The school defended the event as being protected by “academic freedom of expression.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Jewish groups sharply criticized the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Tuesday for allowing a student group to hold an anti-Israel conference on campus last week that critics said legitimized terrorism.

The event, organized by a 10-year-old student group called “Here Is All of Palestine,” featured nationalist and anti-Israel chants, the singing of the Palestinian national anthem, and the screening of a film in which activists praised poetry by Palestinians who support armed struggle against Israel.

Poetry was also read that denied the historical connection of Jews to Jerusalem.

The conference included a performance by stand-up comedian Nidal Badrana, who last year repeatedly mocked the 251 hostages abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel. His comments sparked public outrage and led to a brief arrest on suspicion of incitement to terrorism and disturbing the peace.

In a letter to the university administration, the Religious Zionist Dror student group demanded an immediate ban on all “Here Is All of Palestine” activities and the permanent expulsion of activists who had “chosen to identify with terrorists and terror supporters.”

“This is not about freedom of expression or legitimate political debate,” the students wrote. “It is about glorifying poets who openly support terrorism and promoting anti-Israel incitement.”

They added that sharing classrooms with such students while they and their peers serve in the IDF reserves and defend the country was “inconceivable and intolerable.”

“The university administration now faces a moral and ethical test,” the letter concluded. “Silence or delay will be interpreted as legitimizing terrorism on campus. We expect you to demonstrate zero tolerance and make it clear that the campus will not be a safe haven for any terrorist supporters.”

Shai Glick, head of the Zionist human rights group Betzalmo, told World Israel News he was shocked that the university had allowed such an event to take place on campus.

“This is a delusional reality in which the Hebrew University has forgotten its second name – ‘Hebrew.’ The university must decide whether it is truly becoming Palestine or returning to being Zionist,” Glick said.

There were also levers that could be used since the university was supported in large part by the state, he noted.

“As long as the incitement cases continue, we will act urgently to deprive them of budgets,” he said. “Public money cannot be used to finance incitement and hatred.”

Responding to a Channel 14 report on the conference, Hebrew University said it does not interfere in the content of student activities, which are “protected by freedom of expression and academic freedom.”

In this particular case, the statement added that it would investigate “whether there was a violation of the regulations prohibiting the use of university facilities for holding political events intended for the general public.”

The post Uproar after Hebrew University students hold pro-Palestinian conference appeared first on World Israel News.

Mohammad Alian was one of 1,150 terrorists released in the 1985 Jibril deal in exchange for three IDF soldiers.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In a first, the Israeli Bar Association (IBA) permanently disbarred a lawyer Sunday for publicly supporting Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and massacre.

As Hamas terrorists filmed and posted their killings on Simchat Torah morning, Mohammad Alian wrote on Facebook: “This is a ray of hope that destroys the shadows of the immense darkness, and there is no harm in being very optimistic.”

The post received hundreds of likes and supportive comments, which Alian “liked” in return.

He posted twice more that day: “The First Lesson: We can if we want,” and, “The Second Lesson: This tiger is a paper tiger,” referring to Israel. Both drew positive reactions.

That led to his arrest and a subsequent plea deal in which he was sentenced to one year in prison on six counts of supporting terrorism and identifying with a terrorist organization.

The human rights organization Betzalmo quickly filed a complaint with the association’s Ethics Office demanding Alian’s disbarment, calling it “incomprehensible” that he could still serve as a lawyer after such incitement.

Betzalmo CEO Shai Glick told World Israel News that the case was even more “delusional” because Alian had once been sentenced to life in prison before his release in what was then Israel’s largest terrorists-for-soldiers swap.

In May 1985, Israel exchanged three IDF soldiers captured in the First Lebanon War and held by Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command for 1,150 Palestinian terrorists.

Besides a young Alian, among the released terrorists was the eventual spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

“Terrorists receive life sentences for murder or abetting murder,” he pointed out, yet Alian had received special permission from the IBA to practice law in 2006.

There was more proof since then that Alian has continued sympathizing with terrorism.

In October 2015, Alian’s son, Bahaa, and an accomplice murdered three Jews on a Jerusalem bus before Border Police killed Bahaa and seriously wounded his partner.

Afterward, Alian lectured extensively in Arab schools about his son’s “legacy.”

He was later exposed by the Lech Yerushalayim organization, which filed a police complaint accusing him of incitement and raising money to rebuild homes of terrorists destroyed by security forces.

In its decision to permanently revoke his license to practice law, the association cited “public interest,” due to Alian’s “lack of remorse” and “the exceptional circumstances of supporting the enemy during wartime,” as well as “the enormous risk involved in his public statement … his public status and the large number of followers” – reportedly more than 30,000 on various social media.

Glick welcomed the decision and urged the IBA “to expel any attorney who incites or supports the Oct. 7 massacre.”

“The Chamber has a large number of complaints on its desk about attorneys who supported the massacre, and some of them have been charged with extremely serious offenses,” he added, and none of them should be above the law.

The post Israeli lawyer disbarred over support for Hamas invasion appeared first on World Israel News.

The extreme leftist MK had joined S. Africa in charging Israel at the International Court of Justice with attempted genocide in Gaza.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Extreme leftist Ofer Cassif was banned from Knesset for six months Monday by the body’s Ethics Committee for his unrelenting, public vilification of Israel and the IDF since the Israel-Hamas war began thirteen months ago.

The committee, consisting of two legislators each from the coalition and Opposition, unanimously decided that the MK’s actions and words went beyond what could be tolerated as free speech, especially during wartime.

The only Jew on the Arab Hadash-Ta’al list was “encouraging bloodshed against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel, while undermining the state’s ability to deal” with charges against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), it said in its decision.

Cassif had joined South Africa’s petition at the ICJ to try Israel for attempting to commit “genocide” in the Gaza Strip even as the noncombatant-to-combatant deaths are about two to one, a ratio whose excellence is almost unheard-of during war.

He also repeatedly vilified the IDF for supposedly committing war crimes and referenced the Holocaust in accusing the government of using the October 7 surprise invasion in which Hamas and other terrorists massacred 1,200 people, including women, children and the elderly, as a reason to carry out a “final solution” against the Palestinians.

The committee also referenced pre-war statements Cassif had made justifying Palestinian terrorism against civilians and calling jailed terrorists “political prisoners.”

Cassif was not only unrepentant in his response to the temporary expulsion, he doubled down on his anti-Israel stance.

Posting to X that the country was only a “so-called democracy” that was fast becoming fascist, he called the move “political censorship” by a “bloody, evil government” that “celebrate[s] the killing of innocents” while “those who fight for justice and peace are persecuted as traitors.”

Cassif’s ban extends to participating in or even entering plenary sessions and Knesset committee meetings, although he will be allowed to vote on bills. His pay was docked for two weeks as well.

While it was the harshest punishment given to a Knesset member in years, it did not come close to the desire of a vast majority of the legislature to kick him out permanently.

In February, 85 MKs voted to oust him, but 90 are necessary for such a move and it failed.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir referenced this when he said, “The terror supporter Ofer Cassif should be permanently expelled from the Israeli Knesset and deported to Syria. Six months is not enough.”

Human rights organization Betsalmo, which had demanded two weeks ago that the Committee meet after Cassif had branded an IDF soldier who fell in Gaza as a “criminal” and “monster,” expressed limited satisfaction with the verdict.

“I congratulate the decision to suspend [Cassif] from the Knesset and the monetary fine,” said director Shai Glick, but then added, “Cassif should be in jail and not the Knesset.”

“Cassif has been a terror supporter for a long time and chooses in Israel’s most dire hour to support the enemy anytime and anywhere, as well as vilify IDF soldiers, even those who fell in battle,” Glick said. “He [also] has been indicted for the most serious crime of attacking a police officer… [but] he received a ‘celebrity discount’ and is walking around freely while his trial has been postponed for a long time.”

The MK was indicted in January on charges of aggravated assault against a police officer as a result of a fracas in Judea and Samaria in May 2022.

This is punishable by a sentence of at least three months but can also be increased to as much as five years in prison.

The post Israeli lawmaker who backed anti-Israel genocide charges banned from the Knesset appeared first on World Israel News.

The far leftist MK should also be fined heftily for calling Sgt. Maj. Shuvael Ben-Natan a “criminal” and a “monster,” says Zionist group Betzalmo.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An Israeli human rights group called Sunday for far-left MK Ofer Cassif to be suspended from the Knesset and fined a hefty sum for slandering an IDF soldier who recently fell in battle in Lebanon.

Betzalmo head Shai Glick wrote an urgent letter to the Knesset Ethics Committee after Cassif, the only Jewish member of the Hadash-Taal party, went online to brand Sgt. Maj. Shuvael Ben-Natan as a “criminal” and “monster.”

“The time has come to put an end to incitement and slander against IDF soldiers,” Glick wrote. “This is a serious blow to the honor of the fallen, his family and the IDF’s heritage. It is inconceivable that a Knesset member will call a fallen soldier a ‘monster’ and spread inciting and false claims about him.”

Glick demanded that the MK be suspended immediately and levied the maximum fine possible, 100,000 shekels (approximately $27,000), to send a message that such statements were unacceptable.

Cassif had charged that “At the funeral of a settler killed in Lebanon as a reserve soldier, his eulogizers praised him for murdering a 40-year-old Palestinian who was harvesting olives on his land, for seeking blood revenge and seeking to murder as many women and children as possible in Gaza, and for burning down a house there just for the fun of it.”

“Despite his criminal views and actions,” the MK continued, “he was drafted and sent to Gaza and Lebanon where he was able to carry out his sickening ideas. Monsters like him are now sitting in the government and setting policies. It is not the security of Israel and its citizens that motivates them, but a disturbed and bloodthirsty messianism.”

Ben-Natan’s brother had noted in his eulogy that the soldier had wanted to avenge the massacre Hamas had perpetrated on October 7, against “everyone you saw,” while a fellow soldier described the 22-year-old as “the biggest goofball in the platoon” who had set fire to a home against orders “to boost morale.”

Some 11 months ago, when Ben-Natan was on leave from the army, he went walking with his family near their Samarian home in Rehalim. A group of Palestinians surrounded them and began stoning them. Feeling their lives were in danger, he shot one of them, killing him.

When army forces came, they arrested him but none of the Arabs, threw him in jail for two weeks, and he had to battle the authorities to allow him to return to his unit to fight in Gaza, and eventually, in Lebanon.

On the way to eulogize Ben-Natan at his funeral last week, Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said that he had been told that the case against Ben-Natan had finally been closed as the allegations against him were proven false, but as the soldier was still at the front he never found out that his name had been cleared.

Glick told World Israel News that this was far from the first time Cassif had blackened the name of the IDF, and it was time he was punished for doing so.

“From the beginning, after the horrific massacre, Ofer Cassif has been working day and night on only one thing – to slander and harm the State of Israel and the IDF,” Glick said. “He petitioned against Israel in The Hague [joining South Africa’s spurious charge that the IDF was committing genocide in Gaza], calls for the imposition of an arms embargo on Israel ,and repeatedly defames the soldiers of the IDF, the security forces and the members of the emergency response squads, calling them murderers and war criminals.”

“Yesterday he went even further and called a fallen soldier (!) a killer and a monster,” he added. “This man belongs in prison a long time ago. But until then, the ethics committee has a clear obligation to kick him out of the Knesset and give him the highest fine.”

After Cassif had supported South Africa’s lawsuit, 84 MKs voted to expel him from the legislature in February but this was six short of the 90 necessary and he remained in his position.

Ben-Natan was killed along with three other members of his reserve Carmeli Brigade on Wednesday, after Hezbollah terrorists jumped out from a tunnel in a southern Lebanon village and threw grenades at the soldiers.

The post Israeli lawmaker under fire for calling fallen Israeli soldier ‘monster’ and ‘murderer’ appeared first on World Israel News.

After receiving many complaints, the company said it had “terminated the listing” due to the owners’ discriminatory practices.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Global travel reservation site Booking.com has deleted a Serbian host from its website for cancelling a reservation once he found out the visitors were Jews.

Two weeks ago, a pair of Israelis were booking a bed and breakfast in the southern town of Sjenica when the owner asked where they were from.

When they answered “Israel,” the owner immediately responded, “Sorry, Jews are not welcome in our apartment. Please cancel the reservation. Thanks.”

According to the daughter of a friend of theirs who heard their tale, Aya Bochman, the Israelis were “forced to list ‘Jews are not welcome’ as the reason for cancellation,” which, she commented, “is a HUMILIATING process NO ONE should go through.”

Asking on her social media for people to share the story and complain to booking.com and protest their listing properties of people who demonstrate “shameful, antisemitic discrimination against guests,” Bochman said she had received no reply from customer service.

Others who wrote, however, did receive satisfactory replies from the company.

One man wrote to her that he had addressed his complaint to the company’s Human Rights Department, which wrote back, “Booking.com does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. After assessing this specific case, we did indeed terminate this listing from our platform.”

The Betzalmo human rights organization took at least partial credit for the company’s ban.

CEO Shay Glick told World Israel News that he wrote to Booking.com several times, insisting that the Serb’s actions had violated the company’s anti-discrimination rules, which include a ban on even making antisemitic remarks, let alone refusing to serve paying clients.

Glick was gratified that persistence paid off, tying the whole incident to Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is being commemorated today (Monday).

“Eighty-five years after the line, ‘Jews not welcome here’ returns, and without any shame at all, people have no problem saying it again, in exactly the same way they said it to Jews in Germany, Poland and other countries,” Glick said.

“We saw then where this led and we cannot allow it to happen again,” he continued. “I’m happy that booking.com removed the properties from the website, and I call on all other companies to act accordingly.”

“This is a pandemic,” he added. “All international bodies must understand that antisemitism is Enemy No. 1 of the enlightened world…. Anyone who acts in an antisemitic way, making calls against Jews or Zionists, or does any violent or hateful act, should be dealt with unforgivingly. If we all work together, we’ll win.”

The post Booking.com deletes Serbian host for banning Jews appeared first on World Israel News.

Yehuda Glick complained to Gett after recognizing the last name and the company reacted swiftly.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A taxi driver who refused to take Yehuda Glick to his destination was fired Wednesday after the former MK complained, having recognized him as a relative of the man who had attempted to assassinate him years ago.

The driver, whom Glick had ordered through the Gett app, asked before his passenger got in whether he was Yehuda Glick. When the ex-Likud backbencher replied in the affirmative, the driver said, “I’m not taking you,” and zoomed off.

Ten minutes later, he returned to the spot, saw Glick still waiting there, and commented, “See! I’m not the only one not taking you, no one wants to take you.”

Glick said he checked the driver’s name tag and saw that his last name was Hijazi. A short investigation brought to light that he was related to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist who had tried to murder him nine years ago, Mutaz Hijazi.

Gett acted swiftly upon receiving the complaint, saying, “Our company condemns the described behavior of the driver. Immediately after the customer contacted the service center and the issue was clarified, the driver was blocked from using the application.”

The Betzalmo human rights organization would like to see the driver punished further.

CEO Shai Glick wrote to the Transportation Ministry that “This is a very serious incident. The taxi driver should immediately lose his driver’s license forever. It cannot be possible for a person to withhold service from another person based only on his political views, his hatred of Jews, or anything else. This man should sit in prison, but should at least have his license revoked.”

In 2014, when Glick was simply an activist for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount as he is today, Mutaz Hijazi shot him four times in the chest as he was leaving a conference, wounding him very seriously. Glick said that the terrorist had stated before he fired that it was because the rabbi was “an enemy of Al-Aqsa,” the Arabic name for the Temple Mount, even though Glick believes in all people having freedom of worship at the holy site.

Hijazi was shot and killed in a subsequent shootout with police.

The post Taxi driver fired after refusing former Israeli lawmaker whom his relative tried to assassinate appeared first on World Israel News.

MK Ofer Cassif called the fight against Hamas immoral and a ‘war of revenge.’

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli lawmakers castigated far-left MK Ofer Cassif Monday for signing a petition supporting South Africa’s genocide charges against Israel.

MK Sharon Nir of Israel Beytenu, who is a member of the Knesset’s ethics committee, posted to X, “MK Cassif, I suggest that you resign from the Knesset and go run in the “elections” of the Palestinian Authority. No doubt the terror supporters will welcome you with open arms.”

Human rights organization Betzalmo requested that the ethics committee be convened immediately to remove Cassif from the legislature because the country is at war and “every moment that he is in the Knesset he literally undermines the State of Israel and endangers [its] life.”

“The prosecution of the State of Israel in The Hague is a very serious matter that will gravely harm Israel in the fight against terrorism,” said Betzalmo head Shai Glick. Cassif’s action “is a stab in the back of all the citizens [and] leaders of the country, the soldiers of the IDF, the families of the bereaved and the families of the abductees. Cassif must be thrown out – and yesterday. This is a violation of the entire book of ethics from cover to cover.”

“The man must go immediately to prison,” Glick added.

Cassif is the only Jewish MK in the Arab Hadash-Ta’al party. He, along with over 200 other leftists, joined Pretoria’s initiative to put Israel on trial at the International Court of Justice this week for allegedly committing “genocide against the Palestinian people” in its ongoing war against the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip.

The petition charges that Israel is “starving” the population and that the IDF is “systematically” killing civilians. Neither the petition nor South Africa acknowledges that the IDF is fighting against a force that embeds itself in a civilian population, itself a war crime, and steals much of the humanitarian aid that other countries are trying to send to ordinary Gazans.

Cassif had announced Sunday that his” constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents” and not to a government that “sacrifices them and commits crimes in their name on the altar of maintaining its existence.”

“I will not give up the struggle for our existence as a moral society,” he added. “That is true patriotism – not wars of revenge and calls for destruction, not unnecessary bloodshed, and not the sacrifice of civilians and soldiers in futile wars.”

Hamas fighters invaded Israel and massacred 1,200 people in Gaza envelope communities on October 7, the vast majority of them civilians, sparking the war that Israel declared in order to permanently remove the terrorist threat from its borders.

Cassif has also made other extreme and unsubstantiated claims against the IDF since the war began, such as posting to X in late October that “Israel is now slaughtering first of all the sick and the disabled and children. So many children. Enough killing that only takes away from a solution!”

Betzalmo demanded his removal from the Knesset then as well for “this lie, blood libel and slander” since the IDF does not target civilians at any time, let alone children, while Cassif was even charging that this was a deliberate state policy.

The organization added to the list of objectionable actions the fact that Cassif publicly praised Tal Mitnick, a leftist activist who last month became the first draftee to refuse to serve due to his objection to the war, at a time when “so many soldiers were sacrificing their lives in protection of the state.”

The post Israeli lawmaker blasted for joining genocide lawsuit against Israel appeared first on World Israel News.

Mass demonstration scheduled for Thursday in Jerusalem, telling judges they have no legal right to overturn Basic Laws.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A massive pro-judicial reform rally is expected Thursday evening in front of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, demanding that the court not strike down the amendment enacted by the Knesset to a Basic Law.

The Supreme Court is supposed to hold a hearing next Wednesday on whether to strike down the amendment to the Basic Law: Judiciary which bars courts from using the reasonableness standard to strike down government appointments or decisions.

The change was approved 64-0 by the legislature in July after the entire Opposition walked out before the vote in protest.

The message of the ”Liberty Demonstration,” as it is being called by its organizers, is that the court “has no authority to nullify the people’s choice,” as the lawmakers were fulfilling the wishes of the public they democratically represent.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) said Wednesday that if the court sets this precedent of striking down a Basic Law, which has a quasi-Constitutional status, it will be “crossing a line” that would be “against the Knesset and Israeli democracy.”

“The Knesset will not submissively be crushed,” he said.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is expected to address the demonstration, echoed the sentiment when he said in a statement Wednesday that “When the High Court voids Basic Laws, the High Court takes our liberty and our right to choose, and decides it is the legislator, instead of the Knesset.”

Such a move, he also said, “clearly means taking our ballots [from the election] and throwing them into the garbage.”

Matan Peleg, CEO of Im Tirzu, one of the rally organizers, explained that the word “democracy” means “the rule of the people,” and “the people chose a certain government, so only they have the right to bring it down…not 15 judges who consider themselves an enlightened clique.”

Acknowledging the unprecedented nature of the hearing, which could theoretically plunge the country into a constitutional crisis, the court will hear the case with its full complement of 15 justices for the first time in Israeli history.

“The task of the Supreme Court is not to replace the will of the people or rule on security or public issues,” said Shai Glick, head of Bezalmo, which is busing in thousands of supporters to the capital. “The Supreme Court’s intervention regarding the reasonableness standard or Basic Laws is not only a blow against elected officials, but also a crushing of the will of the majority of citizens, while taking authority without any legal basis [to do so].”

“We’re coming this evening to the Supreme Court to tell it something simple: We respect you very much; respect us as well. Don’t touch the will of the people,” he added.

Organizers expect hundreds of thousands to come deliver the message at 6 PM, just as they did at two other mass rallies a few months ago. The police have announced that the roads around the Supreme Court and the Knesset will be closed off starting some two hours earlier.

The post Hundreds of thousands expected at pro-judicial reform rally outside Supreme Court appeared first on World Israel News.

Politically conservative NGOs in Israel published an open letter on Sunday protesting the news that the bill would be shelved.

By JNS

The Israeli government will likely shelve proposed legislation aimed to curb NGOs that receive funds from overseas, following criticism last week from European governments and also the United States.

The “Nonprofits Law,” which appeared on the Knesset schedule last week, would strip the nonprofit status from foreign-funded NGOs seen as interfering in Israeli domestic policy. Donations to those groups would be taxed at a rate of 65%.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delayed advancing the bill, which was to have been brought to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday.

Among the countries reportedly expressing concern about the bill were Germany, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland and the United States.

Germany’s Ambassador to Israel Steffen Seibert tweeted on May 25: “The draft bill on NGO taxation is a matter of grave concern to us and to many of Israel’s international partners. Lively and unhindered relations between civil societies are of essential value in our liberal democracies. We will continue to raise the issue with our Israeli friends.”

According to Ynet, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reached out to Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen over the weekend to ask Israel to refrain from approving the law. Cohen told them that Israel will not accept interference in its internal affairs, nor foreign interference in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the paper reported.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during a May 24 press briefing in reaction to the Israeli bill that “as a general matter, the United States supports the essential role of NGOs that are part of civil society.

“We believe that they are critical to democratic, responsive and transparent government, and we firmly believe that civil society should have the opportunity and space to operate and raise resources around the world,” he added.

Israel’s Army Radio reported that the White House told Netanyahu that if he wanted a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and American assistance in advancing ties with Saudi Arabia, he must withdraw the proposed legislation.

The Nonprofits Law was submitted by Likud Knesset member Ariel Kallner, and enjoys widespread support among coalition members.

Speaking of the bill in January, Kallner said, “Foreign political subversion must be put to a stop…. There is no legitimacy for the interference of states in the internal affairs of the State of Israel through the financing of non-profit organizations.”

Politically conservative NGOs in Israel published an open letter on Sunday protesting the news that the bill would be shelved.

“We received with astonishment the report about the removal from the government’s agenda of the debate over instituting a tax on NGOs supported by foreign entities due to pressure,” the letter stated.

“We, the NGOs of the national camp, who fight every day for the Jewish-national identity of the State of Israel, against those funded radical organizations and well-oiled systems, call on you, the government of Israel, to pass immediately the law to contain and oversee those organizations, which cause deep damage to the country with the help of the biggest antisemites and Israel-haters abroad,” the letter said.

Among the signatories were the groups Im Tirtzu, Betzalmo, Nachala, Lavi and Hotam.

The post Caving to pressure: Israel backs away from bill to rein in hostile, foreign-funded NGOs appeared first on World Israel News.

M. received the Righteous Among the Nations title and a cash reward for risking his life when the Barons were ambushed by terrorists on the eve of Passover.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An Arab who saved a Jewish couple from a road ambush two weeks ago was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations and given a cash award in a joint ceremony of the Roots and Betzalmo organizations Sunday night.

Around 3 a.m. on the day before Passover, Amichai and Nitzan Baron were driving towards their Carmei Tzur home on Route 60, the main highway that crosses through Judea and Samaria. They were following behind a Palestinian car, when they saw it suddenly swerve around a pile of rocks on the road. Unfortunately, they didn’t have time to do the same, and hit the barrier.

They understood it was a preplanned ambush when dozens of young Arabs immediately appeared and began throwing rocks at their stalled vehicle.

M., who lives above the highway, heard the commotion and saw the danger the Barons were in. He left his home and called out to the couple to run to him and he would protect them in his house.

As Amichai told Haaretz afterwards, “In the beginning we were afraid to go in, but when I understood that he really wanted to help us we calmed down. We don’t want to think what would have happened if he hadn’t let us in.”

M. shielded the two from the stones with his own body, which hurt him slightly. The rioters, who were very angry at him, then started throwing stones at his house and burned his front gate, causing thousands of shekels of damage in all.

The Barons called the army, and soon after, an IDF jeep came and drove them home. They left their own car on the scene, which was torched and totally destroyed by morning.

The Betzalmo human rights organization started a crowdfunding campaign in order to cover the financial damage caused to M’s property. It was then joined by Roots, a group of Palestinians and Israelis that was formed in 2014 to build trust and create understanding between the two peoples through dialogue and joint activities, despite the ideological differences between them.

Betzalmo CEO Shai Glick and Roots director Khaled Abu Awad gave the certificate of honor and money that had been raised to M. in a ceremony at the Roots center in Gush Etzion, which was attended by M.’s family, members of the Baron family, IDF officers and residents of Carmei Tzur and the Etzion region. A joint holiday meal to celebrate the end of Ramadan followed.

“He who protects the citizens of Israel has become a part of us and we will take care of him forever,” Glick said at the event. “We are proud to award him this prize and hope that many of his people will follow in his footsteps.”

M. was touched and said that he did not understand the reason for all the excitement, since what he did was the most natural act to save another human’s life.

The post Arab who saved Jewish couple from terror attack honored appeared first on World Israel News.

Zionist NGOs encourages communications minister to “clean house” and ensure that “all terror supporters” are purged from the public broadcaster.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

A Palestinian flag was repeatedly waved on the Arabic-language Makan public broadcasting channel, which is funded by the Israeli government, just days after new Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi expressed interest in slashing funding to the body.

As part of a skit on satirical TV show Alshumo, a female presenter waved the Palestinian flag while joking about National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s directive to the police to remove the flag from public spaces.

“Yes, it’s forbidden to raise the flag like this,” she says, while flipping the flag upside down, “and like this,” she added, then whipping it around in a circular motion.

She then wraps herself and her male co-host in the flag, saying, “This is not allowed, okay?”

The clip sparked outrage among right-wing groups, who decried the Palestinian flag being presented on a government-funded TV channel and said that it reinforced Karhi’s intention to cut public funding to the broadcaster.

“It is unfortunate and outrageous that public money is used for a platform to support incitement and terrorism,” said Shai Glick, CEO of the right-wing Betzalmo NGO, in a statement to Hebrew language media.

Glick urged Karhi to “clean house” and ensure that “all terror supporters” are purged from the public broadcaster.

“We call on the Minister of Communications and the Corporation Council to put an end to the incitement that is taking place on the Makan channel,” stated Matan Peleg, chairman of the Zionist NGO Im Tirtzu, in a press statement.

“[The channel] serves as a [platform] for incitement, and now they’re also waving a terrorist flag in the middle of public broadcasting. If everything that comes out of this channel is incitement, then there’s no justification for its existence.”

Makan released a statement claiming that the backlash regarding the clip was “an orchestrated attack as part of the attempts to threaten the corporation and its people.”

The broadcaster also tried to argue that waving the flag was different than raising it, although the distinction between those two actions wasn’t clear in its statement.

“Palestinian flags were not raised, but the flag was used as part of a satire program,” Makan said.

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Right-wing groups demand an investigation into how “the invention called the State of Palestine” could be offered as a “place of birth” on an official Israeli website.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Right wing organizations are up in arms over an Israeli government website that lists ‘Palestine’ as a country, when Jerusalem does not recognize such an entity.

The site, “mybenefits.gov.il,” provides information on a wide array of benefits to which citizens and non-citizens are entitled – concerning labor rights, disability payments, housing and retirement, and the like.

The website is the responsibility of the Government ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Authority, which until this year was run from the Prime Minister’s Office. In 2022, the Authority and the National Digital Israel Initiative was placed under the purview of the Economy Ministry, whose outgoing minister is Orna Barbivai of Yesh Atid.

Option of “Palestine” as country of birth, listed in Hebrew on an official Israeli government website. (mybenefits.gov.il/screenshot)

Among the questions the user is required to answer in order to receive information is “Country of Birth.” Nestled between Palau and Panama, with tiny icons of their flags, is “Palestine,” with its flag as well.

Shai Glick of the Jewish human rights NGO Betzalmo was outraged by the revelation.

“There has never been a state of Palestine,” he told World Israel News. “It’s one big fake news. It’s simply impossible that a government body would recognize this lie. Moreover, the establishment of a Palestinian state means the annihilation of the Jewish people, so it’s forbidden to recognize such a thing even by mistake. I demand the immediate removal of the term ‘Palestine’ from the government search engine.”

Alon Shvartzer, Policy Department head of Im Tirtzu, an organization that works to strengthen the values of Zionism in Israel, demanded an internal investigation in order “to ascertain how such an error could have occurred and ensure that it never happens again.”

Shvartzer and Glick wrote a joint letter to the head of the National Digital Israel Initiative Wednesday regarding the “helping hand” that the website is giving to “the invention called the State of Palestine.”

Since such an entity “would seriously harm the lives of Israeli citizens,” and only a Palestinian Authority currently exists, they requested its immediate removal.

Apparently giving the agency the benefit of the doubt, they added, “We are sure that it happened by mistake, due to the adoption of a raw data set.”

Forum Dror, a right-wing group within the Likud, called on the relevant ministry “to order a thorough investigation of the issue and its immediate rectification, adding that all government websites must be checked for the same problem “and ensure that these ‘accidental glitches’ are all fixed.”

“Palestine” is recognized by 138 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, however, not by Israel, the United States or most Western countries. Israel has fought in many international forums against such recognition, as setting the borders of such a state should be a final-status issue to be negotiated directly between the PA and Israel, as per the Oslo Accords.

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Two Jews who succeeded in smuggling items for the holiday ritual onto the Temple Mount were each awarded 500 NIS.

By World Israel News Staff

An Israeli human rights organization awarded 500 NIS (roughly $140) each to two Jews who carried out the Sukkot ritual of the ‘Four Species’ during the holiday this year, Israel National News reported.

One of the special Sukkot commandments, the four species used are the lulav (palm branch), etrog (citron), myrtle and willow, symbolizing unity and harmony.

In Jerusalem, during the First and Second Temple period, a large procession of men holding the Four Species would march through the Holy Temple.

The Betzalmo organization, which, among other issues, defends equal rights for Jews and other non-Muslims on the Temple Mount, said the purpose of the award was to promote freedom of worship, especially on the Mount, which is Judaism’s holiest site.

“Betzalmo is happy to help those who fulfill the commandments and help keep the freedom of worship on the Temple Mount,” the organization stated.

“We were honored to give 500 NIS to every one of the visitors who took the Four Species on the Mount, and we hope that there will be more heroes who will manage to keep the freedom of worship on the Mount and receive the prize.”

In a recent victory for equal-rights advocates, a Jerusalem court ruled that a police order banning a Jewish woman from the compound was illegitimate and ordered that she be paid compensation.

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“We will continue to lead the fight against the extreme left that works for [the] boycott and division of our people,” said Shai Glick, CEO of the Zionist Betzalmo organization.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

A far-left Israeli group penned an open letter to a popular Israeli singer, urging him to cancel a planned concert in Jerusalem because the venue in which he will perform is affiliated with a Zionist group that seeks to strengthen and build the Jewish population in Israel’s capital city.

Mosh Ben Ari, a singer-songwriter and guitar player, is a well-known performer whose music contains influences from the Middle East, reggae and Western-style rock. He has served as a judge on Israel’s reality singing competition show The Voice.

Ben Ari is slated to perform at the Chava BeGai amphitheater, which is located in the Hinnom Valley, southwest of King David’s Tomb in Jerusalem, within the city’s municipal borders.

But fringe social activist group Zazim, which recently put up English-language posters in Jerusalem urging President Joe Biden to confront Prime Minister Yair Lapid about “settlers’ land grabs,” is not pleased that the Israeli musical icon will be performing at the venue.

“Chava BeGai is part of a project by the Elad association to Judaize the entire region and dispossess the Palestinians of their land,” the group charged.

The City of David Foundation, also known as Elad, seeks to strengthen and boost the Jewish population in Jerusalem via strategic land purchases, tourism and education, and archaeological excavations that prove the historical and ancient connection between Jews and Jerusalem.

“How can you sing about love and freedom, in a place that is all about expropriation and robbery? We call on you to cancel your participation in this show, and not to support this injustice.”

Zazim also launched a petition which aims to receive 600 signatures from people opposed to Ben Ari’s performance at Chava BeGai.

“It turns out that the extreme left denies the connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem,” said Shai Glick, CEO of the Zionist Betzalmo organization, in a statement.

“We are sure that Mosh Ben Ari will not submit to extreme leftist elements that are funded by foreign [bodies] and will put on a great performance…An overwhelming majority of Israeli citizens are proud of Jerusalem and are not prepared to have it shared with any other nation or country.

“We will continue to lead the fight against the extreme left that works for [the] boycott and division of our people.”

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