From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Palestinian worker crushed to death at West Bank checkpoint
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian man was crushed to death as he tried to get through West Bank checkpoint to go to work in Israel.
Ahmad Samih Bdeir, 39, a construction worker from the village of Farun in the northern West Bank, died Wednesday morning at the Efraim checkpoint, also known as al-Tayba, near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.
Bdeir reportedly was choked to death in the crush of people trying to get through the checkpoint.
More than 15,000 Palestinian workers pass through al-Tayba checkpoint every day, Maan reported, citing the Palestinian Federation of Trade Unions. A year ago, another worker reportedly died due to extreme overcrowding at the checkpoint.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Aliyah reaches 10-year high in 2014
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Aliyah reached a ten-year high in Israel in 2014 with about 26,500 new immigrants.
The figures released Wednesday, on the last day of 2014, by The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, marked a 32 percent increase in worldwide aliyah over the previous year, which saw about 20,000 new olim.
For the first time ever, according to the Jewish Agency, more immigrants came from France than from any other country. Nearly 7,000 olim from France arrived in Israel in 2014, double the 3,400 who came in 2013.
Aliyah from the Ukraine was up 190 percent over the previous year, with 5,840 new immigrants, compared to some 2,020 in 2013. The increase is due primarily to the ongoing instability in the eastern part of the country, according to the Jewish Agency, which with the Absorption Ministry is expanding operations in Ukraine and offering immigrants from there special financial assistance.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
British soccer boss suspended for saying Jews chase money
(JTA) — The English Football Association banned the owner of a British soccer club from all soccer-related activities for six weeks over anti-Semitic and racist slurs.
Dave Whelan, who owns the Wigan Athletic Football Club near Manchester, was also fined $78,000 and ordered to participate in an educational program run by the Football Association in the decision announced on Wednesday. He has seven days to appeal the penalty, though the Football Association said in a statement that Whelan accepted the punishment.
In November, Whelan, 78, told the British newspaper The Guardian that “Jewish people chase money more than everybody else.” He also used the term “Chink” to describe a foreign businessman.
He was defending his decision to name Malky Mackay as the club’s manager despite a British Football Association inquiry into Mackay for alleged racism and anti-Semitism in email and text exchanges.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
HarperCollins apologizes for leaving Israel off maps
(JTA) — The HarperCollins publishing house apologized for omitted Israel from maps in atlases that it sells to English-speaking schools in the Middle East.
“HarperCollins regrets the omission of the name Israel from their Collins Middle East Atlas. This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologizes for this omission and for any offense caused,” it said in a statement released late Wednesday.
It remained available on vendors’ websites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble on Thursday, however.
The apology came less than a day after Collins Bartholomew, a map-publishing company that is a subsidiary of HarperCollins, told The Tablet, an international Catholic news weekly based in London, that including Israel in its “Collins Primary Geography Atlas For The Middle East” would have been “unacceptable” to their customers in the Gulf and that leaving Israel off the maps incorporated “local preferences.”
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