Jewish leader warns anti-Semitism growing in Germany

Chaos at UN court as Bosnian Croat defendant ‘takes poison’

The UN war crimes court for former Yugoslavia descends into chaos during its last judgment when a Bosnian Croat defendant appeared to take poison to protest the upholding of his 20-year jail term.

UN judges were handing down judgment in the appeals case of six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders, in the court’s final verdict for war crimes committed during the bloody 1990s breakup of Yugoslavia.

Seconds after his sentence was upheld, former military commander Slobodan Praljak, 72, shouts out angrily: “Praljak is not a criminal. I reject your verdict.”

He then raises a small brown bottle to his lips and drinks it down in full view of the cameras filming the hearing.

The unprecedented scenes came just after the judges also upheld a 25-year prison term against Jadranko Prlic, the former prime minister of a breakaway Bosnian Croat statelet, and a 20-year term for its former defense minister Bruno Stojic.

But the hearing was then quickly suspended as Praljak’s lawyer shouts out: “My client says he has taken poison.”

— AFP

Israeli agri-tech resolution passes UN vote

An Israeli resolution that aims to utilize agricultural technology for sustainable development passed the United Nations Second Committee 141 to 1 with 34 abstentions.

One hundred and seventeen countries co-sponsored the resolution, the highest number of co-sponsors for any Israeli resolution to date. The only country to vote against the Israeli initiative was Syria, while a bloc of 34 Arab countries abstained.

“Israel is proud to work with our friends around the world in promoting cutting-edge solutions to some of the world’s oldest agricultural challenges,” Ambassador Danny Danon says after the vote according to a statement. “This is an issue that should bring all of us together.”

According to the Israeli mission to the UN, the resolution on Agricultural Technology for Sustainable Development is designed to help promote food security and the sustainability of food systems without sacrificing the resources of future generations.

Artifacts from King Tut’s tomb set for international tour

Artifacts from King Tut’s tomb are going on tour next year to mark the upcoming 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Egyptian pharaoh’s resting place.

The California Science Center says the exhibit, “KING TUT: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh,” will be on view at the Los Angeles museum for 10 months before heading to Europe in January 2019 as part of a 10-city international tour.

The museum says the exhibition represents the largest collection of artifacts and gold from Tutankhamun’s tomb ever to go on public display outside of Egypt. It says 40 percent of the items are leaving Egypt for the first and last time before going on permanent display at a new museum being built near the Giza Pyramids in Egypt.

King Tut’s tomb was discovered in 1922, more than 3,000 years after his death.

— AP

NBC News fires Matt Lauer over inappropriate sexual behavior

NBC News says longtime “Today” show host Matt Lauer has been fired for “inappropriate sexual behavior.” Lauer’s co-anchor Savannah Guthrie made the announcement at the top of Wednesday’s “Today” show.

Guthrie read a statement from NBC News chairman Andy Lack, stating that the company has received a detailed complaint from a colleague Monday night “about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace” by Lauer. Lack’s statement said the company found that after a serious review of the complaint it represented “a clear violation” of the company’s standards, and Lauer was terminated as a result.

Lack added in his statement that it was the first complaint about Lauer in more than 20 years at NBC, but “we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”

The move comes a week after CBS News fired morning anchor Charlie Rose amid reports of sexual misconduct.

— AP

Hague court guard says war crimes defendant is alive

A court guard tells reporters in the lobby of the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that defendant Slobodan Praljak is alive and “receiving medical attention” after he claimed to have taken poison in the court room.

The guard declined to give further details and did not give his name.

Praljak drank from a bottle and said it was poison shortly after the appeals judges had confirmed his 20-year sentence for involvement in crimes as Croat forces attempted to carve out a Croat ministate in Bosnia by driving Muslims from towns and villages during the 1992-95 war.

— AP

Trump retweets videos critical of Muslims from far-right account

US President Donald Trump is retweeting a series of anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right British politician.

Trump sent the Twitter messages Wednesday morning. The videos were first posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right group Britain First.

VIDEO: Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death! pic.twitter.com/XxtlxNNSiP

— Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) November 29, 2017

The descriptions read: “VIDEO: Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!” and “VIDEO: Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!” and “VIDEO: Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!”

After Trump retweeted the videos, Fransen quickly responded on Twitter, saying: “DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

Trump has sought to ban immigrants from certain Muslim-majority countries.

— AP

Netanyahu nixes Hotovely’s Europe trip over remarks on US Jews

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly nixed Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely’s trip to the Czech Republic tomorrow over her remarks about US Jewry.

According to Hadashot news, Hotovely’s office says the trip has been postponed, not canceled.

Last week, Hotovely said that American Jews struggle to understand the Middle East because they lead comfortable lives, don’t perform military service and don’t know what it’s like to live under attack.

Her remarks were swiftly condemned by Netanyahu, and Jewish leaders from both the US and Israel called for her to be fired.

Hotovely later apologized “from the depths of my heart,” but declined to retract her comments.

PA employees blocked from resuming work at Gaza ministries

Palestinian Authority employees were prevented from returning to work at a number of ministries in the Gaza Strip, a union says, in another sign of tension ahead of a reconciliation deadline.

The Hamas-run union for public employees says it has instructed its delegates to block former employees from returning to work at the ministries, saying their return came in a “random manner” and aimed at “creating great problems.”

It says in a statement the ban would continue until a decision regarding the current Hamas employees was agreed.

Witnesses said dozens of former employees were blocked at the finance, health and education ministries among others.

The Hamas terrorist organization is due to hand back control of Gaza, including all ministries, to the Palestinian Authority by Friday, a decade after seizing it in a 2007 near civil war, after the two rival factions reached a unity deal.

— AFP

Israel to appoint new Jordan envoy in effort to mend ties — report

Israel will appoint a new ambassador to Jordan, in an effort to calm Amman’s anger over a deadly shooting incident at the Amman embassy earlier this year, Reuters reports.

Jordan says it will not permit Ambassador Einat Schlein and her staff have to return to their posts in Amman until an Israeli embassy guard who shot dead two Jordanian nationals in July is brought to trial.

The incident has put a damper on already delicate diplomatic relations between Israel and Jordan.

5 arrested for illegal archaeological excavations

Police arrest five suspects involved in illegal digging in southern Israel, a police spokesman says.

The arrests are the result of joint sting operation between the Border Police and antiquities authorities.

The suspects from the Rahat area are brought before a judge this afternoon.

2 Palestinians arrested at Tel Aviv Central Bus Station for carrying knife

Two Palestinians are arrested at the Tel Aviv Central Bus station after a search of their belongings turns up a knife, a police spokesperson says.

The suspects are taken for questioning by police.

Service at the bus station is not interrupted by the incident.

Croatian state TV reports Yugoslav War criminal dies after drinking poison

Croatia’s state TV says Slobodan Praljak who claimed to have taken poison just after his 20-year sentence was upheld by appeals judges at a UN war crimes tribunal, has died.

Dutch police will not comment on the TV report based on “sources close to Gen. Praljak.”

Spokesman for the tribunal Nenad Golcevski, when asked by the AP if he could confirm the death, says: “I have no information to share at this point.”

Praljak, 72, drank from a bottle shortly after appeals judges confirmed his sentence for involvement in a campaign to drive Muslims out of a would-be Bosnian Croat ministate in Bosnia in the early 1990s.

— AP

Lebanese actor charged with collaborating with Israel

Lebanon’s chief military prosecutor indicts an actor and writer on charges of collaborating with Israel and possessing drugs.

The prosecutor’s statement comes nearly a week after Ziad Itani’s arrest. Itani was accused of collaborating with an Israeli female spy to collect information about Lebanese politicians and journalists.

The case has gripped Lebanon at a time of heightened domestic tension over the resignation of the Saudi-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

According to interrogation leaks, Itani has reportedly collaborated with a Mossad agent to gather information about political developments following Hariri’s resignation, and specifically about an ally of the prime minister. Itani has apparently admitted to the charges.

No trial date has been set.

Lebanon and Israel are formally at war and collaborating with Israel can be punishable by death.

— AP

Israel, NATO sign agreement to strengthen intelligence-sharing

Israel and NATO recently signed a bilateral agreement aimed at protecting the exchange of classified intelligence, the organization announces.

The agreement was signed by Wendy Bashnan, the director of the NATO Office of Security, and senior defense ministry official Nir Ben Moshe two weeks ago in the ministry’s Tel Aviv headquarters.

“The Arrangements will facilitate the cooperation between NATO and Israel as they serve as common minimum standards to be applied to the protection of the classified information exchanged between the two parties,” the statement reads.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly expected to meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg during his upcoming trip to Brussels.

— Raphael Ahren

Shaked takes credit for ‘scaling down’ recommendations bill

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked says that if it were up to her, the controversial police recommendations bill would not be advancing through the Knesset to become law.

“I would not have advanced this law, but in a coalition, you have to make compromises,” Shaked says at The Marker’s economics conference at Ben Gurion University.

“After I demanded several changes, the proposal is reasonable in its current form,” she says. “I significantly scaled the bill down.”

Israel eases restrictions on US-bound Gazan travelers

Israel launches a new shuttle service for Gazans who need to travel to the US Consulate in Jerusalem — briefly easing one of the many restrictions placed on Palestinians who want to exit the blockaded territory.

Israel allows only a small number of Gazans to travel through Israel — mostly for medical care or other humanitarian grounds. It cites security considerations for the tight restrictions.

In recent months, it has barred Gazans from entering Israel for visa interviews at the US Consulate after some applicants fled into hiding in Israel or the West Bank to seek work. That has prevented several hundred people from applying at the Consulate for visas to travel or study in the US.

About 100 Palestinians traveled to Jerusalem on the shuttle service today.

— AP

Iran denies Bulgaria PM entry into airspace en route to Saudi Arabia

Bulgaria says that an aircraft taking its prime minister and former king to Saudi Arabia was denied permission by Iran to enter its airspace, forcing them to fly via Iraq.

“The refusal is inexplicable,” Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva is quoted by Bulgarian media as saying from Riyadh a day after the incident.

She says Iran’s ambassador in Sofia has been summoned for an explanation. Iran had initially given the flight permission before it took off, she said.

The plane was carrying former king Simeon Saxe Coburg, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Zaharieva and four other ministers.

It was the first visit by a Bulgarian prime minister to Saudi Arabia since the former communist country, now a member of the European Union, and the kingdom established relations 20 years ago.

Borisov was due to be received on Wednesday by King Salman and by the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, under whom relations with Iran have deteriorated dramatically.

— AFP

Trump promises ‘major sanctions’ against NKorea after ballistic missile launch

US President Donald Trump says he’s spoken with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about North Korea’s latest missile test.

Trump is promising more penalties against the North.

And Trump tweets that he’s spoken with Xi about “the provocative actions of North Korea. Additional major sanctions will be imposed on North Korea today. This situation will be handled!”

A White House statement about the phone conversation says Trump made clear “the determination of the United States to defend ourselves and our allies.” Trump also “emphasized the need for China to use all available levers to convince North Korea to end its provocations and return to the path of denuclearization.”

— AP

Yisrael Beytenu says it will veto amended mini-market legislation

Yisrael Beytenu says it will veto legislation that would force mini-markets in Tel Aviv to close on the Sabbath.

MK Robert Ilatov tells coalition chairman MK David Bitan in a letter that that Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s party will vote against any version of the so-called mini-market bill.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, has been advancing legislation to give him the authority to shutter mini-markets in the country on Shabbat, bypassing a High Court of Justice decision

Liberman, whose coalition party has an effective veto on matters of religion and state, has made clear he will not tolerate any changes to the religious status quo in Israel.

Rehovot man suspected of stabbing his mother during argument

A 26-year-old man from Rehovot is arrested on suspicion that he stabbed his mother during an argument.

The woman, 59, is injured lightly and is taken to Kaplan hospital for treatment.

Police have opened an investigation into the incident.

British PM Theresa May on surprise visit to Baghdad

British Prime Minister Theresa May pays a surprise visit to Baghdad where she met with her Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi and praised the country’s efforts to battle the Islamic State group.

May’s visit came after Iraqi forces backed by an international coalition including Britain ousted the Islamic State group from swaths of Iraq it had controlled since 2014.

May praised “the bravery and sacrifice of the Iraqi security forces” and pledged British support “for as long as the Iraqis want and need it.”

— AFP

Fatah says Hamas ‘not committed’ to unity deal ahead of key deadline

Fatah’s top negotiator says rival movement Hamas is “not committed” to a landmark Palestinian reconciliation agreement, two days ahead of a key deadline to implement the accord.

“Hamas is not committed to the agreement it signed in Cairo to end the division,” Azzam al-Ahmad, chief negotiator for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah, tells AFP.

“Until this moment, the problems and obstacles from Hamas are still there and are increasing.”

Under the agreement, the Hamas terror organization is due to hand over control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority by Friday after a decade of dominance there, but doubts have emerged over whether it will occur.

— AFP

Trump ‘wrong’ to retweet anti-Muslim videos, says Downing Street

US President Donald Trump was “wrong” to retweet three anti-Muslim videos posted by the deputy head of British far-right group Britain First, Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman says.

“Britain First seeks to divide communities through their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions. They cause anxiety to law-abiding people,” he says.

“British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right, which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents — decency, tolerance and respect. It is wrong for the president to have done this.”

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour party, had tweeted earlier: “I hope our government will condemn far-right retweets by Donald Trump. They are abhorrent, dangerous and a threat to our society.”

— AFP

UN: Worst malnutrition since start of Syrian war in besieged Damascus suburb

The United Nations children’s agency says the worst malnutrition rate since the start of the Syria conflict nearly seven years ago has been recorded in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, besieged since mid-2013.

Nearly half of the 400,000 people trapped in eastern Ghouta suburb, northeast of Damascus, are believed to be children, according to UNICEF.

The UN agency says a survey it conducted in the area in November found 11.9 percent of children under age 5 are suffering from acute malnutrition, a rise from only 2.1% according to a similar study in January.

UNICEF Regional Director Geert Cappelaere called for the lifting of the government-imposed siege.

The humanitarian call comes as UN-sponsored peace talks are underway in Geneva. The talks aim to bring the opposition and government face-to-face.

— AP

Transatlantic flights to be permitted to land on Shabbat despite strike

Israel Airport Authority employees say that transatlantic flights will be permitted to land at Ben Gurion airport despite declaring a general strike for the weekend.

Yesterday, the IAA labor union said Israel’s main airport would operate on a “Yom Kippur basis,” a move that will force hundreds of flights departing on Shabbat to be rescheduled.

The strike is called to protest a plan by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri that would see the authority pay additional taxes that would be distributed to residents in the vicinity of the airport.

White House defends Trump tweet of anti-Muslim videos

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders is defending US President Donald Trump’s posting of videos purporting to show violence against Muslims, saying he wants to “promote strong borders and strong national security.”

Sanders says she was not sure how Trump found the videos, which he retweeted from the leader of an extreme far-right British group.

VIDEO: Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary! pic.twitter.com/qhkrfQrtjV

— Jayda Fransen (@JaydaBF) November 29, 2017

Asked if the president had a responsibility to verify the content, Sanders said: “Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real and that is what the president is talking about.”

She says she had not discussed with the president how it could impact his relationship with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

— AP

Settlers block entrance to Jerusalem after West Bank structure leveled

Dozens of settlers are blocking the entrance to Jerusalem to protest the court-ordered demolishing of a structure in an illegally built West Bank outpost.

Police are at the scene and are working to restore traffic flow to normal.

Australian billionaire questioned in Netanyahu gifts investigation

Police have questioned Australian billionaire James Packer this week as part of a corruption investigation into allegations Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted expensive gifts from wealthy businessmen.

According to Hadashot news, the questioning took place yesterday in Australia.

Packer has emerged as a key figure in the ongoing investigation, along with Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

Israeli investigators have been trying to interview Packer for months as part of the investigation but were not able to set up a meeting with him until this week.

Israel believes US embassy move to Jerusalem ‘extremely likely’ — report

The Israeli government reportedly believes US President Donald Trump will declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv in the coming days.

“In Jerusalem, there is a very high expectation” that Trump will declare that he “formally recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and instructing his team to actively prepare to move the embassy,” the news report says.

The Hadashot news report comes a day after US Vice President Mike Pence said Trump was “actively considering” moving the US embassy.

Coalition whip to be interrogated under caution in bribery probe — report

Coalition chairman David Bitan of the Likud is set to be interrogated by police under caution in the coming days regarding suspicions of bribe-taking before he entered the Knesset, Hadashot news reports.

Last month, the Haaretz daily reported that the police was gathering evidence of wrongdoing by Bitan during his tenure as deputy mayor of Rishon Lezion from 2005 to 2015.

Bitan, who insisted he was innocent when the story broke, tells Hadashot news that he is unaware of the development.

Israel Police declined to comment on the report.

Jordanian jailed over IS plot to attack coalition air base

An Amman court jails a Jordanian man for 10 years for plotting attacks on behalf of the Islamic State group against an air base used by the coalition fighting the jihadists.

The state security court finds the 52-year-old guilty of “conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts,” an AFP correspondent at the courthouse says.

The man — whose name was not released by officials — was arrested in November 2016 as he plotted to attack the sprawling Muwaffaq Salti air base in the country’s eastern desert, the staging point for aerial sorties by the US-led coalition fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, the court says.

It says the man had been in contact with IS operatives in Raqa, the group’s former Syria stronghold, who asked him to “carry out military operations targeting officers and members of the Jordanian military intelligence services.”

He had also been told to monitor the base and had passed intelligence to IS on its layout and how it was guarded.

— AFP

Turkey claims over 80 ‘terrorists’ killed in northern Iraq

The Turkish armed forces claim to have killed over 80 “terrorists” after air strikes on Kurdish militant positions in northern Iraq.

The military said there were also “several” injured members of the “separatist terrorist organization” — Turkey’s official term for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — after the strikes in the Asos region on Monday.

It was not possible to independently verify the toll.

The strikes also damaged a PKK shelter, tunnel and hideout, the armed forces said, adding it destroyed a large ammunition store and two armoured vehicles.

The PKK has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984 and is blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

— AFP

Jewish leader says anti-Semitism growing in Germany

The head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews says that anti-Semitism is growing in the country, causing concern for a community that is otherwise blossoming more than seven decades after the Holocaust.

Josef Schuster says at a reception of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin that Jews in Germany fear the increased anti-Semitism of far-right nationalists, Muslims immigrants and leftists, who often disguise their anti-Semitism as criticism of Israel.

Schuster said that in recent surveys, “90 percent of Jews perceive anti-Semitism as a very big problem and … 70 percent avoid carrying any Jewish symbols in public.”

He also calls out the nationalist Alternative for Germany, which he says tolerates Holocaust deniers in their party and does not distance itself clearly from anti-Semitic sentiment.

— AP

Knesset says Netanyahu, Katz won’t vote for recommendations bill

Knesset legal adviser Eyal Yinon says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Welfare Minister Haim Katz won’t participate in the upcoming plenum votes on the controversial police recommendations bill as to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

Lawmakers are set to vote on the second and third reading of the so-called “recommendations bill” that would ban police from informing prosecutors whether there were grounds for indictment upon wrapping up their investigations.

The bill is opposed by both police and the attorney general and is seen as an attempt by Likud lawmakers to shield Netanyahu from the public fallout should police find sufficient evidence to warrant criminal charges by prosecutors.