From PressTV
Israel gives demolition notice to Palestinian families
Israel’s security forces have delivered a demolition notice to the family of three Palestinians who carried out attacks on Israelis in al-Quds (Jerusalem) in recent days.
On Thursday, the families of Ibrahim Akkari and Muhammad Jaabis, who drove their cars into sidewalks in August, as well as Mutaz Hijazi, who shot an Israeli rabbi last month, were told that their homes would be demolished within 48 hours.
The demolition warnings come one day after Israeli soldiers destroyed the house of Palestinian man Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi in the occupied West Bank over claims that he was involved in recent attacks against Israelis.
Shaludi reportedly rammed his car into a railway stop in al-Quds, killing two people on October 22. He later died of injuries sustained from Israeli forces’ gunfire.
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From PressTV
Israel forces protect aggressive settlers: Video
Video footage has emerged showing Israeli troops protecting settlers who attack a Palestinian village in the north of the occupied West Bank.
The video shows some 50 settlers form the Yitzhar settlement attacking the village of Urif on Tuesday night.
Defying their obligations, the forces are shown not only refusing to step in to stop the aggressive settlers, but even escorting them. Some of the soldiers appear to fire crowd-dispersal weapons at young Palestinians who had gathered on the edge of the village.
Israeli human rights NGO Yesh Din said a 13-year-old student from the village school was lightly wounded by a stone thrown at his head.
“IDF soldiers have the obligation, based on international law and High Court of Justice rulings, to protect Palestinian residents from violence, and IDF soldiers have the authority to detain suspects, including Israeli suspects, until the police arrive,” Yesh Din said in a statement.
“Once again we discover,” Israeli soldiers “failing to meet their obligation to protect Palestinians subjected to vicious attacks by settlers in their own backyards,” said attorney Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, legal advisor to Yesh Din’s criminal accountability of Israeli security forces project.
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From PressTV
Israeli mayor bans hiring of Arab workers for constructing kindergartens
The mayor of the Israeli city of Ashkelon has banned the employment of Arabs for construction work at kindergartens.
Itamar Shimoni claimed on Wednesday that he issued the order when he came under pressure from “worried parents.”
He added that he would freeze special construction work to keep Arab workers away from schools in the southern city.
Security forces also have been stationed at kindergartens near construction sites.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Jewish groups’ security adviser to lead U.S. foreign fighter task force
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The mayor of Ashkelon was criticized for laying off city Arab workers in the aftermath of the deadly synagogue attack in Jerusalem.
Itamar Shimoni ordered a halt to construction work on bomb shelters in the city’s preschools to prevent Arab workers from entering the city beginning Thursday, he announced in a Facebook post the previous evening.
The decision is a temporary one, Shimoni told Army Radio on Thursday. He said that parents were uncomfortable with the Arab workers around their children and had asked for additional armed security guards when the workers were present.
The move comes two days after two Palestinians from eastern Jerusalem killed five people in the synagogue attack in western Jerusalem.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Congressional appropriators warn Abbas on incitement
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Top congressional appropriators told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Congress “remains committed” to conditions for continued funding of the P.A., including controlling incitement.
“This aid is predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to countering terrorism and pursuing a comprehensive peace with Israel,” said the letter sent Thursday signed by Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the committee and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), the chairwoman of its foreign operations subcommittee.
“U.S. law also clearly stipulates that the Palestinian Authority must act to counter the incitement of violence against Israelis in order to continue receiving U.S. assistance,” the letter said, adding: “We remain resolute in our commitment to these conditions.”
The United States grants the Palestinian Authority about $500 million in assistance annually.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Jewish lawmaker in Antwerp calls on government to fund security
(JTA) — In the wake of the stabbing of an Orthodox Jew in Antwerp, a Flemish Jewish politician demanded the government cover the community’s security costs of $1 million a year.
Claude Marinower, Antwerp’s alderman for education, made the demand in an interview that appeared in the Joods Actueel monthly on Thursday – several days after Yehosha Malik, 31, was stabbed in the neck by an unknown assailant while he was walking to synagogue for prayer services.
“Jewish families should not have to cover these costs,” Marinower said. “It is the government’s job to make sure its citizens can live in safety.”
According to the monthly, Jewish families pay $100 a month per every child they send to a Jewish public school so that the school may pay for the extra security measures deemed necessary by the community’s security officials.
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From PressTV
Gaza children protest against living conditions
On Wednesday, many Gazan children and women took to the streets on Universal Children’s Day to protest against the delay in reconstruction in the blockaded enclave, which was heavily damaged during Tel Aviv’s latest military aggression, urging everyone to put an end to their dilemma.
“The rights of our children have been violated; they live on the street blockade with lack of security and under the repression, they ought to be heard on Universal Children’s Day,” a Gazan woman told Press TV.
Another mother said that the objective was “to deliver the message of these children to the international community and assure the rights of our children to live and learn and have life full of dignity and security.”
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Showdown Over Nazis at Museum of Jewish Heritage
By Josh Nathan-Kazis
Eric Lichtblau and his new book, “The Nazis Next Door.”
It’s not often that a museum director gets booed on his own stage.
Yet that’s what happened to David Marwell in the auditorium of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in downtown Manhattan, when an event on New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau’s new book, “The Nazis Next Door,” went sour.
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