An RT Arabic TV crew was attacked by Israeli police while covering the Jerusalem Day march in the Old City. Although the journalists had all documents permitting them to cover the event, the police prevented them from going live.

“After a terrible time we had to pass through check points that they erected everywhere along the Old City, they asked us to move away from the Damascus gate point. They didn’t do it gently, they pushed us and broke our camera,” RT Arabic reporter Dalia Nammari later told RT International.

The reporter added that other journalists covering the event were treated the same “brutal” way by the Israeli police.

الاعتداء على الفلسطينيين في القدس من قبل القوات الإسرائيلية قبيل مسيرة المستوطنين في ذكرى احتلال #القدسpic.twitter.com/apcQa0EUAk
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From Ynet News

New justice minister seeks change to Supreme Court power

Ayelet Shaked says balance between Supreme Court and Knesset should be found; ‘I will not be the one to soften the court’s bite, but I will also not allow it to eat away at the legal authority of the legislative and executive branches,’ she says. New Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said on Sunday she would seek a new balance that would rein in the powers of the Supreme Court over the Knesset and the government, a policy critics fear would restrict judicial oversight.
The appointment of Bayit Yehudi’s Shaked as justice minister has caused a stir in Israel and abroad over her party’s judicial policies, which opponents say will harm democracy.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

From the Archive: The idealistic outlaw who built the Israel Air Force

By Julie WienerMay 17, 2015 2:48pm

The role of overseas volunteers in building the Israel Air Forces has inspired three new films.

One volunteer who played a pivotal role and gets considerable attention in the new documentary, “On a Wing and a Prayer,” was Al Schwimmer, a World War II veteran whose efforts to secure aircraft and weapons for Israel during its War of Independence ultimately cost him his U.S. citizenship. (In 2001, a decade before his death, Schwimmer, whose rarely used given name was Adolph, was pardoned and his citizenship restored.)

In April of 1949, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Schwimmer and eight others (among them one woman, Elynor Rudnick), charging them with violating the Neutrality Act and export control laws by conspiring to ship airplanes and other materials to Israel. A month later, Schwimmer and two others (Leon Gardner and William Sosnow) who, JTA noted, had “just returned from the battlefields of Israel,” surrendered themselves to L.A. authorities. The three had the support of 10 “leading Jewish organizations,” including Hadassah and the American Jewish Congress, which issued a statement “pointing out that they are accused of aiding victims of aggression and that most of the youths named in the indictment are veterans of World War II.”

Ultimately, Schwimmer, Gardner and Selk were convicted and fined $10,000 each. Schwimmer, who moved to Israel soon after and founded Israel Aircraft Industries, Ltd., later told JTA that the Jewish Agency for Israel covered the fines and court costs.
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From Ynet News

Rabbi Levi Brackman

The benefits of cardinals and rabbis dancing together

As common dialogue and learning blossoms, not only will Jews and Catholics be the beneficiaries; humanity as a whole will be better off. After 1,800 years of persecution at their hands, we Jews are challenged by any love directed at us from Christians. Nonetheless, many of us have made peace with Evangelicals expressing their love and admiration for Jews and for Israel. But Catholic love for Jews – well, that’s a different story.
 

But there it was, Father Guiseppe, a Catholic priest, was offering me an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel for a conference of rabbis, bishops, cardinals and priests. When I asked what he wanted in return, his response was: “Nothing, we recognize that Christianity has its roots in the Jewish faith and we therefore want dialogue with rabbis. This trip and conference is simply a gesture of love from us to you.”

Although I was deeply skeptical, his sincerity coupled with my constant desire to visit the Holy Land would not allow me to reject his offer.So last week I traveled to Israel for a historic meeting, organized by the Catholic Church’s Neocatechumenal Way, of Jewish religious leaders, from Reform to ultra-Orthodox, with leaders of the Catholic Church at Domus Galilaeae on the shores of Lake Kinneret. We ate, prayed, danced, and dialoged together for three days.