab birthrate, putting an end to reports of an Arab demographic threat.

The Jewish birthrate in Jerusalem is higher than the Arab birthrate, putting an end to reports of an Arab demographic threat in the united capital.

The birthrate in the expected life of mothers is 4.2 children for Jewish mothers compared with 3.9 children for Arab mothers, according to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies (JIIS).

Reflecting the trend in the rest of Israel, the birthrate for Jews represents a dramatic reversal and is on the increase while the Arab birthrate is declining. Continue Reading »

Israel’s southern border fence progressing

Construction on the section of the fence in the Eilat Mountains will cost four times as much as any other part of the project due to the harsh terrain – canyons and cliffs as high as 170 meters, which don’t deter infiltrators

 

As public debate on the issue of refugees and infiltrators from Africa heats up, the Defense Ministry is expediting work on the border fence in the Eilat Mountains.

Since the completion of the western part of the fence, on the Egyptian border, African infiltrators have been forced to detour south to find an ingress – sometimes through dangerous mountain terrain that stretches for 14 kilometers and is marked by canyons and cliffs up to 170 meters high. Continue Reading »

Holocaust history published in Farsi for Iranians

After 15 years of research, four-volume book on Holocaust is released by Iranian-born Jewish author.

WASHINGTON – Ari Babaknia doesn’t expect that Iran’s president will ever read his four-volume series of Holocaust books written in the Farsi language. But the author says he is confident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad knows the books exist.

“I’ve done 10, 11 television interviews,” Babaknia said – interviews that are transmitted via satellite to Iran.

He has sent the four volumes, released in April, to three people in Iran who requested it via the website memorah.com.

The volumes are titled “Man’s Inhumanity to Man,” “America’s Response to the Holocaust,” “The World’s Response to the Holocaust” and “End of the Holocaust and Liberation of Nazi Camps and the Genocides of the Last 100 Years.”

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