Netanyahu said to give German FM ultimatum over meeting left-wing groups

Barghouti’s health said to be deteriorating in 7-day hunger strike

Palestinian officials say the health of jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who has been leading a hunger strike for a week now, is dangerously deteriorating.

According to the Media Committee for the Palestinian Prisoner Hunger Strike, the director of the Jalame prison in northern Israel has asked Barghouti to get medical treatment.

Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for terrorism, declined the treatment, according the report published in the official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa.

However, a spokesperson for the Israeli Prisoners Authority tells The Times of Israel he is “not aware” of any change in Barghouti’s health.

“The hunger strike is his choice. If he does not feel well, then he can eat,” the Prisoner Service spokesman adds.

An estimated 1,200 Palestinian prisoners, mostly from the Fatah organization and including many convicted terrorists, are taking part in the open-ended hunger strike announced last week in a bid to improve their conditions in Israeli prisons.

— Dov Lieber

Erdogan accuses French researcher of ‘inciting assassination’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s lawyer is lodging a complaint against a former French diplomat accusing him of inciting the assassination of the Turkish leader, the state-run news agency reports.

The move follows comments by Philippe Moreau Defarges about the outcome of the April 16 referendum on controversial constitutional changes that will tighten the president’s grip on power.

Defarges, now a senior fellow at the French Institute of International Relations, said all legal paths to challenge Erdogan had been shut off and that the only two options left were civil war or assassination.

Huseyin Aydin, a lawyer representing Erdogan, says in a petition to an Ankara prosecutor that the comments were not a simple expression of opinion, but were “clearly instigating the crime in question.”

— AFP

Thousands take part in March of the Living at Auschwitz

As thousands start the March of the Living at the Auschwitz death camp, the chairman of the march, Shmuel Rosenman, tells participants that they are themselves becoming witnesses to the Holocaust.

“We are walking in the spirit of the profound words of Dr. Elie Wiesel, of blessed memory, who said: ‘When you listen to a witness, you become a witness,'” said Rosenman.

“We are determined to fulfill this, to embed the memory of the Holocaust in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of young people from all over the world,” he says.

Rosenman says that since the march’s inception in 1988, 250,000 people had taken part.

Most French-Israelis voted for Fillon

A majority of French-Israelis voted for François Fillon, the prime minister and presidential candidate of the center-right Republicans, who failed to advance to the runoff elections next month, the French Embassy in Tel Aviv says.

Some 60 percent — more than 5,000 people — voted for Fillon.

In the general election, he only garnered around 20 percent, coming in a distant third to centrist Emmanuel Macron and the leader of the far-right Front National party, Marine Le Pen.

In Israel, Macron came in second, getting 31 percent, with 2,590 votes, while Le Pen garnered only 3.7 percent, or 311 votes.

Macron, who in the overall election got 23.7 percent, and Le Pen with 21.5 percent will face off in a second round of voting on May 7.

One hundred and thirty-four French-Israelis — less than two percent — voted for far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who in the general election came in fourth with 19.6 percent. Benoit Hamon, the candidate of President Francois Hollande’s Socialists, garnered less than one percent in Israel, compared with the 6.3 percent he received in the general election.

According to the embassy, 8,434 French citizens voted on Sunday. Nearly 58,000 people are eligible to vote, which means that voter participation in Israel was remarkably low at 14.6 percent.

— Raphael Ahren

Bennett at Auschwitz tells European ministers of obligation to preserve memory of victims

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who is taking part in the March of the Living at the Auschwitz death camp, has met his counterparts from 12 European nations, telling them of their obligation to keep alive the memory of the victims.

“In an age when Holocaust denial is growing and anti-Semitic events occur on the web every day and in every place, we have to ensure that the memory of the six million Jews who were murdered is preserved forever,” Bennett says.

The 12 education ministers will walk with Bennett on the March from Auschwitz to Birkenau.

At least 15 migrants drown off Greek island

Greece’s coastguard says at least 15 people including children have died in a suspected migrant boat sinking off the Aegean island of Lesbos.

Eight of the bodies were recovered in Greek waters while the Turkish coastguard found another seven bodies, a Greek coastguard spokeswoman tells AFP.

Two women, one of them pregnant, were recovered alive.

“According to the pregnant woman, there were 25 people on board the boat that sank,” the coastguard spokeswoman says.

The dead apparently include nine men, four women and two children, she said.

Greek authorities had received no distress call prior to finding the bodies, the coastguard spokeswoman says.

Several vessels are continuing the search. Weather conditions in the area are mild.

Greece’s Aegean Sea islands are a primary transit point for refugees and migrants seeking to reach Europe from Turkey.

Over a million people have landed in Greece since 2015, many of them fleeing civil war in Syria.

— AFP

Visiting German FM says Holocaust is warning to fight anti-Semitism

Visiting German Minister for Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel says the Holocaust remains a stark warning to work against anti-Semitsm.

Sigmar, who arrived in Israel as the Jewish state marks the Holocaust, reiterated that Germany takes full responsibility for the murder of six million Jews and says it must be “a warning and an obligation to work against anti-Semitism and for human dignity, tolerance and understanding between people.”

“I am standing here today in Israel in silence, confronted with the great chasm, the fracture of civilization of the Holocaust that is incomprehensible, and in front of a nation, who despite this, extended us a hand,” he says.

— Raphael Ahren

Border guard gets 9 months for accidentally killing friend

The Beersheba District Court today sentenced a border guard to nine months in prison for accidentally killing a friend while playing with his firearm.

The sentence was agreed as part of a plea deal in which the defendant Gilad Weizman admitted to manslaughter.

Weizman accidentally shot and killed his fellow border guard Avi Gronov, while playing with his pistol during a conversation between the two in January 2015.

— Judah Ari Gross

Germany sees new rise in far-right offenses, hate crimes

Violent crimes in Germany with far-right motives rose 14.3 percent last year after a bigger increase in 2015, and the country also saw another increase in hate crimes, authorities say.

The Interior Ministry says that 1,698 violent right-wing crimes were recorded in 2016, up from 1,485 the previous year. In 2015, the figure soared as Germany saw a large influx of migrants.

There was a 3.6 percent increase last year in the broader category of “hate crimes” — offenses of a racist or anti-Semitic nature or targeting people because of their religion, often in online posts. They increased to 10,751 from 10,373 after surging in 2015.

Violent politically motivated crimes targeting homes for asylum-seekers were close to the previous year’s level — 169, compared with 177 in 2015. Including non-violent crimes such as cases involving propaganda, the total number of offenses against asylum centers slipped to 995 from 1,031.

Violent crimes with a far-left motive dropped by a quarter in 2016 to 1,702 — a fall that was apparently due to a lack of major politically sensitive events in Germany last year.

However, politically motivated offenses by foreigners rose by two-thirds last year, largely because of the conflict between Turkey and the outlawed PKK.

— AP

Egypt sentences 20 to death over police killings

An Egyptian court today sentenced 20 people to death for the killing of 13 policemen in the aftermath of the ouster nearly four years ago of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

On August 14, 2013, a month after Morsi was overthrown by the army, security forces forcibly dispersed two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo in an operation that killed more than 700 people.

Hours later a furious crowd attacked a police station in the Cairo suburb of Kerdassa, where 13 policemen were killed.

A year later a Cairo court sentenced to death 183 Islamists but a higher court scrapped the verdict last year, amid an international outcry, calling instead for the retrial of 149 suspects who were behind bars.

Of those 149, on Monday a Cairo criminal court sentenced to death 20 people, a judicial official said, adding that a decision concerning the others would be made at another hearing on July 2.

— AFP

Sheldon Adelson said upset with Trump, hasn’t donated money since inauguration

Jewish-American billionaire and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is said to be upset with US President Donald Trump over his failure to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and has not donated to him or any any pro-Trump groups since the inauguration.

Adelson made history earlier this year by writing a $5 million check to help underwrite Trump’s inauguration festivities, earning himself and his wife a seat on the platform just a few rows behind the president.

Politico reports that Adelson has privately complained about Trump’s failure to fulfill his campaign promise to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Adelson is also reportedly dismayed over the state of chaos in the new administration.

However, a spokesman for Adelson, Andy Abboud, tells Politico the billionaire is “overall not angry or unhappy” with the president. Adelson, he said, is waiting patiently for action on the embassy.

Rebels kill 24 police officers in central India

Suspected Maoist rebels killed 24 paramilitary commandos and wounded six in a remote part of central India, police say, in one of the deadliest attacks of the long-running conflict.

The soldiers were guarding road workers in the Sukma district of Chhattisgargh state, a hotbed of insurgent violence, when they came under heavy fire.

“We have recovered 23 bodies from the spot and one jawan (soldier) died in Raipur during treatment,” Anand Chhabra, a senior police officer, tells AFP, referring to the state capital.

He says six other commandos were critically injured and had been evacuated for treatment.

— AFP

Astronaut breaks record for most time in space by American

US Astronaut Peggy Whitson has another record under her space belt.

Early today, the International Space Station commander surpassed the record of 534 days, two hours and 48 minutes for most accumulated time in orbit by an American. That record was set last year by Jeffrey Williams.

Whitson already was the world’s most experienced spacewoman and female spacewalker and, at 57, the oldest woman in space. By the time she returns to Earth in September, she’ll have logged 666 days in orbit over three flights.

NEW: U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson has broken the American spaceflight record for cumulative time in space. https://t.co/GTnzIPy2Za pic.twitter.com/Mky4XbNOHB

— ABC News (@ABC) April 24, 2017

As part of the celebration, Whitson is getting a special phone call. US President Donald Trump will speak to Whitson from the Oval Office, along with his daughter Ivanka and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins.

The world record — 879 days — is held by Russian Gennady Padalka.

— AP

IDF chief at Auschwitz vows to protect Jewish people

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, speaking at the March of the Living at the Auschwitz death camp, vows that the Israeli army will protect the Jewish people from any future threats.

“We, officers and commanders of the IDF, will march steadfastly towards life, in the name of the People of Israel,” Eisenkot says.

He notes that even 69 years after the establishment of the Jewish state, the country still faces threats.

“Facing them, we remain ever vigilant and our reach extends far. We prepare for every eventuality, adapt to the emerging threats and are confident in the knowledge that, in the moment of truth, we will fight relentlessly and fulfill the IDF’s purpose: to defend the State of Israel, ensure its existence and, if need be, win decisively in war,” he says.

“From the Diaspora, the Jewish people look upon the land of Israel and know that there lies an army ready to ensure the safety of its people,” he says, adding that “we will continue to ensure that no power can call into question our existence as a land or a people.”

— Judah Ari Gross

No strike tomorrow

A nationwide strike set for tomorrow is averted after the main union and the Finance Ministry reach a compromise over the rights of workers set to be fired due to the shutting down of the state broadcaster.

Under the deal between the Histadrut Labor Federation and the treasury, 65 percent of the workers would be rehired in the newly established broadcasting cooperation, while 100 more workers will be given jobs in other government offices, the Finance Ministry says.

Workers over the age of 50 would get enhanced pension benefits, the statement says.

In 2014, the Knesset passed broad reforms that would close the Israel Broadcasting Authority, which politicians at the time described as increasingly irrelevant and costly, and replace it with the new broadcasting corporation. Ongoing disputes about the makeup of the new authority have threatened to bring down the governing coalition.

Anti-Semitic, racist fliers found on Princeton campus

Fliers with anti-Semitic, racist and anti-immigrant messages were posted on the campus of Princeton University.

The fliers were discovered in at least four areas of the campus on Thursday, the Daily Princetonian student newspaper reports, including on the door to the main entrance of the campus Center for Jewish Life.

The person posting the fliers was wearing dark clothing and a ski mask, the paper says.

The fliers were from a white nationalist organization called Vanguard America, which bills itself as a group for “White Nationalist American youth working to secure the existence of their people.”

Among the charges made on the flier: “Jews are 10% of Princeton’s students, an overrepresentation of 500%,” and “80% of the first Soviet government was Jewish.”

— JTA

E. Jerusalem man arrested over stabbing of pregnant woman in apparent romantic dispute

Police have arrested a 27-year-old East Jerusalem man over his apparent involvement in the stabbing earlier today of a pregnant woman due to a romantic dispute, Channel 10 reports.

The woman was rushed to rushed to hospital after she was stabbed in central Jerusalem where the baby was delivered. Both mother and baby are in a good condition.

Police initially arrested the woman’s husband for the attack, but later also detained the other man. Channel 10 says the woman was stabbed “after a dispute over the origin of her pregnancy.”

It is not immediately clear who stabbed her.

Syria agrees to halt fire for chemical attack probe

Syria’s military is ready to halt fire around the rebel-held town hit by a suspected chemical attack if experts are sent in to conduct a probe, Russia’s defense ministry says.

“The command of the Syrian armed forces has expressed readiness to cease hostilities in Khan Sheikhoun if a special mission of experts is sent there to investigate the events of April 4,” the defense ministry says in a statement.

Moscow added that Damascus was “ready to declare a complete moratorium on the activities of its troops, aviation and artillery in the area” if investigators were sent in and also that they would be granted access to the Shayrat airbase allegedly used to launch the attack.

The Damascus regime itself, however, has not made any official announcement on the matter.

A suspected chemical attack left 87 dead, including many children, in rebel-held territory in Idlib province on April 4, with the West accusing Moscow’s ally Syrian President Bashar Assad of being responsible.

— AFP

WJC elects Argentine businessman to lead Latin American branch

The World Jewish Congress elected Argentine businessman Adrian Werthein as president of its Latin American branch, the Latin American Jewish Congress.

Werthein was elected yesterday at the WJC’s Plenary Assembly in New York City to succeed Jack Terpins, who has led the organization since 2001 and became its first honorary president. He is the first Argentinian to head the Latin American Jewish Congress in 20 years; he served as an adviser to Terpins.

— JTA

Trump administration to issue new Syria sanctions

The Trump administration will issue new sanctions against Syria as early as today as part of its ongoing crackdown on the Syrian government and those who support it.

Three US officials say that the sanctions are part of a broader effort to cut off funding and other support to Syria’s President Bashar Assad and his government amid the country’s escalating civil war. The US blames Assad for a recent chemical attack on Syrian civilians, and responded earlier this month by launching missiles against a Syrian airfield.

One official said the sanctions will primarily target weapons manufacturers believed to aid Assad’s use of chemical weapons.

The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly. Trump has called Assad “evil” and said his use of chemical weapons “crossed a lot of lines.”

— AP

US general suggests Russia arming Taliban

The top American general in Afghanistan is suggesting that Russia is arming the Taliban.

At a news conference with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at his side, Gen. John Nicholson avoided offering specifics about Russia’s involvement in the Afghan war.

But said he wouldn’t dispute that it includes Moscow providing weapons to the Taliban.

Nicholson also said that in view of the sophisticated planning behind last Friday’s massacre of more than 140 Afghan troops at a military base, “it’s quite possible” that the Pakistan-based Haqqani network was responsible.

The Taliban claimed it carried out the attack.

— AP

Obama makes first public appearance since leaving office

Former US president Barack Obama is using his first public appearance since leaving office to talk with students about his experiences as a community organizer in Chicago and how that laid the foundation for his political career.

Obama led a student panel today at the University of Chicago, where his presidential library is planned.

He says young people are the key to solving the nation’s most daunting problems and his plan after holding the nation’s highest office is to work with them. He delivered brief remarks at the event before asking students on the panel about what influenced them.

Roughly 500 people, mostly college students, attended the invitation-only event that was also televised.

Yesterday, Obama met privately with young men on the city’s South Side to talk about gang violence and employment.

— AP

US lawmakers from 20 states pledge to mandate Holocaust education

Some 26 legislators representing 20 states are committing to introduce legislation that would require public schools to teach about the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide and other genocides.

The states are among the 42 in the United States that do not already require education on genocide awareness and prevention, the New York-based Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect says in announcing that it had obtained the commitments as part of its 50 State Genocide Education Project to mandate genocide education in public schools across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The center’s announcement came today, observed this year both as Yom HaShoah, or Holocaust Remembrance Day, and Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

—JTA

Defense, intel chiefs send angry letter to Netanyahu over planned cyber authority

Israel’s defense and intelligence chiefs have sent an angry letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning against the establishment of a planned National Cyber Authority, Channel 2 reports.

In the letter signed by the Mossad and Shin Bet chiefs and also the deputy chief of staff of the IDF, they warn that in its current proposed form, the authority would cause “severe harm to the security of the state of Israel.”

In August last year, the Knesset proposed setting up the National Cyber Authority to bring together country’s various cyber defense groups under one umbrella.

For example, the authority would monitor the cyber defenses of the IDF and the Mossad, as well as the Electric Company and the Water Authority.

Netanyahu said to give German FM ultimatum over meeting left-wing groups

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly given visiting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel an ultimatum over planned meetings with left-wing NGOs.

Channel 2 reports that the prime minister told Gabriel that if he meets with Breaking the Silence and the human rights watchdog B’Tselem, he won’t be able to meet with Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has reportedly not yet received a response from the Germans.

The ultimatum comes following an incident in February, when the prime minister asked visiting Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel to stop supporting Israeli groups he considers damaging to the country.

The next day Michel met with both groups.

Trump: UN should consider ‘stronger sanctions’ on N.Korea

The UN Security Council has to be ready to impose tougher sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs, US President Donald Trump says, calling status quo “unacceptable.”

“The council must be prepared to impose additional and stronger sanctions on the North Korean nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Trump said while hosting UN Security Council ambassadors at the White House.

“This is a real threat to the world,” he says. “North Korea is a big world problem. And it’s a problem we have to finally solve.”

— AFP

Border control tries to bar tourists from West Bank, then retracts

Tour operators were surprised recently to receive a letter from the head of the border control asking them to sign a commitment not to allow tourists into the West Bank.

Channel 2 showed a copy of the letter that was headlined “requirement not to take tour groups into Judea and Samaria” and signed by the head of border control in the population registry.

Such a ban would prevent tourists from visiting Jewish settlements and bar Christian pilgrims from important sites like Bethlehem and the Jordan River.

However, Channel 2 said that the border control say the letter was a mistake and should have focused on Palestinian controlled areas. And even in those cases, there is no blanket ban.

The border authority tells Channel 2 they will reissue a letter to clarify the situation.

In hint at Le Pen, Rivlin says Israel can’t cooperate with Europeans who deny Holocaust role

Without mentioning names, President Reuven Rivlin criticizes French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and other European politicians for rejecting their respective countries’ responsibility for having collaborated with the Nazi regime.

This new kind of Holocaust denial is more dangerous than the mere refusal to acknowledge that the mass murder on Jews had taken place, the president says, speaking at a ceremony to mark the end of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Le Pen, who came second in the first round the French presidential elections yesterday, recently tried to deny that the French state was responsible for the wartime round-up of Jews at a Paris cycling track who were then sent to Nazi death camps.

Former President Jacques Chirac and current leader Francois Hollande have both apologized for the role French police played in the round-up of more than 13,000 Jews at the Vel d’Hiv cycling track that was ordered by Nazi officers in 1942.

Rivlin also warns Israel against cooperating with extremist parties on the continent, again not naming, but clearly referring to Le Pen.

“As a sovereign state that has gained national independence, we have a duty to demand from other nations and states that they not evade responsibility,” Rivlin says.

“It is our promise to the blood of our brothers and sisters that cries out to us from the earth, this is our commitment to future generations,” the president adds.

“We must wage a war against the current and dangerous wave of Holocaust denial. We must resist the renunciation of national responsibility in the name of alleged victimhood.”

— Raphael Ahren

Americans for Peace Now cancels annual Israel trip over anti-boycott law

Americans for Peace Now is canceling its annual trip to Israel over the country’s new anti-boycott law.

The law passed last month by the Israeli Knesset bars entry to foreigners who publicly call for boycotting the Jewish state or its settlements.

Americans for Peace Now is concerned that trip participants could be stopped at Ben Gurion International Airport and denied entry into Israel, Haaretz first reported this week, noting that the dovish group has been holding its Israel Study Tour for 30 years and this is the first time it is canceling.

Peace Now reportedly canceled the early June trip after failing to get assurances from the Israeli government that participants would be able to enter the country.

— JTA

Trump jokes about replacing Haley, takes it back

There was a bit of awkwardness at President Donald Trump’s lunch with UN diplomats when he made an undiplomatic comment about Nikki Haley, his ambassador to the UN

Trump was kicking off Monday’s lunch with ambassadors of countries on the UN Security Council when he asked the room if they liked Haley, the US ambassador to the UN

Trump said that if they didn’t, “she could easily be replaced.”

The comment sparked some awkwardness, but seemed to be taken in jest. Haley and others gathered around the lengthy table laughed.

Trump quickly assured Haley her job was safe. “I promise, we don’t do that,” Trump said, and praised Haley for doing a “fantastic job.”

Haley has been one of the Trump administration’s most vocal members, taking a tough line on Russia and Syria and telling North Korea not to give the US “a reason” to fight.

— AP

US Treasury sanctions Syrian officials over sarin attack

The US government imposed “sweeping sanctions” on Syrian officials, in response to what the US says was a sarin gas attack on civilians earlier this month, the Treasury Department announces.

The Treasury ordered a freeze on all assets in the United States belonging to 271 employees of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), and blocked any American person or business from dealing with them.

The SSRC was responsible for producing the chemical weapons Washington believes were used in the attack and the means to deliver them, the statement said.

The suspected chemical attack left 87 dead, including many children, in rebel-held territory in Idlib province on April 4, with the West accusing Syrian President Bashar Assad of being responsible.

“These sweeping sanctions target the scientific support center for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s horrific chemical weapons attack on innocent civilian men, women, and children,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin says in a statement.

“The United States is sending a strong message with this action that we will hold the entire Assad regime accountable for these blatant human rights violations in order to deter the spread of these types of barbaric chemical weapons.”

Treasury already had imposed sanctions against 18 Syrian officials in January, and Mnuchin said the administration “will relentlessly pursue and shut down the financial networks of all individuals involved with the production of chemical weapons used to commit these atrocities.”

The United States also fired 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield on April 7, in response to the suspected chemical weapons attack.