BREAKING NEWS
Rabbis charged in New Jersey fraud swoop
Five rabbis are among those arrested by the FBI for their alleged involvement in a huge money-laundering scheme in New Jersey.
Amy Winehouse not guilty of assault
Amy Winehouse has been found not guilty of punching a dancer at a charity ball in Berkeley Square last September.
The Jewish singer denied assaulting burlesque dancer Sherene Flash by punching her in the eye after a friend tried to jump in the photograph that Miss Flash was taking of Ms Winehouse.
She was been found not guilty at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.
Ms Winehouse could not attend her grandmother Esther's funeral because of her trial, but mother Janis has told the Evening Standard that Ms Winehouse will attend the shiva this week after her acquittal.
Richard Desmond loses libel battle
Newspaper boss Richard Desmond has lost his libel action over claims that he abused his position to pursue a vendetta against a rival media tycoon.
A High Court jury has decided by a majority that the Express Group owner was not defamed in Tom Bower's 2006 biography of the former Daily Telegraph owner Conrad Black.
Mr Desmond faces a bill for legal costs estimated at around £1.25 million.
Outside the court, Mr Bower said the jurors had "done a great service to British journalism".
Actress Jill Balcon dies aged 84
The Jewish actress Jill Balcon, the daughter of film producer Sir Michael Balcon, wife of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis and mother of actor Daniel Day-Lewis has died at the age of 84.
Jill Balcon was the daughter of eminent film producer Sir Michael Balcon who was the head of Ealing Studios and her paternal grandparents were Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe.
It was at boarding school at Rodean where she first saw her future husband, the future Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis. She was 12, and he came to give a reading at school assembly.
Parents accuse hospital after their baby’s death
The distraught parents of a baby who died after contracting pneumonia have asked police to investigate their claims of negligence by the Royal London Hospital.
Meanwhile, the medical director of another east London hospital has refuted “malicious” texts about the case.
Leah and Chaim Herkovitch’s daughter, Shiri, was four months old when she died at the Royal London on July 11. Her parents had briefly left her bedside to visit their other three children at home in Stamford Hill, north London.
UK says scholarships for Israelis prove its anti-boycott stance
Britain’s ambassador to Israel, Tom Phillips, said this week that the new group of Chevening scholars — Israeli postgraduates going to study in the UK — were “living evidence” of the UK government’s robust response to the academic boycott of Israel.
This year there are 12 talented young Israelis — seven men and five women — who have been awarded British scholarships enabling them to study in universities all over the UK this coming academic year.
Embassy names its press attache
The new press attaché to the Israeli Embassy in London will be Amir Ofek, a 43-year old career diplomat.
Mr Ofek, a former infantry officer and graduate of Tel Aviv University, joined the Foreign Ministry’s cadet course in 1995 on the “communications and culture” track. His main foreign postings have been as first secretary at the embassy in Chile, and consul for public afairs at the New York consulate. He also served shorter periods in Belarus, El Salvador and Georgia.
TV-ban school challenged by local council
Bury Council has challenged the admissions policy of a state-aided strictly Orthodox primary school which stipulates that parents should not have TV sets at home.
The council declined to go into details about its objection to the entry criteria of Yesoiday Hatorah (formerly Prestwich Jewish Day School).
But a spokesman for the Lancashire authority said: “During the consultation on admission arrangements for 2010, we highlighted our objections regarding the draft policies of Yesoiday Hatorah Primary School. However, the determined policies were not altered.
Israel envoy lauds Christian groups
Israeli ambassador to the UK Ron Prosor has thanked Israel’s Christian friends for their “constant support of the state of Israel in difficult times”.
In a unique event at the ambassador’s residence this week, Mr Prosor told more than 50 representatives of British Christian groups: “At a time when our enemies are getting louder in the UK, we truly appreciate the backing from another religious group.”
Shoah email sackings
Four council workers have been sacked for sending antisemitic emails comparing Israel’s operations in Gaza to the Holocaust.
Five other staff members received written warnings and have since returned to work at Lancashire County Council.
The office workers were suspended in April after the messages were discovered on the authority’s email accounts. The council said the staff had both sent and received “highly inappropriate emails”.
The sacked staff are appealing against the decision.
British JNF attacks Israel land scheme
JNF UK is challenging the planned transfer to the Israeli government of lands bought with money raised by diaspora Jews.
Samuel Hayek, chairman of the charity, described the arrangement, which is part of a land reform currently being hotly debated in the Knesset, as an “issue of concern”.
The controversy has arisen over the Israeli government’s wish to enable householders to own the freehold of their properties, rather than leasehold as at present.
Is this man the IDF’s best British friend?
Speaking up for the Israel Defence Force is unlikely to win many friends — but it has turned one man into the most unlikely new star on YouTube.
Colonel Richard Kemp was the commander of British forces in Afghanistan in 2003 and even he admits he is surprised by his new-found fame.
UK blamed for East Jerusalem building row
British diplomats played a major part creating the recent spat between Israel and the United States over Jewish building in East Jerusalem.
Last week, during a routine meeting with Israel’s new ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, at the State Department, the Americans objected to plans to convert the Shepherd Hotel in East Jerusalem into 20 flats for Jewish families.
The building has been owned by American-Jewish millionaire Irving Moskovich for 24 years.
Mother whose arrest fired rage ‘is innocent’
The grandmother of a three-year-old boy allegedly starved by his mother in Jerusalem until he weighed just 14 lb has said she is standing by her daughter-in-law, whose arrest has sparked rioting by some of the city’s strictly Orthodox factions.
The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, is a member of the strictly Orthodox community in Stamford Hill, north London.
“I’m giving my daughter-in-law my full support for everything. She’s a wonderful woman. She’s never had a personal problem,” the 50-year-old said.
El Al set to launch no-frills Euro fares
El Al is set to launch cheap, no-frills fares for some of its European flights.
From November, Israel’s national airline will face competition from easyJet, Europe’s leading low-cost airline, which is to launch a route between London and Tel Aviv.
El Al is to test the no-frills market with low-cost seats on flights between Tel Aviv and Rome. A spokesman for the airline in London said there were no plans “at present” to introduce the cheap flights to London.
“We are starting the cheap flights as an experiment on the Tel Aviv-Rome route in September,” he said.
Soldiers defend IDF’s conduct
IDF soldiers have responded to criticism of the army’s conduct in Operation Cast Lead by producing a website describing how the army did everything in its power to minimise civilian casualties.
Soldiers Speak Out was created by Stand With Us, a Los Angeles-based pro-Israel advocacy organisation, and includes videos of IDF reservists who fought in the Gaza operation.
British diplomats involved in US-Israel tension
British diplomats played a major part in the recent spat between Israel and the United States over Jewish building in east Jerusalem.
Last week, during a routine meeting with Israel’s new ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, the Americans expressed objection to plans to convert the Shepherd Hotel in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah into 20 flats for Jewish families.
The building is owned by American-Jewish millionaire Irving Moskovich.
El Al to offer 'no-frills' to Europe
El Al will roll out a ‘no-frills’ ticket on its scheduled flights from Israel, where tickets from £121 will be supplemented with charges for extras like meals and baggage.
Tickets are already being sold on the maiden budget flight from Tel Aviv to Rome in August.
But London flyers thinking of a low-cost El Al flight to Beijing or Bangkok without a meal will be disappointed: the airline is only offering its no-frills fares on short-haul flights.
US to Israel: Stop building in East Jerusalem
The United States has issued a stark warning to Israel’s US ambassador over planned settlement construction in East Jerusalem and demanded that the project be scrapped.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that "Israel will not agree to edicts of this kind in East Jerusalem."
Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren was summoned to a meeting at the state department where he was told the US sought a freeze on new settlement construction in the east of the capital where an old hotel is being turned into Jewish homes by an American developer.
Al-Jazeera shut down in West Bank
The West Bank offices of the TV channel, Al-Jazeera, have been shut down by the Palestinian Authority because, it has been claimed, the station portrays the Palestinian leadership in a negative light.
Al-Jazeera, which has offices in Ramallah, said it had been “stunned” by the allegations, which it fiercely contested.
The shut-down appears to be a direct result of what the majority PA party, Fatah, calls “false news” which it said the channel broadcast on Tuesday night.
UK embassy gives £35k to Gaza report
Britain’s embassy in Israel is one of the financial backers of the human rights group, Breaking the Silence, it was revealed today.
The organisation, whose controversial report on the actions of the IDF during the Gaza conflict in January this year has just been issued, is said to have been given more than £35,000 by the UK, according to the 2008 donors’ list, published by the Jerusalem Post.
Rabbis charged in New Jersey fraud swoop
Five rabbis are among those arrested for their alleged involvement in a huge money-laundering scheme, including the trafficking of human body parts, as a result of a 10-year investigation by the FBI in New Jersey.
FBI officials said they had arrested 44 people including two mayors, major political figures and rabbis, part of the Syrian-Jewish community who are said to have laundered the money through their personal charities.
The rabbis who have been charged include Saul Kassin, Grand Rabbi of the US Syrian-Jewish community.
NGO funding base exposed
Israeli and international human rights organisations are coming under increasing scrutiny as to the identity of their donors.
In many cases, Israeli NGOs which have been critical of the government’s policy have been financed by EU governments, including Britain.
Most of the NGOs have a similar agenda. They are dedicated to monitoring human rights in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, preventing torture in Israeli prisons, advancing the demands of Israeli Arabs for equal civil rights and exposing Jewish settlement activity.
Ken Loach’s Israel boycott fails in Oz
British director Ken Loach has withdrawn his film from the Melbourne International Film Festival because the event receives funding from the Israeli government.
Mr Loach followed through on a threat to pull his film, Looking For Eric, from the festival as a protest against “illegal occupation of Palestinian land, destruction of homes and livelihoods [and] the massacres in Gaza”.
He succeeded with the same ultimatum to the Edinburgh Film Festival in May, prompting it to return a grant that was intended to help fund the visit of an Israeli filmmaker.
America’s kosher scandal is over. But the kashrut debate has just begun
An Iowa bankruptcy court has approved the sale of what was once the largest kosher meat-packing plant in America, bringing to a close a long-running scandal which has forever changed America’s kosher food industry.
On the one hand, the damage left behind in the small town of Postville, Iowa, is irreparable. Hundreds of families, mostly Guatemalan and Mexican, were torn apart by the massive federal immigration raid on Agriprocessors in May 2008 — the largest in American history — and hundreds more left as the factory ceased production and declared bankruptcy.
Amnesty slams Saudi human rights record
Amnesty International has slammed the human rights record of Saudi Arabia in a new report, just days after it was revealed that Human Rights Watch had approached Saudi leaders for donations.
The report by the Wall Street Journal alleged that the director of HRW, Sarah Leah Whitson, had sought money from senior Saudis, in part by highlighting her organisation’s condemnation of Israel.
Anne Frank's barracks destroyed by fire
Barracks at a Dutch work camp where Anne Frank was held before being taken to Auschwitz have been destroyed by a “suspicious” fire
The cause of the fire at the wooden barracks at the Westerbork camp in Holland has not been determined.
Anne Frank was detained in barrack 57 at the camp in 1944, but the buildings were sold in 1957 and were used to store farm equipment before the fire.
Gillian Walnes the executive director of the Anne Frank Trust UK, said:
Mumbai terrorist suprise guilty plea
The surviving terrorist gunman of the Mumbai attacks, where a Chabad rabbi and his wife were among the murdered, has made a surprise confession at his trial.
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, shocked the court, including his own defence lawyer, when he changed from his original ‘not guilty’, telling them he wanted to confess.
The November attacks, which lasted three days, killed 166 people and specifically targeted the Jewish centres are said to have been financed by an Islamist Pakistani group.
Al-Jazeera West Bank ban lifted
Arabic TV station Al Jazeera is back on air in the West Bank after a ban was lifted by the Palestinian Authority, who will now pursue legal action against the channel.
The PA had accused the broadcaster of spreading lies and having a negative bias, after Farouk Kaddoumi, a founding member of Fatah, alleged on an Al-Jazeera politics programme that Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas had been involved in an Israeli plot to kill Yasir Arafat in 2004.
Film festival rejects Loach's Israel boycott
An Australian film festival has said it will not bow to pressure from British filmmaker Ken Loach to boycott Israeli films and sponsors.
The chief executive of the Melbourne International Film Festival, Richard Moore, has rejected a threat by Mr Loach to withdraw his film Looking for Eric, starring Eric Cantona, unless the film festival boycotts Israel.
He said films had been chosen solely on artistic merit for next week's festval.
Paris JDL members arrested for attack
Four Jewish men, suspected of being members of the Paris branch of the Jewish Defence League, are in police custody, accused of vandalising a bookshop.
The JDL has links with the extreme-right Kach movement, founded in New York by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the 1970s.
It is outlawed by the European Union, Israel, Canada and the United States. It is also connected to offshoot Kahane Chai (Kahane Lives).
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