Citing reports of an increase in anti-Israel activity on college campuses, a bipartisan congressional task force on anti-Semitism asked USA Education Secretary John King to outline how his department is tracking anti-Jewish bias. The letter sent this week to King by 38 members of the USA House of Representatives cites reports of 500 anti-Israel programs on campuses in 2014-2015 and 29 Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns sponsored by student groups in the same period, which it said were respectively a 38 percent and 21% increase over the previous academic year. The signatories said in the letter that they "hope you share our view that any campus activity that threatens, harasses, or intimidates Jewish students should not be overlooked simply because it is presented as ‘anti-Israel’ or ‘anti-Zionist.’”
It asks King how many cases of anti-Semitism the department’s Office for Civil Rights is currently investigating; what instructions regional department staffers get to detect anti-Semitic bias, and whether they specifically receive guidance on how to ascertain whether discourse about Israel devolves into "hostile environments;” and whether staffers are told that according to a 2004 Department of Education directive, staffers may regard hostility targeting a faith group as equivalent to hostility targeting an ethnic group. (Times of Israel) Intercede for strong and influential voices to come out against anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias on university campuses in the USA and across Europe. Pray against the demonic strongholds that fuel the increasing hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. [Comment]

 Iran on Thursday, 21 April 2016 rejected a ruling by the USA Supreme Court which determined Iran would have to compensate families of victims of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut and other attacks linked to the Islamic Republic. The ruling said Iran would have to compensate the victims with nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian funds. The spokesman of Iran's foreign ministry, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, blasted the verdict and said that "such a verdict is a theft of the assets and properties of the Islamic Republic of Iran." He added that Iran considers the American government responsible for compensating any damages that Iran might incur from the verdict. Over 1,000 American families had been involved in the ruling, which follows a lengthy legal battle over the fund and over compensation for Iranian terror attacks. Ansari said the verdict also shows Washington is still under the influence of Israel and that such hostile action against Tehran "only adds to the growing and intense mistrust of USA policies by the Iranian government and nation." (INN) [Comment]

France will host a meeting of ministers from 20 countries on 30 May, 2016 to try and relaunch the Israel-Palestinian peace process, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has announced. He said, however, that Israel and the Palestinian officials would not be invited to the meeting, which will take place in Paris. Ayrault explained that the aim was to prepare an international summit in the second half of 2016, which would include the Israeli and Palestinian leaders."The two sides are further apart than ever,” he admitted. But he said: "There is no other solution to the conflict than establishing two states, one Israeli and the other Palestinian, living side by side in peace and safety with Jerusalem as a shared capital. He said the discussions would be based on the 2002 Saudi peace initiative - approved by the Arab League but not Israel - which called on the Jewish state to withdraw from Palestinian territory captured in the 1967 Six Day War, including East Jerusalem, in exchange for a normalization of ties with Arab countries. (Times of Israel) What appears like wisdom to the world in carving up the State of Israel, whether it be through a false peace process with Israel’s foes, or through manipulating boycotts and decrees is direct disobedience to the Word of G-d and will trigger the most severe divine judgment. "I will gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.” Joel 3:2 [Comment]

Though incitement spurred the current terror wave, another mind-bogging phenomenon has come to light where female perpetrators are concerned, a member of the Israeli cabinet disclosed last week. During a pre-Passover toast at the Knesset, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan pointed to what he claimed came as a surprise when examining the willingness of young Palestinians to commit stabbing, car-ramming and other attacks – inspired by content on the Internet. "I thought it couldn’t be that they believe the lies spread on social media,” Erdan said, referring to claims, for example, that Jews are trying to storm the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque. But then, said Erdan, "I went and read the transcripts of the interrogations of the terrorists who had been apprehended. It is simply unbelievable. The terrorists said they had returned from an event organized by the Islamic Movement, where they became convinced that Israel was really about to destroy the mosques, and they felt the need to contribute to the cause by trying to kill Jews.” It was while reading those transcripts, Erdan said, that he came across a phenomenon he hadn’t encountered before. "Whereas they used to promise terrorists 72 virgins [in paradise], now what has happened is that some of the terrorists were so good-looking that their female counterparts told their interrogators that they had wanted to die in order to hook up with them.” (Algemeiner) [Comment]

Abdel Hamid Abu Srour, 19, the first suicide bomber in Jerusalem in a decade, did not grow up in a refugee camp and his uncles are prosperous merchants. But the cover photo on his Facebook page includes the image of Yahya Ayyash, the chief bomb-maker for Hamas, who was killed in 1996. His relatives said Abu Srour was more of a Palestinian preppy, the scion of a well-to-do clan of eight prosperous brothers who own and operate a string of furniture outlets and take their children for holidays in Jordan. His relatives scoffed at the idea that Abu Srour would know how to make a bomb himself. Who gave him the bomb and how it was detonated is now the object of an investigation. (Washington Post) [Comment]

 Iranian-backed Shia Islamist rebels have arrested a Yemenite rabbi they accuse of helping smuggle a 500-year-old Torah scroll out of the country to Israel. The scroll was brought to Israel by 19 Yemenite Jews who made aliyah in March 2016, escaping widespread persecution, death threats and violent attacks, particularly at the hands of Shia Houthi rebels, who are locked in a bloody civil war with Yemen's embattled government. Some 50 Jews opted to remain in Yemen, however, among them Rabbi Yahia Youssef Yaish, who remained holed up in a protected compound in the capital Sanaa together with most of what remains of the ancient community. But the Houthis, who seized Sanaa from government forces last year, promptly arrested Rabbi Yaish, on charges of "smuggling an ancient Torah scroll to Israel," and thereby "robbing Yemen's historical assets." Another Yemenite rabbi, Rabbi Saliman Dahari, physically brought the scroll to Israel. The Houthis are avowedly anti-Semitic, a racist sentiment enshrined in their infamous slogan: "God Is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam."

The Yemenite Jewish community is one of the most ancient Diaspora Jewish communities in the world, dating back to the First Temple Period. But while it was once a large, strong and thriving community - as late as the early twentieth century numbers tens of thousands - Yemen's Jews were ethnically-cleansed in the course of the last century. Persecution, discrimination, kidnappings, forced conversions and attacks by the Muslim majority prompted most Yemenite Jews to emigrate - largely to Israel but also to other parts of the Diaspora - and today only 50 Jews are known to remain in the country. (Arutz-7) Please intercede for the soon release and protection of Rabbi Yaish, and for Yemen’s small, remaining Jewish community. Pray the last of Yemen’s Jews will decide to leave Yemen and that provision will be made for them to make new homes in Israel.

[Comment]

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon has sent a sharp letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, demanding that he condemn the Hamas terrorist organization. The call comes after Israel earlier this month uncovered a massive terror attack tunnel leading from Gaza into sovereign Israeli territory, and after a Hamas terrorist conducted a bus bombing in Jerusalem on Monday, 18 April 2016 leaving numerous victims wounded, in the first bus bombing of the current Arab terror wave. "The UN must call Hamas by name and condemn the murderous terror visiting upon the state of Israel," wrote Danon in his letter. Noting on how Hamas has been siphoning off humanitarian goods to build terror tunnels and construct rockets, he continued, "the terror tunnel was not built overnight. The leadership of Hamas has openly declared their intention to use all means standing at their disposal to conduct lethal attacks against Israel." Danon pointed out that the UN Security Council has yet to condemn the newly discovered tunnel, or the Jerusalem bus bombing. (INN) [Comment]

Google will grant $700,000 to an Israel-based initiative aimed at producing technology to help people with disabilities. The search engine giant’s grant to Tikkun Olam Makers, or TOM, was announced Tuesday 19 April 2016, as part of the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities campaign. The funding will "underwrite TOM’s plans to support a global movement of innovators creating extremely affordable solutions to neglected needs of people with disabilities, with the goal of improving the lives of 250,000,000 within a decade,” according to a statement from The Reut Group, the Tel Aviv-based nonprofit think tank that started the initiative. Tikkun Olam Makers holds three-day innovation marathons in which engineers and technologists come together to invent products for people with disabilities - like a bionic hand and a walker that helps disabled people climb stairs. It claims to have created 120 product prototypes since 2014. (Arutz-7) [Comment]

Fatah, the faction headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed Monday’s 18 April, 2016 bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem, in which 21 people were wounded. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is Fatah’s so-called "military wing”, praised the attack and said its perpetrators "responded to our calls to carry out suicide attacks.” Earlier, both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad welcomed the Jerusalem attack, with Hamas calling it "the natural response to [so called] Israeli crimes, particularly the field executions [self-defense measures] it conducts, and the [erroneous] assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque." Islamic Jihad also justified the attack, saying that it "delivered the message that the Intifada would continue." Earlier on Monday, PM Netanyahu responded to the bus bombing by pledging to find those responsible and settle the score. "We will find whoever made the bomb, we'll get to the terrorists who delivered it, we'll get to the people standing behind this attack and we'll settle the score with these terrorists." (INN) [Comment]

for "right" to kill Israelis

by Itamar Marcus 

 

The Palestinian Authority has claimed for years that they have a right under international law, confirmed by a UN resolution (see details below), to kill Israeli civilians in all places and at all times. Accordingly, those Palestinians who have killed Israelis are said to have done something positive and heroic. Palestinian murderers of Israeli civilians are presented as heroes and role models. 

 

Now the PA is taking its ideology to the international forum and seeking recognition for these fundamental principles of PA ideology. They are asking that Palestinians have an internationally protected right to murder Israeli civilians, that will also be recognized as a positive act that should be awarded. 

As a means to attain this recognition, the PA is asking the international community to award an imprisoned Palestinian terrorist with the Nobel Peace Prize. As the leader of the Tanzim, Fatah's terror wing, Marwan Barghouti orchestrated many terror attacks in which Israelis were murdered. He was convicted in an Israeli court and is serving 5 life sentences for murder.

 

According to the head of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake:

"The candidacy [of Barghouti] is essentially a call to recognize the legitimacy of the prisoners' struggle... and also a response to the claims and Israeli terms that do not recognize the legitimacy of their struggle, and treat them as 'terrorists and criminals'..."

[Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), April 14, 2016]

 

The PA's request of the world to "recognize the legitimacy of the prisoners' struggle" is the PA euphemism for "recognizing the legitimacy" of Palestinian killing of Israelis. 

Barghouti was convicted of five murders - for the killings of the five people below. The PA wants the international community to "recognize the legitimacy" of their murders, by awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize:

 

 

 

Yoela Hen (45) was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in a shooting attack at a gas station in Givat Zeev near Jerusalem on Jan. 15, 2002, carried out on the orders of Marwan Barghouti.

 

 

  

   

 

Eli Dahan (53) was murdered in a shooting and stabbing attack at the Sea Food Market restaurant in Tel Aviv on March 5, 2002, carried out on the orders of Marwan Barghouti.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yosef Habi (52) - was stabbed to death during a shooting and stabbing attack at the Sea Food Market restaurant in Tel Aviv on March 5, 2002, carried out on the orders of Marwan Barghouti.

 

 

 

 

 

Police officer Sergeant-Major Salim Barakat (33) charged the terrorist during the attack at the Sea Food Market restaurant in Tel Aviv, and was stabbed to death. The attack was carried out on the orders of Marwan Barghouti.

 

 

 

(No picture) Greek monk Tsibouktsakis Germanus was murdered in a shooting attack on his car, carried out on the orders of Marwan Barghouti on June 12, 2001.

 

In addition to these five murders, dozens of other Israeli civilians were murdered by Tanzim terrorists during the period Barghouti headed Tanzim, although he was not tried for those murders. 

 

As stated above, the PA claims it has the right to kill Israeli civilians, and they quote UN resolution 3236 of 1974 which "recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to regain its rights by all means." The PA interprets "all means" as including violence and killing of civilians. Significantly, it has chosen to ignore the continuation of the resolution which states that the use of "all means" should be "in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations..." The UN Charter prohibits targeting civilians, even in war. Furthermore, chapter 1, Article 1, opens by saying that "international disputes" should be resolved "by peaceful means." 

 

The Palestinian Authority and Fatah have enlisted many of its leaders to promote awarding Barghouti the Nobel Peace Prize. Note while reading these sources that the PA uses the euphemism "struggle" when referring to terror and murder of Israelis:

 

Mahmoud Al-Aloul,Fatah Central Committee member: Barghouti "source of pride"

"Fatah Central Committee member Mahmoud Al-Aloul said that [Marwan Barghouti is] a source of pride for the Palestinian people, being one of the founders of the Palestinian national path of struggle. He emphasized that they will continue on this path of national struggle... [Al-Aloul]: 'The fighter Barghouti is a source of pride for the Palestinian people and one of the founders of the Palestinian path of struggle'... He stressed that Palestine's youth draw inspiration from the struggle experience and the ideas of their leaders, the Martyrs (Shahids) and prisoners in their confrontation with the Israeli occupation."

[Donia Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), Apr. 14, 2016]

 

Issa Karake, Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs: 

"We, the Palestinian people, support this initiative, and we think this initiative carries several messages... a judicial message, which is a response to the Israeli claims accusing the prisoners of being terrorists and criminals."

[Official PA TV, April 12, 2016]

Issa Karake, Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs: Support for "their legitimate struggle"

Karake: "The nomination of Barghouti for the prize means support for the just rights of the Palestinian people in its struggle for freedom and independence, and support for the prisoners' cause, as well as their legitimate struggle for freedom and honor, as prisoners of freedom who sacrificed and fought for their land and in order to end the injustice the occupation is causing to our people"...

"Karake stated that this campaign is a response to the wave of Israeli measures and acts against the prisoners, to deny their legal status as fighters, and the non-recognition of the legitimacy of their struggle against the occupation."

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 8, 2016]

 

Headline: "National campaign for the candidacy of the prisoner Marwan Barghouti for the Nobel Peace Prize"

"At the press conference, Director of [PLO] Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake, Ramallah and El-Bireh District Governor Laila Ghannam, head of the Fatah parliamentary faction Azzam Al-Ahmad, Coordinator of the National and Islamic Forces in the Ramallah and El-Bireh District and Secretary of Foreign Relations of the Supreme Council for Monitoring Prisoners' Affairs Issam Bakr, and Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories Sheikh Muhammad Hussein spoke one after the other, while Secretary-General of the People's Party and head of the Al-Badil list Bassam Al-Salhi gave a speech in the name of the national forces... Al-Salhi called to increase the efforts and widen the scope of the campaign through the launch of a popular campaign to gather as many signatures as possible in support of Marwan Barghouti's candidacy for the prize, out of an understanding of its significance in refuting the false Israeli version which attempts to define Barghouti and the prisoners as criminals."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 13, 2016]

 

Fatah calls the terrorist Barghouti's arrest an "abduction" 

"The Fatah parliamentary faction saluted the [PA] Parliament and Fatah Central Committee member, prisoner Marwan Barghouti yesterday [April 14, 2016] on the 14^th anniversary of his abduction, and praised his resolve in the face of the hangmen.

The faction made a statement calling to organize a widespread popular campaign of solidarity and support for the candidacy of MP Barghouti for the Nobel Peace Prize because this candidacy is of the entire Palestinian people, all of the freedom fighters, and the just Palestinian cause..."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 15, 2016

[Comment]