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1. ‘If PA Declares State, Israel Will Annex Settlements'
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A government minister publicly advised the Palestinian Authority on Monday that if it unilaterally declares a new Arab state, Israel may annex parts of Judea and Samaria. Unlike eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria remain under military rule, although all Jewish residents have the same basic rights as other Israelis.
"If the Palestinians take such a unilateral line, Israel should also consider ... passing a law to annex some of the settlements," Environment Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) said on Voice of Israel government radio.
In the video below, Cabinet Minister Dr. Uzi Landau (Israel Our Home) and MK Danny Danon (Likud) take a similarly hard line. Landau blames Netanyahu's "generosity" in accepting the "two state solution" - albeit with a demilitarized PA state - for the situation, and believes that the PA threats for a unilateral declaration of a state are a result of the concessional declarations and the building freeze in Judea and Samaria.
MK Danon says that Israel must not settle for annexing settlement blocs, but must rather annex Judea and Samaria in their entirety, except for Arab cities.
[weJe Email readers, please click here to view the video.
Minister Erdan also said Israel has the option of tightening up travel restrictions for Arabs and stopping the transmission of tax money that the Israeli government currently transfers to the Palestinian Authority - money that is collected by Israel for the PA.
Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) and Minister Landau have taken action to introduce bills for annexing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
FM Lieberman Doubts UN Will Accept PA Stance
In a related item, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Our Home) stated that he doubts that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will succeed in convincing the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution declaring the borders of a future PA State.
Lieberman told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee on Monday that the U.S. government probably would veto any U.N. resolution on behalf of a PA state. The Foreign Minister also said that if a unilateral action to declare a new Arab state were taken, Israel would be free of all previous commitments.
Abbas has rejected further negotiations with Israel because it refuses to halt all construction for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Abbas has also has refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a definition which would hamper his efforts to import millions of foreign Arabs into Israel.
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) criticized Foreign Minister Lieberman for remaining in the government coalition following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s agreement in principle to establish a PA state and a de facto freeze on most new building projects for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
2. US Asked for Construction Freeze in Gilo, Netanyahu Said No
by Hillel Fendel
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell reportedly asked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, during one of their recent meetings, to freeze a construction project of dozens of housing units in Gilo. Netanyahu turned him down.
Gilo, one of Jerusalem’s largest neighborhoods with 33,000 people, was founded in 1971 on land in southern Jerusalem that was liberated in the Six Day War. Mitchell reportedly said that the construction risks raising tensions with the Palestinian Authority.
Netanyahu refused the U.S. request, explaining that the construction in Gilo, as in most places of the world, does not require government approval. He also explained that the neighborhood is “an integral part of Jerusalem.”
A government official said that Netanyahu “is ready to show the maximum restraint when it comes to construction in Judea and Samaria to help restart negotiations, but this policy does not apply in Jerusalem, our capital.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also asked for a construction halt in Jerusalem areas liberated in 1967 – but she has also acknowledged that the negotiating process has never before been made contingent upon a construction freeze in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
3. Global Crisis Leads to Sale of Jewish Property in Jerusalem
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
The global economic downturn has hit many people hard, with some having to liquidate their real estate assets. In the case of at least one Jewish man in the United States, the result is an ideological crisis that impacts Jerusalem.
Aryeh King, chairman of the National Lands Fund, told Arutz Sheva Radio on Monday the story of an American Jewish businessman who lost his properties as a result of the global economic meltdown. As a result, among other necessary steps, he was forced to sell land he owns in eastern Jerusalem to an Arab buyer - though it might not have passed the point of no return.
The businessman, a religious Jew originally from Iran, owns property in Jerusalem that he purchased more than 30 years ago, including four dunams (about one acre) in the majority-Arab Beit Tsafafa neighborhood of the capital. He has sold one dunam to an Arab buyer. "A Jewish agent made the connection between him and the Beit Tsafafa Arab, and the deal was made," King said. However, the American Jew's lawyer, "a young Tel Aviv man, refused to sign off on the deal for ideological reasons."
The property in question was one of many Jerusalem properties purchased by Jews in Tehran during the reign of the Shah. The lands were bought by wealthy Iranian Jews out of purely ideological motives. In fact, the landowner in question only learned where his properties were located last month, King said.
Right of First Refusal
King discovered that the real estate sale is to be carried out in stages. Following the sale of the one dunam, the remainder is being held by the current owner until the end of November. At that time, King explained, the purchaser will have the right of first refusal in the event that a Jewish buyer is not found. The agreed price was about 25 percent less than the current market value, due to the owner's need to sell.
Seller Willing to Absorb Penalty
King described to Arutz Sheva the situation in which he found the American Jewish businessman, who tearfully explained that his critical financial situation forced him to sell the Jerusalem properties. In discussions with his rabbi, other members of his community and King, the businessman was informed of the Zionist importance of his property in the Israeli capital and the serious nature of such a sale. As a result, the businessman decided that if a Jewish buyer can be found, then he will absorb the penalty for breaking the agreement he signed with the Arab purchaser for the first dunam and reverse the sale.
The land currently being sold is an open area zoned for five or six residential buildings on each dunam. King said that the municipality is in the process of approving the construction of a new Jewish neighborhood in the region. The price is currently $180,000 to $190,000 per dunam, King said, which is a very good price for the land. King further noted that this purchase is part of an ongoing financial struggle with extremely wealthy Arab and Iranian interests in the Persian Gulf region, who are busily buying up properties in all parts of Jerusalem in an effort to transfer them to Arab hands.
4. PA Group Calls for Arab Boycott of Jerusalem Light Rail Firms
by Hana Levi Julian
The Palestinian Authority is trying to recruit Arab nations, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to boycott two firms involved in the construction of the Jerusalem light rail project. The two firms, Veolia and Alstrom, are both based in France.
Alstrom currently is contracted to build a railway to Mecca, a project worth billions of dollars. In addition, there are other deals on the table for construction of power plants in the kingdom. The United Arab Emirates also holds several contracts with the two firms.
Dr. Rafik Husseini, director-general of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's office, issued a statement Monday urging all Arab governments to withdraw their business from the firms.
Husseini made the statement at a news conference organized by a group of PA non-governmental organizations (NGOs) calling itself the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC). Joining him at the news conference to express their support were the Orthodox (Christian) Archbishop, Attallah Hanna, and Jerusalem Mufti Mohammad Hussein.
The BNC said in a statement that it was strongly urging Arab governments to "practically translate their consistent verbal support for Palestinian rights in Jerusalem into action, at least by refusing to deal on a business-as-usual basis with companies implicated in violation of international law and Palestinian rights." The BNC claims that because the light rail traverses the re-united capital, it treads on "occupied territory" in violation of international law. The eastern sections of Jerusalem were restored to the city after Israel won the 1967 Six-Day War.
The BNC has also called for boycotts against companies which produce goods and services in Judea and Samaria, and against Israeli artists and academics. PA Economic Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh has said that he feels compelled to enforce the boycotts and has banned the sale in the PA of any goods produced by Jews in Judea and Samaria.
Such a move runs counter to the American Roadmap plan and is in opposition to the stated U.S. goal of bringing Israel and the PA closer together in terms of reciprocal business and other strategic ties aimed at peace. Western nations, including the U.S., have invested billions of dollars in various projects to support the development of economic infrastructure and mutual trade between Israel and the PA.
The PA-based BNC has also been successful in convincing others to cancel business ties with the two French firms as a result of their work in Israel. Among the deal-breakers were companies in Britain, France, Australia and Sweden, all of whom were convinced by external pressure from groups outside Israel and the PA.
The construction of the Jerusalem light rail began during the administration of former Mayor Uri Lupolianski. The new trans-capital line, which begins at a mammoth "Bridge of Strings" at the entrance to the city, is slated to make its first run within the next 18 months.
5. Gaza Fire Caused by Missile Aimed for Israel
by Gil Ronen
A seven-kilometer-long noxious black cloud is hovering over central Gaza for the seventh straight day, because a missile aimed at Israel hit a waste disposal site in Wadi As-Salqa, inside Gaza, starting a fire.
The mayor of Wadi As-Salqa, Abdul-Mahdi Abu Mugheseeb, said that the fire started near the border with Israel, and that smoke spread to Deir Al-Balah, six kilometers away. Sources in Gaza told Bethlehem-based Maan news agency that the cause of the fire was “a homemade projectile seemingly fired towards Israeli towns.” This did not prevent Arab officials from blaming Israel for the fire, however.
Abu Mugheseeb said that bulldozers from Gaza attempted to extinguish the fire by pouring truckloads of sand on it. However, he claimed, Israeli forces stationed at the border prevented access to the landfill site from the east, forcing fire fighters to attempt to access the fire from the west.
In order to do this, they needed to coordinate the activity with the International Red Cross, but this too was a problem, another official said. Muhammad Majdalawi, head of the Gaza solid waste council, claimed that “On the first day when fire erupted, we were about to complete the job before the Israelis forced us to withdraw our staff and vehicles half an hour before we finished.”
6. From Rockets to Rehearsals: Girls Theatre Program in Sderot
by Sarah Bierman and Gina Hotz
“Every single person living in Sderot has his own unique experience and story to present and tell" is a key belief of Noam Bedein, the director of the Sderot Media Center, a non-profit organization whose main goal is to publicize to the world the story of life in Sderot - a story that is unknown or misunderstood by many people. Along with providing news and constant updates about the situation, Sderot Media Center is also responsible for creating numerous programs and social media projects that help citizens of Sderot on a daily basis.
One of these projects is a unique theater program, which was founded in order to provide Sderot teenage girls with a coping mechanism for dealing with the stress and trauma that has become a constant in their lives. Bedein says, “This theater project provides teenage girls with self-expressing media tools to express their human story of trauma through the arts of theater, acting out their story through a live diverse kind of audience.”
The theatre program has already produced a play, called Children of Kassam Avenue. It incorporates both the serious and comical aspects of Sderot life and features a hilariously entertaining Moroccan grandmother and the warning sirens of Kassam rockets, making it both sad and funny for audiences.
The first performance was in Sderot. Bedein said, “We basically invited professionals from the educational and psychological fields and heard from them how this was a successful process, seeing how the girls were able to express themselves and stand in front of an audience and just tell their story.”
Since then, the staff members of Sderot Media Center have been trying to publicize the play and find funds to bring it to the public. Aside from the performance in Sderot, the play was staged in Jerusalem, where only key people, including representatives from women’s organizations and community centers, were invited to view the production. Until the theater program can gain enough support and proper funding, the general public will not be able to see the play, but Bedein expresses high hopes for the future of the program. The Sderot Media Center has developed a six-month plan to tour all over Israel, and even to reach out to the Knesset, and eventually translate the play into English and perform it in the United States and England.
After their performances in both Sderot and Jerusalem, the positive therapeutic effects have been evident, Bedein said. "The girls loved the performance itself…. They had the opportunity to be presenting their story, their routine lives.” The project will allow the general public to understand what the girls have gone through because of the Kassam rockets. He added, "Even more exciting is hearing their principals and their teachers saying they cannot believe that just a year ago these girls were so in their own little environments and not really associated with society or really speaking out, and here they are speaking in front of a live audience and really expressing themselves.
Among the audience members at the performance in Jerusalem, the feedback was also extremely encouraging. “We invited the director of the Government Press Office, Danny Sieman, and he actually loved the show, which he thought was important to take to the Knesset,” said Bedein. “We did get good feedback, so our challenge now is taking this on the road around the country.”
One of the theater project's aims is to help publicize the human side of the Sderot story to people all around the world. Bedein emphasized that telling this story is an important tool in undermining the legitimacy that has been given to terror. He hopes that when audiences see the play, they will better understand that Sderot is the only place in western civilization under constant threat from rocket attacks, and become more aware of the trauma and suffering that has become a regular component of Sderot life.
Bedein added, “We desperately need people to take part of this as a non-profit, private organization. We are literally surviving financially just to keep our doors open. And for this theater production to keep on going, we definitely need the help of anyone that understands the importance of speaking up and sharing the story.” To find out more about the Sederot Media Center theatre program, visit www.sderotmedia.co.il. To download an interview with Noam Bedein about the theatre program on Israel National Radio, click here.
7. 'Wet Side Story' Opens at Jerusalem Biblical Zoo
by Hana Levi Julian
A unique new exhibit explaining the complex issues affecting today's aquatic habitats in Israel and around the world has just opened at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo.
'Wet Side Story' -- a takeoff on the title of the classic musical, "West Side Story" -- explains the importance of preserving water sources and their proper use, in addition to describing wildlife conservation in aquatic habitats.
The exhibit tells the story of a drop of water that falls in the Hula Valley in northern Israel, following it on its worldwide journey as it encounters fish and other aquatic animals. The little drop of water passes through various habitats, including Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), the Jordan River and the springs around the Dead Sea, the coral reefs of the Red Sea and down the Mediterranean coast. It even makes it to a lake in Africa and the Amazon in South America -- and through human creations such as dams, contaminated rivers, water pumps and agricultural irrigation water.
The $1.5 million exhibit, made possible by a gift from the Friends of the Zoo in San Diego headed by Robert Price, also includes a wooden viewing bridge installed by the Japanese company Nipura. Engineers from Japan installed and sealed the planks for the bridge, according to a statement by zoo officials.
Visitors can buy fish food to feed the colorful Koi fish and even to try and touch them in the pool. A small aquarium of Sea horses will also on display. The only mammal to be included in the exhibit will be the South Asian Otter, gamboling and frolicking in the water.
The complex includes three huge water tanks, measuring two meters by four meters (approximately 7 ft x 14 ft), and 17 large fish aquariums. Officials estimate it will take three more months to put the finishing touches on the exhibit "and the correct balance between fish, plants and other animals is set." By spring, as in the rest of Israel, the new complex should be green with vegetation, they said.
