Herzog, Abbas held secret talks, agreed to return to ’67 lines — report

Zionist Union spokesperson sorry for anti-settler post

The spokesperson for the Zionist Union and its leader Isaac Herzog apologizes for a Facebook post in which he wrote that Jewish settlers “built houses at the expense of our friends’ blood. They built swimming pools at the expense of the blood of murdered children. They built cemeteries because they don’t care that others are buried.”

Herzog reprimands Newman for the post, since revised, in what the party leader described as a “harsh talk.”

“The post by Ofer Newman, my spokesperson, was very critical, very blunt, and very wrong, because it creates a generalization that I am unwilling to accept and uses imagery that we mustn’t use under any circumstances,” says Herzog. “I meet with settlers nearly every day; the Labor party encouraged and built part of the settlement enterprise, and even if we have criticism about the settler leadership, they are and always will be, our brothers and part of our extended family. We have profound, difficult ideological debate with the settler leadership and it will continue, but even in the middle of the debate, we will uphold their honor and do so respectfully.”

In a follow-up Facebook post, Newman says he watched a film about the settlements and wrote the post in an emotional outburst.

“I have fierce criticism about the settler leadership, but the language, the tone, and the imagery were entirely exaggerated and unnecessary,” he says.

“We are all human. We all make mistakes. This was my mistake,” he adds.

Israeli arrested over post threatening IDF commander

Israel Police arrests a man who they say was posting threats online against the IDF commander of Elor Azaria, the soldier accused of shooting and killing a disarmed Palestinian stabber in Hebron in March.

According to a statement from police, the man — a 34-year-old resident of a West Bank settlement — is suspected of incitement to violence, intimidating a witness, and insulting a public servant.

30,000 displaced from Iraq’s Fallujah in 3 days — NGO

Fighting in the Iraqi city of Fallujah has displaced at least 30,000 people in three days, the Norwegian Refugee Council says Sunday, warning that a humanitarian disaster is unfolding.

Iraqi forces achieved a breakthrough on Thursday, taking over the center of Fallujah while the Islamic State group retreated to areas in the north of the city.

That allowed thousands of civilians who had been used as human shields to flee the city, a key jihadist stronghold west of Baghdad that had been besieged for months.

“The estimated total number of displaced from Fallujah in just the last three days is now at a staggering 30,000 people,” the NRC says in a statement.

The aid group, which runs displacement camps around Fallujah, says another 32,000 people had already been displaced since the start of the government offensive against the IS bastion nearly a month ago.

— AFP

8 Syrian refugees shot dead trying to enter Turkey

Activists say at least eight Syrian refugees, including four children, were shot dead while trying to cross into Turkey.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the eight were shot by Turkish border guards while trying to cross from Kherbet al-Jouz in northwestern Syria into Turkey’s Hatay province late Saturday.

The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, puts the toll at 11 dead and also blames Turkish border guards. It says at least one of those trying to cross was from Jarablus, a northern Syrian town under Islamic State control.

Turkish officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Syrian war has pushed over 2.7 million refugees into Turkey, according to the UN Turkey has tightened security along its border in recent months to prevent further inflows.

— AP

Cabinet okays NIS 72 million for settlements

The cabinet approves a NIS 72 million ($18 million) budget increase for West Bank settlements.

Worrying ‘climate of xenophobia’ in Europe — UN refugee chief

The UN’s refugee chief says a worrying “climate of xenophobia” has taken hold in Europe as the continent struggles with the biggest influx of migrants since World War II.

Speaking to AFP in Tehran at the start of a regional tour, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says European leaders needed to do more to coordinate migration policies and to combat negative stereotypes about refugees.

“Refugees… don’t bring danger to us, they flee from dangerous places,” says Grandi, who took office in January.

National leaders need to better explain that immigration “in fact contributes to the development of societies,” he says.

“Those who do the opposite, who stir up public opinion against refugees and migrants, have a responsibility in creating a climate of xenophobia that is very worrying in today’s Europe,” he says.

“It provides a negative example to countries further away.”

— AFP

Qatar condemns Egypt’s verdict in Al-Jazeera case

Qatar condemns Egypt’s sentencing to death of six people, including two Al-Jazeera employees, for allegedly passing documents related to national security to Qatar and the Doha-based TV network during the rule of president Mohammed Morsi.

Saturday’s verdicts, which can be appealed, have further inflamed tensions between the two countries. Qatar was a major backer of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group before he was overthrown by the military in July 2013. Egypt now considers the Brotherhood a terrorist group.

In a statement on Qatar’s state news agency late Saturday, the Foreign Ministry says the verdict contains misleading claims about Qatar and lacks a “proper sense of justice.”

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry fires back, accusing Qatar of backing “hostile” media outlets.

— AP

Bill would allow people over 80 to cut lines

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approves a bill by Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel (Likud) that would allow Israelis over the age of 80 to skip to the front of any line.

The bill, which now has the government’s support, will be submitted to the Knesset for a preliminary reading.

Jordan jails Norwegian-Iraqi for 15 years on terror charges

A Jordanian court sentences a Norwegian man of Iraqi descent to 15 years in prison on Sunday for planning “terrorist acts” in the kingdom.

Khaled al-Rebai, 49, is also found guilty by Amman’s state security court of “possessing explosive material,” according to the verdict delivered in front of Norwegian diplomats in the Jordanian capital.

Rebai is found not guilty of belonging to Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign army of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, an AFP correspondent says.

His lawyers say they will appeal the guilty verdicts.

Rebai was arrested in July in possession of 45 kilograms of explosives in the northern town of Jarash.

Jordan said at the time it had foiled a “terrorist” attack due to be carried out by an Iraqi Quds Force member.

— AFP

Jewish Home MK says Herzog spokesperson should be jailed

Jewish Home MK Nissan Slomiansky tells Army Radio that Herzog’s spokesman Ofer Newman should be hospitalized or jailed over his comments against Israeli settlers.

“It may be that he is a psychopath and must be hospitalized — and that’s judging him favorably,” says Slomiansky. “This man needs to sit in jail. This is insane incitement.”

Erekat slams funding boost for settlements

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat slams the Israeli government’s allocation of over NIS 70 million ($18 million) to the settlements.

“Israel is doing everything possible to sabotage every effort to achieve a just and lasting peace,” he says. “This is yet another slap in the face of the international community despite several recent international attempts to cover up the Israeli crimes and violations. It is time for the international community to assume its responsibilities toward this extremist government, which openly supports apartheid and stands against the two-state solution.”

— Raphael Ahren contributed

Suicide attack kills 3 at Christian massacre memorial in Syria

Three people are killed in northeast Syria on Sunday when a suicide bomber attacks an event commemorating the massacre of Christians more than a century ago, state media and a security source say.

The attack in the city of Qamishli takes place as locals gather at a hall to commemorate the deaths of tens of thousands of Christians by the Ottoman army starting in 1915 in what is known as the Sayfo (“Sword”) massacre.

A photographer working with AFP and attending the event says he heard the blast and saw pieces of flesh lying next to damaged cars.

“The suicide attacker tried to enter the hall where people were gathered but was stopped by local security forces, and he detonated himself among them,” a security source at the scene tells AFP.

The security forces belong to the Sotoro, a Christian militia based in Syria’s northeast.

“Three Sotoro members were killed and five wounded,” the security source says.

— AFP

Israeli group urges Brexit over EU West Bank policies

An Israeli pro-settlement group is campaigning for Britain to leave the EU to punish it for what it says is its pro-Palestinian stance, one of its officials says on Sunday.

Regavim is a right-wing NGO that supports Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Its campaign includes a mock video of a masked Palestinian terrorist purportedly from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip urging UK citizens to remain in the European Union because it supports the Palestinians.

It also highlights EU financing of Palestinian structures in the West Bank.

Meir Deutsch, director of policy and government relations for Regavim, says the NGO wanted to harm the EU over its “intervention in the internal conflict here between Israel and the Palestinians.”

The mock video posted by Regavim on its campaign website shows masked militants with the logo of Hamas’ armed wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and in the background a line in English that reads: “Hamas wants UK to stay in the EU.

A male voiceover is then heard delivering a statement in British English in which he praises the EU for carrying out construction projects in the West Bank.

“If you truly hate Isra-Hell and the Jews and want to support our struggle, help Britain to stay in the EU,” it says.

The voiceover also praised a recent European directive to label produce from Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory.

Deutsch calls the EU’s actions “one-sided and anti-Israel, in the marking of products as well and paying salaries of terrorists.”

“We think they should be acting in a more balanced way. As long as that is not happening, we want the EU to be damaged.”

Deutsch says the campaign is aimed at dual Israeli-British nationals living in Israel, and “anyone who cares for Israel” in the UK.

Britain’s EU referendum will be held on Thursday.

— AFP, Times of Israel staff

Receipts of PM residences spending released

The 2014 bills for upkeep at the prime minister’s residences are released, after a protracted legal battle by The Movement for Freedom of Information.

Details about the expenses were published in August 2015, but on Sunday, some 200 receipts were made public for the first time.

Overall, the state spent NIS 1,965,373 ($508,200) on Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence and private Caesarea residence, the bulk of which went toward his official residence in the capital (NIS 1.6 million/$413,000).

The figure marks a steep decline from previous years. The residence spent NIS 3.2 million ($837,000) in 2012 and NIS 2.4 million ($628,000) in 2013.

“There is nothing new here,” the Prime Minister’s Office says. “The details were published a year ago and the payments were made in accordance with the decisions by professionals and in accordance with the laws that applied to all prime ministers.”

Dafna Meir put up a fight, teen killer says

Transcripts emerge from the testimony of the teenage Palestinian who stabbed and killed Dafna Meir in her West Bank home in January.

In his interrogation, 16-year-old Morad Bader Abdullah Adais — who has been convicted of murder, and whose house has been demolished — describes how the mother of six put up a fight as he stabbed her repeatedly.

“I stabbed her in her upper body three, four times. The woman tried to struggle and tried to take the knife from me,” he says, according to the Walla news website. “Two children who were there were screaming, but the woman kept on struggling. I pushed her and overcame her. She lay on her back in the house. I tried to remove the knife from her body in order to keep stabbing her, but the knife was stuck in her body, so I ran away from Otniel the way I came.”

What would you have done if you had retrieved the knife? an investigator asks. “I would have continued stabbing her, and if I saw another Jew I would stab and murder him,” he replies. Adais says he didn’t stab the Meir children because “it’s forbidden by religion.”

Once he arrived home, “I didn’t tell my family or anyone else that I carried out the attack and I went to sleep. I didn’t leave the house until they arrested me,” he says.

The Palestinian teenager told investigators he was spurred to carry out the attack after watching a Palestinian television show in which a Palestinian girl is arrested after she refuses an order by Israeli soldiers to strip.

“I couldn’t handle this, more humiliation and shame for the Palestinians,” he says. “I decide to take revenge on behalf of the girls who are humiliated by soldiers and kill Jews with a knife. I took a knife with a 20 centimeter blade, used to cut meat, from the kitchen, and I decided to carry out the attack in the settlement of Otniel because it was the closest.”

What would you do if you freed right now? asks the investigator later on. “I would go the Al-Aqsa mosque, even if I was killed, and on the way I would kill as many Zionist Jews that I could,” says Adais.

Abbas meets King Salman in Saudi Arabia

PA President Mahmoud Abbas meets with King Salman during a visit to Saudi Arabia, Arab News reports.

“In their talks, King Salman emphasized the kingdom’s firm stance toward the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” the report says.

Tourism Ministry to fund hotels in West Bank

As part of the cabinet’s NIS 82 million ($21 million) financial aid package for the West Bank, the Tourism Ministry earmarks NIS 5.5 million ($1.4 million) to fund grants that will cover 20 percent of hotel construction expenses.

“The administrative grant given to the Judea and Samraia settlements will initially be equivalent to that given in areas within the Green Line, as they appear on the map of the Law to Encourage Capital Investment. To date, these settlements did not qualify for similar grants,” a statement from the Tourism Ministry says.

Russian soldier dies of wounds in Syria

Russia’s Defense Ministry says a Russian soldier has died of wounds he suffered in a militant suicide attack in Syria, the military’s 11th casualty since the start of its campaign there.

The ministry said Sunday that Sgt. Andrei Timoshenkov died at a hospital at the Russian base in Syria.

It says Timoshenkov was protecting an area where the Russian military was handing out humanitarian aid to locals in the Homs province on Wednesday and opened fire to stop a vehicle speeding up to the site. The car, rigged with explosives for a suicide attack, blew up, wounding the serviceman. He died the next day in a hospital.

So far eight Russian servicemen have died from enemy fire in Syria, two were killed in a helicopter crash and one killed himself.

— AP

Israeli gymnasts take home gold in European championships

The Israeli national team wins first place at the Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships for their hoop and baton routine, the Ynet news website reports.

The team also takes home a silver medal for its ribbon performance and a bronze for overall achievement.

Istanbul riot police break up LGBT rally

Turkish riot police fire rubber bullets and tear gas to break up a gathering of about 50 members of the LGBT community in Istanbul on Sunday, an AFP correspondent says.

Several hundred police surround the city’s main Taksim Square to prevent the “Trans Pride” rally taking place during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The crackdown comes after police used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets on Saturday against people protesting after Islamists attacked fans of British rock group Radiohead for attending an album launch during Ramadan.

A group of about 20 men beat up customers and staff at the Velvet IndieGround music store on Friday night, angry that they were drinking alcohol at the event.

— AFP

Man who threatened IDF commander to be released

The 34-year-old man who threatened Maj. Tom Na’aman online will be released from police custody, the Walla news website reports.

Na’aman is the IDF commander of soldier Elor Azaria, who has been indicted for manslaughter and stands accused of killing a disarmed Palestinian stabber in Hebron in March.

The suspect, arrested earlier Sunday, made threats against Na’aman online, according to police.

Citing Israel, Trump says US should consider racial profiling

Donald Trump says Sunday he is open to racial profiling, touching another raw nerve on the issue of race in America.

Trump, the free-talking presumptive Republican presidential nominee, comes close to endorsing racial profiling outright in an interview aired Sunday on CBS.

Trump is asked point-blank if he was talking about increasing profiling of Muslims in America.

“Well, I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” Trump tells the program “Face the Nation.”

He adds: “So we really have to look at profiling. We have to look at it seriously. And other countries do it, and it’s not the worst thing to do. I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to use common sense. We’re not using common sense.”

Trump asserts that Israel practices racial profiling, and that France also places mosques under surveillance.

“You look at Israel and you look at other countries, and they do it,” he says. “And they do it successfully.

“They’re doing it in France. In fact, in some instances, they’re closing down mosques. People don’t want to talk about it. People aren’t talking about it. But look at what they’re doing in France. They’re actually closing down mosques,” Trump asserts.

Trump has already infuriated many in America by calling for a ban on Muslims entering the country and by saying Mexico sends rapists and drug dealers across the border into the United States.

— AFP, Times of Israel staff

Tens of thousands rally against racism in Germany

Tens of thousands of people join weekend rallies in Germany to condemn racism and right-wing populist groups who have been railing against a record influx of migrants.

Germany — the EU’s most populous country, which last year took in over one million refugees and migrants — has seen a surge in racist attacks and a strengthening of xenophobic and anti-Islamic groups.

The demonstrations kicked off Saturday in Bochum in western Germany and continue Sunday in Berlin, Leipzig and Munich, where thousands form human chains.

The organizers estimate that over 33,000 people have taken part in the “hand in hand against racism” protest, linking up churches, mosques, Jewish synagogues and other landmarks.

— AFP

US authorities won’t release Orlando shooter’s IS allegiance pledge

US authorities will release “limited transcripts” Monday of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen and police negotiators’ telephone conversations during his attack at a gay nightclub that left 49 people dead, Attorney General Loretta Lynch says Sunday.

Lynch says the conversations include Mateen’s pledge of allegiance to the Islamic State group, and his views of US policy.

But those statements will not be included in the transcripts released to the public, she says.

“What we’re not going to do is further this man’s propaganda,” she says on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance.”

— AFP

Report: Dozens of MKs suspected of criminal activity

Channel 10 announces that the Israel Police have compiled a report on Israel’s 120 lawmakers, which includes suspicions of criminal activity and corruption by dozens of Knesset members.

The secret communique, compiled in 2014, could serve as the basis of future criminal probes against MKs, the report says.

Herzog held secret talks with Abbas, agreed to return to ’67 lines — report

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog reportedly held secret talks with PA President Mahmoud Abbas during the 2015 election, and agreed to cede the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem to the Palestinians as part of a future peace deal, Channel 10 reports.

Herzog’s negotiator and a PA representative were said to reach an agreement under which Palestinian refugees would receive financial compensation, the Western Wall would remain under Israeli control, and Israel would retain a “symbolic” military presence in the Jordan Valley, alongside Palestinian and Jordanian soldiers.

The opposition leader was willing to return to the 1967 lines in full, with mutual land swaps on 4 percent of the territory, the report says.

Elkin slams ‘extreme left’ Labor party

Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ze’ev Elkin says the TV report on the secret talks between Herzog and Abbas “proves once again that the Likud’s victory in the past election saved the State of Israel from a suicidal plan of the most dangerous concessions, including the division of Jerusalem.

“We learned once again just how extreme-left the Labor party of today is, that a chasm of extremism divides us from them and that they have no place in a government led by Likud,” he says.

Investigators begin examining EgyptAir black boxes

Investigators have begun examining the black box flight recorders of an EgyptAir plane that crashed into the Mediterranean last month, hoping to establish the cause of the disaster, authorities say Sunday.

The Airbus A320 operating Flight MS804 from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar screens between the Greek island of Crete and the north coast of Egypt on May 19. Sixty-six people were on board.

A vast search operation was launched, finding debris and pieces of the plane’s fuselage at the bottom of the Mediterranean, before the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder were recovered last week.

The Egypt-led investigative committee began examining the so-called black boxes on Saturday in the presence of representatives from France and the United States, where the engine was made, says Egypt’s civil aviation authority.

Both of the devices were damaged and had to be raised from the seabed in several stages, says the authority.

Their memory units were removed at the civil aviation ministry’s labs in Cairo and were undergoing testing, it says.

The data on them is to be unloaded, before it is analyzed in a procedure that is expected to last several weeks.

If badly damaged, the black boxes would be sent abroad for repairs, otherwise the work could be done in Egypt, the authority has said.

— AFP

‘Star Trek’ actor Anton Yelchin dies in car crash at age 27

Anton Yelchin, a charismatic and rising actor best known for playing Chekov in the new “Star Trek” films, dies at the age of 27. He was killed in a fatal traffic collision early Sunday morning, his publicist, Jennifer Allen confirms.

Yelchin, who was Jewish, started small with roles in indie films and various television shows, before breaking out in films like the crime thriller “Alpha Dog” and the teenage comedy “Charlie Bartlett.” His biggest role to date has been in the rebooted “Star Trek” films — the third of which, “Star Trek Beyond” comes out in July.

Yelchin, an only child, was born in Russia. His parents were professional figure skaters who moved the family to the United States when Yelchin was a baby. Yelchin’s family requests privacy at this time.

— AP, Times of Israel staff

Anton Yelchin, Star Trek actor, dies in car crash at age 27 https://t.co/npNvvZzRV0

— The Guardian (@guardian) June 19, 2016