The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they happened.
The government approves the appointment of Moאti Cohen as acting Israel Police commissioner, after the government-backed nominee was rejected by a vetting committee.
All ministers taking part in the vote back the nomination of Cohen, who is the Southern District police commander.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Welfare Minister Haim Katz don’t vote due to ongoing criminal investigations involving them.
Cohen will serve in the position for 45 days.
The Senior Appointments Advisory Committee, which vets nominees for top positions such as the IDF chief of staff and Bank of Israel governor, on Friday said it could not recommend Moshe “Chico” Edri as the next police chief due to a meeting he held during the nomination process with the lawyer of a whistle blower he is accused of harassing.
The decision by the committee was condemned by a number of top ministers, and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who picked Edri, said he would still bring Edri’s nomination to a cabinet vote if he cannot convince the committee to change its recommendation.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is visiting the Arc de Triomphe monument in Paris, which had been sprayed with graffiti and damaged in Saturday’s protest riot in Paris.
Macron, just back from the G-20 summit in Argentina, goes to the Arc de Triomphe to pay tribute to the Unknown Soldier from World War I whose tomb is under the monument. He then heads to a nearby avenue where activists wearing yellow jackets had torched cars and smashed windows Saturday in France’s worst urban riot in years. There he meets with firefighters and police officers.
Later Sunday, Macron is holding an emergency government meeting on security issues.
Paris police say 133 people were injured and 412 arrested as protesters trashed the streets of the capital Saturday. Police fired tear gas and used water cannon to tamp down the violence.
— AP
VATICAN CITY — The pope has lit a candle decorated with the faces of Syrian children suffering from war as part of a global campaign calling for peace in the Middle Eastern country.
The pope tells believers gathered in St. Peter’s Square on the first Sunday of the Advent season leading up to Christmas that the season “is a time of hope.” The pontiff calls for a halt to the civil war in Syria, which has been underway for nearly eight years.
Lifting the candle to the window, the pope urges that “these flames of hope disperse the darkness of war.”
The lighting launches a global campaign for Syria, which the organization Aid to the Church in Need says involved over 50,000 children from war-torn Syrian cities.
— AP
During the Angelus today, Pope Francis lit a candle for peace in #Syria, that's been at war for the past eight years. He joined a campaign launched by @acn_int that included some 50,000 children from various Syrian cities praying for this intention in recent days. pic.twitter.com/01LCsDI6mB
— Ines San Martin (@inesanma) December 2, 2018
President Reuven Rivlin tours the original Prime Minister’s Residence in Tel Aviv where Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion set up shop following the War of Independence.
Rivlin is accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot during the tour of the residence, which is located in the Sarona compound across from military headquarters.
“I was born nine years before the State of Israel was established. This building symbolizes the establishment of the state and the establishment of the IDF,” Rivlin says in a statement, according to his office.
“Anyone born here, even those born before the State of Israel was established, comes into this house and is carried away by the history. It fills me with pride,” the president adds.
The residence, which is housed in a former Templar building, was renovated and opened to the public in September.
The government approves the earmarking of NIS 700 million ($187 million) in funds for a plan to “bolster the resilience” of Gaza-area communities.
The two-year plan was proposed during a meeting last month between Prime Minister Netanyahu and leaders from communities near the Gaza Strip following heavy criticism of the security cabinet for consenting to a ceasefire with the Hamas terror group.
“They resilience of the residents of the Gaza-area is an important component of national strength,” Netanyahu says at the weekly cabinet meeting.
He credits this resilience with allowing “members of the government and security cabinet to make decisions in the right way at the right time.”
Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid calls on the ruling Likud party to toss aside Prime Minister Netanyahu as its leader after police recommend he be charged with bribery in a corruption case involving the Bezeq telecommunications firm.
“This is a sad day, sad for all Israeli citizens… as well as for all those who have known Netanyahu for dozens of years like myself and others, and saw the process of corruption caused by too many years in power,” Lapid, whose Yesh Atid party is part of the opposition, says in a statement.
Lapid says Israel “deserves more” and shouldn’t be run by a prime minister immersed in legal troubles, while also calling for early elections.
“Likud needs to choose someone else from its ranks who will lead the country to elections that will come soon,” he says.
FRANKFURT, Germany — German police shut down a far-right rock concert in a small eastern town after members in the crowd started chanting the illegal Nazi slogan “Sieg Heil.”
The concert, which took place in Ostritz in the state of Saxony on Saturday, featured two bands from “the right-wing scene” and had drawn an audience of “several hundred,” Goerlitz police say in a statement.
Officers stationed outside intervened after hearing shouts of “Sieg Heil” (Hail Victory) coming from the venue at 11:20 p.m. local time. The gig was brought to an end and the building was emptied shortly after 1:00 a.m.
Several witnesses also reported hearing the chants.
Federal authorities have opened an investigation, Goerlitz police add.
Under German law, using Nazi-era slogans or publicly displaying swastikas and other Nazi symbols is illegal.
The town of Ostritz, near the border with Poland, regularly hosts far-right concerts that are often controversial.
Last April, hundreds of neo-Nazis gathered in the remote town for a festival timed to coincide with Hitler’s birthday.
— AFP
CAIRO — An Egyptian actress facing trial on public obscenity charges for wearing a dress revealing the entirety of her legs says she did not mean to offend anyone.
In a Facebook statement late Saturday, Rania Youssef says she may have misjudged the reaction to the dress and been influenced by fashion experts.
Youssef, due in court January 12, wore the dress Thursday for the closing ceremony of a Cairo film festival. Images of her were widely shared on social media, prompting a group of lawyers to file a complaint that was taken up by the chief prosecutor.
It’s the latest instance of ostensibly secular authorities siding with religious conservatives in Muslim-majority Egypt, where the military overthrew an elected Islamist president in 2013.
— AP
The High Court of Justice extends by a month and a half a deadline for the government to pass legislation regulating the military enlistment of members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community.
Current regulations on deferring mandatory IDF service were set to expire today, which would have made thousands of ultra-Orthodox seminary students eligible to be drafted.
The month-and-a-half delay is less than the four months the government requested last week.
The government said it needed more time to pass legislation on ultra-Orthodox enlistment after Avigdor Liberman resigned as defense minister and pulled his Yisrael Beytenu party out of the Knesset, leaving the coalition with the minimum majority of 61 out of 120 total Knesset seats.
Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, whose Agudat Yisrael party has four seats in the coalition, has said it will not vote in favor of a Defense Ministry-backed bill, making opposition support necessary if the proposed legislation is to become law.
Former defense minister Avigdor Liberman criticizes a High Court of Justice decision granting the government an additional six weeks to pass legislation regulating exemptions to mandatory military enlistment for ultra-Orthodox students.
“It is unfortunate the High Court did not put an ordered end to the sensitive and painful issue that has accompanied the state since its founding,” Liberman, who heads the Yisrael Beytenu party, wrote on his Twitter account.
“With its decision, the High Court gave the possibility for further foot-dragging of the survival government and turned the issue of enlistment into a problem of political bargaining that exposes the government to pressure and manipulation from anti-Zionist elements,” he adds.
Prior to his resignation last month as defense minister over the government’s policy vis-a-vis violence in Gaza, Liberman was a staunch supporter of a Defense Ministry-backed bill formalizing exemptions from IDF service for ultra-Orthodox seminary students.
Following Liberman’s resignation and withdrawing of his Yisrael Beytenu party, the coalition was left with a bare majority of 61 seats and now needs help from the opposition to pass the bill, which is opposed by the Agudat Yisrael party.
Israelis will be required as of January 1 to have a driver’s license or pass a special test in order to ride an electric bicycle, the Transportation Ministry announces today.
The ministry says Israelis may today begin taking the theory test, which is made up of 30 questions on the proper riding of electric bikes and road safety. Those who pass will be granted an A3 license, a new class introduced by the ministry.
“The theory test for bicycle riders are meant to give youngsters knowledge an early familiarity with traffic laws, both as bicycle riders and pedestrians,” Transportation Minister Israel Katz says in a statement.
The new regulations come after the government approved stricter rules for electric bicycle riders following a deadly crash in September in which a 17-year-old was killed while riding his electric bike in a hit-and-run.
Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid accuses Prime Minister Netanyahu of kowtowing to his ultra-Orthodox political partners after the High Court of Justice gives the government six extra weeks to pass legislation formalizing exemptions to military service for seminary students.
“The High Court decision on the enlistment bill doesn’t change the fact that Netanyahu could have passed the bill months ago already,” Lapid wrote on Twitter.
Lapid, who has long campaigned to enlist the ultra-Orthodox in the Israel Defense Forces, has said Yesh Atid would vote for a Defense Ministry-backed bill regulating exemptions to mandatory conscription, which would allow it to pass without the support of ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition.
“Instead of this, [Netanyahu] does what he always does — surrender to the ultra-Orthodox again and again because surrender is his art. The main thing is to protect his seat, everything is petty politics,” Lapid adds.
TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian fertility expert accused of working with foreign “espionage networks” to downplay the country’s population crisis has been arrested, state news agency IRNA confirms on Sunday.
It does not give details of the charges, but quotes a lawyer who names the expert as Meimanat Hosseini Chavoshi.
She is listed by the University of Melbourne as working at its School of Population and Global Health, published widely on Iran’s once-lauded fertility and family-planning policies.
On Saturday, hardline newspaper Kayhan reported the arrest of several population “activists… who, under the cover of scientific activities, had infiltrated state bodies.”
It said they manipulated statistics and handed sensitive information to Iran’s enemies as part of efforts at “cultural and social invasion.”
Iran was once considered an international success story in population control, bringing birth rates down from seven per woman in the 1980s to 1.66 in 2016, according to World Bank figures.
But lately there has been concern that Iran overshot its target, with the number of births falling well below the level needed to keep the population growing.
— AFP
The Health Ministry informs the public that passengers on a bus heading to Jerusalem from the northern city of Migdal Haemek at 3 p.m. today were exposed to measles.
The ministry calls on any passengers aboard the bus who have not received at least two measles vaccinations to contact their local Health Ministry office in order to learn about preventive treatment for measles.
It does not specify the source of the exposure to the disease.
The announcement comes amid a sharp rise in measles cases in Israel this year, prompting a Health Ministry campaign to raise vaccination rates in areas of the country with low rates of inoculation.
The High Court of Justice allows the Israel Defense Forces to demolish the home of a Palestinian man under indictment for killing an Israeli soldier.
Rejecting a petition from Islam Yousef Abu Hamid’s family against a demolition order issued by the IDF in September, the court rules the entire home may be destroyed and not just the 2nd and 4th floors of the building where the assailant lived.
Hamid killed Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky, a member of the elite Duvdevan unit, by dropping a marble slab on the top of his head from a neighboring home during an IDF raid in the al-Am’ari refugee camp in Ramallah.
Lubarsky’s father praises the court ruling.
“The decision is a victory for sanity. We expect only more thing — imposing the death penalty on the terrorist who murdered Ronen,” the Kan public broadcaster quotes him saying.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to give a “forceful and uncompromising” speech at 8:00 p.m. this evening, in response to the Israel Police’s recommendation earlier today that he be charged with bribery in Case 4000, Likud sources tell The Times of Israel.
“He will tell the plain truth about the investigation,” the sources say of the address, which will coincide with Israel’s prime-time nightly news.
The speech will take place at the Likud party’s official Hanukkah lighting ceremony at the Kfar Maccabiah Hotel in Tel Aviv, which party officials say will be attended by “several ministers.”
Police investigators said earlier today they believed there was enough evidence to bring Netanyahu to trial on charges of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust, and fraudulently accepting benefits in the Bezeq corruption probe. It is the third case in which police have recommended bribery charges against the prime minister.
They also recommended that his wife, Sara, stand trial in the case.
— Raoul Wootliff
Pro-Palestinian groups in Britain are demanding a BBC boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is to be held in Israel next year.
BDS groups held two separate protests yesterday outside the BCC studios in London and Manchester, where activists urged the public broadcaster to disassociate from next year’s song competition.
In a statement, the groups accuse Israel of “using [the] Eurovision to art-wash its egregious crimes against the Palestinian people.”
According to videos and photos of the protests uploaded to social media, the protests drew a dozen-or so people.
The Eurovision contest will be held in Tel Aviv on May 25, 2019, with the semifinals on May 21 and 23. In September, some 140 artists called for Israel to be stripped of its hosting privileges “until Palestinians can enjoy freedom, justice and equal rights.”
Today @BBC Studios in Media City #Manchester
Protest @Eurovision being staged in Israel.
With @ManPalestine @ManchesterJAP @HX_Palestine #BoycottEurovision2019 #Eurovision #Eurovision2019 #BDS #Boycott #Israel pic.twitter.com/HPhAoWqE9Y
— ManchesterPSC (@ManchesterPSC) December 1, 2018
President Rivlin lights candles with ultra-Orthodox soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces to mark the start of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
“I look at you and see modern-day Hasmoneans – soldiers, warriors, righteous men who learn Torah. This is really a Hanukkah miracle,” Rivlin tells the soldiers, according to his office.
The Hasmoneans were an ancient priestly dynasty that overthrew Selucid rule in Judea and reestablished a Jewish kingdom.
Rivlin hails the soldiers for helping defend Israel and says they are forging a “new path.”
“You are an inspiration and prove to us all that we can find the balance between protecting the country and protecting our what is most important to us… We were all brothers in arms,” he says.
According to a statement from Rivlin’s office, there are 7,400 ultra-Orthodox soldiers and officers currently serving in the IDF.
Prime Minister Netanyahu laughs off police recommendations he be indicted in a series of corruption investigations in a video released for the start of the Hanukkah holiday.
In the Hebrew-language clip, Netanyahu approaches a man complaining about life in Israel, as he waits in line at a bakery to buy doughnuts traditionally eaten for Hanukkah, who asks the premier if they being filmed for a live stream.
“No, no we’re in the same boat,” Netanyahu reassures the man. “I call them all the time, ask to order take-out and they don’t believe [me] and think I’m joking with them. They called the police on me”
“Case 5000,” the man says jokingly in response, referring to the so-called cases 1000, 2000 and 4000 in which Netanyahu has been implicated.
“Leave it. Who is even counting,” Netanyahu says dismissively.
As it would not be Hanukkah without Netanyahu referring to Iran, the prime minister uses his interlocutor’s remark about a “bomb doughnut” as a jumping off point.
“You said bomb? You remember the nuclear deal with Iran? They said there is nothing to do, the whole world supports it, but I never gave up,” he says.
When the man reacts in shock to the number 6000 being called out, apparently thinking this is another case against Netanyahu, the prime minister assures him there is nothing to worry about.
“That is your number in line, or the number of calories you are going to eat,” he tells the man jokingly.
Prime Minister Netanyahu dismisses police recommendations he be charged for bribery in the so-called Bezeq graft probe.
“We’re celebrating the victory of light over darkness,” Netanyahu says to a gathering of activists from his Likud party, adding that the light will always win out.
The prime minister notes the timing of the announcements, which came on Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich’s last day on the job.
“A true Hanukkah miracle. What a beautiful present they gave us for the holiday,” he says.
“The witch-hunt against us continues,” Netanyahu continues. “I wasn’t surprised the recommendations were published, or that they were published today.”
Netanyahu also condemns leaks from the police investigations and “brainwashing” against him in the media.
Prime Minister Netanyahu says there is nothing wrong with being in contact with owners of major media outlets after police recommended he be charged in a case involving suspicions he pushed regulations benefiting Bezeq telecoms in exchange for positive coverage from its Walla news site.
“I don’t think it okay in a democracy for the police to investigate ties between politicians and the media,” he says at a Likud party event for the start of Hanukkah.
Netanyahu accuses investigators of singling him out, saying dozens of lawmakers receive “flattering coverage” and are not probed for this.
“No Bibi, no investigation,” he claims is the policy of investigators, referring to himself by his nickname.
Netanyahu says the accusations in the case, the third in which police have recommend he face charges over, are baseless.
Prime Minister Netanyahu says he does not know who next the Israel Police commissioner will be, indicating the embattled nominee may not win government approval.
“I don’t know who the next police commissioner will be, but I do know one thing. He’ll have some serious restoration work because, how should I say this, the public’s trust in the police is not at an all-time high,” he tells Likud activists at an event for Hanukkah.
A senior vetting committee last week said it could not recommend the government’s choice of Moshe “Chico” Edri as the next police chief, prompting sharp criticism from government ministers who had vowed to approve the nomination in any case.
US President Donald Trump sends holiday greetings to Jews celebrating Hanukkah, but laments the fact that many continue to face anti-Semitism.
“Melania and I send our warmest greetings to our Jewish brothers and sisters in the United States, in Israel, and around the world celebrating Hanukkah,” Trump says in a statement from the White House.
Despite the festive occasion, Trump notes Jews “continue to face many different forms of violence, hatred, and bigotry” worldwide.
“We remember all those from the Tree of Life — Or L’Simcha Congregation — whose lives were tragically taken in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this past October,” he says, referring to the shooting attack last month in which 11 Jews were killed.
“As one nation, we pledge our continued love and support for the victims, their families, and the community, and we pray that the victims’ families find some measure of peace and comfort during this holiday season,” the US president adds.
Opposition figures denounce Prime Minister Netanyahu following a speech by the premier dismissing police recommendations he be charged with bribery.
“Tonight we saw a anxious and frightened prime minister that has a heavy cloud of corruption floating over his head,” MK Yair Lapid, who heads of the Yesh Atid party, writes on Twitter.
“He has no moral or public mandate to determine crucial matters in the State of Israel.”
Lapid also hits out at Netanyahu for criticizing police investigators over their handling of a series of corruption investigations involving him and calls on the Likud party to pick a new premier.
MK Tamar Zandberg, leader of the left-wing Meretz party, calls Netanyahu a “criminal” who has “adopted criminal behavior and the language of the underworld.”
“The victory of light over darkness will be when Bibi goes home,” she writes on Twitter in reference to the Hanukkah holiday.
