In Jish, an indigenous Christian minority defiantly stays in Hezbollah’s crosshairs
(CANAAN LIDOR. Time of Israel).
In plain view of a Hezbollah stronghold, Shadi Khalloul scanned a fig tree for the best fruit to offer his guests.
Time of Israel
U.S.
Court orders UCLA to form plan to protect Jewish students after anti-Israel protests
(Time of Israel).
Jewish student who sued school says university failing to foster safe environment for community on campus; UCLA says it is implementing lessons learned from spring rallies
FRANCE
Outrage after French lawmaker says Israeli athletes not welcome at Paris Olympics
(Time of Israel).
Far-left MP condemned by political allies, Jewish groups but doubles down, comparing war against Hamas to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as he seeks to ban Israel from sporting event.
ISRAEL
The Knesset vote against Palestinian statehood is terrible for Israel
(David Halperin. Time of Israel).
While the vote may score political points for Netanyahu, it harms the country’s diplomacy in the region and relations with the US
ISRAEL
Aiming to share Palestinian art, Umm al-Fahm gallery becomes Israel’s first Arab museum
(TAMAR MOR SELA. Time of Israel).
Director Said Abu Shakra frankly discusses art, his dual Israeli-Palestinian identity and family as the almost 30-year-old gallery finally gets the recognition he has dreamt of
Gaza War
Human Rights Watch details hundreds of war crimes by Hamas-led terrorists on Oct. 7
(Time of Israel).
Organization with long history of criticizing Israel says number of crimes impossible to determine, including gender-based violence; Israeli watchdog group slams ‘token’ report
Israel
The International Court of Justice never said that
(Tamar Sternthal. Time of Israel).
Saying Palestinians have ‘plausible rights to be protected from acts of genocide’ is far from an accusation of genocide
France
Prominent French Jews decry far left’s election gains amid fears of ‘new antisemitism’
(CANAAN LIDOR. Time of Israel).
French rabbi advises young French Jews to move to Israel because of mainstream discrimination; journalist says NPF victory sends message of impunity to ‘anti-Jewish Islamo-Fascists’
Prominent French Jews on Sunday lamented the electoral success of a political bloc that features a far-left party widely regarded as antisemitic in the country’s parliamentary elections.
Using burnt seeds from 1st Temple era, Israeli researchers tame a vexing dating enigma
(GAVRIEL FISKE. Time of Israel).
A team of scholars recently used a new method to conquer the Hallstatt plateau, an abiding Iron Age puzzle, and help reveal the timeline of ancient Jerusalem. Here’s how they did it
Archaeological insights are usually gleaned from small items revealed through painstaking excavations, research and analysis, each a small piece of a greater puzzle.
This approach was taken to the extreme in a recently published article making waves in the archaeology world in which an interdisciplinary team of Israeli experts employed microarchaeology methodology to gain new insights into Jerusalem’s size — larger than previously thought — and chronology during the Iron Age, which spans roughly the years 1200 to 586 BCE.
Gazans say unmoved by death of Iranian president, who brought ‘only ruin’
(Time of Israel).
Residents of Deir al-Balah complain Ebrahim Raisi did not call for a ceasefire in war with Israel, ‘never stood by us’ and so ‘means nothing to us and nothing to Gaza’
Gazans on Monday spared little thought for Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash, saying he had failed to ease the suffering in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
Raisi was confirmed dead on Monday after search and rescue teams found the remains of his helicopter, which crashed Sunday in a fog-shrouded western mountain region of Iran.
Palestinian terror group Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip and receives financial and military support from Iran, paid tribute to Raisi’s “support for the Palestinian resistance, and tireless efforts in solidarity” with Palestinians.
UN cuts by more than half the number of women, children ‘identified’ as killed in Gaza
(Jeremy Sharon. Times of Israel).
New data on Gazan fatalities cited by UN agency separates ‘identified’ deaths in hospitals from some 10,000 alleged deaths based on Hamas ‘media sources’
In a dramatic development, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has sharply revised downward the number of “identified” female and child fatalities in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The data now differentiates between the total number of deaths reported by Hamas (over 34,000) and the number of “identified” fatalities (over 24,000).
Slovenia initiates procedure to recognize Palestinian state by mid-June
(REUTERS).
The Slovenian government on Thursday initiated the procedure for the recognition of a Palestinian state as a form of leverage to end the war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in Gaza, a move it announced in March, Prime Minister Robert Golob says.
“The horrors we see every day in Gaza are inadmissible and must stop,” Golob is quoted as saying on the government X platform. “I call on Israel to put an immediate end to its attacks on Gaza and to use the negotiating table.”
Golob says he would like his country´s recognition to be “an incentive for these negotiations to proceed more quickly” and speed up the dialogue in the United Nations on an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and the security and existence of Israel through a two-state solution.
Poll: Over half of Israeli Jews see comparison between Holocaust and October 7
(SAM SOKOL. Time of Israel).
Israeli leaders have repeatedly sought to liken Hamas to the Nazis, with Prime Minister Netanyahu arguing that Hamas has the same intention’ as WWII enemy of the Jews
‘Good Jews oppose Zionism’: French Jewish students say campus no longer a safe space
(CANAAN LIDOR. Time of Israel).
A straight-A student in her final year of high school, Esther is within reach of her first life goal as an adult: Getting accepted into the law or geopolitics program of the ultra-prestigious Paris Institute of Political Studies, or Sciences Po.
Israeli activists seek to help Palestinians harmed by extremist settlers as attacks rise
(Time of Israel. AFP ).
In a desert region of the West Bank, Israeli activist Eyal Shani has fitted a tiny camera on his T-shirt to collect evidence of settler violence against Palestinian sheep farmers.
Campaigners like Shani have been trying to protect Palestinians from extremist Jewish settlers in the rugged Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, but they say it has become increasingly difficult with attacks soaring following the outbreak of war in Gaza.
Thousands at Western Wall for priestly blessing, with prayers for hostages’ return
(CHARLIE SUMMERS. The Time of Israel)
Thousands of Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall recited a special prayer Thursday for the return of hostages held by Hamas, during the traditional priestly blessing ceremony held at the site on Passover.
The parents of two hostages attended the event in Jerusalem.
The priestly blessing, known in Hebrew as “Birkat Kohanim,” is held semi-annually on the intermediate days of Passover and Sukkot.
Israel fumes as UN secretary-general leaves Hamas off sexual violence blacklist
(TOI STAFF. Time of Israel).
Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of standing “shoulder to shoulder with the rapists and murderers of Hamas” for declining to include the terror group in a report published Tuesday on organizations suspected by the UN of committing acts of sexual violence during conflict.
UNRWA review says Israel yet to provide evidence staffers are terror group members
( REUTERS).
A review of UNRWA says Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence for its claim – based on a staff list it was given in March – that a significant number of UNRWA staff are members of terrorist organizations, in a report which could prompt some donors to review funding freezes.
Passover 5784, reliving ancient history
(DAVID HOROVITZ.Times of israel).
For more than six months since Hamas’s invasion and slaughter, Israel has been trying to liberate the hostages that Gaza’s terrorist government dragged away to captivity.
In November, a weeklong truce secured the release of many of them, but 129 remain in Hamas’s hands, in terrible conditions, all these unthinkably long days, weeks and months later. Many of them, indeed, are no longer alive.
European Parliament condemns incitement in Palestinian, UNRWA textbooks
(GIANLUCA PACCHIANI.Times of Israel).
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution condemning educational material produced by the Palestinian Authority and by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees for its role in inciting hatred against Israelis.