The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
The Movement for Freedom of Information is claiming that the Prime Minister’s Office is refusing to hand over the expenses for the official residence for 2014, despite a January court ruling ordering him to do so.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants the court to reopen the debate on the issue, but this time with his private attorney representing him, Ynet reports.
The PMO says in response: “A request on this matter was submitted to the court and proceedings are pending. The state will present its statements as part of the proceedings, as is customary.”
Turkey strongly warns the German parliament against adopting a resolution recognizing the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide, saying it could have repercussions for bilateral ties.
The German lower house of parliament is set to vote on Thursday on the resolution over the two years of slaughter from 1915, which carries the contested word “genocide” throughout the text.
“Germany is our friend and our ally where many citizens of Turkish origin live,” says deputy prime minister and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus. “Germany must be careful concerning its relations with Turkey.”
“I do not think that the German parliament will destroy this relationship for the sake of two or three politicians” who put the resolution before the Bundestag, he adds.
Ankara has long lobbied Western allies not to recognize the killings as genocide and stepped up efforts last year on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.
— AFP
All flights are reportedly grounded at Cologne airport in Germany over claims that a person “evaded security checks at the terminal.”
Cologne Bonn Airport’s Terminal 1 is evacuated after a “suspicious person” enters a secure area at the site, the Independent news website says, citing local newspaper the Kölnische Rundschau.
Labor leader Isaac Herzog tasks the party’s secretary-general, MK Hilik Bar, with setting a date for a leadership election.
The decision on the date will be made in consultation with all those involved, Channel 2 says.
The plan comes as Herzog — who also heads the opposition and the Zionist Union bloc that includes Labor, is facing calls to resign over his abortive bid to take the party into Netanyahu’s coalition.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Iran is at a “historic turning point” after overcoming the sanctions triggered by its nuclear program, which he partly attributes to “the plots of Zionism.”
“We lie at a historic turning point after passing through the plots of the Zionism and the arrogance which had put us under sanctions,” Rouhani says, according to the state-run Press TV.
The president also says that post-sanctions Tehran “is intent on opening the road of exports to the world countries.” The first step, he says, “is for the government to open the doors that were shut in the past.”
Rouhani also tells his audience in Urumieh in northwest Iran there has been a marked rise in visits by foreign trade delegations, now that sanctions have been lifted, and agreements have already been reached on the first investments.
Yair Lapid lays into Israeli politicians for being solely interested in benefiting themselves and engaging in ego battles.
“Our politics is busy with itself, with appointments, cronies and totally unnecessary battles of the ego,” Lapid tells a faction meeting of his Yesh Atid, according to Ynet.
He calls the appointment of Likud’s Tzachi Hangebi as a minister without portfolio “a waste of public money.”
Herzog calls on Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon to heed his “inner truth” and leave the coalition, a move he calls the “moral choice.”
“This is the moment when you can … thwart the greatest danger ever, which is now at our doorstep,” Herzog says at the start of the Zionist Union meeting at the Knesset.
“I extend a hand to you, Moshe Kahlon,” he adds, according to Ynet. “I know how worried you are and how pure were your intentions. Only you are able to take the moral choice. Do not hesitate any longer. This is your moment of truth.”
Herzog adds: “In this government there is one person who will decide its and our fates. One person who was chosen for his modesty and honesty. There are moments when a leader needs to rise above above personal considerations, and dare to pay the highest price of all for his inner truth.”
An Egyptian court sentences the Muslim Brotherhood’s leader and 35 other people to life in prison over violent clashes after the army overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013, a judicial official says. The clashes, in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya, killed three people.
Mohammed Badie, the Brotherhood’s supreme guide, was already sentenced to death and prison terms in other trials.
The court also sentences 48 defendants to jail terms ranging from three to 15 years, and acquits 20 others.
The authorities have arrested thousands of Brotherhood leaders and members, including Morsi, since his ouster by the army. Hundreds have been sentenced to death, although many have appealed and won retrials.
— AFP
The remand of a Palestinian youth suspected of raping a mentally disabled Israeli woman is extended by two days.
A second suspect in the attack, a 42-year-old Palestinian, is remanded until Thursday, Israel Radio reports.
Police are calling the rape a nationalistic attack at least until the third suspect in the case is apprehended.
The Hamas terrorist group reaffirms its rejection of the French peace initiative, calling it a “personal move” by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, despite the fact that the Arab League has adopted the plan.
“The French initiative is an attempt to distract the Palestinian people and circumvent their national rights, especially the right of return,” Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zurhi says in a statement.
“Mahmoud Abbas’s response to this initiative is a personal move and does not have any national consensus,” he says.
— Dov Lieber
Netanyahu calls on all those who are dedicated to Israel’s peace and security to join the coalition.
“A broad government headed by Likud will continue along its responsible policy, firm on security while equally looking for paths to peace, in particular on the regional path,” he tells a meeting of his Likud faction in the Knesset.
“I call for the government to expand and urge all those who wish to offer support to the challenges of peace and security, to join and give it a chance,” he says.
— Raphael Ahren
Jordan is heading into parliamentary elections by September, after King Abdullah II dissolved the current legislature.
The monarch also appoints a new prime minister, Hani Mulki, who will oversee preparations for new elections. Mulki replaces Abdullah Ensour, who resigned after more than three years as prime minister.
(From L to R) Jordan’s Princess Muna, Crown Prince Hussein, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania attend a ceremony held in Amman on May 25, 2016, to mark the desert kingdom’s 70th Independence Day. (AFP PHOTO/POOL/KHALIL MAZRAAWI)
— AP
Education Minister Naftali Bennett defends his demand for a military attache to the security cabinet in order to guarantee his support for the expansion of the government.
“It is no secret that … the security cabinet was run very badly,” Bennett tells the Knesset during the inaugural Q&A session for ministers.
“The security cabinet of Israel … was a rubber stamp,” he says, highlighting its poor performance during the 2014 conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
Bennett says that only by talking to officials on ground was he made aware of the issue of the terror tunnels from Gaza, which he then reported back to the cabinet for the first time.
He also claims that the rate of updates to the security cabinet has increased dramatically since he issued his ultimatum to the prime minister.
“Suddenly there are security updates,” he says, adding that he intends to “follow up” on this issue.
“There is an improvement,” he says. “Let’s see how it stands the test of time.”
Education Minister Naftali Bennett addresses the Knesset during the inaugural Q&A session for ministers on May 30, 2016 (screen capture: Knesset Channel)
The Police Investigations Department (PID) says a man who killed his ex-girlfriend and her current partner died from a self-inflicted bullet wound and not from police fire while he resisted arrest on Saturday.
The announcement comes at the conclusion of a preliminary investigation into the death of Ian Gavrielov, who killed Anastasia Rusanov, 29, and Eliezer Kandinov, 34, in Rusanov’s apartment in Rishon Lezion on May 25.
Police believe that Gavrielov committed suicide after coming to the conclusion that he had no way of shaking off the law enforcement officials following him.
The army is holding large-scale exercises in the Upper Galilee and in the area surrounding Eilat on Tuesday, the IDF says.
In northern Israel, the army will activate an emergency siren that will be heard in Acre, Carmiel, Sakhnin, Alon HaGalil, Kfar Masaryk and other towns and village in the Galilee.
If there is a real attack, the siren will sound twice, the army says.
Near Eilat’s Uvda airbase, residents may notice a large number of soldiers and army vehicles. This is a pre-planned exercise and not a cause for alarm, the IDF says.
— Judah Ari Gross
The members of the jihadi network who recruited and groomed one of the suicide attackers in the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris are on trial this week.
Defendants include the brother of Foued Mohamed-Aggad, who joined Islamic State extremists in December 2013 and went on to help carry out the attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. Karim Mohamed-Aggad returned to France along with six others in the group from the eastern French city of Strasbourg. Two in the group of 10 died.
The men insist they went to Syria for humanitarian reasons and were forced to join Islamic State as one thing after another went wrong with their journey. All returned to France within three months and were arrested in May 2014.
— AP
Iran’s foreign minister and Iranian businessmen are seeking to build economic ties with Poland at a forum for political and business leaders.
Mohammad Javad Zarif is on a two-day visit ending today, the first by Iran’s foreign minister to Poland in 12 years. It is one of Zarif’s first foreign trips since January’s lifting of economic sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
Zarif meets with Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, Culture Minister Piotr Glinski and Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, and the two nations sign a document on forging political, economic and cultural cooperation.
Polish officials say trade between the nations could rise within a few years to $1 billion (900,000 euros). Trade slumped to $57 million (51 million euros) in 2014.
Separately, aides say the two foreign ministers discussed the conflict in Syria.
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, right, talks with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during their meeting in Warsaw, Poland, on May 29, 2016. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
— AP
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein says he intends to examine a request by Muslim MKs to pray at the flashpoint Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Lawmakers are currently banned from visiting the sensitive site, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Edelstein says he will consult on the matter with the police and the Knesset sergeant-at-arms, Haaretz reports.
Several Muslim lawmakers have said that they will visit the Mount during Ramadan, which begins next week.
The Knesset approves the second and third readings of an anti-terror bill mandating jail for up to seven years for anyone found guilty of threatening to commit a terror act that would carry a life sentence.
The legislation also enshrines a 3-5 year sentence for anyone publicly expressing support for a terror organization. Public support in this case is defined as “praise, support or sympathy” for a terror group, raising its flag, displaying its symbols or voicing slogans or playing songs associated with it.
— Sue Surkes
Far-right suspected extremist Meir Ettinger will be banned from entering the West Bank for a year as part of the terms of his release from administrative detention this week.
Ettinger, the grandson of slain far-right rabbi Meir Kahane, has been in detention for nine months following his August 2015 arrest for suspected incitement, arson of a church and conspiracy to commit a crime.
The terms also include a six-month ban on entering Jerusalem, three months of confinement to the house at night and on making contact with a list of 92 different individuals, Walla News says.
Meir Ettinger, the head of a Jewish extremist group, stands at the Israeli justice court in Nazareth Illit on August 4, 2015. (AFP/Jack Guez)
A leader of Turkey’s Jewish community says an historic wedding in the country triggered a deluge of anti-Semitic speech online.
Ishak Ibrahimzadeh, president of the Jewish Community of Turkey, says that some social network users responded with hate speech to his invitation to watch a live streaming video of the first Jewish wedding in 41 years in Edirne, a city in western Turkey near its border with Greece.
“Many anti-Semites regurgitated their hatred in Periscope,” Ibrahimzadeh says in reference to the streaming service that offered the feed from the wedding at the Great Synagogue of Edirne, which reopened last year after decades of disuse following a five-year government-sponsored restoration. “They are the reason for Islamophobia. Hand in hand, we will overcome them.”
Some users wrote “kill the Jews,” NRG says. One user wrote: “Such a pity that Hitler didn’t finish the job,” while others referenced “occupied Palestine.”
On Twitter, Ibrahimzadeh urges the Turkish Justice Ministry and the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights Inquiry to investigate those responsible for the hate speech for inciting racist hatred.
“Don’t the comments on Periscope about the Edirne synagogue constitute a hate crime?” Ibrahimzadeh asks.
En dit zijn beelden uit de het bruiloftsfeest in de synagoge. https://t.co/Fq7qbkGcqg
— Haci Karacaer (@Karacaer) May 29, 2016
— JTA
A 19-year-old male soldier is lightly wounded in a stabbing in Tel Aviv, rescue personnel say.
The incident occurred on Yigal Allon Street in the center of the city.
Medical personnel at the scene administer first aid to the man for injuries to his upper body before taking him to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital.
— Judah Ari Gross
Security forces arrest a Palestinian suspected of carrying out a stabbing attack against an IDF soldier in Tel Aviv a short time ago.
The circumstances of the attack are under investigation.
— Judah Ari Gross
Paramedics who treated a soldier wounded this evening in an attack in Tel Aviv say the victim was conscious and responsive.
“When we arrived at the scene, we saw a 19-year-old sitting, fully conscious and suffering from stab wounds to his upper body,” they said in a statement. “He was calm and communicative with us. We administered first aid to him in the field and took him to the hospital when he was determined to be stable and suffering light injuries.”
Police say that the stabbing attack of a soldier in Tel Aviv this evening most likely had a nationalist motive.
They identify the attacker as a 17-year-old resident of the West Bank.
Police take in for questioning the Palestinian teen suspected of stabbing and wounding a soldier in Tel Aviv earlier this evening.
Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv says the soldier lightly wounded in a stabbing attack is likely to be discharged this evening, Israel National News reports.
The 19-year-old soldier sustained wounds to his upper body, and paramedics say he was sitting up and responsive when they reached him.
An eyewitness to the stabbing of a soldier in Tel Aviv says he heard someone yelling “Allahu akbar” at the time of the attack.
“I was cycling down Yigal Allon when I saw to my left the stabbed soldier next to a terrorist. I heard the soldier shouting ‘Terrorist, terrorist!'” says Kobi Nahum. “The terrorist was shouting ‘Allahu akbar.'”
A 17-year-old Palestinian is in custody and undergoing questioning.
Lawmakers vote in favor of Avigdor Liberman’s appointment as defense minister, and he is sworn in.
Of the 120 MKs, 55 vote in favor of the appointment, 43 vote against and one person abstains.
The Knesset Channel says that Likud MK Benny Begin is the person who abstained.
The author of a work on the Nazi-era massacre in Baghdad believed to have precipitated the Jewish exodus from Iraq is commemorating its 75th anniversary with candle lightings in four cities.
Edwin Black, who in 2010 published “The Farhud,” about the June 1-2, 1941 massacre of at least 180 Jews in Baghdad, will convene candle lightings tomorrow morning on Capitol Hill and in the afternoon at the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue in New York.
On Thursday, there will be a candle lighting in London, which has a large Iraqi Jewish community, and then on June 26 at the Knesset in Jerusalem.
The pogrom, set off by the collapse of a popular pro-Nazi government in Baghdad, is seen as a turning point for Iraqi Jews. A series of subsequent decrees and attacks emptied the country of its ancient Jewish community by the early 1970s, with barely 100 Jews remaining.
In each city, 27 candles will be lit for the 27 centuries that Jewish life thrived in what is now Iraq.
— JTA
The White House is placed on lockdown when a woman throws something over the north fence along Pennsylvania Avenue.
A woman is detained and placed in handcuffs, and fire trucks and a hazardous materials response unit are called to the scene. It is common for officers to sweep the grounds after such incidents to ensure nothing dangerous was thrown over the fence.
The lockdown ensues shortly after President Barack Obama returns from delivering a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery.
— AP
Turkey’s state-run news agency says Kurdish rebels have detonated a bomb as a police vehicle was passing by, killing four people.
Anadolu Agency says 19 other people — five of them police officers — are injured in the attack in the mainly-Kurdish town of Silopi. Some of them are in serious condition.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has attacked police and military personnel with bombs since a cease-fire between the rebels and the government collapsed last summer. Turkey’s security forces have launched large-scale military operations to flush out the rebels, including in Silopi.
— AP
Newly sworn-in Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman touts his pro-peace credentials in a Knesset address, hailing a recent speech by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi urging Israelis and Palestinians to return to talks as “a real opportunity.”
“I agree to two states for two peoples,” Liberman says, according to Walla. “I was very supportive of [Netanyahu’s 2009] Bar-Ilan speech; Sissi’s speech was important and created a real opportunity and we must try to rise to the challenge. Even the Arab Initiative has positive elements that allow for dialogue.”
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