Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
The chairwoman of the Organization for Policemen’s Rights, Oshra Assaf, has filed a complaint against Likud MK David Amsalem for alleged incitement against police officers.
According to the complaint filed at a police station in Holon, Amsalem has committed “incitement and extortion” against police officers,” which “threatens the security of the entire country.”
This week lawmakers advanced a bill proposed by Amsalem that would ban police from giving state prosecutors their opinion on lodging criminal charges against suspects.
The bill faces opposition from Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich and Attorney General Avihai Mandelblit.
Amsalem’s bill is latest in a string of attempts by the Likud MK to rein in the police, accused by some in Netanyahu’s party of carrying out a witch hunt against the premier.
Under Israeli penal law, incitement is a criminal offense that is not covered under Knesset immunity.
More than two dozen relatives are to participate in a memorial ceremony for Karolina Cohn, a Jewish girl from Frankfurt who perished in the Holocaust more than 70 years ago.
The story of her life and death had been all but erased by the Nazis, until archaeologists last year unearthed a silver pendant engraved with her birthdate and birthplace at the grounds of the former Sobibor death camp. With the help of Nazi deportation lists, researchers identified Karolina as the owner of the amulet. It’s almost identical to one belonging to famous Jewish diarist Anne Frank.
In Frankfurt, four little brass plaques for Karolina, her sister and parents will be placed Monday in front of the location where the family lived before they were deported on November 11, 1941.
— AP
Forty-six suspects — one third of them Russian nationals — went on trial in connection with last year’s triple suicide bombing of Istanbul’s main airport, an attack that killed 45 people.
They are accused of “attempting to destroy the constitutional order” and “murder,” state-run Anadolu news agency reports.
They are also charged with “membership of an armed terror group” and “forming and running a terror group,” according to the indictment. The grave offenses mean a potential record jail term — up to 3,342 years — if convicted.
Anadolu says 42 of the accused, who had been under arrest, appeared in court at Silivri, outside Istanbul, in a hearing due to last four days. The other four suspects remain at large.
Sixteen of the accused are Russian nationals and the others are Chechen, Tunisian, Egyptian, Algerian, Syrian and Turkish.
Those killed in the suicide bombings at Ataturk Airport on June 28, 2016, included 19 foreigners and it was one of the worst attacks to rock Turkey’s biggest city that year.
— AFP
Iran’s state-run news agency says the country’s death toll in the powerful earthquake along the Iran-Iraq border has risen to 341 people killed.
IRNA’s report this afternoon also raised the number of injured, to 5,953.
President Hassan Rouhani is due to visit the areas damaged by the earthquake tomorrow.
The magnitude 7.3 quake was centered 19 miles (31 kilometers) outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja, according to the most recent measurements from the US Geological Survey.
The quake was felt as far west as the Mediterranean coast. Iran’s western Kermanshah province, sitting in the Zagros Mountains that divide Iran and Iraq, was the hardest hit. Residents in the rural area rely mainly on farming to make a living.
— AP
Labor party chairman Avi Gabbay urges the government to call new elections for the sake of political stability.
“In the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing about a conflict in the coalition: on the one hand the prime minister wants to call elections as soon as possible, and on the other, the party leaders prefer elections on schedule,” claims Gabbay during the weekly Zionist Union faction meeting. “In this debate, I agree with the prime minister: The time has come for elections.”
“We all see the tensions in Gaza, in the Golan Heights,” and in Lebanon, adds Gabbay. “In this atmosphere, the people of Israel need a focused government and not one that is dealing solely with elections, whether or not they will be held.”
“Therefore, I call on the coalition leaders from here: The time has come for elections,” he says.
The next election is currently scheduled for November 2019. Gabbay, who is not a sitting MK, has positioned himself as a challenger to Netanyahu’s Likud.
The prime minister has not openly acknowledged any interest in calling snap elections.
— Marissa Newman
The High Court of Justice is giving Western Wall officials 30 days to explain why they are failing to protect non-Orthodox streams of Judaism from harassment at the Jewish holy site in Jerusalem.
The move came in response to a petition filed by the Women of the Wall group that claimed police, the Western Wall rabbi and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation routinely failed to protect female worshipers from “disruptive elements.”
Non-Orthodox female worshipers have long complained of harassment and discrimination by the Orthodox bodies governing the site.
The court order comes months after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to freeze the implementation of a permanent pluralistic prayer section at the Western Wall, which was approved by government ministers in January 2016.
The cabinet’s decision was met with widespread dismay from liberal groups and Diaspora Jews.
A woman has been killed after she was struck by a train passing through the Kfar Chabad station in central Israel, police say.
Passengers report hearing a loud crash as the train went through the station.
Train service between Lod and Tel Aviv has been temporarily stopped in both directions.
— Raoul Wootliff
The Tel Aviv District Court rejects a request by journalist Igal Sarna to hold a special hearing on his appeal against a ruling that he pay Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara NIS 100,000 ($28,300) in a defamation suit.
In June, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ordered Sarna to pay the sum over a libelous claim he made in a Facebook post that a domestic dispute led to the prime minister being booted from his car on the side of a highway.
Sarna had argued that due to the “extraordinary circumstances and consequences” of a prime minister suing a journalist, the appeal must receive special status and be heard by a full bench of three justices.
But the court disagreed and ordered the appeal proceedings to advance as normal with just one judge. The case will be heard next month.
— Raoul Wootliff
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri announces he will adopt the recommendation of Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to deny a group of European lawmakers entry to Israel over their efforts to promote boycotts of the Jewish state.
The delegation has 20 participants, including French parliamentarians and mayors, and members of the European Parliament, who are scheduled to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority next week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he conveyed to the US and Russia that Israel will continue carrying out strikes in southern Syria.
The announcement at the weekly Likud faction meeting comes after a US-Russia-Jordan border deal to keep foreign fighters, namely Iran-backed terror groups, away from Israel’s border.
The prime minister says he told “our friend in Washington” and “our friend in Moscow” that Israel will operate in southern Syria “in accordance with our understanding and in accordance with our security needs.”
He describes Israel’s security policy as “the right combination of firmness and responsibility.”
Israel has carried out numerous raids on weapon convoys by Hezbollah, though it rarely acknowledges or confirms individual strikes.
— Marissa Newman
The leader of a Jewish extremist group will be indicted on charges of incitement to violence, racism and terrorism pending a hearing, the Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office announces in a statement.
Lehava head Bentzi Gopstein may also be indicted on charges of obstruction of justice.
Gopstein’s organization opposes intermarriage and the assimilation of Jews and tries to stifle any public activity by non-Jews in Israel.
Lehava, which some lawmakers have tried to designate a terrorist group, has frequently called for action to be taken against non-Jews and homosexuals in order to “save the daughters of Israel,” in Gopstein’s words.
Last month, he was remanded to house arrest for allegedly threatening Arabs who were romantically involved with Jewish women.
Dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews arrive at the IDF draft office in Jerusalem and attempt to disrupt the proceedings by blocking the entrances and shouting at people inside, police say.
They also tried to stop traffic on Rashi Street where the offices are located.
Police arrived at the scene and dispersed the protesters.
Last month police arrested hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters in similar protests, in which thousands of hardline anti-draft demonstrators took to the streets to protest the arrest of two yeshiva students for failing to show up to the Israel Defense Forces draft offices.
Earlier this year, the High Court of Justice struck down a law exempting ultra-Orthodox men engaged in religious study from military service, saying it undermined equality. The decision raises the possibility that they could be forced into service, a highly contentious proposition with political implications.
— Raoul Wootliff
Spain’s defense minister says the government is analyzing who is behind a disinformation campaign targeting the region of Catalonia amid suspicions that Russia and Venezuela might be involved.
Maria Dolores de Cospedal tells reporters in Brussels that “many of the actions come from Russian territory,” but that it’s not yet possible to determine exactly what their source is.
She says some of them are “repeated from Venezuelan territory.”
The minister declines to say what impact the disinformation might have on the Dec. 21 regional elections in Catalonia, or how big the fake news campaign is.
She says the number of fake news items about Catalonia “is changing every day. The figure cannot be specified.”
— AP
Pope Francis is offering prayers for the dead in Iran and Iraq following the powerful earthquake, and is sending strength to rescue crews trying to find survivors.
Francis sends two messages of condolences via the Vatican’s secretary of state.
The notes say Francis was deeply saddened to learn of the disaster and offered his solidarity to those who had lost loved ones.
“Upon the injured and the emergency and civil authorities engaged in rescue and recovery efforts, His Holiness invokes the divine blessings of consolation and strength,” he adds.
More than 350 people in both countries were killed in Sunday’s 7.3-magnitude temblor.
— AP
French police have seen a rise in reports of sexual violence and harassment amid growing global fallout from the accusations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
An official with the French national gendarme service says it has registered 30 percent more complaints this year so far than last year, notably in October. The official wasn’t authorized to be publicly named.
The gendarme service oversees security outside urban areas.
City figures weren’t immediately available, but the gendarme data come as French women are increasingly speaking out online about past sexual abuse following U.S. revelations.
Meanwhile, a French government bill being debated could set a minimum age of sexual consent, amid anger over lax treatment of alleged child rapists. The justice minister says 13 could be a reasonable age.
— AP
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman vows to protect ultra-Orthodox soldiers facing backlash from their communities over their service in the IDF.
“It’s unthinkable that an IDF officer who served his country would have to suffer such indignities,” Liberman says following a court verdict granting NIS 500,000 to an ultra-Orthodox soldier who was libeled for choosing to serve in the military.
“The security establishment will assist any soldier or officer who suffers being libeled over their army service,” he says.
A Dutch court sentences a young woman to two years in prison for traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State group in one of the first such cases in the Netherlands.
“The court considers it proven that she planned to prepare and promote terrorist activities,” the Rotterdam District Court says.
“Therefore she is sentenced to two years in jail of which 13 months are suspended for three years,” the court said in a statement.
Because the woman, known only as Laura H. already spent another year in detention, she will effectively not go back to jail, the judges add.
She was also acquitted of belonging to the IS group, the Dutch news agency ANP says.
The 22-year-old convert to Islam was arrested when she flew back to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport in July 2016 after apparently fleeing the jihadists.
— AFP
The IDF is scheduled to hold a training exercise tomorrow outside the town of Rosh Hanikra, near the Lebanese border, the army says.
The drill is set to begin tomorrow evening and continue into the night. People nearby can expect to hear explosions in the area, the army says.
The military stresses that this exercise is not in response to any current event, but was planned far in advance as part of its annual training schedule.
— Judah Ari Gross
Lebanese President Michel Aoun says he is happy to hear resigned prime minister Saad Hariri would be returning to Beirut from Saudi Arabia shortly.
“I was happy with Prime Minister Hariri’s announcement that he would return to Lebanon soon,” Aoun said on Twitter.
“I am awaiting this return to discuss with the prime minister the issue of the resignation, the reasons for it and the circumstances, issues, and concerns that need to be resolved,” he added in an emailed statement.
Hariri stepped down from his post during a televised address more than a week ago from Riyadh and has remained there, sparking rumours he was under de facto house arrest.
Yesterday, Aoun said that Hariri appeared to be “restricted” in his movements and demanded Riyadh clarify why he had not returned to Beirut.
But Hariri pledged during a television interview on Sunday night that he would be home within days, a development welcomed by Aoun.
— AFP
An Iranian disaster management official says Iran’s death toll from a powerful earthquake along the Iran-Iraq border has risen to 407.
Behnam Saeedi, a spokesman for the country’s crisis management headquarters, is quoted by the semi-official Fars and Tasnim news agencies. Saeedi says the number of injured in the 7.3 magnitude quake is now 6,700.
The quake was felt as far west as the Mediterranean coast. Iran’s western Kermanshah province, sitting in the Zagros Mountains that divide Iran and Iraq, was the hardest hit.
— AP
Iran remains in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, a new UN watchdog report shows, four weeks after US President Donald Trump refused to certify the agreement.
The quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency update confirms that key parameters of Iran’s nuclear program remained within the limits of the accord with major powers.
The restricted report, seen by AFP, says Iran “has not enriched” uranium above low levels and that its stockpile of enriched uranium was under the agreed limit of 300 kilograms (660 pounds).
The new IAEA report says the number of enrichment centrifuges installed at Iran’s Natanz site remained below the upper limit of 5,060 during the reporting period.
The volume of heavy water — a reactor coolant — remained below the agreed maximum of 130 tons throughout the past three months and on November 6 was 114.4 tonnes.
The IAEA assessment showed that, aside from on heavy water, a relatively minor breach, Tehran has complied with the deal since its entry into force in January 2016.
— AFP
At least 21 civilians, including five children, were killed in airstrikes on Syria’s northern Aleppo province, despite a “de-escalation zone” in place there, a monitor says.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it was not immediately clear whether the strikes on the rebel-held town of Atareb had been carried out by Syrian warplanes, or those of Damascus’s ally Russia.
The monitor said three strikes hit the town’s market, adding that the overall toll was expected to rise because dozens of people had been wounded or were still missing after the attack.
Atareb is in the west of Aleppo province, in an area that is part of a “de-escalation zone” agreed under a deal earlier this year between Syria’s allies Russia and Iran, and rebel backer Turkey.
— AFP
Yisrael Beytenu MK Hamad Amar, who is Druze, implores Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze the so-called Jewish nation-state bill or revise it to explicitly back “equality.”
“I, as a Druze, I speak in the name of nearly all the Druze: We have no problem with the definition of a Jewish and democratic state. Precisely the opposite: We are happy to live in a Jewish state,” says Amar, who is in the coalition.
But the proposed bill “discriminates against the people who protect the borders of the state,” he says, referring to Druze enlistment in the IDF.
He urges Netanyahu to revise the bill to incorporate clauses backing “equality” for all of Israel’s citizens.
The Yisrael Beytenu party earlier on Monday presented a list of objections to the bill, which Netanyahu is eager to advance. The party leader, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, has said the bill is an attempt to turn Israel into a “halachic [Jewish legal] state” and could hurt Israel’s minorities.
Netanyahu is attending a plenum session after 40 MKs demand a debate on the peace process.
— Marissa Newman
IDF prosecutors file charges against an IDF officer for the sexual assault of two female soldiers, one of whom served under him in a combat unit.
The indictment includes 13 charges of indecent assault, sexual harassment and indecent conduct.
According to reports, the officer has denied all of the charges against him, saying the sexual contact was consensual.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks focusing on the situation in Syria.
Putin opened today’s meeting at Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi by saying that relations Moscow and Ankara have been “restored practically in full.” Ties between the two countries were badly strained by Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane in 2015, but Putin and Erdogan have managed to mend the rift.
Russia and Turkey, together with Iran, have agreed on de-escalation zones in Syria that helped reduce the fighting.
Putin’s talks with Erdogan follow a weekend statement on Syria approved by Putin and US President Donald Trump. The document included an affirmation of de-escalation zones and a commitment to a peaceful solution governed by a Geneva peace process.
— AP
Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich exposes the name of a Tel Aviv University doctoral student accused of raping a teaching assistant as Asher Moshe.
Last week, teaching assistant Bar Lavi last revealed that an unnamed instructor at the university raped her in August of this year. She said her complaint to the university was disregarded, and lamented that he is “allowed to walk free.”
At a Knesset session addressing the outpouring of sexual assault allegations in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Yachimovich said it was unfair that Moshe was allowed to remain anonymous.
“It’s unacceptable that Bar was left fully exposed after this ordeal while her attacker gets to enjoy immunity and anonymity,” she says during the session. “It’s better that the students who study with him know about this.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he spoke with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi late last week.
He says it was “an important call” for both countries, without elaborating.
The prime minister also says he was invited this morning to visit Tokyo by the end of the year in a meeting with a high-ranking Japanese official.
The prime minister is also touting the “very warm” letter he received from US President Donald Trump on Sunday thanking him for backing the US’s “fix it or nix it” policy on the Iran deal. This was the position I advanced in the US Congress and with US officials over the past two years, he says. “It likely had some influence,” he says of his efforts.
“Countries are standing in line to improve their ties with us,” Netanyahu says of Israel’s international standing at a special plenum session, noting his upcoming trip to India, “warm” correspondence from the Chinese leader, and improved ties with moderate Arab states on which he cannot elaborate.
There is “no international isolation, there is an international renaissance,” he says.
— Marissa Newman
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid calls on Netanyahu to put an end to proposed legislation by Likud MK David Bitan and David Amsalem that would curb the authority of the Israel Police.
“Mr. Prime Minister, you can stop this. Call on your rottweilers, Bitan and Amsalem, to stop it and stop their attacks on police. You can stop it, but you won’t,” says Lapid.
He is referring to a proposal by Amsalem to end police recommendations for indictment and another bill — since shelved — that would prevent the prosecution of a sitting prime minister. The bills have been seen as an effort by loyalist Likud MKs to protect Netanyahu from prosecution in the corruption investigations into his affairs.
— Marissa Newman
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says that Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama “should step aside” in light of allegations he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl decades ago.
McConnell spoke to reporters after visiting a plant in Kentucky. He says he believes the women who were quoted in a Washington Post story about Moore’s past relationships with them as young women.
Previously McConnell had said Moore should step aside if the allegations were proven true.
He says Republicans are looking at a write-in option in Alabama.
— AP
The Paris and Brussels attacks, a botched shooting on a high-speed train and a foiled plot in Belgium may have all been part of one big Islamic State group operation, Belgium’s federal prosecutor says.
Speaking on the second anniversary of the November 13 Paris attacks, chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw confirms for the first time what investigators have been saying privately about the possible links.
“We indeed realize that Verviers, Thalys, November 13 and the March 22 attacks may have been one big operation by Daesh,” the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, Van Leeuw tells Belgian radio.
Verviers is a city in French-speaking Belgium where an armed police raid on January 15, 2015 — shortly after an attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris — led to the dismantling of a cell suspected of plotting to attack the police.
The investigation found that the Verviers cell was directed from abroad by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Moroccan Belgian who fought for IS in Syria and played a key role in the November 13 Paris attacks before he was killed by a French police raid days later.
Abaaoud is also believed to have ordered the botched attack by Moroccan gunman Ayoub El Khazzani on the high-speed Thalys train from Amsterdam to Paris on August 21, 2015.
Three men linked to Abaaoud were charged in the last few weeks in France and Belgium in connection with the Thalys attack.
Investigators say the November 13 gun and bomb attacks in Paris showed that they were largely organized from Belgium by Abaaoud’s network who were acting on orders from the IS high command in Syria and Iraq.
The attacks cost the lives of 130 people.
— AFP
Three senior Shin Bet officials are under investigation for sexual misconduct after a former employee came forward with the allegations last month, according to the Hadashot news (formerly Channel 2).
The Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department is investigating two of the officials for harassment, and a third official described in the report as “very senior” is under investigation for sexual assault.
The woman’s complaints have been verified by investigators, after she took a lie-detector test.
The department has filed a request with the Attorney General to continue the investigations under caution.
The personal assistant of Israeli director Arnon Milchan has testified to police that the Netanyahus requested extravagant gifts from her employer and his associates, Hadashot news (formerly Channel 2) reported.
“Sara Netanyahu would request bottles of champagne in cases of 8 or 12,” Hadas Klien told police investigators. “Bibi would ask for the cigars, and he was aware of the quantities that his wife received.
“The company driver would travel to Jerusalem to deliver the champagne and cigars,” she said.
Klien also said Sara Netanyahu was upset when she told her that Milchan wouldn’t foot their bill for plumbing repairs.
The prime minister and his wife are under investigation for allegedly accepting illicit gifts by billionaire benefactors, most notably hundreds of thousands of shekels’ worth of cigars and champagne from Milchan, a Israeli-born Hollywood producer.
The Netanyahus have denied any wrongdoing in the the case, claiming the gifts they received were in the context of longtime friendships.
Jordan inaugurates the largest solar park to operate in a refugee facility, aiming to improve the lives of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees at the Zaatari desert camp.
The 4,000 solar panels with a total capacity of 12.9 megawatts, are designed to provide 14 hours of electricity a day to Zaatari’s 80,000 inhabitants, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The project was financed by Germany at a cost of 15 million euros ($17.5 million).
— AFP
Zionist Union Chairman Avi Gabbay, says he’s prepared to be no. 2 on a list of candidates under Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, if polls indicate that Yesh Atid will fare better then his own Knesset faction in a future election.
“Some said I have deviated to the right or to the left, but that’s not true,” he tells Labor party student activists at Ben Gurion University. “I have said that I will not join a faction with the Joint (Arab) List and also that I won’t evacuate [settlement] blocs.”
“I’m not a product of political advisers,” he adds.
The EU is calling for an end to external interference in Lebanon, after the country’s prime minister resigned unexpectedly, triggering rumors he was being held against his will in Saudi Arabia.
The EU’s diplomatic chief, Federica Mogherini, says that a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers in Brussels had voiced unanimous support for Lebanon’s “unity and stability.”
“We expect no external interference in this national agenda and we believe it is essential to avoid importing into Lebanon regional conflicts, regional dynamics, regional tensions that have to stay out of the country,” Mogherini says, adding that she would meet Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil in Brussels tomorrow.
She says outside interference in Lebanon — buffeted for decades by conflicts between bigger players in the region such as Iran and Syria — was a “current and always existing threat.”
Saad Hariri sent shock waves through Lebanon when he unexpectedly quit as prime minister a week ago, though on Sunday he rejected rumours he was under de facto house arrest in Riyadh, insisting he was “free” and would return home soon.
His resignation came as tensions rise between Riyadh and Tehran, which back opposing sides in power struggles from Lebanon and Syria to Yemen.
— AFP
