Ben Simon

MK Nir Barkat, a lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, takes a selfie with supporters during a campaign stop at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda on March 19, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

March 19, 2021, 11:37 pm

With much of country vaccinated, Israeli leaders able to head out to meet voters

Party leaders fan out across country before March 23 vote, with Netanyahu hoping the successful vaccine drive can help propel him to victory

By Ben Simon

People wait at a bus stop in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem, on March 11, 2021 (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)

March 18, 2021, 7:38 am

Battered by pandemic, some ultra-Orthodox question supporting Haredi parties

Ahead of election, experts say the past year has ignited an internal debate within the community over whether its conduct during the health crisis was correct

By Ben Simon

Jerusalemites on Jaffa street on January 13, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

February 3, 2021, 8:28 pm

High Israel contagion rates blur effect of Pfizer shot on virus transmission

Data from HMOs carrying out world’s fastest vaccination campaign show vaccine protects against severe illness; not clear, however, whether ‘epidemiological barrier’ formed

By Guillaume LAVALLÉE and Ben Simon

Deni Avdija speaks to the media after NBA's Washington Wizards picked him in the NBA draft 2020 in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

December 24, 2020, 12:12 pm

Deni Avdija’s NBA debut gives Israel a shot at basketball stardom

Though he isn’t the first Israeli to play in the league, the Jewish state has higher hopes for new Washington Wizards small forward

By Ben Simon

Israeli winemaker Yaakov Berg holds a bottle of his red blend named after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the Psagot Winery in the Sha'ar Binyamin industrial park near the Psagot settlement in the West Bank, north of Jerusalem on November 18, 2020. (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

November 19, 2020, 4:04 pm

For maker of West Bank ‘Pompeo’ wine, emphasizing product’s legitimacy is key

Psagot owner named blend for US secretary of state in salute to Trump administration’s attitude to settlements, says labeling bottle ‘#madeinlegality’ is a ‘statement on morality’

By Ben Simon

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky attends a campaign event for the ultra-Orthodox Degel HaTorah party in the northern city of Safed on February 26, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

November 1, 2020, 10:39 am

‘Nobody here is crazy’: Top rabbi’s grandson defends continuing study amid COVID

Yaakov Kanievsky pushes back on criticism of Chaim Kanievsky’s order to keep schools open despite lockdown, as he ‘believes that the Jewish people have no existence without Torah’

By Ben Simon

Director Roman Polanski poses during a photo call to the screening of "Based on a true story" in Paris, France, October 30, 2017. (AP Photo/Francois Mori,file)

October 15, 2020, 2:33 pm

Yad Vashem to honor Poles who hid Polanski during WWII in Thursday ceremony

Stefania and Jan Buchala to be named Righteous Among the Nations in event in Poland; new documentary will feature director’s 1st meeting with couple’s grandson in 2017

By Anna Maria Jakubek and Ben Simon

Then-US Vice President Joe Biden gestures during a speech in Tel Aviv, March 11, 2010. (David Furst/AFP)

August 13, 2020, 9:45 am

Could Biden’s deep Israel ties ease Obama-era tensions?

With long history of support for Jewish state, experts say that if elected US president, Democrat would be embraced by Israel’s political and military class

By Ben Simon

Gabriel Bach, 93, a former judge of the Supreme Court of Israel and a former deputy prosecutor during the trial of Adolf Eichmann, poses for a picture while holding a photograph showing him (below) during Eichmann's (top) trial, at the yard of his home in Jerusalem on May 3, 2020.(Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)

May 8, 2020, 9:35 am

60 years on, Israeli prosecutor recalls Eichmann trial

‘Not a day passes without me remembering,’ says Gabriel Bach, lead investigator and deputy prosecutor of key architect of Holocaust

By Ben Simon

Illustrative photo of a woman begging in Jerusalem. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

February 23, 2020, 5:08 pm

Israel’s ‘most vulnerable’ citizens hit by political stalemate

The lack of a 2020 state budget is causing fear and cutbacks at organizations, educational institutions and social services that help the country’s weakest, experts say

By Alexandra Vardi and Ben Simon

This image taken from CCTV video obtained by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet claims to show Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, October 2, 2018. (CCTV/ Hurriyet via AP)

September 30, 2019, 10:14 pm

UN expert blasts Saudi prince over ‘problematic’ defense of Khashoggi killing

Agnes Callamard, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings whose probe found ‘credible evidence’ linking crown prince to the murder and attempted cover-up, dismisses defense

By Ben Simon

This Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018 file photo shows the website for British investigative group Bellingcat with one of the two suspects in the March poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England. (AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

July 28, 2019, 5:59 am

Sophisticated phishing attack targets reporters investigating Kremlin

Journalists from Bellingcat, which uncovered Russian agents who poisoned spy, say hackers tried to steal ProtonMail credentials, urge Switzerland to investigate

By Ben Simon

A painting by Henri Matisse entitled "The Blue Blouse" is seen at the Kunstmuseum Bern in Bern, Switzerland on December 4, 2018 (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

January 6, 2019, 8:28 am

The art of shedding light on gifts with possible Nazi ties

Bern’s Kunstmuseum wants to audit the provenance of all paintings donated by Georges F. Keller, after ties to a French dealer who traded art with the Nazis are revealed

By Ben Simon

Illustrative: Baby suffering from measles (CC BY CDC Global, Flickr)

December 1, 2018, 4:46 am

UN: Measles cases rise 30 percent worldwide

WHO says worrying trend of resurgent cases is a near global phenomenon, but causes vary in different regions

By Ben Simon

In this file photo taken on March 19, 2018 US candidate to the head of International Organization for Migration (IOM) Ken Isaacs looks on during a press briefing in Geneva. (AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

June 29, 2018, 6:21 pm

UN migration agency rejects Trump nominee accused of anti-Muslim bigotry

Washington set to lose its historic control of the organization; Ken Isaacs’ inflammatory tweets appear to have made him an untenable candidate

By Ben Simon