Category
January 18, 2011
Ethiopian immigrants arrive in Israel
More than 335 immigrants from Ethiopia arrived in Israel on a special Jewish Agency charter flight. The Falash Mura, Ethiopians who claim family links to descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity generations ago, arrived Monday and Tuesday on Ethiopian Air Lines charter flights. They are the first Ethiopian immigrants to arrive in Israel since November because of an aviation dispute between Israel and Ethiopia. Israel\’s Cabinet in November approved a plan to bring about 8,000 more Ethiopians to Israel over the next four years.
Same-sex Jewish couple united in Amsterdam shul
Holland’s first same-sex Jewish commitment ceremony was held in Amsterdam. The couple, who were not named in the Radio Netherlands report, was united Sunday in the synagogue of the Liberal Jewish Community.
Helping an orphan of history recover its past
It\’s not every day that you can help a city recover its history. But that\’s what happened recently in Lviv, in western Ukraine, when I served on the jury for an international design competition to mark and memorialize key sites of Jewish heritage. Sponsored by municipal authorities in association with the Lviv Center for Urban History and the German Society for Technical Cooperation, the competition was aimed at counteracting widespread, and sometimes willful, amnesia about the city\’s rich and convoluted past.
With eye on long term, Israel plans for ‘leapfrog’ growth to stem brain drain
It was at a conference 15 years ago in the raw months following Yitzhak Rabin\’s assassination that an unlikely Israeli trio — a young Navy officer, a leading businesswoman and a senior bureaucrat — hatched a plan for Israel\’s future. It wasn\’t exactly a plan for the future, but a plan to plan for the country\’s future in an entirely new way: one focused on long-term strategic thinking to propel Israel into the world\’s top 15 socioeconomic powers. Last week, the goal of becoming a nation with one of the highest GDPs — the type of dramatic \”leapfrog\” growth that would see incomes and other quality-of-life metrics boosted across the socioeconomic divide — went from an idea to headline news when the goal was adopted as policy by the Israeli government.
Russian president reiterates recognition of Palestine
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated Russia\’s recognition more than two decades ago of an independent Palestinian state. \”We made a decision then and we will not change it today,\” Medvedev said following a meeting Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho. The Russian president was referring to Russia\’s recognition in 1988 of an independent Palestinian state following a declaration of independence made by then-Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. \”We supported and will support the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to an independent state with its capital in east Jerusalem,\” Medvedev reportedly said.
Ehud Barak splits from Labor Party, to form new movement
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has split from the Labor Party, which he serves as chairman, and will form a new party. Four other Labor lawmakers joined Barak on Monday: Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon; Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai; Deputy Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Orit Noked; and freshman Knesset member Einat Wilf. The new party is expected to be called Atzmaut, or Independence.
Quash bill probing NGOs, Peres tells Knesset
Israeli President Shimon Peres called on the Knesset to reject proposed legislation that establishes a committee to investigate the funding of left-leaning human rights groups. By a vote of 47-16, the Knesset earlier this month gave preliminary passage to the measure. The parliamentary panel would probe the funding and activities of left-wing and human rights organizations and NGOs. \”The investigation of organizations and foundations, whether from the left or right, must be left to law enforcement authorities,\” Peres said in a statement Monday. \”They possess expertise, are objective and hold the appropriate investigative tools. The establishment of such a parliamentary investigative committee harms Israeli democracy and is unnecessary.\”
Racial hatred trial opens in Perth
The trial of a West Australian man who posted a video on YouTube accusing Judaism of being a “religion of racism, hate, homicide and ethnic cleansing” opened in Perth. Brendon Lee O\’Connell, 38, who is representing himself, described Monday\’s proceedings in District Court as a “kangaroo court” and told Judge Henry Wisbey he should be facing charges of treason. Two of O’Connell’s supporters had to be removed from court at the judge’s request. O\’Connell is facing seven racial hatred charges relating to a 2009 altercation with two Jewish students in a supermarket where a Friends of Palestine protest was being staged against the sale of Israeli fruit.
Barak’s new faction receives ministerial positions
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the four other lawmakers that split from the Labor Party will remain in the government with ministerial positions. The Labor lawmakers who joined Barak in forming a new faction on Monday are Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon; Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai; Deputy Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Orit Noked; and freshman Knesset member Einat Wilf. The new ministerial positions were announced Tuesday.
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