Friday, 25 September 2009

Israel news

  • Secularists fight Charedi housing plan

    September 24, 2009
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    The Charedi community has scored a victory in the latest round of its conflict with secular residents over the future of the Kiryat Yovel neighborhood in Jerusalem. Last week a Charedi group won a tender for a large housing project expected to further consolidate the growing ultra-Orthodox presence in the area. The rapid influx of Charedim into the neighbourhood is being met with unusually vocal opposition from secularists, and the area has come to symbolise the larger battle over the character of Israel’s capital.

  • Ehud Barak to speak at Labour conference

    September 23, 2009
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    Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak will speak at the Labour Party Conference next week. He will be addressing the Labour Friends of Israel at their annual reception on Tuesday afternoon. The presence of Mr Barak, who is also Israel’s deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, is certain to be controversial given the hostility of many Labour Party members to Israel, and his role in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza earlier this year.

  • Charedi women refuse bus gender segragation

    September 18, 2009
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    A new group has joined the fight over gender-segregated bus lines in Israel: religious women who do not want to be forced to sit at the back. This month, four such groups boarded the “Mehadrin”, or especially stringent buses, running through Jerusalem, pointedly sitting at the front. “Charedi women on the bus also joined us,” says Rachel Azaria, a religious member of Jerusalem City Council who is leading a coalition of local organisations against the buses.

  • Charities struggle to feed Israel's poor

    September 18, 2009
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    As Rosh Hashanah approaches, Israeli charities are buckling under the strain of providing for growing numbers of needy people, while their own resources are dwindling because of the country’s economic downturn. “It’s very difficult for those of us who are holding the front,” said Shlomit Shulov-Barkan, deputy director of the Meir Panim soup kitchen network. It has been forced to lay off more than 40 of its 120 employees in the past six months due to declining donations, most of which come from Israelis.

  • Fighter pilot’s death re-ignites combat debate

    September 18, 2009
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    The death of Captain Asaf Ramon in a jet fighter accident on Sunday has reopened the question of whether children from bereaved families should be allowed to serve in combat units. Captain Ramon was the son of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died in the Columbia Shuttle disaster in 2003. The IDF regulations state that a child or sibling of a fallen IDF soldier is exempt from service in a combat unit unless their parent signs an authorisation. On average, about 80 members of bereaved families join the IDF each year and serve in combat units with their parents’ consent.

  • Peres: Goldstone report "mockery of history"

    September 16, 2009
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    Israel’s president Shimon Peres has called the United Nations report on the Gaza conflict “a mockery of history”.   Mr Peres denounced it as giving a green light to terrorists. A UN fact-finding mission, headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone, produced a 574-page report which concluded: "Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity.” Mr Peres said: “The Hamas terror organisation is the one who started the war and also carried out other awful crimes. Hamas has used terrorism for years against Israeli children.  

  • Netanyahu and Mitchell 'can't agree on settlements'

    September 15, 2009
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    Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US envoy George Mitchell have failed to reach any agreement over settlement construction in the West Bank. The two men held a two-hour meeting in Jerusalem, but Mr Mitchell has been forced to extend his stay in Israel until Thursday when the two will meet again for further discussions. They had hoped to reach an agreement in time to announce plans for a potential settlement construction freeze at the meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York next week.

  • Russian ship hijack was 'Israeli cover story'

    September 10, 2009
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    An Israeli source has claimed that the hijack by pirates of a boat which disappeared off the coast was a cover, and that the ship was carrying a Russian missile system to Iran. The Arctic Sea and its 15 crew members, all Russian, disappeared in July. The ship was then believed to have been sailing to Algeria with a cargo of timber. The ship was found in mid-August off West Africa, and Moscow claimed the ship had been hijacked by pirates, charging eight men with hijacking and piracy.

  • Israeli healthcare standards 'slipping'

    September 10, 2009
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    The heated discussions going on in Britain and the United States over the future of public medicine and medical insurance has shifted the spotlight to successful systems in other countries. In Israel, while there is universal coverage for all residents and a generally high level of treatment, there are complaints of slipping standards.

  • Assimilation ad angers diaspora

    September 10, 2009
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    A new campaign against assimilation in the diaspora, which is aimed at Israelis, is raising eyebrows in international Jewish organisations. The television advert shows spoof “missing” posters, featuring young men and women with Jewish names. The implication is that the diaspora youngsters are being “lost” to Judaism. The advert urges Israelis with a relative abroad who might be interested in Israel to contact MASA, an Israeli-based group that encourages Jewish students to study in Israel.

  • Israel wants rules of war to be changed

    September 24, 2009
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    Israel is launching a campaign to adapt the international laws on warfare to a new reality where organisations purposely operate from civilian areas. They are hoping that the American and British governments, which face similar circumstances in Iraq and Afghanistan, can be persuaded to join. The effort comes in response to the UN Human Rights Council report released last week, which accuses the IDF of committing war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead at the beginning of 2009.

  • Baron Cohen to star in Simpsons' trip to Israel

    September 21, 2009
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    The Simpsons are going to Israel, and their tour guide will be Bruno and Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen. The episode, called The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed , is scheduled to air in 2010 and will feature the famous yellow family on a guided tour of Israel with an angry Israeli tour guide, voiced by Mr Baron Cohen. Homer Simpson will develop Jerusalem Syndrome – where sufferers experience obsessive religious fantasies – and become convinced he is the new messiah, dragging Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson to the Holy Land.

  • Fears of 'hostile' shekel trading

    September 18, 2009
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    The recent strength of the shekel has generally been credited to a strong Israeli economy. However, market sources now claim that speculators are targeting the shekel, keeping it artificially high, with foreigners holding nearly $80 billion of the currency. A massive sell-off of shekels could seriously destabilise the country’s economy and some, like Motorola Israel president Elisha Yanay, suspect that the speculators may have more than profit in mind.

  • Israelis positive about Germany

    September 18, 2009
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    A new poll indicates that the majority of Israelis have a firmly positive attitude towards Germany and German culture. In March 2008, some Israeli politicians voiced outrage when German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the Knesset in German. But according to the new research, just published by the Hebrew University, three in five Israeli Jews think that Germany has handled the memory of the Holocaust well.

  • Analysis: Israel never had a chance with the UN’s Gaza report

    September 18, 2009
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    It is true: Israel did use “disproportionate force” when fighting Operation Cast Lead. It was also “collectively punishing” the Palestinians. “The testimonies we have heard… have been very difficult to hear, but I believe it is important that we listen to these stories,” said UN investigator Richard Goldstone, presenting his committee’s report this week.

  • Israel 'appalled' by Goldstone report

    September 15, 2009
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    The Israeli government says it is “appalled” by the latest United Nations commission report which claims both sides in the Gaza conflict committed war crimes. A fact-finding mission, headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone, has produced a 574-page report which concludes: "Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity.”

  • Asaf Ramon to be buried next to astronaut father

    September 14, 2009
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    Israel air force captain Asaf Ramon, son of Israel’s first astronaut Ilan Ramon, will be buried today after being killed in an air crash. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has postponed a meeting with US envoy George Mitchell in order to attend the funeral of the 21-year-old pilot. He will be buried at a military cemetery next to his father. Captain Ramon was killed when the F-16A Falcon jet he was flying during a training exercise crashed near the Hebron hills.

  • Advert targeting Jews 'marrying out' pulled

    September 10, 2009
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    A controversial advertising campaign which portrayed young Jews who have married out as “missing persons” has been pulled by the Jewish Agency. Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky pulled the television and newspaper adverts after a storm of criticism from bloggers, journalists and religious leaders.

  • Abbas in dilemma over settlements

    September 10, 2009
    Israel’s approval of 450 new housing units in the settlements this week has placed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a vulnerable position, as he may have to make an embarrassing climbdown from his refusal to resume negotiations without a full settlement freeze.

  • Israel ponders missed chance over Ron Arad

    September 10, 2009
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    The basic facts are not new. Israel’s intelligence services have believed for some time that Ron Arad, the Israel Air Force navigator who was taken prisoner in Lebanon 23 years ago, died in captivity over a decade ago. But the new details of the failed efforts to release him were published this week, and in this there is a chilling resemblance to the current situation of Gilad Shalit.
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Posted by Britannia Radio at 14:49