Category: Articles

Israel’s State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman’s report published Wednesday morning suggests that the state authorities do not know the size of the Bedouin population in the Negev, nor do they know how many residents live in each of the various Bedouin localities.

According to the Comptroller’s report, there are huge gaps in the data on the number of Bedouin residents in the Negev according to the Population Authority compared to the Authority for the Development and Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev and the various government ministries.

Regavim issued a report on what appears to be a loss of governance. Meir Deutsch, Director General of Regavim stated: “This is a comprehensive and thorough report that touches upon the core problems at the heart of the dire situation in the Negev, the critical issues that impact the future of the region. Many of the issues raised by the State Comptroller have been at the top of Regavim’s agenda for years, and the report’s findings bear out all of our claims: ‘Whitewashing’ or ‘legalizing’ illegal construction in the absence of prior planning perpetuates and exacerbates the loss of state land in the Negev. The State Comptroller’s report must not be allowed to languish on a shelf and collect dust; the government must distill operational decisions from this important study and take action without delay.”

Photo courtesy of Regavim

Sources:
State Comptroller: No One Knows How Many Bedouin Live in Israel, by David Israel/Jewish Press, August 4, 2021

The State Comptroller’s report on the erosion of governance in the Negev is a red alert, Report by Regavim, August 3, 2021

 

 

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett blasted Iran’s “cowardly” denial of involvement in an attack on a ship that claimed two lives, warning that Israel knows how to deal with the aggression. The attack took place off the coast of Oman.

“In recent days, the world has received another reminder of Iranian aggression, this time at sea, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement regarding the maritime attack on a ship linked to an Israeli billionaire on Friday.

“I state here absolutely: Iran is the one that carried out the attack on the ship,” Bennett stated Sunday at the weekly security cabinet meeting.

He added, “The Iranians, who attacked the ship Mercer Street with unmanned aircraft, aimed to hit an Israeli target. Instead, their pirate act resulted in the deaths of a British citizen and a Romanian citizen, Bennett said, adding his condolences to the families of the victims. Iran, in a cowardly way, is trying to evade its responsibility for the incident, they deny it. So, I state here absolutely: Iran is the one that carried out the attack against the ship.”

Bennett warned, “The intelligence evidence for this exists and we expect the international system to make it clear to the Iranian regime that they have made a grave mistake. In any case, we know how to convey the message to Iran in our own way.”

Source:
We will respond ‘in our own way,’ Bennett warns Iran after attack on Israel-linked ship, by World Israel News Staff, August 1, 2021

Mercer Street is a global wakeup call to the Iranian threat – editorial, by JPost Editorial/Jerusalem Post, August 1, 2021

 

 

 

 

The Supreme Court on Monday will hear the appeals of Arab families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem who are facing eviction from their homes. The families petitioned for permission to appeal the district court’s decision ordering their removal. If the petition is rejected and the Arab residents are unable to appeal, their eviction will get the green light to go ahead.

The Shimon Hatzadik neighborhood, a.k.a. Sheikh Jarrah, is located in north Jerusalem, near the Shimon Hatzadik Cave and the Nahalat Shimon neighborhood. The neighborhood was established by Jews in 1890, and its Jewish residents were forced out by the British mandatory government during the War of Independence. In the early 2000s, after a long legal battle, Jewish residents started to come back to Shimon Hatzadik.

In the 1950s and ’60s, King Hussein of Jordan plied the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem under his rule with real estate to maintain their loyalty to the crown. Among those properties were those vacated Jewish homes in Sheikh Jarrah.

In 1967, Israel liberated the eastern part of Jerusalem. Israeli law is very clear regarding allowing Jews to ask for and receive homes they had been removed from in what was briefly known as the “west bank.”

As of this morning, the court was weighing a last-ditch appeal from the residents. The court suggested a compromise that would give them “protected” status. The deal would protect them from eviction for many years while paying a nominal rent, but leave the question of legal ownership unanswered, said Ahmad Amara, a consultant to the residents’ legal team.

We pray the Supreme Court will do the right thing, the legal thing, and follow Israeli law. To do otherwise betrays the victory that Jews fought and died for.

Source:
Supreme Court May Compel Israel to Evict Arab Squatters from Jewish Homes in Sheikh Jarrah, by David Israel/Jewish Press, August 2, 2021

Israel’s High Court Floats Proposal To Solve The Flash Point That Sparked War In Gaza, by the Associated Press, August 2, 2021

 

Most social media platforms are not taking action against anti-Semitic content even when it is flagged by users, according to a new report.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a UK and US nonprofit organization, said that over a six-week period earlier this year it used official complaint systems to report hundreds of incidents of anti-Jewish hatred it found on the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok platforms. However, 84 percent of the time nothing was done about it.

The findings show a “serious and systematic failure to tackle antisemitism,” the Center for Countering Digital Hate said in a statement accompanying its Failure to Protect report, which was released Friday.

“This is not about algorithms or automation; our research shows that social media companies allow bigots to keep their accounts open and their hate to remain online, even when human moderators are notified,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of the CCDH, in a statement.

Social media platforms must be held accountable and the public that avails themselves of these outlets must be vigilant in reporting and exposing anti-Semitism.

Source:
Top social media platforms fail to act on reported antisemitism, study finds, by Stuart Winer/Times of Israel, August 2, 2021

 

 

The Knesset voted Wednesday afternoon to reject a bill which would apply Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

The bill was introduced by Likud MK Mikki Zohar, along with cosponsor MK Shlomo Karhi (Likud).

In the preliminary vote in the Knesset plenum, the bill was rejected, with 50 MKs voting in favor and 64 against.

The Bennett government voted against the bill, ensuring its failure in the plenum. Zohar excoriated the government for voting down the bill, calling the coalition an “evil, left-wing” government, and lambasted it as “opportunistic”.

This bill was expected to get voted down (as we reported last week) for political reasons. The goal was an attempt to embarrass Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government. We believe that it has embarrassed at least the right wing of the Bennett government. It’s obvious that Sovereignty is not receiving the seriousness it demands and that leaves the Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria in an unacceptable position.

Source:
Bennett government votes down Judea and Samaria sovereignty bill, by Hezki Baruch/Arutz Sheva, July 28, 2021

The state informed the High Court of justice earlier this week that it intends to evacuate two homes in the Eli community in Samaria, where four families live. The announcement is stirring up a storm in the Knesset among the right-wing parties, especially since Eli is a legal town and not an “illegal outpost.”

The state made this commitment as part of its response to a petition by Arab residents of the villages in the area, which was filed in 2011 against about 20 Jewish homeowners. The Blue Line team of the Civil Administration, which more than ten years ago conducted a survey of lands that may be settled in Eli, determined that two homes in the Neot Ilan neighborhood are not within the boundaries of declared state lands. As a result, they also remained outside the locality’s master plan.

Four Jewish families in two homes will be asked to leave some time in 2024. The state representatives who responded to the High Court petition were not sent there by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, but by the Attorney General’s office.

The heads of the Eretz Israel lobby in the Knesset, MKs Orit Struck (Religious Zionism) and Yoav Kish (Likud) issued a response, saying: “The government of 10 degrees to the right this week informed the High Court of its consent to the destruction of the homes of four families in Eli. Instead of preventing the demolition of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, this government is busy settling the illegal construction in the Bedouin sector. It represents the complete failure of this government, which freezes construction, violates all its promises of regulating settlements, and now also demolishes Jewish homes.”

Two may be a small number but when it comes to evacuating Jews from their rightful land, this is two too many. It’s mind boggling that the law in Judea and Samaria is still based on the Ottoman land law of 1858. Without Sovereignty applied across Judea and Samaria Jews remain under constant threat of losing their homes. PM Bennett came up with a creative solution to the Evyatar evacuation, and while it’s not what we would have liked to see, Evyatar residents are happy with it. Will Bennett make good on his word to avoid demolishing Jewish homes? We hope so.

Source:
The Next Big Storm: Israel Commits to Demolishing 2 Homes in Jewish Settlement in 3 Years, by David Israel/Jewish Press, July 28, 2021

A new law was proposed Tuesday by U.S. Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate that would ban funding for UNRWA unless a string of reforms is carried out.

Senator James Risch (R-ID) and Congressman Chip Roy (R-Tx) gave several reasons for introducing their UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act. “When UNRWA was created, its specific purpose was to provide relief for refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict. More than 70 years later, the organization has employed individuals affiliated with Hamas, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), and its schools have been used to promote anti-Semitism and store Hamas weapons.”

“It is unacceptable that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being used to fund this agency, which is why I’ve introduced legislation to cease U.S. contributions to UNRWA unless the administration can certify without a doubt that the agency has no affiliation with U.S. designation FTOs and does not support anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Transparency on where funding to UNRWA goes should have been mandatory from the start and monitored very closely throughout the years. Alas, it was not. We were pleased with Secretary of State Blinken’s recent remarks that the funding should be conditional. AFSI applauds Senator Risch for proposing this desperately needed overdue law. We pray that it will receive full bi-partisan support and pass into law quickly and without delay – and be fully enforced.

Source:
US bill demands reform of UNRWA in return for funding, by Batya Jerenberg/World Israel News, July 28, 2021

Israel attacked Sunday night in the north and south of the Gaza Strip. The reports cited unmanned aerial vehicles that attacked sites used by Hamas, including a compound east of Khan Yunis and another site in northwestern Gaza. The IDF spokesman’s version of the events included fighter jets that attacked a Hamas military camp and infrastructure located near civilian buildings, including a school.

The attack came in retaliation for four fires that had been ignited by incendiary balloons from Gaza in the Israeli Gaza Envelope communities earlier. The fires broke out in the Kissufim forest and the kibbutz’s avocado orchard, after more than a three-week hiatus. JNF firefighters took control of the blaze.

The incendiary balloon attacks are still a form of terrorism and are not in accordance with the recent ceasefire. Israel is within its legal rights to defend itself and protect its Sovereignty.

Source:
IDF Attacks in Gaza in Retaliation for Incendiary Balloon Fires, by David Israel/Jewish Press, July 26, 2021

 

 

The Jerusalem District Court on Sunday harshly criticized the IDF Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria following a petition filed by the Regavim movement against the administration. The petition claimed the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has failed to enforce the ruling against the illegal Arab takeover of lands outside Kufr al-Dik on the Pedu’el ridge in Samaria – because they have more pressing priorities.

More than a year ago, the Regavim movement petitioned the court regarding five illegal structures built near the community of Pedu’el in Area C in Samaria (under complete Israeli control). Following the petition, the court ordered the Civil Administration to issue work stoppage orders. The orders were indeed posted on the illegal structures but were never carried out and the illegal construction only expanded.

Although the court rejected Regavim’s petition on the grounds that it could not intervene in the Civil Administration’s enforcement considerations, Judge Alexander Ron nevertheless harshly criticized the Civil Administration’s conduct in this matter. Judge Ron said the Civil Administration did not carry out adequate enforcement at the site and issued conflicting allegations throughout the legal process.

Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council, said in response to the court ruling: “With each passing day, the citizens of the State of Israel are losing more and more state lands, the price of which we all pay. The Israeli government must find a solution to make decisions at the political and operational level and stop allowing this deterioration of our sovereignty. The State of Israel must make decisions that will change this reality.”

Source:
Court Rebukes IDF Civil Administration: Doubtful It Took Effective Enforcement Against Illegal Arab Structures, by David Israel/Jewish Press, July 26, 2021

 

While Judea and Samaria stands strong, is Ben & Jerry’s headed for a Rocky Road – or total meltdown?

Ben & Jerry’s announced earlier this week that it would end sales of its ice cream in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).” Also coming to light is that their original intention was to end sales of their product throughout all of Israel. The despicable action from the owners – two “woke,” JINO Jews – aligns itself with the anti-Semitic, hate-Israel ways of the BDS movement.

Numerous kosher stores, and even Morton Williams, a non-kosher supermarket, are removing Ben & Jerry’s products from their store shelves (Morton Williams will remove about 70%). Calls around the world have also ignited campaigns to revoke Ben & Jerry’s kashruth certifications. The Town of Hempstead, Long Island, announced a move to cut ties and municipal contracts with Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company, Unilever.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan said that he has written to 35 United States governors noting that the decision by Ben & Jerry’s violates individual states’ anti-BDS legislation.

Did Ben & Jerry’s take into consideration that not selling their product in the “OPT” will force hundreds of PA Arab workers onto the unemployment line? The very people they take sides with will ultimately be hurt. What’s really behind Ben & Jerry’s move? Eugene Kontorovich, constitutional and international law professor and expert on legal issues in the Israeli-Arab conflict tweeted: “SCOOP (on Ben & Jerry’s): I’ve been told by (a Ben & Jerry’s) insider that company’s board invited Omar Shakir, a professional BDS activist, to advise them, rejected calls to hear experts on other side. This ain’t about the settlements.” Shakir, former Regional Director of Human Rights Watch, was kicked out of Israel in 2019 for being a BDS activist.

Since their announcement, thousands of memes and news reports began circulating like wildfire across social media, blowing up our phones, and flooding our personal inboxes. The decision by Ben & Jerry’s triggered a firestorm of strong reactions from Jews worldwide that work in Israel’s favor.

On the flip side, Avi Zinger, the CEO of Ben & Jerry’s Israel, has been fighting for years against BDS groups and has refused to implement the boycott.

In spite of all of this, the residents of Judea and Samaria are standing strong. Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan issued this statement in Arutz Sheva:

We will not give up Samaria, the ancient kingdom of Israel, for ice cream, nor will we give up Joshua’s Altar or ancient Shilo for a McDonald’s hamburger.

The people of Samaria and this country will stand firm long after Ben & Jerry’s ice cream melts and disappears from the world. We will not give in to this anti-Semitism that permeates Jews in the United States as well.

I call on all residents of the State of Israel and Samaria, and all lovers of Israel in the world, to stop consuming the ice cream that is trying to create a boycott of Israel.

We will not succumb to threats from either left-wing organizations or commercial companies that are willing to boycott Israel in order to flatter certain people. We will continue to build Samaria, enjoy culture, a good education and also ice cream. Not necessarily Ben & Jerry’s.

Who knew that a beloved summer treat could trigger such a strong public response that has united Jews in favor of Israel. If ice cream could drive such a backlash against Ben & Jerry’s, we wonder what it will take to change the worldwide narrative that works day and night to delegitimize Israel.

*** TAKE ACTION ***
Contact Ben & Jerry’s to demand they stop their discriminatory boycott of the 800,000 Jews in eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

Ben & Jerry’s Consumer Telephone: (802) 238-4778
Ben & Jerry’s Twitter: @benandjerrys
Contact page with contact forms

Sources:
‘The people of Samaria will stand firm long after Ben & Jerry’s ice cream melts’, by Yossi Dagan/Arutz Sheva, July 21, 2021

Ben & Jerry’s ‘insider’ links company board to activist kicked out of Israel, by Arutz Sheva Staff, July 22, 2021

Ben & Jerry’s boycott ripples through Jewish world, mixed with legal threats, by Faygie Holt and Sean Savage/Jewish News Syndicate, July 20, 2021

Morton Williams cracks down on Ben & Jerry’s over Israel controversy, by Lisa Fickenscher/The New York Post, July 19, 2021

Long Island town takes action against Ben & Jerry’s, by Arutz Sheva Staff, July 22, 2021