Israel News for 4-21-2021

News Update

Tensions in Jerusalem are rising amidst growing unrest and violence by Arabs against Jews. Arab youth have been videoing attacks against Jews and posting them on the social media video app Tiktok, in what appears to be a new trend. Since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, police have been clashing with Arab youth congregating outside the Old City’s Damascus gate in the evenings, and at least 50 people have been arrested thus far. Last night, Jewish youths chanted “Death to the Arabs” and attacked at least one Arab man with pepper spray.

President Reuven Rivlin condemned the violence and called on the Palestinian leadership to intervene and join forces with their Jewish counterparts to end the attacks. He added, “These images of Jews suffering such bullying for no reason, in broad daylight, are disturbing.”

Officials at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said Tuesday that special precautions were being put in place to protect Israeli diplomats around the world from possible terror attacks instigated by Iran. The precautions are based on increased intelligence indicated possible Iranian attacks on Israeli diplomats.

Sudan repealed a 1958 law forbidding diplomatic and economic ties with Israel. This means that Sudanese can do business with Israel and visit relatives living there. There are currently 6,000 Sudanese living in Israel.

PM Netanyahu is threatening to sue his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, if he does not apologize for saying, in an interview last week, that Netanyahu and his family suffer from mental illness. According to Channel 12 TV, a Netanyahu family attorney demanded that Olmert apologize within a week and pay 1 million shekels ($306,000) in damages or face a libel lawsuit.

Police were called in when violence erupted at the prestigious Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak yesterday, between 2 rival factions in the yeshiva. The factions, called the “terrorists” and the “haters” have been engaged in the conflict since 1999.  To read more about this unusual situation, and view video, click here.