From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Swiss court orders Israel to pay Iran $1.1 billion
(JTA) – A Swiss court has ordered Israel to pay $1.1 billion to Iran over a shah-era oil debt.
The debt harkens back to a 1968 agreement in which the government-controlled National Iranian Oil Company shipped oil through Israeli ports and sold crude oil to Israel. Under the agreement, Israel was allowed three months after delivery of the oil to pay its bills, according to the The Jerusalem Post.
After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when the new rulers in Tehran ended the oil shipments, Israel failed to pay for its final oil deliveries, amounting to $450 million, according to the International Business Times. Israel also nationalized joint Iranian-Israeli oil interests, the Iranians alleged.
Iran filed a lawsuit over the debt in the early 1990s, and commercial arbitration courts in Switzerland and France dealt with the issue. Israel, represented by Israeli lawyers, argued that Iran was responsible for breaking its agreements, according to the Post.
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From PressTV
Israeli soldiers shoot, injure Palestinian kid in al-Quds
A Palestinian child has suffered critical injuries after Israeli military forces opened fire and shot him with a rubber-coated steel bullet near a refugee camp in northeastern al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Witnesses said the victim, identified as 10-year-old Yahiya Sami al-Amudi, was walking near a checkpoint close to the Shuafat refugee camp on Thursday, when he came under attack.
Amudi, who is reportedly in a critical condition, was shifted to Hadassah Hospital in the southwestern al-Quds neighborhood of Ein Karem, where doctors discovered evidence of a skull fracture and a broken jaw. His left eye was so damaged that it had to be surgically removed.
Israeli forces and settlers regularly engage in violence against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds, in 1967.
Settlers, mostly armed, almost regularly attack Palestinian villages and farms and set fire to their mosques, olive groves and other properties in the occupied West Bank.
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From Russia Today
‘It’s all ours’: Israeli deputy FM slams Western interference, saying Holy Land is Jewish
Edited time: May 22, 2015 10:45
Israel’s new deputy foreign minister has lashed out at the international community’s attempts to create a two-state solution with Palestine. Tzipi Hotovely told Israeli diplomatic representatives aboard that the Holy Land belongs to the Jews.
The 36-year-old, who previously served as the deputy transport minister in the last government under Benjamin Netanyahu, cited a number of religious texts to back up her claim that the Land of Israel is the rightful home of the Jews.
“We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country,” she said in her speech, which was cited by AP. “This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologize for that.”
Hotovely’s comments come in the wake of reports by the French newspaper Le Figaro, which say France is proposing a UN Security Council draft resolution, to reduce a deadline from two years to 18 months for negotiations to cease concerning the creation of a Palestinian state.
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From Ynet News
Washington is waiting for Israel’s demands on Iran
Israeli officials are divided over when to ask for American war machines, and which, in return for acquiescence on the Iranian nuclear deal; meanwhile, US officials are asking, ‘Where has Israel’s schnorrer culture gone?’
The Foreign Ministry, intelligence community and even AIPAC believe that the deal with Iran over its nuclear program is done, and even the US Congress will not be able to stop it from being signed. As such, they now believe it might be time to shift gears.
Officials in Jerusalem have now realized that instead of continuing to fight a lost cause, Israel has another route that could help secure its interests – namely, asking the US for compensation in the form of expensive weapons or other benefits.The current debate among these officials is over which way Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should go – whether he should accept the deal through gritted teeth and demand a high price for acquiescence in the form of expensive weaponry, or continue to fight it.
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From The Times of Israel
Wary Israel watches latest UN bid to force it to come clean on nukes
State Department official holds talks in Jerusalem as US denies it will abandon pledge to protect Israel from damaging international pressure
Official Israel was on Thursday maintaining a stony silence, but insiders said they were concerned that the Obama administration might not block new efforts by a UN conference to force Israel to come clean on its nuclear capabilities as a step toward a nuclear-free Middle East.
The United States has sent a top official to Israel to discuss the question of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, a central issue of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference that is set to adopt its closing resolutions on Friday.
At the previous conference, in 2010, to Israel’s dismay, the Obama administration signed onto the final documentwhich called for a conference of all Middle Eastern states to move forward on a 1995 proposal for a nuclear-free Mideast and which urged Israel to sign the NPT treaty and place “all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards.” Later, though, President Barack Obama and his then national security adviser James Jones denounced efforts to single out Israel.
“We strongly oppose efforts to single out Israel, and will oppose actions that jeopardize Israel’s national security,” Obama said. And Jones said he “deplores” the singling out of Israel, which he said placed the prospect of the planned conference in doubt.
On Thursday, the State Department confirmed that Thomas Countryman, assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, was in Israel to discuss the NPT issue. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman declined comment on Countryman’s visit, saying it was a “very sensitive” matter. Other officials also refused to comment.
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From The Times of Israel
On Syrian border, Hezbollah faces its ‘hardest’ battle
Shiite group says it is fighting to secure the mountainous Qalamun area ‘to protect Lebanon’ from jihadists
AFP — On a windy hilltop overlooking the mountainous Syrian border, a fighter from Lebanon’s Hezbollah says the battle against Syrian rebels in the area is among the toughest the group has ever faced.
The powerful Lebanese Shiite movement, a key ally of the government in Damascus, has fought across Syria in the years since an uprising began in 2011.
In the past two weeks, Hezbollah says it has secured around a third of the Qalamun region, territory on both the Lebanese and Syrian sides of the porous border.
“This is one of the hardest battles we have fought,” said a Hezbollah fighter in Qalamun, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Everyone knows that fighting in the mountains is the hardest kind of fighting there is, up there with fighting in cities.”
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From The Times of Israel
‘Birthplace of civilization’ faces final ruin by jihadists
Destruction of Palmyra, once fortified by Solomon, would be ‘enormous loss to humanity,’ UNESCO chief warns as Islamic State overruns town
The destruction of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Palmyra would be an “enormous loss to humanity,” the head of the organization warned Thursday, after Islamic State fighters seized the ancient Syrian city and archaeological site.
“Palmyra is an extraordinary World Heritage site in the desert and any destruction to Palmyra (would be) not just a war crime but … an enormous loss to humanity,” said Irina Bokova in a video published by the Paris-based group.
She added that she was “extremely worried” about recent events there and reiterated an appeal for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of military forces.
“At the end of the day, it’s the birthplace of human civilization. It belongs to the whole of humanity and I think everyone today should be worried about what is happening,” added the UNESCO chief.
Earlier Thursday, Islamic State group jihadists seized full control of the city, putting the world heritage site and its priceless artifacts at risk of destruction.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Obama: Disagreeing with Israel is necessary to defend it
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Open disagreement with Israel on some of its policies is a necessary component of the U.S. defense of Israel in the international community, President Barack Obama said.
Obama, in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg posted Thursday on The Atlantic’s website, singled out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Election Day appeal in March to his followers to vote because Arab-Israeli voters were turning out in “hordes.”
Obama strongly criticized the appeal, and Netanyahu later apologized to Arab-Israeli leaders.
“When something like that happens, that has foreign-policy consequences, and precisely because we’re so close to Israel, for us to simply stand there and say nothing would have meant that this office, the Oval Office, lost credibility when it came to speaking out on these issues,” Obama said.
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From PressTV
Greece to hold parliamentary vote on recognition of Palestine state
The Greek government plans to hold a parliamentary vote on recognizing Palestine as an independent and sovereign state.
“The recognition of the state of Palestine will be on agenda in the Greek parliament in the coming weeks,” the Sputnik news service quoted a source in Greece’s ruling Syriza party as saying on Thursday.
The source noted that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also expected to participate in the voting session.
Earlier this month, the Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty. According to the treaty, which was finalized on May 13, the Holy See switched its diplomatic relations from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the state of Palestine.
“By the example of Vatican and other European nations, Athens will hold a parliament voting on the issue of the recognition of Palestine. At the initiative of the Syriza party, the Greek parliament plans to recognize the state of Palestine along the 1967 borders,” the source in the Greek party added.
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From The Times of Israel
OECD report: Inequality worst in Israel and US
Study cites need to encourage more women to join the workforce in ‘high-quality’ jobs
When it comes to inequality, Israel is second only to the United States among developed nations, an OECD report released Thursday said.
In Israel, the richest 10 percent earn 15 times more than the poorest 10 percent, a lot more than the average gap between haves and have-nots among OECD nations, which is 9.6 times.
The average income of the top 10 percent in the US was 19 times higher than that of the bottom 10 percent in 2013. The US figure rose from just 11 times higher 30 years ago, the OECD says.
An increase in part-time and temporary work contracts as well as self-employment was seen as an important driver of increased inequality, with half of all jobs created in OECD countries between 1995 and 2013 falling into these categories.
The report also found that as inequality rose, there were significant falls in educational attainment and skills among families in lower income groups, leading to much wasted potential and lower social mobility.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Switzerland defends funding for Israeli leftist group
ZURICH, Switzerland (JTA) — Swiss government officials defended their decision to fund an exhibition by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli group that purports to expose alleged Israeli war crimes.
Breaking the Silence is scheduled to put on the exhibition next month at Zurich’s Kulturhaus Helferei with funding from the Swiss federal government and the municipality, Swiss officials confirmed this week to the news site nrg.co.il, citing Switzerland’s “commitment to increasing dialogue about human rights.”
Founded in Israel in 2004, Breaking the Silence uses testimonies, mostly anonymous, by Israeli soldiers who recount their experiences serving in the West Bank and their interactions with Arab population there as well as in eastern Jerusalem, Lebanon and Gaza. Breaking the Silence’s founders have said they wish to end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
“This event featuring a highly politicized fringe Israeli organization is inappropriately and immorally sponsored by the Swiss foreign ministry, the Municipality of Zurich and several church groups that are active in anti-Israel campaigns,” the NGO Monitor group wrote in a statement published Thursday about the planned event.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Polish regulation to give pensions to 20,000 Holocaust survivors
(JTA) — New Polish regulations entitle Holocaust survivors born in that country to monthly pension payments of $130, restitution officials said.
The regulations that went into effect last month are expected to benefit nearly 20,000 survivors worldwide who were not eligible for compensation, The Jewish Week of New York reported Wednesday.
Gideon Taylor, the chairman of operations at the World Jewish Restitution Organization, told the paper that his organization had been negotiating with Poland for six months before arrangements were finalized last week.
The new rules dispense with an earlier requirement for recipients to own a Polish bank account. The change was approved a year ago by the Polish parliament and President Bronisław Komorowski. It took effect last October for residents of the European Union and last month for those in the rest of the world.
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From PressTV
Gaza Strip faces dangerous fiscal crisis: World Bank
The World Bank says the besieged Gaza Strip has the world’s highest unemployment and is facing a “dangerous fiscal crisis,” nearly one year after Israel’s latest war against the coastal enclave.
In a report released on Friday, the World Bank said the current situation was the result of the ongoing Israeli blockade and its recent deadly 50-day war, which lasted from July 8 to August 26, 2014.
“The impact of the blockade imposed in 2007 was particularly devastating, with GDP losses caused by the blockade estimated at above 50 percent and large welfare losses,” the World Bank said in its report.
According to the report, the unemployment rate in Gaza increased in 2014 “to reach 44 percent,” a figure the World Bank says is “probably the highest in the world.”
The poverty rate in Palestinian territories has also reached 39 percent.
The World Bank urged the international community to take action and implement reforms in order “to avoid a dangerous fiscal crisis” in Gaza.
The report said that of the $3.5 billion pledged by the international community for Gaza’s reconstruction just 27.5 percent, or nearly $1.0 billion, had been handed out so far.
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