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Latest news briefs from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
(JTA) - EJC, E.U. differ on anti-Semitism
The European Jewish Congress slammed European Union claims that most anti-Semitic attacks are committed by white males. The congress said a report by the E.U. Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, published Wednesday in Strasbourg, clearly showed that the majority of attacks were committed by "young Muslims of North African origin." An earlier version of the report was shelved last year, ostensibly because of faulty methodology, though the congress and many European Jewish leaders claimed the European Union had been embarrassed by the findings of Muslim anti-Semitism. The European Union issued a news release Wednesday claiming that "white far-right youths or traditional anti-Semites perpetrate most incidents of anti-Semitism in Europe," but the congress said the claim was "in direct contradiction with the EUMC report." "How can we effectively fight anti-Semitism when we refuse to identify the true perpetrators?" The secretary-general of the congress, Serge Cwajgenbaum, asked.
(JTA) - Likud likely to back Sharon plan
Ariel Sharon's Likud Party would narrowly approve his plan for Israel to disengage from the Palestinians, a survey found. According to Wednesday's opinion poll in the Yediot Achronot newspaper, 51 percent of surveyed party members back the plan to remove most Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and several in the West Bank; 36 percent oppose the plan. On Tuesday, the Likud's Central Committee approved a proposal by the Israeli prime minister to put the plan to a referendum among the party's members after his April 14 trip to Washington. The survey also found that if Sharon is forced to resign as a result of a corruption scandal, 50 percent of Likud members want Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to succeed him. The remainder of support is divided among Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
(JTA) - Scuffles in Silwan
Arabs trying to block the arrival of Jewish residents in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood scuffled with Israeli police. Six rock-throwers were arrested in the Silwan neighborhood Wednesday as a dozen heavily guarded religious Jewish families arrived in their new homes. Several Jewish groups have mounted campaigns to buy residences in eastern Jerusalem in recent years, but Arabs denounce the move as an effort to "Judaize" Israel's capital city.
(JTA) - Two terrorists killed in Gaza
Israeli soldiers killed two would-be infiltrators in the Gaza Strip. The two Palestinians were shot while sneaking up on an army post at the Neve Dekalim settlement before dawn Wednesday. Troops scoured the area on suspicion that the terrorists may have planted mines. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any Palestinian group.
(JTA) - Hamas assassination plot foiled
Hamas plotted to assassinate a senior Likud lawmaker. The Samaria Military Court on Wednesday charged a 24-year-old Hamas man with intent to assassinate "an Israeli official." Security sources said the terrorist, arrested last month, told interrogators the target was Likud lawmaker David Levy. The Hamas man, from the Jenin area, worked in Levy's hometown of Beit She'an, in northern Israel.
(JTA) - Hebron outpost evacuated
Israeli police scuffled with Jewish settlers at a Hebron outpost. Wednesday's incident at the Hazon David settlement, recently erected in the "Pilgrim's Passage," linking the Tomb of the Patriarchs with the Kiryat Arba settlement, was the second this week. Hundreds of settler youth came to the site and had to be removed by police. Israeli media quoted Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli army chief of staff, as saying the Defense Ministry had drawn up a list of additional unauthorized outposts to be removed. Under the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan, Israel is obligated to evacuate all West Bank outposts erected since March 2001 without government approval.
(JTA) - Israeli arms sales to Latin America hit $1 billion
Forty Israeli defense companies recorded a total of more than$1 billion in sales to Latin American countries during the past three years. The announcement came Tuesday at an air and space show in Chile.
(JTA) - Pro-Israel lawmaker to run again for European Parliament
One of Europe's leading pro-Israel legislators announced he will run for re-election to the European Parliament. French Socialist Francois Zimeray, who led calls last year for a parliamentary inquiry into misuse of E.U. funds by the Palestinian Authority, formally submitted his nomination to head the Socialist Party list in France's Northwest. The region is to send 12 lawmakers to the European Parliament in June elections, with the Socialists expected to take three of the seats. Zimeray enjoys widespread support in his own Normandy area, but recently there have been calls within the Socialist Party to refrain from selecting him for the region because of his strong support for a more balanced E.U. approach to the Middle East conflict, Zimeray aide Virginie Tilhet-Coartet told JTA.
(JTA) - Technion gets $100 million
A philanthropist pledged $100 million to support Israel's leading scientific university. Alfred Mann's pledge will help establish the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. The institute will focus on developing medical devices and processes to improve people's health.
(JTA) - Spanish diplomats honored
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Spanish Embassy in Buenos Aires honored eight Spanish diplomats who saved Jews and others persecuted in the Holocaust. "Only three weeks after the criminal attack in Madrid, we have the opportunity to remember Spanish people who made a cause of solidarity and courage," Baruj Tenembaum, founder of the foundation, said at Tuesday's event. The foundation is a non- governmental organization dedicated to educational projects.
(JTA) - UJC taps new CEO
The United Jewish Communities has tapped Howard Rieger, president of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, as its next president. Rieger, who has headed the Pittsburgh federation since 1981, will succeed Stephen Hoffman, who ends his three-year term this summer. The UJC search committee unanimously recommended Rieger, who said he would accept the job, according to UJC's chairman of the board, Robert Goldberg. The UJC board of trustees is expected to approve the recommendation.
(JTA) - Al-Aksa Brigade: U.S. out!
A Palestinian terrorist group released a statement saying it would not accept U.S. officials in Palestinian areas. Tuesday's statement by the Al-Aksa Brigade criticized the United States for vetoing a recent U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The warning comes as three high-level Bush administration officials arrive in the region to get more details on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. "The visit is rejected completely, and the American administration will not like the circumstances of such a visit," the statement said.
(JTA) - Sharon wants Gaza referendum
Ariel Sharon told members of his Likud Party that he will seek their approval for a Gaza withdrawal after he presents the plan to President Bush. The Israeli prime minister addressed party faithful Tuesday night in Tel Aviv to counter opposition within his ruling party to his disengagement plan. Sharon said he will hold a binding party referendum on the plan upon his return from Washington next month. It would be his first request for a show of support from the Likud's membership.
(JTA) - Jews to meet Mubarak
A group of U.S. Jewish officials will travel to Houston next month to meet with Egypt's president. About 20 Jewish leaders are expected to press Hosni Mubarak on April 14 to support Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and stop presenting anti-Israel initiatives at the United Nations and other international bodies. The officials will travel to Houston to meet Mubarak after he meets with President Bush on April 12. The meeting with the Jewish officials is planned for the same day Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is due to meet Bush at the White House. However, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League said he won't attend the meeting because Egypt skipped recent Israeli celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of its peace treaty with Israel. "There have to be consequences for behavior that is insulting and offensive to the Jewish community," Abraham Foxman said.
(JTA) - Palestinians tried to recruit boy
Palestinian terrorists reportedly tried to recruit another teenager as a suicide bomber. The family of ninth- grader Tamer Khweirah said he was locked in a dark room and lured with clothes, a cell phone and promises of paradise, his family said, according to the Jerusalem Post. He eventually was extricated by an older brother. Tamer is one of four boys arrested by Israel on charges that they were recruited by Hamas.
(JTA) - Swastikas in Canada
Several swastikas were painted on a Toronto-area business before it was damaged by fire and an explosion. Police have been unable to enter the building because it sustained severe structural damage, estimated at almost $200,000, in the incident Sunday night. The business was not Jewish-owned, according to Kathleen Griffin, a spokeswoman for the York Region Police. "We're not saying it's a hate crime," she said. "We're not sure what we've got here until we can go in and begin to investigate."
(JTA) - Media wars hit S. Africa
South Africa's central Jewish organization criticized a South African newspaper that called on Jews to condemn Israel's killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin. "Has the Sunday Times ever called upon South African Muslims to condemn the multiple human rights violations that members of their faith are committing all over the world?" said Michael Bagraim, national chairman of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. Reacting to a similar editorial in the Mail and Guardian newspaper last Friday, Bagraim said it sought to "emotionally blackmail South African Jewry into denouncing the actions of its co-religionists."
(JTA) - Greece pressed on cartoons
The Anti-Defamation League called on Greece's prime minister to condemn anti-Semitism after a series of anti-Semitic cartoons appeared in Greek newspapers. In one of the cartoons in the newspaper Eleftheroptypia, a woman asks, "Why did the Jewish government kill a religious leader?" A man replies, "They are practicing for Easter."
(JTA) - Hitler wax dummy is back
A Berlin wax museum returned an effigy of Hitler to its main exhibit hall. Inna Vollstadt returned the dummy after consulting with attorneys. "Wax museums in London and even here in the German city of Hamburg also display wax figures of Hitler," she said Tuesday.
(JTA) - Better than stamp collecting?
A Passover exhibit in Brazil features some 63 different Haggadahs. The 18-day exhibit at the Brazilian Israelite Club in Rio de Janeiro, which started Tuesday, includes a Haggadah that is accordion-shaped and one written in an African language. "The exhibit is important to make people get interested in studying the various aspects of the Exodus and the multiple comments that have been written by scholars of all generations," David Gorodovits, who gathered the collection over 30 years, told JTA. The exhibit is supported by the Rio de Janeiro Jewish Museum and the Jewish Federation.
(JTA) - Wiesel to speak to OSCE
Elie Wiesel will be the keynote speaker at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's upcoming conference on anti-Semitism. The April 28-29 conference in Berlin begins a day after Wiesel is to address representatives of European Jewish communities at a meeting sponsored by the World Jewish Congress, according to the group's executive vice president, Elan Steinberg. In addition, the WJC's president, Edgar Bronfman, will address the OSCE conference's plenary session, Steinberg said. JTA END
(JTA) - EJC, E.U. differ on anti-Semitism
The European Jewish Congress slammed European Union claims that most anti-Semitic attacks are committed by white males. The congress said a report by the E.U. Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, published Wednesday in Strasbourg, clearly showed that the majority of attacks were committed by "young Muslims of North African origin." An earlier version of the report was shelved last year, ostensibly because of faulty methodology, though the congress and many European Jewish leaders claimed the European Union had been embarrassed by the findings of Muslim anti-Semitism. The European Union issued a news release Wednesday claiming that "white far-right youths or traditional anti-Semites perpetrate most incidents of anti-Semitism in Europe," but the congress said the claim was "in direct contradiction with the EUMC report." "How can we effectively fight anti-Semitism when we refuse to identify the true perpetrators?" The secretary-general of the congress, Serge Cwajgenbaum, asked.
(JTA) - Likud likely to back Sharon plan
Ariel Sharon's Likud Party would narrowly approve his plan for Israel to disengage from the Palestinians, a survey found. According to Wednesday's opinion poll in the Yediot Achronot newspaper, 51 percent of surveyed party members back the plan to remove most Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and several in the West Bank; 36 percent oppose the plan. On Tuesday, the Likud's Central Committee approved a proposal by the Israeli prime minister to put the plan to a referendum among the party's members after his April 14 trip to Washington. The survey also found that if Sharon is forced to resign as a result of a corruption scandal, 50 percent of Likud members want Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to succeed him. The remainder of support is divided among Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
(JTA) - Scuffles in Silwan
Arabs trying to block the arrival of Jewish residents in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood scuffled with Israeli police. Six rock-throwers were arrested in the Silwan neighborhood Wednesday as a dozen heavily guarded religious Jewish families arrived in their new homes. Several Jewish groups have mounted campaigns to buy residences in eastern Jerusalem in recent years, but Arabs denounce the move as an effort to "Judaize" Israel's capital city.
(JTA) - Two terrorists killed in Gaza
Israeli soldiers killed two would-be infiltrators in the Gaza Strip. The two Palestinians were shot while sneaking up on an army post at the Neve Dekalim settlement before dawn Wednesday. Troops scoured the area on suspicion that the terrorists may have planted mines. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any Palestinian group.
(JTA) - Hamas assassination plot foiled
Hamas plotted to assassinate a senior Likud lawmaker. The Samaria Military Court on Wednesday charged a 24-year-old Hamas man with intent to assassinate "an Israeli official." Security sources said the terrorist, arrested last month, told interrogators the target was Likud lawmaker David Levy. The Hamas man, from the Jenin area, worked in Levy's hometown of Beit She'an, in northern Israel.
(JTA) - Hebron outpost evacuated
Israeli police scuffled with Jewish settlers at a Hebron outpost. Wednesday's incident at the Hazon David settlement, recently erected in the "Pilgrim's Passage," linking the Tomb of the Patriarchs with the Kiryat Arba settlement, was the second this week. Hundreds of settler youth came to the site and had to be removed by police. Israeli media quoted Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli army chief of staff, as saying the Defense Ministry had drawn up a list of additional unauthorized outposts to be removed. Under the U.S.-led "road map" peace plan, Israel is obligated to evacuate all West Bank outposts erected since March 2001 without government approval.
(JTA) - Israeli arms sales to Latin America hit $1 billion
Forty Israeli defense companies recorded a total of more than$1 billion in sales to Latin American countries during the past three years. The announcement came Tuesday at an air and space show in Chile.
(JTA) - Pro-Israel lawmaker to run again for European Parliament
One of Europe's leading pro-Israel legislators announced he will run for re-election to the European Parliament. French Socialist Francois Zimeray, who led calls last year for a parliamentary inquiry into misuse of E.U. funds by the Palestinian Authority, formally submitted his nomination to head the Socialist Party list in France's Northwest. The region is to send 12 lawmakers to the European Parliament in June elections, with the Socialists expected to take three of the seats. Zimeray enjoys widespread support in his own Normandy area, but recently there have been calls within the Socialist Party to refrain from selecting him for the region because of his strong support for a more balanced E.U. approach to the Middle East conflict, Zimeray aide Virginie Tilhet-Coartet told JTA.
(JTA) - Technion gets $100 million
A philanthropist pledged $100 million to support Israel's leading scientific university. Alfred Mann's pledge will help establish the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. The institute will focus on developing medical devices and processes to improve people's health.
(JTA) - Spanish diplomats honored
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and the Spanish Embassy in Buenos Aires honored eight Spanish diplomats who saved Jews and others persecuted in the Holocaust. "Only three weeks after the criminal attack in Madrid, we have the opportunity to remember Spanish people who made a cause of solidarity and courage," Baruj Tenembaum, founder of the foundation, said at Tuesday's event. The foundation is a non- governmental organization dedicated to educational projects.
(JTA) - UJC taps new CEO
The United Jewish Communities has tapped Howard Rieger, president of the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh, as its next president. Rieger, who has headed the Pittsburgh federation since 1981, will succeed Stephen Hoffman, who ends his three-year term this summer. The UJC search committee unanimously recommended Rieger, who said he would accept the job, according to UJC's chairman of the board, Robert Goldberg. The UJC board of trustees is expected to approve the recommendation.
(JTA) - Al-Aksa Brigade: U.S. out!
A Palestinian terrorist group released a statement saying it would not accept U.S. officials in Palestinian areas. Tuesday's statement by the Al-Aksa Brigade criticized the United States for vetoing a recent U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The warning comes as three high-level Bush administration officials arrive in the region to get more details on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. "The visit is rejected completely, and the American administration will not like the circumstances of such a visit," the statement said.
(JTA) - Sharon wants Gaza referendum
Ariel Sharon told members of his Likud Party that he will seek their approval for a Gaza withdrawal after he presents the plan to President Bush. The Israeli prime minister addressed party faithful Tuesday night in Tel Aviv to counter opposition within his ruling party to his disengagement plan. Sharon said he will hold a binding party referendum on the plan upon his return from Washington next month. It would be his first request for a show of support from the Likud's membership.
(JTA) - Jews to meet Mubarak
A group of U.S. Jewish officials will travel to Houston next month to meet with Egypt's president. About 20 Jewish leaders are expected to press Hosni Mubarak on April 14 to support Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and stop presenting anti-Israel initiatives at the United Nations and other international bodies. The officials will travel to Houston to meet Mubarak after he meets with President Bush on April 12. The meeting with the Jewish officials is planned for the same day Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is due to meet Bush at the White House. However, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League said he won't attend the meeting because Egypt skipped recent Israeli celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of its peace treaty with Israel. "There have to be consequences for behavior that is insulting and offensive to the Jewish community," Abraham Foxman said.
(JTA) - Palestinians tried to recruit boy
Palestinian terrorists reportedly tried to recruit another teenager as a suicide bomber. The family of ninth- grader Tamer Khweirah said he was locked in a dark room and lured with clothes, a cell phone and promises of paradise, his family said, according to the Jerusalem Post. He eventually was extricated by an older brother. Tamer is one of four boys arrested by Israel on charges that they were recruited by Hamas.
(JTA) - Swastikas in Canada
Several swastikas were painted on a Toronto-area business before it was damaged by fire and an explosion. Police have been unable to enter the building because it sustained severe structural damage, estimated at almost $200,000, in the incident Sunday night. The business was not Jewish-owned, according to Kathleen Griffin, a spokeswoman for the York Region Police. "We're not saying it's a hate crime," she said. "We're not sure what we've got here until we can go in and begin to investigate."
(JTA) - Media wars hit S. Africa
South Africa's central Jewish organization criticized a South African newspaper that called on Jews to condemn Israel's killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin. "Has the Sunday Times ever called upon South African Muslims to condemn the multiple human rights violations that members of their faith are committing all over the world?" said Michael Bagraim, national chairman of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. Reacting to a similar editorial in the Mail and Guardian newspaper last Friday, Bagraim said it sought to "emotionally blackmail South African Jewry into denouncing the actions of its co-religionists."
(JTA) - Greece pressed on cartoons
The Anti-Defamation League called on Greece's prime minister to condemn anti-Semitism after a series of anti-Semitic cartoons appeared in Greek newspapers. In one of the cartoons in the newspaper Eleftheroptypia, a woman asks, "Why did the Jewish government kill a religious leader?" A man replies, "They are practicing for Easter."
(JTA) - Hitler wax dummy is back
A Berlin wax museum returned an effigy of Hitler to its main exhibit hall. Inna Vollstadt returned the dummy after consulting with attorneys. "Wax museums in London and even here in the German city of Hamburg also display wax figures of Hitler," she said Tuesday.
(JTA) - Better than stamp collecting?
A Passover exhibit in Brazil features some 63 different Haggadahs. The 18-day exhibit at the Brazilian Israelite Club in Rio de Janeiro, which started Tuesday, includes a Haggadah that is accordion-shaped and one written in an African language. "The exhibit is important to make people get interested in studying the various aspects of the Exodus and the multiple comments that have been written by scholars of all generations," David Gorodovits, who gathered the collection over 30 years, told JTA. The exhibit is supported by the Rio de Janeiro Jewish Museum and the Jewish Federation.
(JTA) - Wiesel to speak to OSCE
Elie Wiesel will be the keynote speaker at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's upcoming conference on anti-Semitism. The April 28-29 conference in Berlin begins a day after Wiesel is to address representatives of European Jewish communities at a meeting sponsored by the World Jewish Congress, according to the group's executive vice president, Elan Steinberg. In addition, the WJC's president, Edgar Bronfman, will address the OSCE conference's plenary session, Steinberg said. JTA END
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