A7News: Gaza border protest canceled due to heat, Ramadan, Eurovision

Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Friday, May. 17 '19, י"ב באייר תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. GAZA BORDER PROTEST CANCELED DUE TO HEAT, RAMADAN, EUROVISION
2. JEWISH BABY, BORN IN ISRAEL IN SECRET, CIRCUMCISED AT KOTEL
3. SWEDEN STABBER'S MOTHER: SON IS SUFFERING 'PSYCHIATRIC CRISIS'
4. FACEBOOK BANS ISRAELI FIRM OVER FAKE ELECTION POSTS
5. 'PA CAN PAY ITS HOSPITAL BILLS IF IT STOPS PAYING TERRORISTS'
6. LOCAL ARAB DENIES JEWS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEADLY DUMA ARSON
7. NETANYAHU DECRIES 'IMPOSSIBLE' COALITION DEMANDS
8. AMERICAN WOMAN SAVES BROTHER IN ISRAEL


1. GAZA BORDER PROTEST CANCELED DUE TO HEAT, RAMADAN, EUROVISION
by Sara Rubenstein

Hamas has ordered Palestinian demonstrators in the Gaza Strip who regularly participate in the weekly March of Return protests to stay home this Friday, according to a report on Army Radio on Friday morning.

Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Gilad, former head of the Defense Ministry's security-policy headquarters said on Army Radio that "Hamas is quieting the demonstrators so that Eurovision will pass calmly."

Channel 13 News reported on Friday that according to Palestinian media sources, the weekly protest has been canceled due to the current heatwave in Israel as well as the daily Ramadan fast.

Meanwhile, Israel Police and Border Police are on high alert in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday, as Ramadan prayers take place for the second week on the Temple Mount.

The roads in the Old City have been closed to make rooms for the crowds ascending to pray at the Temple Mount.


2. JEWISH BABY, BORN IN ISRAEL IN SECRET, CIRCUMCISED AT KOTEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff

While every Bris Milah is emotional, the one held recently in the Old City of Yerushalayim was particularly poignant. Behind the event is the story of Tzipora (a pseudonym), a young Jewish woman from a Paris suburb who escaped by the skin of her teeth from a cruel, abusive Muslim partner.

Tzipora, in an advanced stage of pregnancy, had to get out of France quickly with her infant son because her mate was threatening to kill her. "If you give the baby a bris, like you did with his older brother, I will kill you," he screamed at her when she raised the subject.

Tzipora didn't respond, but two days later she was on an El Al flight to Tel Aviv, with her mother and infant son sitting at her side. They took few possessions as they left France forever.

Immediately on her arrival in Israel, Tzipora contacted Yad L'Achim, an organization she remembered from a talk one of its representatives had delivered to her Jewish high school. The organization's French department met with her and settled her in a secret safe house, together with her mother and infant son.

Just one week after landing in Israel Tzipora gave birth to her second son. As she hadn't had a chance to take out Israeli citizenship or get health insurance, Yad L'Achim covered her hospital bill and medical expenses. Its dedicated staffers put together a large package of clothing, diapers and cosmetics for baby and mother.

"Tzipora was profoundly moved by her experience of reconnecting with the Jewish people and asked that we arrange a Bris Milah for her son in a hall near the Kosel, with a minyan of Yad L'Achim activists and local avreichim," related Mrs. Karen Barda, head of the organization's French department.

"The tears that poured down Tzipora's cheeks said it all. They told the story of a another Jewish woman that we succeeded in reconnecting to the people and G-d of Israel, together with her young children."


3. SWEDEN STABBER'S MOTHER: SON IS SUFFERING 'PSYCHIATRIC CRISIS'
by Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

The man suspected of stabbing a Jewish woman in Sweden did not commit a hate crime, targeting her randomly amid a psychiatric crisis, his mother said.

The 29-year-old man, who has an extensive criminal record for assault, was released from 12 days at a psychiatric institution one day prior to the attack Tuesday in Helingborg, according to Expressen.

Several Israeli media reported that he is Muslim, though this has not been confirmed.

"I do not share the image that is spread in the Israeli media though I understand the concern and do not want in any way to downplay it," prosecutor Linda Seger told the Helsingborgs Dagblad daily.

"This does not have anything to do with religion," the suspect's mother told Expressen. Neither she, her son nor the victim have been named. The Expressen report did not say whether the suspect is in fact Muslim.

The suspect delivered near-fatal blows to the woman, a leader of the local Jewish community, very close to her home on a busy street. He approached her from the back, plunging a large knife into her upper body. The assault was over within seconds and he fled the scene, police said.

The suspect then crossed the border to neighboring Denmark and checked into a local hostel, where police arrested him on Wednesday, according to Expressen.

On Thursday, a Muslim umbrella organization from Malmo condemned the attack. "Whatever the motive," the Malmö Muslim Network wrote, "we Muslims know the insecurity such an attack can lead to for the entire Jewish community of Helsingborg."


4. FACEBOOK BANS ISRAELI FIRM OVER FAKE ELECTION POSTS
by AFP

Facebook, facing criticism for enabling disruption of elections worldwide, said it was taking down hundreds of accounts linked to an Israeli political consultancy.

The social media platform said it was banning the Israeli company, Archimedes Group, which on its website boasts of "winning campaigns worldwide."

The US giant said Thursday it had removed 265 accounts on its Facebook and Instagram platforms, Facebook Pages, Groups and events "involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior."

The sites' activity focused on several African countries and on Latin America and Southeast Asia, and was intended to sway voters by peddling misinformation.

The individuals behind the fake network tried to hide their identities but some of the activity linked back to Archimedes Group, which Facebook said had "repeatedly violated" its policies.

"This organization and all its subsidiaries are now banned from Facebook, and it has been issued a cease and desist letter," the US company's head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, wrote in a blog post.

There was no immediate comment from Archimedes, which says it is a leader in "large-scale campaigns worldwide" through its expertise in consulting, lobbying and social media.

About 2.8 million individual accounts followed one or more of the banned pages, and $812,000 was spent on related ads on Facebook from 2012 to April this year, Gleicher said.

Nine public events were organized by the pages, most recently this month, but Facebook said it could not confirm whether any of the events had actually occurred.

Facebook has been trying to address the criticism that it has long turned a blind eye to political actors abusing its platforms to sway elections, including the 2016 presidential vote in the United States.

"We are making progress rooting out this abuse, and, as we've said before, it's an ongoing challenge," Gleicher said.


5. 'PA CAN PAY ITS HOSPITAL BILLS IF IT STOPS PAYING TERRORISTS'
by Elad Benari

Jason Greenblatt, the US Representative for International Negotiations, said on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) could pay its own hospital bills if it stops paying salaries to terrorists and their families.

Greenblatt was replying on Twitter to an inquiry by Channel 13 News reporter Barak Ravid, who asked Greenblatt why the US stopped funding PA hospitals in eastern Jerusalem.

"The PA incurred bills at the hospital and assumed someone else would pay. We want those patients to receive the best care - the PA could easily pay its own bills to the hospital by ending incentive payments to terrorists/their families and use the money to care for their people," Greenblatt wrote in response.

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263275

PA officials have remained defiant and have made clear that the PA will never cease paying terrorists' salaries, despite calls by Israel and the US to stop doing so.

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has in the past called the PA's continued payments to terrorists a "red line" that would not be halted under any circumstances.

Israel's security cabinet recently approved the freezing of 507,697,000 shekels ($140,350,300) from the tax money it collects on behalf of the PA over the PA's payments to terrorists who carried out attacks against Israelis and their families.

The PA then angrily announced that it had returned the tax revenues to Israel after it deducted 41 million shekels from them. PA officials made clear that it would be "all or nothing", that is they will receive the full tax revenues from Israel or will accept none.

The US announced in September of 2018 it would cut $25 million in aid to six Palestinian Authority-run hospitals in Jerusalem, noting the funds would be directed to "high-priority projects elsewhere."

In August of that year, the US administration announced a $200 million cut in the funding given to humanitarian needs and the development of infrastructure in Gaza and PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria.



6. LOCAL ARAB DENIES JEWS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEADLY DUMA ARSON
by Ido Ben Porat

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/263258

Four years after three Palestinian Arabs were killed in a fire in the village of Duma in Samaria, a neighbor has gone on record denying that Jews were responsible for the deadly blaze.

One July 31st, 2015, a fire broke out in the home of the Dawabsheh family in the village of Duma in the middle of the night, killing 18-month old Ali, and leaving three other members of the family injured. Weeks later, both of the parents, Said Muhammaned Hassan Dawabsheh and Riham Hassan Dawabsheh, succumbed to their injuries.

Hebrew graffiti was found at the site, including the word "Revenge" in Hebrew, leading Israeli investigators to treat the arson as an act of Jewish terrorism.

Police claimed a group of Israeli youths hurled firebombs at the Dawabsheh home, sparking a fire which eventually consumed much of the house.

New testimony from a neighbor of the Dawabsheh's, however, contradicts claims by Israeli police, suggesting that the fire was not set by Jewish arsonists.

The man, an Arab resident of Duma who lived next door to the Dawabsheh family, told a private investigator his recollection of the incident, saying it was "nonsense" that Jews were involved. He claimed that the fire was sparked in connection to a separate arson in Duma, by locals who were involved in an internal dispute with another resident of the village.

The neighbor claimed that after sparking a fire in another house in Duma, owned by their rival, the Arab arsonists believed the Dawabshehs had spotted them, and sought to kill them, to ensure there would be no witnesses.

Neighbor: "That's nonsense, forget it."

Private Investigator: "What do you mean nonsense? What happened there? It wasn't the Jews that did it I think."

Neighbor: "No not at all, there's nothing. The first arson wasn't for them. Not for them at all."

Investigator: "What do you mean 'not for them'?"

Neighbor: "They [the Arab arsonists] didn't come for them to burn their house initially. There was another man who was working with Jews, who was a thief, and made all kinds of problems. Now he bought a house in Shechem [Nablus]. He had told people that he's in Shechem, in some restaurant called such and such. So people knew his house [in Duma] was empty. So they went out to torch his house."

A second house in Duma was targeted by arsonists during the same night the Dawabsheh home was hit, which the neighbor interviewed by the private investigator claims was the primary target of the Arab arsonists he blames for the fires.

Neighbor: "At the same time [as the first arson], they [the Dawabsheh family]…were going back to their home to go to sleep. They turned on the light. The people who were setting the fire thought that they [the Dawabsheh family] had seen them and knew they were the arsonists."

"They thought that they saw and knew who had made the fire, so they burned" the Dawabsheh home, "so they wouldn't reveal who burned the house. You get what I mean?"

The neighbor also claimed that Israeli investigators failed to take the testimonies of Duma residents.

A video recording of the interview with the Duma resident has been forwarded to the Honenu organization, which has assisted in the defense of the Israeli youths accused in the arson.

A string of subsequent fires in Duma, including some in homes owned by members of the Dawabsheh clan, have not been linked to Jews.


7. NETANYAHU DECRIES 'IMPOSSIBLE' COALITION DEMANDS
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took part in a ceremony marking the centenary of the death of Aaron Aaronsohn, head of the Nili spy ring, and referred to the coalition talks and the fact that no agreement has been signed with any of the potential coalition partners.

Netanyahu said that coalition negotiations are "a mission that seems absurd" and that he "prefers to be here more than in the coalition negotiations, and all the factions demand demands that clash with each other."

"One faction asked for four positions for each of its four MKs. The budgetary requests are reasonable, if we had a budget like the US. We don't have that, and we can't collapse Israel's economy," he stressed.

Channel 12 reported that the prime minister and his associates have informed several Knesset members that they will fight with all their might over legislation that would grant immunity to Netanyahu and prevent him from being prosecuted.

"The citizens of Israel deserve a full-time prime minister," Netanyahu said in one of the briefings. ""After I finish my job I will deal with the trial. The citizens of Israel knew what my situation was and chose me. If I thought about my personal good, I would submit to the trial when I was prime minister and not as a private citizen, but I understand that this is not in the best interest of the state."


8. AMERICAN WOMAN SAVES BROTHER IN ISRAEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff

A 50-year-old man from Israel collapsed during a video call with his sister from New York.

The sister, who is a nurse, immediately understood the situation and called Magen David Adom in Israel. An ambulance was quickly dispatched to the man's house in Bat Yam.

MDA forces who arrived at the scene entered the apartment within a short time, with the help of firefighters who broke down the door. MDA paramedic David Weimpaimer and the rest of the emergency medical team immediately began tests and determined that the man had suffered a severe heart attack. They gave the man advanced life-saving medical care, including medication, until his condition stabilized and he regained full consciousness. The team then evacuated him to the Wolfson hospital intensive care unit.

MDA paramedic Naomi Zvi stated: "We received a report from the MDA center about a man who lost consciousness in his apartment in Bat Yam. The firefighters arrived quickly and opened the door, and we could enter the apartment."

"When we entered the apartment, we saw a light in the bedroom, and we ran in. In bed, a man of about 50 was unconscious. His sister was still in a video call to his cell phone and was upset at her brother's condition. We gave him advanced medical treatment, while updating the intensive care unit in the hospital. After a few dramatic minutes, his condition stabilized and he returned to full consciousness. Then, we evacuated him in an MDA intensive care unit directly to Wolfson Hospital, where the doctors in the unit are prepared to receive him," said Zvi.

To sum up the unique case, Tzvi said: "I have been a Paramedic for many years in MDA, and I do not remember such a case. It's really saving a life from across the world."