From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
House committee approves missile defense funding for Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee approved $474 million for Israel’s anti-missile systems.
Included in the U.S.-Israel cooperative missile defense funds is $41.4 million for the short-range Iron Dome rocket defense system, which Israel says was key in repelling rocket attacks during last summer’s war with Hamas.
Also included in the amendment approved Thursday are $165 million for David’s Sling, another short-range system, and the longer-range Arrow-3 missile defense programs, as well as $267.6 million in research and development funds.
Reps. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the committee chairman, and Adam Smith (D-Wash.), its ranking Democrat, initiated the allocation as as an amendment to the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which now must be approved by the full House and Senate.
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From PressTV
Israeli troops clash with Palestinians in West Bank
Tel Aviv regime’s forces have attacked Palestinian demonstrators protesting against the ongoing Israeli settlement building in the occupied territories, and injured several protesters.
On Friday, dozens of Palestinians held a demonstration in Kafr Qaddum village, near Nablus in the occupied West Bank, to express their resentment over the ongoing Israeli settlement building and the separation wall.
The angry demonstrators chanted slogans against the expropriation and the confiscation of Palestinian land by Israel.
Local residents said that the demonstrations were largely peaceful until Israeli forces assaulted the protesters and fired teargas canisters to break up the protest. The protesters pelted stones at Israeli forces in return.
In a separate incident, a 31-year-old Palestinian man was shot dead by unknown gunmen in a village near Nablus.
Similar rallies were also held in several other towns and regions across the occupied territories.
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From PressTV
Israeli forces killed 7, detained 375 Palestinians in April, NGO says
A Palestinian nongovernmental organization (NGO) says Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians and detained hundreds of others in the occupied West Bank as well as the besieged Gaza Strip in the course of last month.
The Ahrar Center for Prisoner Studies and Human Rights said in a statement on Friday that the Israeli forces fatally shot seven Palestinians in the Palestinian territories, and arrested at least 375 others, among them 50 children, in April.
The statement added that 113 Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), while 86 were abducted in al-Khalil, 54 in Nablus, 40 in Bethlehem and 29 in Ramallah.
According to the statement, Israeli forces also arrested 26 Palestinians in Jenin, 11 in Qalqilya, four in Tulkarm and one in Salfit – all Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank.
The Nablus-based NGO further noted that Israeli forces abducted 11 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
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From PressTV
Gaza situation miserable due to Israel siege: Official
The daily living situation is seriously miserable in the besieged Gaza Strip with unemployment rate rising to 60 percent in the Israeli-blockaded coastal enclave, says a Palestinian official.
Palestinian Labor Minister Ma’moun Abu Shahla said in an interview with Xinhua on Thursday that Israel’s blockade of Gaza has resulted in growing rates of poverty and unemployment.
“The reality of workers here is difficult and painful amid a relevant growth of poverty and unemployment rates,” Abu Shahla said. “It is all due to an endless Israeli blockade that has been imposed on Gaza for eight years and damaged its economy.”
He called on all Arab and international organizations to help end the Israeli blockade.
The Palestinian minister also said that Israel’s three large-scale wars on the Gaza Strip over the past seven years not only killed and wounded a large number of people, but also ruined the economic infrastructure, adding that “500 economic establishments were destroyed in the Gaza Strip” as a result of the wars.
From PressTV
UN urges Israel to end blockade on Gaza Strip
The United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process has renewed calls on Israel to end its blockade on the Gaza Strip, which was hit by the Tel Aviv regime’s devastating military aggression last summer.
“We in the United Nations, along with our partners in the international community, have a responsibility to ensure that Gaza is not just being reconstructed… but that the blockade which stops access to construction materials, to movement of people, goods… is lifted,” Nickolay Mladenov told reporters in Gaza City on Thursday.
Tel Aviv imposed an all-out land, aerial, and naval blockade on Gaza in June 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty. The siege has turned the densely-populated coastal sliver, home to some 1.7 million Palestinians, into the largest open-air prison in the world.
Israel launched a 50-day bloody war on Gaza last summer that ended in August 2014 with an Egyptian-brokered truce. The aggression left about 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children, dead and over 11,100 others injured.
The UN official also emphasized the need for stronger unity among Palestinian factions, expressing hope that the world body will be able to support efforts aimed at strengthening reconciliation among the groups.
“I strongly believe that it will hurt the cause of the Palestinian people if division, if the lack of unity, is not addressed as soon as possible,” he said.
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From Ynet News
Ethiopian Israelis describe long history of discrimination
A video depicting a police officer brutally beating an Ethiopian-Israeli IDF soldier for no visible reason sparked outrage in the Ethiopian community; several describe similar instances – the only difference was there was no camera to document them by chance. Recently documented incidents of violence against Israelis of Ethiopian decent are just “the tip of the iceberg,” say Ethiopian activists, who described a long history of racism which manifests in police brutality and discrimination on a regular basis.
Some 1,000 Ethiopian Israelis protested across Jerusalem on Thursday evening in the wake of the publication of two incidents of police brutality against Israeli-Ethiopian youths. The protesters clashed with police and blocked roads as well as the light-rail train in the capital. Three policemen and 12 protesters were hurt in the violent clashes, where demonstrators threw rocks at police. Two protesters were arrested.
Yayo Abraham, 30, one of the prominent activists in the Ethiopian community, claims that “policemen stop us on the street without cause, and Interior Ministry inspectors identify us as Eritreans.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
14 Baltimore-area rabbis to attend rally for Freddie Gray
(JTA) — Fourteen rabbis in the Baltimore region will join a rally and march for “police reform and justice for Freddie Gray.”
The rally, organized by Baltimore United for Change, a coalition of grassroots organizations that focus on systemic inequality, was scheduled to begin Friday at 3 p.m. and was expected to draw hundreds of activists, including “dozens” from Jews United for Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based community organization, according to a news release issued by the organization.
Earlier in the day one Baltimore police officer was charged with murder, three with manslaughter and two with assault in the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African-American Baltimore resident who prosecutors say suffered a broken neck while shackled in a van with police who ignored his pleas for medical attention.
“Jews United for Justice and the Jewish community stand with our neighbors in Baltimore calling for justice for Freddie Gray,” Molly Amster, the Baltimore director of Jews United for Justice said in a statement on Friday. “We thank State’s Attorney Mosby for her swift and decisive action today in charging all six officers in the homicide of Freddie Gray … The city of Baltimore must also do its part to address longstanding and systematic discrimination against communities of color and make significant investments in housing and job training in West Baltimore.”
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From PressTV
Israeli police, Ethiopian protesters clash in al-Quds
Israeli security forces have clashed with Ethiopians protesting police brutality against the Africans living in the occupied Palestinian lands.
The clashes broke out on Thursday when hundreds of Ethiopians held a protest rally near a major junction in al-Quds (Jerusalem).
The protesters blocked roads in the city and demanded an investigation into racism and violence by Israeli police against Africans.
The demonstrators then marched toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence but were attacked by security forces.
Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said two officers were injured after protesters threw stones and bottles at them during the demonstration.
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The Independent
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
AIPAC opposes amendments to Iran bill it would ‘ordinarily support’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee opposes amendments it would “ordinarily support” to a bill mandating congressional review of an Iran nuclear deal.
An AIPAC official confirmed Friday that the group had earlier in the week sent a letter to all Senate offices urging them to “refrain from supporting provisions that could harm” bipartisan support for the bill.
Noah Pollak, the director of the Emergency Committee for Israel, which backs some of the amendments, posted a copy of the letter on Twitter on Thursday.
“We know that senators will offer amendments on a wide range of initiatives, many of which AIPAC would ordinarily support,” the letter said. “However, our paramount consideration during Senate consideration of this bill is to ensure speedy enactment of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Act by preserving its broad, bipartisan support – so that Congress assures itself a seat at the table in deliberations on any nuclear agreement with Iran.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
IDF investigates suspected gang rape at air force base
(JTA) – Four troops are suspected of raping a female soldier in one of the Israel Defense Forces’ worst-ever sex crime cases.
Military Police detectives suspect the soldiers took turns raping the soldier last month at the Hatzerim Israel Air Force base near Beersheba, according to a report Thursday by Israel Radio.
One of the soldiers is believed to have filmed at least part of the assault, according to a report by the news site nrg.co.il.
The suspects, who are responsible for maintenance on the base, have been placed under arrest pending the investigation. The alleged victim was at first reluctant to press charges but was persuaded to do so at the request of her commanding officers on Tuesday, the IDF spokesperson’s unit said in a statement.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Indiana senate passes anti-BDS resolution
(JTA) – Indiana’s state senate passed a nonbinding resolution opposing boycotts of Israel.
Resolution 74, adopted earlier this week, makes Indiana’s legislature the second in the United States to pass a resolution condemning BDS, or the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign. Tennessee passed a similar appeal last month.
The Indiana House of Representatives unanimously passed the anti-BDS House Resolution 59 on April 22. The measure now goes to Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for his signature.
Last week, the student senate at Earlham College, a Quaker liberal arts institution in Indiana, passed a resolution demanding divestment from U.S. companies that profit from what its authors called Israeli violations of Palestinians’ rights.
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From Russia Today
Moscow denies agreeing deployment of peacekeepers in Ukraine
The peacekeeper initiative was discussed on Thursday in a phone conversation between the so-called Normandy Four – the leaders of France, Germany Russia and Ukraine – which brokered the ceasefire agreement between the Ukrainian government and rebel forces. The office of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed in a statementthat Russia’s “President Putin agreed to an opportunity of deploying peacekeeping contingent in Donbass.”
“That is not true,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Friday. “The Russian side never challenged the idea of peacekeepers but neither Russia nor any other party guaranteeing the Minsk deal can agree to it, because first of all the parties in the conflict, i.e. Kiev and Donbass, have to agree on it.”
He added that Russia believes that any peacekeeper deployment would be relevant only after all points of the Minsk agreement are fully implemented and suggested that the OSCE – as the leading security institution involved in tackling the Ukrainian crisis – should be given priority in the mission.
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