A7News: Shaked tells Druze activists Nationality Law to remain unchanged

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Friday, Jan. 18 '19, י"ב בשבט תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. SHAKED TELLS DRUZE ACTIVISTS NATIONALITY LAW TO REMAIN UNCHANGED
2. HUNGARIAN REFORM COMMUNITY AGAINST SEARCH FOR BONES IN DANUBE
3. 'YOUR MP IS SHARING A STAGE WITH AN AVOWED JEW HATER'
4. WATCH: IDF DEMOLISHES HOME OF ARI FULD'S KILLER
5. REPORT: US WON'T INTERVENE IF ISRAEL ATTACKS IN IRAQ
6. REPORT: TRUMP PEACE PLAN WILL DIVIDE JERUSALEM
7. 'A STORMY DAY FOR ME AS JUSTICE MINISTER AND AS A WOMAN'
8. JEWISH MAN BRAIN-DAMAGED AFTER HORRIFIC ACCIDENT


1. SHAKED TELLS DRUZE ACTIVISTS NATIONALITY LAW TO REMAIN UNCHANGED
by Tzvi Lev

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said that the Nationality Law will remain unchanged but suggested passing alternative legislation in order to assuage concerns by the Druze sector.

Shaked's remarks came during a sit-down with senior members of the Druze communities who oppose the law, including Brigadier-General (Reserve) Amal Assad and former MK Sakib Snaan, whose son was killed in a 2017 terror attack on the Temple Mount.

Shaked noted that during her last term, she worked hard for full civic equality for members of the Druze, including the appointment of a Druze judge, the appointment of Druze religious officials to the Druze Shari'a court, and increasing the community's budgets.

"The Druze are brothers and flesh of the State of Israel, and the Nationality Law does not violate the equality of Jews and Druze in Israel," said Shaked. "It is an interpretive tool for the court to balance the problematic interpretation given in light of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty."

"It is clear that the sense of the community is real and can not be argued with. In the next government we will have to find a way to correct the feeling, without changing the law of nationality, "emphasized the Minister of Justice.

MK Sa'ad (Labor) called on Minister Shaked to immediately resign from her post. "Shaked is responsible for enacting the racist and despicable national law that makes us, the Druze and the minorities in Israel, second class citizens," said the lawmaker.

Sa'ad added that he was "ashamed of Minister Shaked's attitude toward the Druze community and minorities in Israel."

Israel passed the law, which was sponsored by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud party, in July. It drew criticism for relegating Arabic to non-official language status, expressing support for increased Jewish settlement and promoting the status of Jewish religion in legal matters. Others have defended it as a codification of longstanding agreed-upon facts about Israel's identity.



2. HUNGARIAN REFORM COMMUNITY AGAINST SEARCH FOR BONES IN DANUBE
by Arutz Sheva Staff, JTA

Not everyone is happy with the recent operation to locate and retrieve Holocaust victims' bones from the River Danube in Budapest.

According to Kikar Hashabbat, Hungary's Reform community released a statement on Thursday saying that they oppose the effort to find the bones of Jews killed in the Holocaust.

"The disturbance of the resting place of the dead is a complex and sensitive issue. The search and investigation of these bones is unnecessary, and it also damages the dignity and rest of the dead, Jews and non-Jews alike, and also contradicts Jewish law," read a statement released by local Reform leaders.

They also claimed that it is impossible to know that these are indeed the bones of Jews and not the victims of other religions. As such, the Reform community sent a written request to the Israeli and Hungarian interior ministers to stop the search immediately, "since these searches are not justified."

Rabbi Slomo Koves, who heads the Union of Orthodox Jewish Communities in Hungary, blasted the efforts by the Reform leaders to scuttle the retrieval effort. "I am filled with pain in the face of the fact that a Jewish community in Hungary, out of extraneous considerations and Jewish ostensibility, is so contemptuous of the bones of those who perished in the Holocaust," he said.

"The halachic position is clear: everything must be done in order to bring the bones of a person to a proper burial. In this matter, the position of the halakhah is unequivocal and any other statement is a sad distortion."

Volunteers for ZAKA, an Orthodox Jewish group that is based in Israel and provides emergency services as well as collection of human remains for burial, operated the sonar from the river banks on Tuesday. The team operating the sonar will be back next month for another scan.

In 2011, human remains were discovered during construction work on a bridge overlooking the Danube. DNA tests run on the bones in August 2015 found that at least nine of the 15 samples were Ashkenazi Jews from Europe and that six others could also be.

In 1944-1945, Hungarian Nazi-collaborators from the Arrow Cross shot thousands of Jews on the banks of the Danube.

These murders are at the heart of an ongoing and polarizing debate in Hungary about how government-led and other commemoration efforts should address the issue of complicity. The Mazsihisz Jewish federation has accused the government of whitewashing this complicity, though EMIH has disputed this.

"Whether this is controversial or not is really not an issue," Koves said of his group's efforts to bring to burial Arrow Cross victims. "The only thing that matters is the major mitzvah of bringing the victims to burial." He said the government was helpful in obtaining permits for the searches.


3. 'YOUR MP IS SHARING A STAGE WITH AN AVOWED JEW HATER'
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, who serves as the Chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA), sent a missive to Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn asking him to demand that one of his MEPs stand down from speaking at an anti-Israel event in the European Parliament on January 22.

Labour MEP Julie Ward is slated to share the stage with IRA terrorist and Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson, who has described Israelis as "a rash", and a journalist David Cronin who glorifies Hamas actions in his blog on the 'Electronic Intifada' website. Cronin also tried unsuccessfully to make a citizen's arrest for former Labour Leader Tony Blair for alleged war crimes.

Rabbi Margolin's call comes as Labour seeks to distance itself from accusations of anti-Semitism masked behind criticism of Israel.

Tuesday's event in the European Parliament is called "Nation State Law – Occupation and discrimination in Israel" and is organised by the Europal Forum, a group that advocates for Boycotts and Sanctions against Israel and incites students on campus to take action.

"Despite many statements from you and your party regarding your commitment to fight anti-Semitism the actions of your members continue to fly in the face of such assurances," wrote Rabbi Margolin.

"If you find it appropriate that an elected representative of your Party - MEP Julia Ward - should share a stage with an avowed Israel-hater and former convicted IRA terrorist who has described Israelis as "a rash", and a journalist who has made it his life's work slating the world's only Jewish state and who tried to make a citizen's arrest on your former Party Leader Tony Blair for alleged war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Lebanon and Serbia, that is your prerogative," wrote the rabbi.

"If you find it appropriate that a Labour Party MEP take part in such a blatantly biased event that uses divisive terms "discrimination" and "occupation" in its title, instead of engaging in a civil and rational dialogue on issues pertaining to the peace process and Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that too is your prerogative."

"If this is the case, then you can rest assured that your statements, your pronouncements and your efforts to distance you and your party from accusations of anti-Semitism will be rendered worthless, pointless, devoid of meaning, substance and fraudulent, and will be judged as such by European Jewry."



4. WATCH: IDF DEMOLISHES HOME OF ARI FULD'S KILLER
by Tzvi Lev

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/257814

Israeli security forces leveled the home of Khalil Jabareen in the village in his hometown of Yatta, near Hevron.

During the demolition, a number of violent riots broke out. Dozens of Arabs threw rocks at IDF soldiers, who responded with crowd dispersal means.

Jabareen is responsible for killing Fuld after knifing him in the back at a Gush Etzion mall back in September.

Ari Fuld, a 40-year-old father of four, charged Jabareen after being stabbed and managed to squeeze off a few shots before collapsing. He was evacuated to the Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem, where died a few hours later from the wounds he suffered in the stabbing.

Jabareen was shot by a civilian passerby and taken to Shaare Zedek Hospital as well.

Last week, the Supreme Court rejected the petition of the family of the terrorist against the demolition order issued for the third floor of the house where the terrorist lived.

House of the terrorist who killed Ari Fuld
צילום: דובר צה"ל



5. REPORT: US WON'T INTERVENE IF ISRAEL ATTACKS IN IRAQ
by Elad Benari

The United States has told Iraq that it will not intervene if Israel attacks Iranian targets in the country, Russia Today's Arabic-language news service reported on Thursday.

The network, which cited an unnamed Iraqi government official, said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo conveyed the message during his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi in Baghdad last week.

Russia Today also reported that al-Mahdi expressed concern about such a move and warned of its grave consequences.

In September, the Reuters news agency reported that Iran had moved missiles to Iraq.

The report quoted three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources, and two Western intelligence sources, all of whom confirmed the transfer of short-range missiles to Iraq over the course of several months.

Some of the officials added that Iran is helping its allies produce their own missiles as well.

Iran rejected the Reuters report, claiming it aimed to harm Iran's ties with its neighbors.

"Such false and ridiculous news have no purpose other than affecting Iran's foreign relations, especially with its neighbors," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said, adding, "This news is solely aimed at creating fears in the countries of the region."

Iraq's Foreign Ministry said it was "astonished" over the Reuters report, saying it was "without evidence" while stopping short of denying its contents.

Iran has come under fire for its test-firing ballistic missiles in recent years. The United States has several times imposed sanctions on Iran over the tests, saying its missile tests violate UN resolutions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has stressed that Iran will continue to produce missiles for its defense and does not consider that a violation of international agreements.



6. REPORT: TRUMP PEACE PLAN WILL DIVIDE JERUSALEM
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Will the "Deal of the Century" peace plan of the Trump administration demand far-reaching concessions from Israel?

Hadashot 13 reported that the peace plan formulated by the White House and which President Trump is interested in presenting in the coming months includes the establishment of a Palestinian state in about 90 percent of Judea and Samaria, with at least part of eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

The report, which was quoted from an American source, said that the Americans would demand that isolated settlements outside the blocs not be expanded and outposts considered illegal by Israeli law be evacuated.

The source claimed that the Palestinian state would be built on more than twice the total area of Areas ​​A and B under the control of the Palestinian Authority today.

He added that Trump would seek to divide Jerusalem from a sovereign perspective into two capitals - Israel's in the west of the city and parts of eastern Jerusalem, and the Palestinian one in the Arab neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem.

Under the plan, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and the Mount of Olives would reportedly remain under Israeli sovereignty, but with full administrative partnership with the Palestinians.


7. 'A STORMY DAY FOR ME AS JUSTICE MINISTER AND AS A WOMAN'
by Ido Ben Porat

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked on Wednesday addressed the affair that is shaking the Israeli legal world.

"This is a stormy day for me as the justice minister and as a woman," Shaked said, stressing that "the judges in Israel are doing their work faithfully, and hopefully the investigation will be completed soon. I was not summoned for testimony or interrogated. "

Israeli police are investigating serious allegations of bribery and sexual misconduct connected with the selection of judges, authorities revealed Wednesday morning.

According to a police spokesperson, the special anti-corruption division, Lahav 433, is investigating allegations that sexual favors were traded in exchange for the advancement of a judicial appointment.

The current investigation was launched two weeks ago, after police received information in the matter.

The case involves the appointment of a female justice of the peace several years ago and the attempted appointment of a female judge in a magistrate's court.

On Wednesday, police arrested a lawyer in connection with the case, and called two other individuals of interest in for questioning. The suspect has been identified as a lawyer, while the two individuals called in for questioning are a judge and a lawyer, both females.

Police carried out a search and seized documents as part of the ongoing investigation.

The probe is being carried in coordination with the Central District prosecutor's office and is being opened with the approval of the Attorney General, Avichai Mandelblit, but he recused himself from dealing with the case due to his personal acquaintance with the central suspect. State Attorney Shai Nitzan is supervising the investigation.

Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked published a joint statement following the announcement of the investigation. "In recent days there have been widespread rumors about the affair being investigated in Lahav 433, which concerns the appointment of judges," the statement said.

"Details were released today regarding the investigation, and it was clarified that there are suspicions of committing offenses of integrity in connection with the appointment of one justice of the peace several years ago and an attempt to bring a justice of the peace to the District Court who was not advanced.

"As a result of this publication, we saw fit to note that we are confident that the law enforcement system will investigate the affair to the fullest extent and arrive at the truth.

"We also found it worthy of mentioning that during the term of Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, as the chairperson of the Judicial Selection Committee, the committee appointed 334 judges and senior registrars in a rigorous and professional selection process. Alongside the minister in the committee are two members of the Knesset, the Minister of Finance, three Supreme Court justices, including the President of the Supreme Court, as well as two representatives of the Israel Bar.

Shaked and Hayut added: "The Israeli judiciary has male and female judges, male and female senior registrars who do their job faithfully, honestly and with dedication. It is to be hoped that the investigation will be completed as soon as possible in order to preserve the status of the judiciary and public trust in it. "

The chairman of the Israel Bar Association, attorney Effi Naveh, will take a leave of absence or will resign in light of the affair.

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/257714


8. JEWISH MAN BRAIN-DAMAGED AFTER HORRIFIC ACCIDENT
by Sponsored Content

Pinchas Hominer of Jerusalem was a 'typical' husband & father, whose daily life consisted of supporting his family, and learning Torah. Life as he knew it came to a screeching halt, however, when a car crash caused him severe brain damage. Doctors had both good and bad news for his wife: He had survived, but now had the mental capacity of a child.
In the time that has passed, Henya has bravely risen to the occasion of raising her children, and her now child-like husband, alone. Pinchas' rigorous daily treatments, combined with the lack of steady income, have sunken them into a state of poverty. Her eldest children have done their best to contribute to their finances. More painful than their poverty, however, is their grief at having lost the father that they knew.
This tragic context has cast a dark veil over their latest simcha: The engagement of daughter Yocheved. All involved are aware of the fact that Henya is unable to pay for her daughter's wedding, or to help her set up a home for marriage. Yocheved has started a hachnasas kallah fund with the hope of taking this burden off of her mother's shoulders. With her wedding date rapidly approaching, she is still missing the essentials for the most basic ceremony, sheva brachot, and living arrangements.
"I am asking you to please help me to get married without embarrassment," the young woman says in somber video footage, "so that we can truly feel joy."
Any and all contributions will bring a ray of hope into the heart of the bride. Donations are being accepted here.