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1. Jerusalem: Arabs Stone Jews Serving Eviction Papers
by Hillel Fendel
The final tally after an elderly Jewish man attempted to serve an eviction notice to Arab squatters on his Jerusalem property on Friday:
* Two Jewish men hurt by large Arab-hurled rocks, one in the head and one in the chest;
* one man in his 60’s who spent the Sabbath in prison after he shot in the air in an attempt to protect himself and those around him;
* press reports blaming the Jews;
* and a possible eviction of the illegal Arab residents later this month after 17 years of legal wrangling.
The incident began on Friday morning when Yitzchak Herskovitz, 78, arrived at his property in southern Jerusalem, between Givat HaMatos and the Arab neighborhood of Beit Tzafafa. The purpose of their visit: to serve a court-ordered eviction notice to the clan of Arab squatters illegally occupying the property. Herskovitz was accompanied by several others, including his lawyer, two armed men for protection, and a woman video-photographer for documentation.
Courts Rule in His Favor, Yet Arabs Still Remain
The Arab clan, known as the Salahs, has been found by two Israeli courts to have illegally taken over Herskovitz's property, and to have brought false evidence in the course of attempting to prove their own ownership. Despite these rulings, years of legal wrangling by the Arab clan have enabled them to continue to reside on property not theirs – nor have they totally fulfilled the court’s condition that they pay $250 of monthly rent to a third-party account.
“It’s been over a year that they have not paid,” Herskovitz told Israel National News, “and finally the courts realized that this basic condition has not been fulfilled, and ordered the eviction.”
To Herskovitz’s dismay, the eviction notice must be served not by the police or other state officials, but rather by himself. “I knew it would be difficult,” he said, “but it was much more than I bargained for.”
"They Knew We Were Coming"
Mordechai, a 63-year-old who came with Herskovitz, recounted: “Somehow the Arabs seemed to know we were coming, and as soon as we got there, there were about 20 or 30 of them waiting for us, and started pelting us with large rocks. Our car was heavily damaged, the windshield was smashed, and I realized that the people with me, including my wife, were in danger of their lives. So I shot in the air two or three times – and that enabled us to get out of there.”
But this was not the end. The Arabs apparently called the police, who took off after the damaged car – and arrested all the occupants, including Herskovitz. A lawyer from the Honenu civil rights group was quickly alerted, and his intervention helped achieve the release of all of them shortly before the Sabbath – except for one: 63-year-old Mordechai who had fired in the air in a built-up area.
“It’s a pretty frustrating thing,” Mordechai said afterwards, “to find myself in a position where I have to fire in the air to protect my own people in my own land, and the official police investigator, instead of showing minimal understanding, tries to trip me up and say things to incriminate myself.” Mordechai immigrated to Israel from a Western country six years ago.
“I told the investigator that I had absolutely no regrets," Mordechai recounted, "and that I would do the exact same thing again, in order to protect myself and others… This is a part of the Land of Israel that Arabs are trying to steal away from a Jew.”
After being taken away in leg-irons and spending the Sabbath in prison – a first for him - and after his wife was forced to desecrate the Sabbath and bring him medicines that he required – “I was taken to a judge at 6 PM, and the judge agreed that I shot in self-defense and to protect others. I guess he realized that a 63-year-old man with a pacemaker is not looking to fight a mob of Arabs for no reason… I was released on my own recognizance, with the only condition being that I cannot return to the area for 30 days; that’s OK, I can live with that.”
His gun was also taken away from him. Police promised to return it to him, but past experience shows that this could take months.
"My Bullets Don't Just Scratch"
The Arabs claimed, and some English-language media reported as fact, that four of their number were hurt. But the accused said, “I shot in the air, as the video shows, and the Arabs lied and claimed that I hit them. One Arab said he was shot in the hand, but the police agreed with me that had my hollow-point bullets hit him, his hand wouldn’t have been scratched; it would have been blown off. That’s why I was released.”
Yitzchak Herskovitz, for his part, is up in arms: “I told the court that the police won’t help me, so the judge told me I should hire armed guards. So I did that, and now the police take away his gun! What’s going on here?”
Herskovitz says he plans to file a police complaint against the Arab squatters: “They smashed the car’s windshield, and wanted to kill me and the others with me.”
Though the Arabs crumpled the eviction notice, threw it on the floor without reading it, and then threw it back at the Jews, the woman’s video documents that they received it – and the eviction is scheduled for Nov. 26. Though past eviction notices have not been executed, it is therefore at least theoretically possible that Yitzchak Herskovitz might actually get to live on the piece of Land of Israel that he innocently bought so many years ago.
See also this story for more background: Reclaiming the Land, Making Wine
2. Clinton Says Settlement Freeze 'Not a Precondition'
by Gil Ronen
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening and held a joint news conference with him.
Netanyahu declared that Israel is willing to sit down with the Arab authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria for negotiations, immediately and without preconditions. He also agreed to commit that “Israel will not build new settlements and is willing to adopt a policy of restraint in the settlements, but that it will be one that enables normal life.”
Clinton praised Netanyahu, saying that "what the Prime Minister has offered... a restraint on the policy of settlements, which he has just described, no new starts, for example, is unprecedented in the context of prior to negotiations." She also said that Israel's freezing construction "has never been a precondition [for negotiation, it has always been an issue within the negotiations."
Before meeting Netanyahu, Secretary Clinton met with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. “It is unacceptable that the Palestinians set preconditions for opening negotiations,” he said, “and if that is the case, Israel has some preconditions of its own.”
3. MK Eldad: Clinton's Praise for Netanyahu - A Bad Sign
by Maayana Miskin
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's praise for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's policies is proof that Netanyahu is taking unprecedented steps to strangle Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, MK Aryeh Eldad warned Sunday.
Clinton praised Netanyahu's willingness to freeze Jewish growth in the region as “unprecedented in the context of prior to negotiations.”
"No Israeli Prime Minister, not even those from the Left who came in with the intention of demolishing Jewish settlements, put a stranglehold on Jewish settlement as Netanyahu has done,” said Eldad, a member of the National Union party.
Netanyahu carries out his policies against Jewish life in Judea and Samaria through his political allies, said Eldad. “Netanyahu sent [Minister Da Meridor to thwart the referendum bill over the Golan, and he backs [Defense Minister E Barak, who refuses to authorize even a single home in Judea and Samaria,” he said.
"The time has come for those who are faithful to the Land of Israel in the Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home), and the Jewish Home party to open their eyes to the terrible reality that they are creating with their own hands,” Eldad continued. “If they don't stop Netanyahu immediately – he will destroy the Jewish settlement enterprise of Judea and Samaria.”
Clinton held a joint press conference with Netanyahu on Saturday night and praised the prime minister for agreeing to freeze Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria prior to beginning negotiations with the Palestinian Authority – something that she noted “has never been a precondition [for negotiation, [but rathe an issue within the negotiations.”
Prior to meeting Netanyahu, Clinton met with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Army Radio reported that Ms. Cliinton refused to hold a press conference with Lieberman, insisting, in violation of normal protocol, on appearing alongside Netanyahu instead.
4. Netanyahu Cuts a Third From Religious-Zionist Education Budget
by Hillel Fendel
Dozens of religious-Zionist schools and institutions threaten to close their doors for a full day, two weeks from now, in protest of a massive budget cut of over 100,000 shekels.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is the target of particularly biting criticism on the part of the educators for his decisive role in the cut. The current issue of the weekly B’Sheva newspaper features a photo of Netanyahu signing a “charter” with the religious-Zionist movement, before the elections earlier this year. Accompanying the picture is this subtext: “Binyamin Netanyahu’s promises before the elections to help sustain and nourish religious-Zionist education appear to have been written on ice: The decision to cut 100 million shekels from the budgets of the religious institutions is liable to cause irreversible damage to the network.”
The cuts affect yeshiva high schools, ulpanot (girls’ high schools), hesder yeshivot, girls’ medrashot, post-high school yeshivot, Torah core groups in development towns, seminars for Judaism and Land of Israel studies, centers for basic Jewish-Zionist education, and more.
A similar strike was called in 2006, for similar reasons; it was the first time ever that the religious-Zionist schools had closed their doors to protest budget cuts.
History of Decreasing Funding
Until 2004, the religious-Zionist schools received funding from both the Education and Religious Affairs Ministries, totaling 280 million shekels. This sum dropped sharply in 2005 to only 150 million shekels – but, following protests and the intervention of then-Finance Minister Ehud Olmert, MK Zevulun Orlev and others, 47 million shekels were added to the religious education budget.
In 2006, however, the 47 million was not allocated, leading to a one-day strike – and the restoration of the 47 million.
The next two years saw cuts totalling 17 million shekels, leaving a budget of 180 million shekels - from which the government has now cut a full third, or 60 million shekels.
“These numbers are astronomical,” Elchanan Glatt, Chairman of the Religious Zionist Education Forum, told Israel National News. “And not only that, but they want to cut another 70 million shekels from other religious-Zionist educational frameworks! Instead of adding to our budget, in accordance with our student population that grows by thousands each year, they want to cut back! This is impossible for us to accept.”
An emergency meeting has been called for this Tuesday of the heads of all the religious-Zionist educational streams. “At the same time, we are in constant contact with government officials,” Glatt said, “in order to see if this decree can be annulled.”
5. 'Organs Libel' Journalist in Israel for Dimona Gathering
by Maayana Miskin
Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom, who gained infamy in August for claiming that IDF soldiers harvested organs from Arab rioters, landed in Israel on Sunday for the Dimona Conference. Bostrom was greeted at the airport with boos and jeers by dozens of activists from the Beitar youth group.
A second Zionist group, Im Tirzu, had attempted to block Bostrom's entrance to Israel altogether. The group filed an appeal to Interior Minister Eli Yishai, accusing Bostrom of “a modern blood libel that recalls the same form of anti-Semitism in Europe in the Middle Ages.”
Despite the appeal, Bostrom was allowed into Israel to attend the Dimona gathering. However, Minister of the Development of the Negev and the Galilee Silvan Shalom announced that while Bostrom would be allowed to participate in the event, the government would end its participation in the conference.
"I will not attend an event in which a participant slandered IDF soldiers and attempted to harm Israel's image,” Minister Shalom said. Shalom's ministry had committed to participate in funding the conference, but as part of his decision to withdraw, funding was cut off.
Mayor Cohen Defends Conference
Dimona Mayor Meir Cohen told Arutz-7 that he respects Shalom's decision, but laments the fact that the minister's announcement was made just one day before the conference began. “It's a shame that we've been planning this conference, along with Silvan's office, for two months, and a shame that 24 hours before it opens, we get this announcement,” he said.
"Despite this, we will hold the conference as planned. We will get funding from a different source,” Cohen said.
Cohen denied allegations that Dimona is giving Bostrom a platform to spread anti-Israel hate. “He has been speaking around the Arab world for months, so he does not need us to give him a platform,” the mayor argued.
"We thought it was fitting to invite a man like [Bostro to a conference that deals with media issues, among them ethical norms. And I think the very fact that he responded to the invitation shows regret for what he said,” Cohen said.
6. Court to Gov't: Why Destroy Beit El Buildings?
by Hillel Fendel
A three-judge Supreme Court panel has ordered the State to explain within 30 days why it wants to destroy ten buildings in Beit El that the government itself helped pay for.
The buildings – five permanent buildings with several apartments each and five other mobile structures – were built or placed by the Kiryat HaYeshiva Beit El company. Attorney Yaron Kustlitz presented documentation showing that the land on which the buildings stand was duly purchased from its original Arab owner.
The buildings are located in Beit El, on the lower heights of Pisgat Yaakov, also known as Jabal (Mt.) Artis, which overlooks the rest of Beit El to the south and west.
Attorney Kustlitz accused the State of speaking out of two sides of its mouth, a “legally problematic position.” He said that on the one hand, the Housing Ministry began infrastructure work for the buildings in 2000, and the buildings were completed and populated in 2005 – and then the government turned around and asked for demolition orders.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch, who heads the judicial panel, agreed with Kustlitz that the government may not take both sides. “This must be taken care of,” she said.
Jacob's Dream
Mt. Artis is the spot on which the Patriarch Jacob dreamt his famous dream of angels ascending and descending the ladder to Heaven – at least according to the late Land of Israel expert and researcher Prof. Ze’ev Vilnai. Vilnai based his conclusion on the sanctity ascribed to the site by local Moslems, who in turn based their attitude on a well-rooted Jewish tradition. In this vein, many Jewish burial caves from the Second Temple were found there.
In addition, from Mt. Artis one can often see the coastal plane in the west, Mt. Gilad in the east, Mt. Hermon in the north, and the mountains of Jerusalem and Hevron in the south - in keeping with the Divine message to Jacob at that spot, as recorded in Genesis 28, that his descendants would inherit the entire Land, “west, east, north and south.”
7. Report: US Smuggles Yemen's Jews to Safety
by Maayana Miskin
The United States State Department has smuggled 60 Jews out of Yemen in recent months due to fear for their lives, reports the Wall Street Journal. Another 100 of Yemen's Jews may follow.
The resettlement project began in July, following several attacks on Jews in Yemen, including the murder of Jewish community leader Moshe Yaish al-Nahari.
Several of the recent arrivals from Yemen to the U.S. described growing anti-Semitism and fear of attack prior to their departure. “They throw stones at us. They curse us. They want to kill us,” said Salem Suleiman of his former Muslim neighbors. Another recent arrival from Yemen, Shaker Yakub, described how he and his family dressed as Muslims in order to escape Yemen without problems.
State Department officials reportedly hope that by rescuing Yemen's Jews, they can avoid the bad publicity that would result from further attacks on Yemen's Jews and thus maintain support for the administration of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh has made efforts to demonstrate goodwill towards his country's Jewish population, but has been unable to reign in increasing violence from local Muslim extremists.
The new arrivals from Yemen are being assisted in America by several Jewish organizations. Most have been resettled in the town of Monsey, a primarily hareidi-religious community in New York.
Jews have lived in Yemen for more than 2,000 years. In 1949 most of Yemen's Jews were brought to Israel in “Operation Magic Carpet” following a wave of anti-Semitic violence and slayings in wake of the establishment of the State of Israel. The hundreds of Jews who remained in Yemen until recent years faced renewed threats of violence in 2007. Threats of violence forced Jews to congregate in the city of Raida, where they soon faced attack yet again.
The growing violence led to reports over the summer that Jewish life in Yemen would soon come to an end, with almost all of the country's Jews moving to either the United States or Israel.
