Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy | (Source:Flickr )
Transcript: Netanyahu’s Exclusive Post-Arraignment ‘Channel 20’ Interview: Boaz Golan, JNS, May 25, 2020 — In the wake of his arraignment at the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday afternoon and hours after conducting the first Cabinet meeting of the newly sworn-in government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down for a lengthy chat with Channel 20‘s Boaz Golan. The following are translated excerpts from the interview.
WATCH: Dershowitz on Netanyahu Trial – ‘Israel Should be Deeply Ashamed’: World Israel News, May 25, 2020 –– Prof. Alan Dershowitz, when asked if Israel shouldn’t be proud that its prime minister isn’t above the law, said it’s just the opposite, as he doesn’t believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has committed a crime, i24News reports.
“These investigations were tainted and stitched-up from the first moment,” – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said about charges of bribery, breach of trust, and fraud at the center of three graft cases against him. Netanyahu was indicted in November in cases involving gifts from millionaire friends and for allegedly seeking regulatory favors for media tycoons in return for favorable coverage. His corruption trial started on Sunday. (Algemeiner, May 24, 2020)
“I do not support annexation…The fact is, I will reverse Trump’s undercutting of peace,” said Biden at a virtual fundraiser with members of the American Jewish community. Israel needs to stop the threats of annexation and stop settlement activity because it will choke off any hope of peace,” – said presumptive Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden regarding Prime Minister’s stated intention to apply Israeli sovereignty over sections of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, in accordance with President Trump’s peace plan. Biden stopped short of threatening to use the issue of US military assistance to Israel as a means of exerting pressure on Israel to reject annexation. “I will not place conditions on security assistance given the serious threat Israelis face,” he said. (JerusalemOnLine, May 20, 2020)
“A court that attempts to exercise its power outside its jurisdiction is a political tool that makes a mockery of the law and due process…. If the ICC continues down its current course, we will exact consequences,” – said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He issued a stern warning to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. He said the ICC is a political body, not a judicial institution, and slammed chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda for her desire to investigate what she called “Israeli war crimes in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.” (Algemeiner, May 25, 2020)
“The United States condemns Supreme Leader Khamenei’s disgusting and hateful anti-Semitic remarks. They have no place on Twitter or on any other social media platform. We know Khamenei’s vile rhetoric does not represent the Iranian people’s tradition of tolerance. The leader of the world’s top sponsor of terrorism and anti-Semitism denies the Holocaust, sends money and weapons to anti-Israel terrorists, and now has invoked the Nazi call for the Final Solution. I ask all nations: Is this someone who can be trusted with deadly weapons?” – tweeted US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had issued a series of tweets on Monday and Tuesday that viciously attacked the State of Israel as the “occupying Zionist regime” and described the Jewish state as a “cancerous tumor.” (Algemeiner, May 20, 2020)
“A message was sent here that there is someone else in their system who can make the decisions. If the attack on the nuclear reactor a decade ago was an atomic bomb in the cyber world, this was a much smaller weapon and it served as a warning,” – said Lotem Finkelstein, the Threat Intelligence Group manager at Check Point Software Technologies and an expert on cyber-defense during an interview with Israeli news site N12. He was referring to the cyber-attack on an Iranian port earlier this month, widely attributed to Israel, “served as a warning” and represented only a fraction of what the Jewish state could bring to bear. (Algemeienr, May 20, 2020)
“Today, Palestinians around the world commemorate the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe” recognizing the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestine,” – Democratic Congresswoman RashidaTlaib tweeted.
Rabbi Aryeh Spero, who heads the Conference of Jewish Affairs, responded to her tweet: “This is false, and she knows it. Since the establishment of the State of Israel 70 years ago, the Arab population in the Land of Israel has multiplied six-fold. The fact is that the ethnic cleansing that happened after the establishment of the State of Israel was done to the Jews living in the Arab lands in North Africa and in the Middle East. Muslim countries expelled and threatened their Jewish population. The 850,000 Jews who for over 1,000 years had lived in and contributed to these countries were expelled and ethnically cleansed.” (United With Israel, May 20, 2020)
DEMOCRATIC SENATORS WARN NETANYAHU: ANNEXATION WILL DAMAGE US-ISRAEL RELATIONS (Washington) — Eighteen Democratic senators and independent Bernie Sanders signed a letter cautioning Israel about extending sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria. Addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the senators wrote that Israel applying sovereignty “would mark a dramatic reversal of decades of shared understandings between the United States, Israel, the Palestinians, and the international community, and would have a clear impact on both Israel’s future and our vital bilateral and bipartisan relationship.” (WIN, May 24, 2020)
ISRAELI MINISTER URGES TWITTER TO SUSPEND ACCOUNT OF IRAN’S AYATOLLAH FOR HATE SPEECH, INCITEMENT (Jerusalem) — In the letter addressed to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Minister Orit Farkash Hacohen, Israel’s new Minister of Strategic Affairs, wrote that the social media giant should “serve as a place which enables the free flow of ideas and opinions, but not of those which call for violence, antisemitism, or hate speech against a nation or its people.” She highlighted recent tweets by Khamenei that called for Israel’s “elimination,” described it as a “cancerous growth,” and said it should be “uprooted and destroyed.” Furthermore, Hacohen noted, Khamenei has used his Twitter platform to support Holocaust denial and spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, as well as praise and promote terrorist groups, which Twitter strictly forbids. (Algemeiner, May 25, 2020)
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY REJECTS UAE CORONAVIRUS AID DELIVERED VIA ISRAEL (Ramallah) — The Palestinian Authority (PA) has rejected coronavirus aid sent via an Emirati flight to Israel, saying that aid must be sent in coordination with the Palestinian leadership and not with Israel. The United Arab Emirates flew its first publicly announced flight to Israel late on Tuesday, an Etihad cargo plane from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv loaded with humanitarian aid for Palestinians to help curb the spread of coronavirus. Several Israeli media outlets reported that the flight took place in coordination with Israel’s foreign ministry and the UN’s World Food Programme. (Middle East Eye, May 21, 2020)
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: IRAN TRIES TO BOYCOTT ALL ISRAELI-MADE TECHNOLOGY (Ramallah) — Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani ordered his government to implement new legislation to ban the use of any Israeli products in the Islamic Republic. The law was passed “to confront the hostile acts of the Zionist regime against peace and security,” the report said, adding that all branches of government had to comply, including the interior, intelligence, foreign and defense ministries. This includes “ using its hardware and software products,”spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, told FARS. With Israeli know-how showing up in all aspects of hardware and software, it is not clear how the Iranians can ever hope to implement such a law. (United With Israel, May 26, 2020)
SIX-YEAR-OLD ISRAELI BOY DISCOVERS 3,500-YEAR-OLD CANAANITE CLAY TABLET (Kibbutz Nirim) — A six-year-old Israeli boy recently discovered an extremely-rare Canaanite clay tablet made approximately 3,500 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced. The tablet was found by Imri Elya of Kibbutz Nirim, who was touring the Tel Jemmeh archaeological site near Kibbutz Re’im in Israel’s south. He and his parents handed it over to the IAA, whose researchers determined that it was an almost unique find that had never yet been uncovered in Israel. (Algemeiner, May 25, 2020)
ISRAELI SCIENTIST INVENTS ONE-MINUTE CORONAVIRUS BREATH TEST (Jerusalem) — A researcher at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) has developed a test that identifies those carrying the COVID-19 virus in less than a minute. And it is both affordable and works with greater than 90% accuracy to boot. Gabby Sarusi, deputy head for research at BGU’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a faculty member of the Electro-Optical Engineering Unit at BGU, came up with the idea. He and his team are currently validating the test. The ongoing trials will be aimed at finding out if the test can identify not just the presence of the virus but also the specific stage a COVID-19 infection is at. (BioWorld, May 21, 2020)
PRO-BDS AMERICAN LAWYERS’ GROUP SETTLES WITH ISRAELI ORGANIZATION (NY) — Four years after the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), a progressive group of lawyers in the United States, refused to put into its dinner publication an advertisement from an Israeli organization due to NLG’s support for the BDS movement, the two groups settled a lawsuit filed by the Israeli entity. The NLG cited its official “resolution barring us from accepting funds from Israeli organizations” as the reason it refused to place the ad from the Bibliotechnical Athenaeum, which is in the West Bank. The Israeli organization sued the NLG through the Lawfare Project. The settlement was approved by the New York State Supreme Court, which had already rejected two motions to dismiss by NLG. (JNS, May 26, 2020)
‘ONLY THE KING CAN AMEND AGREEMENTS WITH ISRAEL’, SAYS JORDAN PARLIAMENT (Amman) — Only King Abdullah II has the legal ability to break the recently signed multibillion-dollar gas deal with Israel, according to Jordan’s Constitutional Court. The court’s decision came in response to a parliamentary proposal to terminate its natural gas deal with Israel. (JOL, May 20, 2020)
ISRAELI MATHEMATICIAN AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS 2020 SHAW PRIZE (Jerusalem) — Hebrew University mathematician David Kazhdan was announced the recipient of the 2020 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences, the first Israeli ever to receive the prize described as the “Nobel of the East.” He received the award together with Alexander Beilinson of Chicago. The Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences was awarded in equal shares to the two for “their huge influence on and profound contributions to representation theory, as well as many other areas of mathematics.” Established in 2002 under the auspices of the late Sir Run Shaw in Hong Kong, the prestigious Shaw Prize honors individuals who have achieved distinguished and significant advances in the fields of astronomy, life science and medicine, and mathematical sciences. Each category carries a monetary award of $1.2 million. In 2012, Kazhdan was awarded the Israel Prize, the country’s highest academic honor, for mathematics and computer science. (United With Israel, May 25, 2020)
JERUSALEM MAN FINDS BAG WITH 40,000 SHEKELS, TRACKS DOWN OWNER AND RETURNS IT (Jerusalem) — After finding over 40,000 shekels in a bag on the streets of Jerusalem, an ultra-Orthodox man decided to do the right thing and track down the owner even though Jewish law didn’t require him to do so. Thanks to checks found in the bag addressed to the recipient, Yosef Chaim Machlouf was able to successfully return the money to its owner – an Arab. During Machlouf’s interview, on Kol Hai Radio, the Arab who lost the bag of money came on air and thanked Machlouf for his kindness. “In every place, there are good people and not good people. I am happy I ended up, thank God, with someone good, who returned the money to me, and I thank him very much. He’s a holy man,” he said. (WIN, May 25, 2020)
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST NEW JERSEY TOWNSHIP OVER ‘ANTISEMITIC CONDUCT’ TOWARD ORTHODOX JEWS (N.J.) — A New Jersey township was the focus of a new Justice Department lawsuit that charged its planning board with “religious discrimination” and “antisemitic conduct” toward Orthodox Jewish residents. The lawsuit against Jackson Township alleges that the town’s planning board implemented two zoning ordinances that intentionally restricted the operation of religious schools. Both ordinances expressly prohibited dormitories throughout Jackson, making it impossible to establish yeshivot and other religious schools. Although Jackson passed these ordinances to prevent dormitories anywhere in its vicinity, the planning board has since approved, without requiring a variance, the plans for two nonreligious projects with dormitory-type housing. (Algemeiner, May 20, 2020)
OUTRAGE AFTER LEADING ACADEMIC ASSOCIATION AWARDS PROFESSOR WHO ENGAGED IN HATE SPEECH AGAINST ‘ZIONIST’ STUDENTS (San Francisco) — Outrage over the weekend greeted the decision by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to give an award to a San Francisco State University professor Rahab Ibrahim Abdulhadi who engaged in hate speech and violent rhetoric against “Zionists” and Jewish students who support Israel. Abdulhadi, founding director of SFSU’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED) program, was given the 2020 Georgina M. Smith Award for “a person or persons who provided exceptional leadership in a given year in improving the status of academic women or in academic collective bargaining and through that work improved the profession in general.” (Algemeiner, May 23, 2020)
SENATE PASSES BILL REMOVING ROGUE CHINESE FIRMS FROM US STOCK EXCHANGES (Washington) — The U.S. Senate has passed a bill boosting oversight of companies based in China and other nations that could lead to their removal from American stock exchanges. The vote on the measure, introduced more than a year ago by Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., comes as Congress and the Trump administration seek ways to punish Beijing for its initial handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill, which passed on Wednesday, says that if the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board — a nonprofit established by Congress after the WorldCom and Enron scandals of the early 2000s — is denied access to a foreign stock issuer’s books for three years, the Securities and Exchange Commission will prohibit trading in the shares on U.S. exchanges. (Fox Business, May 20, 2020)
The Top 50 Zionist Influencers of 2020: Social Lite Creative, May 2020 — In celebration of Israel’s Independence Day, Social Lite Creative has compiled the Top 50 Zionist Influencers of 2020 based on over 600 nominations from communities around the world. This was chosen based on the number of followers as well as the impact these individuals have on their respective communities.
WATCH: Israeli Scientist Invents Face Mask That Cleans Itself: World Israel News, May 25, 2020
LIFE IN GAZA: The Video Israel’s Haters Tried to Hide: United With Israel, May 25, 2020 — It’s true that the Palestinians living in Gaza are oppressed – by the cruel, rights-abusing Hamas leadership. Yet there are many who are living there quite well.
Israel’s Miracle — 100 Years Later: Zvi Hauser, Algemeiner, May 20, 2020 –– We recently marked the 100th anniversary of the San Remo Conference. The international meeting was held by the Allied Supreme Council in the aftermath of World War I and determined the fate of the Middle East regions held under the control of the Ottoman Empire during the previous four centuries.