Archive for month: April, 2022

News Update

On this final Friday of Ramadan, hundreds of Palestinians rioted on the Temple Mount, waving Hamas flags and throwing rocks and fireworks. Some threw rocks down at Jews worshipping at the Western Wall. Police entered the Temple Mount to stop the rioting. At least 12 rioters were reported injured and several arrested. The violence ended around an hour later, after other Palestinians in the compound intervened, convincing the stone throwers and the police to pull back. Today is one of the busiest days at the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. The police presence in and around the Old City has been significantly increased.

Security forces arrested Nazir Nassar, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative, in a raid in the West Bank early this morning.

The IDF will deploy six battalions of reservist forces at the West Bank security barrier to prevent terrorist attacks and illegal crossings.

The Supreme Court yesterday rejected an appeal against the establishment of a new Jewish neighborhood in Hebron’s old city. Called the Hezekiah Quarter, the new neighborhood is expected to include 31 residential units, including a six-story apartment building. Construction began last year. To read more, click here.

Ra’am, the Arab party that has been part of PM Bennett’s coalition, has agreed to end its boycott and vote with the government when the Knesset returns to session on May 9th. Ra’am had refused to vote with the government earlier this month as pressure mounted on it over the ongoing tensions and violence between police and Palestinians at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. After Ra’am returns to the government, the coalition will accelerate several moves important to the party, including the immediate recognition of illegal Bedouin villages in southern Israel. Ra’am draws much of its voter support from Bedouin in the Negev region.

In his address at Yad Vashem (the holocaust museum in Jerusalem) at the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day yesterday, PM Bennett called on the world to stop comparing the Holocaust to other events in history. He also warned Jews against letting internal divisions tear society apart.

With the Ministry of Interior’s Immigration and Population Authority struggling to keep up with demand for renewing passports, the order allowing dual citizens to travel abroad on foreign passports has been extended until January 1, 2023.

The shekel is at its weakest against the dollar since early April 2021.

Believe it or not, the estate of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the great Torah sage who passed away recently, is in dispute. To read about this, click here.

News Update

A rocket fired from southern Lebanon landed in an open area in the western Galilee last night. IDF Spokesperson Ran Kochav said that no group has claimed responsibility for the rocket launch but estimated that a Palestinian faction operating in southern Lebanon was behind the fire that was a show of solidarity with the protests at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. He also said that there are hundreds of Hamas operatives in southern Lebanon. The IDF responded to the rocket with artillery fire towards the location of the launch early today.

On Friday, 2 rockets were fired into southern Israel from Gaza. One of them landed in a field in Israel but the other fell short and landed and exploded in Gaza, near a UN operated school. On Wednesday, terrorists launched a rocket that crashed in the southern city of Sderot, causing damage to a residential home and several cars. In response, the IDF struck that night what it called “an underground complex in Gaza used to produce rocket engines” which will “significantly impede rocket manufacturing capabilities in Gaza”. Several Hamas air defense positions were also destroyed in an attack. Israel has closed off the border crossing with Gaza. Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that “Israel will continue to show civil and economic generosity, only if stability and security are maintained.”

The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a request to reopen an investigation into the deaths of four Palestinian children who were killed by an Israeli airstrike while playing on the beach in Gaza during the 2014 war. The court upheld earlier decisions by Israeli military investigators and legal authorities determining that the incident was a tragic mistake.

Security forces arrested 12 terror suspects in several West Bank locations in operations over the weekend.

The Israeli shekel is weakening against the US dollar, at least temporarily. To read why, click here.

Small investors who cannot afford to buy residential property in Israel for investment are finding more affordable alternatives in the commercial market. To read more, click here.

News Update
IDF and police elite special forces units have been conducting anti-terror operations in Palestinian areas in Samaria. Forces arrested 20 suspected terrorists in Tulkarm and Jenin, some after firefights. Forces attempting to arrest the brother of the terrorist who attacked the Tel aviv pub on Thursday night, shot and wounded him, but he managed to escape.

A female terrorist stabbed a Border Police officer at a checkpoint near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron yesterday. The officer was lightly wounded and managed to draw his pistol and shoot and kill the terrorist.

On Saturday night, about a hundred Palestinians vandalized Joseph’s Tomb near Shechem (Nablus). The Jewish holy site is supposed to be protected by the Palestinian Authority, which controls the area. Substantial damage to the site was caused. Defense Minister Gantz sent a strong message to the Palestinian Authority to increase security of the site and punish the perpetrators. He also promised that Israel would quickly renovate the site and to implement measures to prevent further incidents of vandalism. A delegation of Knesset members will visit the site tonight. Two Hasidic Jews were shot and wounded when they attempted to make their way to the site last night.

The three victims of Thursday nights terror attack in Tel Aviv were laid to rest yesterday. Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini, both 27 and childhood friends, were laid to rest in the Kvar Saba cemetery. Hundreds of mourners attended the funerals. Barak Lufan, a 35-year-old father of three, was laid to rest in Kibbutz Ginosar in northern Israel, where he was born and raised. Lufan was once considered one of Israel’s leading kayakers. He served as a coach for Israel’s Olympic and Paralympic kayaking teams.

The chairman of the predominantly Arab Joint List party, MK Ayman Odeh, caused an uproar on Sunday as he called on Israeli Arabs who serve in the security forces to revolt and leave the service. “Throw the weapons in their faces. The forces who are here are humiliating our people, our families and everyone who comes to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Odeh said in a video posted to his Facebook page, according to Channel 12 News. To read more, click here.

Yesterday, a man in his 20’s snatched a rifle from a female soldier at a bus stop in Ashkelon. He was seen by Col. Eliav Elbaz, the commander of the IDF’s Binyamin Territorial Brigade, who happened to pass by the scene of the attack. The Colonel ordered the man to stop and, when he refused, shot and killed him. A large force of police and military personnel gather at the sight on the assumption that the incident was a terror attack. But then the attacker was identified as a mentally ill Jewish man who escaped from a nearby facility.

Despite criticism from the Ministry of Finance and Israel’s planning bodies, the government approved seven new settlements for the Negev today. The proposal came from Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked and Minister of Housing and Construction Ze’ev Elkin. The plan covers Ir Avot, a new urban settlement north of Lehavim that will have 15,000 housing units for a population of about 80,000; five additional new settlements with 10,000 housing units; and an industrial zone along the Beersheva-Dimona route (Road 25).

News Update

MK Idit Silman, of the right-wing Yamina party, has left the coalition government of PM Naftali Bennett, leaving the government without a majority in the Knesset. That means the government will not be able to pass any legislation without the votes of members of the opposition. Silman was promised the position of Health Minister in the future Likud government and a safe seat on the Likud list.

PM Bennett called his fellow Yamina party members to a meeting in Tel Aviv today. Likud, the main opposition party led by former PM Netanyahu, could potentially move to dissolve the government and call for new elections, but they also do not have enough votes to form a coalition. Part of Silman’s decision to leave the coalition was due to the government compliance with the ruling of the High Court of Justice allowing visitors to bring hametz (leavened bread) into hospitals on the Passover holiday

Israel’s security agencies are differing on whether or not to return the bodies of killed terrorists to their families. Apparently, the Israeli Police advised Gantz not to release the bodies. The IDF and Shin Bet, however, believe the best decision is to return the bodies of the terrorists to their families and allow them to be buried. Defense Minister Gantz will make a final decision this week.

Police this week discovered hundreds of weapons hidden underground, during a raid in the Bedouin town of Laqiya in the Negev.

Jewish Russian billionaire and former owner of NBA team the Brooklyn Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov, has made Aliyah and became an Israeli citizen. Prokhorov’s net worth is estimated at around $13.8 billion and unlike many other Russian oligarchs harboring close ties to President Vladimir Putin, he has not been hit with punitive sanctions by the West in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

There will be no fireworks at the Independence Day ceremony at Mount Herzl this year. The change has been made in order to protect veterans who suffer from PTSD.