Netanyahu apologizes after ministers no-show Yom Kippur War memorial

38 people said hurt in police crackdown in Catalonia

Catalonia’s emergency services say they have treated 38 people who were injured in a police crackdown at polling stations for an independence referendum banned by Madrid.

Thirty-five people were lighty injured, while three others were “more seriously” hurt, they say on Twitter, adding that nine of the injured had to be taken to health centers.

“The injuries were mostly bruises, dizziness and anxiety attacks,” they add.

— AFP

Spanish government says Catalonia must end referendum ‘farce’

Spain’s central government is demanding Sunday that Catalonia’s president Carles Puigdemont call off an independence referendum in the region which police have intervened to stop, dismissing the vote as a “farce.”

“Puigdemont and his team are solely responsible for all that has happened today and for all that can happen if they do not put an end to this farce,” Madrid’s representative in Catalonia Enric Millo told a news conference.

— AFP

Jerusalem sexual conversion therapist charged with offenses against minors

A Jerusalem conversion therapist is being charged with sexual offenses against minors he cared for, under the guise of attempting to “cure” them of their homosexuality.

Reuven Israel Velcher, 44, is accused of goading several minors into performing indecent acts on him and on each other as part of their therapy sessions. He is also suspected of abusing his patients verbally and emotionally during their time with him.

The accused is alleged to have told his patients that his behavior was designed to reverse their homosexual tendencies.

Israel ‘reviewing’ nuclear spy Vanunu’s travel restrictions

The Foreign Ministry says it’s reviewing the travel ban imposed on Israeli secret-spiller Mordechai Vanunu after Norway granted him permission to immigrate so he can be united with his wife.

“Israel will continue to review updates of the situation in order to determine appropriate restrictions in accordance with security dangers posed by Vanunu,” a statement says.

A ministry spokesperson says the restrictions on Vanunu’s freedom of movement were “due to the danger that he posed” to the Jewish state.

He declined to say if Vanunu had made an official request to travel to Norway.

Vanunu’s wife, Kristin Joachimsen, told Norway’s TV2 channel Friday the couple requested family reunification after they wed in May 2015. Norway’s Directorate of Immigration confirmed permission had been granted.

Vanunu served 18 years in prison for leaking details and pictures of an alleged Israeli nuclear weapons program to a British newspaper. He sought asylum in Norway after his 2004 release.

Israel banned him from speaking with foreigners and leaving the country, among other restrictions.

Israel neither confirms nor denies its nuclear weapons capability.

Israeli MK observing Catalonia vote shocked by Spain’s use of force

A Zionist Union MK observing Catalonia’s independence referendum says she was shocked by the use of rubber bullets by Spanish police against crowds of unarmed protesters.

Ksenia Svetlova says the bullets used “can squash somebody’s head.” She says she she saw people bleeding and injured on the scene, and that she hadn’t expected to see such tactics used in Europe.

“We did expect a normal democratic process. We knew that a lot of police were here but still, you know, there should be a respect for the will of the people to vote regardless of what you think of the referendum,” Svetlova says.

Svetlova says she was part of a delegation of about 30 people from other countries invited by Catalan regional officials to see the voting process.

— with AP

11 police officers injured in Catalonia referendum clashes

Eleven police are injured in Catalonia in clashes with protesters as officers tried to block voting in a banned independence referendum, Spain’s interior ministry says.

“For now there are a total of nine national police officers and two Civil Guard officers who have been injured while carrying out a judge’s order” to stop the referendum, the ministry says in a Twitter message, adding that rocks had been thrown at police.

— AFP

Greece announces joint air force drills with Cyprus, Egypt, Israel

Greece’s defense minister says plans are being drawn up for joint air force drills with Cyprus, Israel, Egypt and European countries as part of efforts to bolster stability in the eastern Mediterranean.

Panos Kammenos’ remarks come after a military parade in the Cypriot capital to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the ethnically divided island’s independence.

The parade included the overflight of a pair of Greek Air Force F-16 jets, the first showing of the Greek warplanes at the event in 16 years.

The island’s Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades says there will be no letup in efforts to reunify Cyprus, despite July’s collapse of peace talks with breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missiles were also put on the display at the parade.

— AP

With 3,000 killed, Syria monitor says September deadliest month of 2017

Syria’s war killed at least 3,000 people including 955 civilians in September, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor says, in the deadliest month of the conflict this year.

“More than 70 percent of the civilians were killed in regime and Russian air strikes, or in air raids of the international coalition” fighting the Islamic State group, the Britain-based monitor’s head Rami Abdel Rahman says.

The number of people killed in September was higher due to increased fighting and “intensified air raids of the international coalition and Russia against jihadist bastions in the north and east of Syria, but also due to increased Russian and regime strikes on rebel-held areas,” he says.

— AFP

Police arrest 5 for smuggling phones to security prisoners

Police announce they uncovered a network to smuggle cellphones to jailed security prisoners.

A statement from police says five people working for a company supplying canteen products to Israeli prisons had been arrested for smuggling phones and SIM cards to prisoners.

It says the suspects are Israelis and Palestinians.

נחשפה רשת להברחת טלפונים סלולריים לאסירים ביטחוניים הכלואים בישראל: הטלפונים הוברחו בארגזי סחורה שיועדו לקנטינות בבתי הכלא pic.twitter.com/I9nRR3rXXM

— משטרת ישראל (@IL_police) October 1, 2017

The undercover investigation was launched in August after officials at Ofer Prison discovered cellphones and SIM cards hidden in shipments of food bound for their canteen.

The five are remanded into custody, and are expected to be charged tomorrow.

2 dead in Marseille train station knife attack

A man armed with a knife killed two people at the main train station in the southern French city of Marseille on Sunday before being shot by soldiers patrolling there, local officials said.

“Two victims have been stabbed to death,” local official Olivier de Mazieres told AFP.

Local prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux said the knifeman had been shot by soldiers, while Marseille police urged people in the city to avoid the area around Saint-Charles station.

— AFP

Catalan official says 337 injured in referendum crackdown

Catalonia’s government spokesman says 337 people have been injured, some seriously, during the police crackdown on a banned referendum on breaking away from Spain.

Jordi Turull says he couldn’t disclose more details about the wounded out of respect to their relatives.

Police fired rubber bullets near at least one Barcelona polling station, and have clashed with protesters throughout Catalonia.

The regional government’s spokesman, Jordi Turull, blames the violence directly on Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido.

Turull says that actions by Spanish National Police and Civil Guard forces on Sunday were politically motivated and showed “a clear motivation to harm citizens.”

Catalan international affairs director, Raul Romeva, says that regional authorities would appeal to European authorities for Rajoy’s governments’ violations of human rights.

— AP

Disabled protesters block entrance, exit to Jerusalem

Disabled protesters block the entrance and exit to Jerusalem at the Chords Bridge and near the capital’s central bus station, despite a deal signed between other disabled activists and the government on Friday to increase stipends and end traffic-halting demonstrations.

Police at the scene are rerouting traffic to the Arazim tunnel.

Earlier today, the protesters blocked Hasira Junction, a main intersection in Herzliya.

France opens anti-terror probe of Marseille knife attack

French anti-terror prosecutors say they have opened an investigation into a knife attack at the main train station in Marseille which left at least two people dead.

The prosecutor’s office in Paris says in a statement that the probe would focus on “killings linked to a terrorist organization” and the “attempted killing of a public official,” two terror-related charges.

— AFP

Media titan Si Newhouse is dead at 89, family says

Media titan Samuel Irving “Si” Newhouse Jr. has died at 89.

His family says Newhouse, together with his brother Donald, owned Advance Publications, which owned properties including Condé Nast, dozens of newspapers across the United States, and a controlling stake in Discovery Communications.

Newhouse, who was Jewish, bought and remade The New Yorker and Details magazines, revived Vanity Fair and bought and sold the Random House book empire.

The family paid tribute to Newhouse on Sunday, describing him as “the first person to come to the office, arriving well before dawn” and a person who brought “visionary creative spirit coupled with no-nonsense business.”

Bob Sauerberg, president and CEO of Condé Nast, says that “today, we lost a giant.”

— AP

Government criticized after ministers skip Yom Kippur War memorial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is facing criticism after all the cabinet ministers were noticeably absent from the annual memorial for the Yom Kippur War earlier today.

Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Zionist Union MK Hilik Bar was the sole lawmaker to attend the memorial at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. President Reuven Rivlin was also in attendance.

Opposition leader Avi Gabbay in a Facebook post calls the incident “embarrassing.”

“Each of the fallen soldiers has parents, brothers, sister and comrades, some of whom were there today, that are still carrying tremendous pain from that terrible war,” he writes. “And no minister thought it was important enough to come look them in the eye.”

Former prime minister Ehud Barak calls the absence of cabinet minsters at the event a “moral failure.”

“Shameful and enraging,” he posts on Twitter. “Disrespectful to the fallen soldiers.”

“Where are Bibi and his ministers? Busy with the jobs law? Or with the political ceremony in Gush Etzion? Destroying the Supreme Court? Time to go home.”

Spain closes 79 of 2,300 Catalan voting centers

Spain’s interior Ministry says police have closed 79 of about 2,300 polling stations that the Catalan government has authorized to stage its referendum on independence in northeastern Catalonia.

The ministry says that police, who are under orders to prevent the referendum from taking place, arrested three people, one a minor, for disobedience and assaulting officers.

It says 34 of the voting centers closed were in the Catalan capital of Barcelona. A regional court last week ordered police to close all the polling stations.

Earlier today , Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull said that voting was underway in 96 percent of the voting centers.

The Spanish government says no referendum has taken place.

The ministry said 11 police officers were slightly injured in disturbances. Catalan officials say 337 people have been injured, some seriously, in clashes with police.

— AP

Trump says negotiating with N. Korea a waste of time

US President Donald Trump says it would be a waste of time trying to negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear program after it emerged the US had channels of contact with Pyongyang.

“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Trump writes on Twitter, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

“Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”

I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017

— AFP

Barcelona soccer game played without fans amid referendum clashes

Barcelona’s soccer game against Las Palmas is going ahead without fans in attendance at the Camp Nou stadium amid the disputed referendum on Catalonia’s independence.

Barcelona made the announcement that the match would be played behind closed doors with less than a half hour to kickoff, with thousands of soccer fans already waiting outside the stadium.

Barcelona wanted the game to be postponed, but it said that the Spanish league refused to accept its request.

— AP

Israeli Paralympic rower wins silver at world championships

Israeli Paralympic rower Moran Samuel wins the silver medal at the World Rowing Championships currently being held in Sarasota, Florida.

Samuel completed the 2,000-meter sculls with a time of 11:20, coming in just behind Norway’s Birgit Skarstein.

Samuel won a bronze medal for Israel in women’s 1000-meter single sculls at the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.

Samuel had been a member of Israel’s national basketball team until 2006, when she suffered a spinal stroke and became paralyzed in her lower body.

Barcelona mayor says 460 people hurt in Catalonia vote melee

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau says more than 460 people have been injured in Catalonia in clashes with Spanish police who trying to prevent a referendum on independence from taking place in the northeastern region.

Colau says that as mayor of the city, she demands “an immediate end to police charges against the defenseless population.”

Police have baton-charged and fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds in Barcelona and other towns and cities. Videos have showed them beating people repeatedly as they try to confiscate ballots and ballot boxes.

In addition to the protesters and voters injured, Spain’s Interior Ministry says 11 police officers have been injured fulfilling judicial orders to prevent the referendum on independence.

— AP

Disabled protesters block entrance to Coalition Chairman Bitan’s home

Disabled protesters block the entrance to Coalition Chairman David Bitan’s home in Rishon Lezion.

The protesters are denouncing Bitan for what they say is a poor compromise deal reached last week between the finance ministry and handicapped activists.

Last week, Bitan took part in marathon talks that resulted in a compromise agreement to increase stipends for disabled Israelis and end the ongoing traffic-halting demonstrations by disabled activists.

Some of the protesters clashed with Bitan’s neighbors when they tried to enter the building.

Pope urges Europeans to embrace unity, reject nationalism

Pope Francis is urging Europeans not to fear unity and to put aside nationalistic and other self-interests.

The pope didn’t mention the police violence during Catalonia’s independence referendum Sunday on his visit to Bologna. But in a speech to university students, Pope Francis recalled that the European Union was borne out of the ashes of war to guarantee peace.

He warned that conflicts and other interests were now threatening those founding ideals.

The pope said: “Don’t be afraid of unity! May special interests and nationalism not render the courageous dreams of the founders of the European Union in vain.”

The Vatican has indicated it doesn’t support the independence effort in Catalonia, denying a Catalan cleric’s claim earlier that it would immediately recognize an independent Catalonia. Spain’s bishops have urged dialogue in the dispute.

— AP

Macron calls Marseille knife attack ‘barbaric’

France’s President Emmanuel Macron says he is “deeply outraged” by a “barbaric” knife attack that left two women dead at Marseille’s main train station.

Macron also paid tribute to the French soldiers assigned to domestic security whom the president said in a tweet responded with cool heads and efficiency.

The French government this month decided to maintain the military force of 7,000 soldiers that was created to protect sensitive sites after the deadly extremist attacks of 2015.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also praised the soldiers who shot the suspect and stopped the “killing frenzy.”

He expressed condolences to the victims’ families and concern for Marseille residents.

— AP

Liberman denies he opposed IDF recommendation to seal off West Bank for Sukkot

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s office denies a television report that he went against a military recommendation in calling for the closure of the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the weeklong Sukkot holiday.

Channel 2 reported that the decision was made despite disagreement by the IDF, which a spokesperson for Liberman dismissed as “nonsense.”

Israel regularly closes off the West Bank and Gaza for Jewish and Israeli holidays, though, in cases of week-long holidays like Sukkot, this measure is often only in place for the first and last days of the festival.

According to the official, since the terror attack last week outside the Har Adar settlement near Jerusalem, the military’s stance has been that a closure of the West Bank should be imposed throughout the entire holiday.

“That recommendation was accepted by the defense minister,” Liberman’s spokesperson says.

–Judah Ari Gross

Netanyahu apologizes after ministers skip Yom Kippur War memorial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologizes that no members of his cabinet attended the the annual memorial service for the soldiers who fell in the Yom Kippur War.

“This is an unfortunate mistake and I apologize to the bereaved families. I have instructed the Government Secretariat to ensure there will be representation in the ceremonies of those killed in Israel’s wars in the future,” the prime minister says in a statement.

“There is no greater duty than the one to the loved ones of the soldiers who died so that we can live in our country,” Netanyahu adds.

The government was lambasted as “embarrassing” after it failed to send a single minister to the ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

3 children injured by gas explosion in Elad

Three children are injured by a gas explosion at the entrance to a residential building in the city of Elad, outside Tel Aviv.

The Magen David Adom in a statement says the children were taken to Belinson Hospital with light to moderate injuries. It says the children are around 11-years-old.

Police at the scene say the gas lines in the building were damaged as a result of the explosion, and have evacuated the apartment building on the city’s Ben Zakai street.

Barcelona mayor urges Spanish PM Rajoy to resign

Barcelona’s mayor is calling on Spain’s conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to resign, after Spanish riot police were seen beating and kicking people in their efforts to shut down a vote on independence for the northeastern region of Catalonia.

Mayor Ada Colau tells TV3 that “Rajoy has been a coward, hiding behind the prosecutors and courts. Today, he crossed all the red lines with the police actions against normal people, old people, families who were defending their fundamental rights.”

She adds that “It seems obvious to me that Mariano Rajoy should resign.”

Colau also says, after the violence today, Catalonia has “earned the right to demand” a proper vote on independence from Spain.

She says, “The European Union must take a stand on what has happened in Catalonia.”

Officials say at least 465 people and 11 police were injured today.

— AP

Israeli judoka Yarden Gerbi reportedly set to retire

Israeli judoka Yarden Gerbi, who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is reportedly set to announce her retirement tomorrow.

According to Channel 2, the 28-year-old is retiring after suffering from multiple medical issues over the last year.

Gerbi has undergone a number of surgeries since her appearance at last year’s games.

The TV report says Gerbi will convene a press conference tomorrow to announce her decision.

Spanish foreign minister says police actions were “proportionate”

Spain’s foreign minister says the violence seen Sunday as police tried to prevent people from voting in Catalonia in a banned independence referendum was “unfortunate” and “unpleasant,” but “proportionate.”

In an interview with The Associate Press, Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis blames the violence exclusively on Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his regional government.

Dastis says, “If people insist in disregarding the law and doing something that has been consistently declared illegal and unconstitutional, law enforcement officers need to uphold the law.”

Officials say at least 465 people and 11 police were injured Sunday. Videos showed police roughing up voters, who tried to shield themselves from blows.

Dastis says, however, that “it was a proportionate use of force, there was no excessive violence and it was a reaction to the situation they were faced with when they were prevented from doing their job.”

— AP