Dozens of Charedi protesters blocked roads in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak on Sunday as Israel’s Supreme Court heard arguments in a landmark case challenging a controversial system of exemptions from military service granted to lomdei torah. The court is looking at the legality of the exemptions, which have divided the country and threatened to collapse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition. A decision is expected in the coming weeks. Most Jewish men and women in Israel are required to serve mandatory military service at the age of 18. But Charedim have traditionally received exemptions if they are studying full-time in Yeshivos. These exemptions have infuriated the wider general public, especially as hundreds of soldiers have been killed in the war with Hamas. During Sunday’s arguments, government lawyers told the judges that forcing Charedi men to enlist would “tear Israeli society apart.” The court suggested a target of enlisting 3,000 Charedi men a year – more than double the current levels but still less than 25% of their overall numbers. In Jerusalem, Israeli police cleared protesters from roads, and forcefully removed those who briefly blocked the city’s light rail. Demonstrators chanted “to prison and not to the army.” In March, the court ordered an end to government subsidies for many Charedi men who do not serve in the army. Netanyahu faces a court-ordered deadline of June 30 to pass a new law that would end the broad exemptions. But he depends on Charedi parties to prop up his government, and ending the exemptions could cause them to leave and trigger new elections. (AP/YWN)
Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure and claimed it made gains in the eastern Donetsk province. The shutdowns were in place in all but three regions of Ukraine following Saturday’s drone and missile attack on energy targets that injured at least 19 people. Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers. Sustained Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in recent weeks have forced the government to institute nationwide rolling blackouts. Without adequate air defenses to counter assaults and allow for repairs, though, the shortages could still worsen as need spikes in late summer and the bitter-cold winter. Among the most significant recent strikes were an April barrage that damaged Kyiv’s largest thermal power plant and a massive attack on May 8 that targeted power generation and transmission facilities in several regions. Following Saturday’s barrage, Ukraine’s air force said Sunday that air defenses had shot down all 25 drones launched overnight. Russia claimed Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Umanske in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region. Russia’s coordinated new offensive has centered on Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, but seems to include testing Ukrainian defenses in Donetsk farther south, while also launching incursions in the northern Sumy and Chernihiv regions. In Russia, six people were injured in shelling in the city of Shebekino in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Sunday. He also said that a local official, the deputy head of the Korochansky district, had been killed by “detonation of ammunition.” He gave no details. In the neighboring Kursk region, three people were injured Sunday when an explosive device was dropped from a drone, according to acting regional head Alexey Smirnov. Speaking at Asia’s premier security conference in Singapore, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused China on Sunday of helping Russia to disrupt an upcoming Swiss-organized peace conference on the war in Ukraine. (AP)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams received the Jerusalem Award on Sunday at the Arutz Sheva-Israel National News Jerusalem Conference held in New York City.
“Many years ago, a quote used to describe Israel’s resilience: ‘No more! Never again!'” the mayor remarked. “When I walked in Auschwitz, Krakow, Poland, I kept thinking about ‘no more,’ it’s not a slogan but a way of life, a commitment, dedication. It doesn’t matter if it’s one year or 50 years, with the thoughts of those who have hatred in their hearts and a desire to kill innocent people. On October 7, we saw people murdered, kidnapped, raped. We need to take the slogan of ‘no more’ and adapt it to today’s slogan, bring them home.”
Hizzoner continued: “It needs to be uncompromising and with the same energy. Because 50 years from now, our grandchildren will ask what words did you say? Bring them home, it’s a simple sentence that sums it all.”
{Matzav.com}
A poll conducted by Morning Consult on Friday has shed light on how voters are responding to the historic guilty verdict against Donald Trump for falsifying business records. The poll’s findings indicate that a substantial number of Republicans and Independents believe Trump should withdraw from the presidential race, while a majority of registered voters approve of the jury’s decision. According to the poll, 54% of registered voters either “strongly” or “somewhat” approve of the guilty verdict, compared to 34% who disapprove. Notably, 49% of Independents and 15% of Republicans think Trump should end his campaign due to the conviction. In a hypothetical one-on-one matchup with President Biden, the poll found the race to be effectively tied nationally, with Biden at 45% and Trump at 44%. While a majority of voters agree with the guilty verdict, the poll revealed that 49% believe Trump should receive probation, whereas 44% think he should go to prison. Additionally, 68% of registered voters believe the punishment should be a fine. The poll also exposed deep-seated distrust in the criminal justice system. 75% of Republican voters reported feeling less confident in the system following the verdict. Moreover, 77% of GOP voters and 43% of Independents believe the conviction was motivated by a desire to harm Trump’s political career. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Self-loathing Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders has announced he will boycott Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress, labeling him a “war criminal” who should not be given a platform. Netanyahu was invited Friday by leaders from both parties, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. “It is a very sad day for our country that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited… to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress,” Sanders said. “Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend.” Sanders has been a vocal critic of Israel’s military offensive against Hamas, arguing that it has broken international law and should not receive further US foreign aid. He has also asserted a strawman argument that Israel cannot “destroy the entire people” in Gaza – which it is very obviously not doing. Netanyahu has accepted the invitation to address Congress, eager to present “the truth” about Israel’s “just war” to the American people and the world. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
A Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side. The landing module touched down at 6:23 a.m. Beijing time in a huge crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the China National Space Administration said. The mission is the sixth in the Chang’e moon exploration program, which is named after a Chinese moon goddess. It is the second designed to bring back samples, following the Chang’e 5, which did so from the near side in 2020. The moon program is part of a growing rivalry with the U.S. — still the leader in space exploration — and others, including Japan and India. China has put its own space station in orbit and regularly sends crews there. The emerging global power aims to put a person on the moon before 2030, which would make it the second nation after the United States to do so. America is planning to land astronauts on the moon again — for the first time in more than 50 years — though NASA pushed the target date back to 2026 earlier this year. U.S. efforts to use private-sector rockets to launch spacecraft have been repeatedly delayed. Last-minute computer trouble nixed the planned launch of Boeing’s first astronaut flight Saturday. Earlier Saturday, a Japanese billionaire called off his plan to orbit the moon because of uncertainty over the development of a mega rocket by SpaceX. NASA is planning to use the rocket to send its astronauts to the moon. In China’s current mission, the lander is to use a mechanical arm and a drill to gather up to 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of surface and underground material over about two days. An ascender atop the lander will then take the samples in a metal vacuum container back to another module that is orbiting the moon. The container will be transferred to a re-entry capsule that is due to return to Earth in the deserts of China’s Inner Mongolia region about June 25. Missions to the moon’s far side are more difficult because it doesn’t face the Earth, requiring a relay satellite to maintain communications. The terrain is also more rugged, with fewer flat areas to land. The South Pole-Aitken Basin, an impact crater created more than 4 billion years ago, is 13 kilometers (8 miles) deep and has a diameter of 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles), according to a report by China’s Xinhua News Agency. It is the oldest and largest of such craters on the moon, so may provide the earliest information about it, Xinhua said, adding that the huge impact may have ejected materials from deep below the surface. (AP)
Recently the Biden administration has been a adopting a tougher tone while speaking about the southern border. However, the NY Post has reported that behind the scenes, the administration is operating a program of a “mass amnesty” for migrants.
Since 2022, more than 350,000 asylum cases filed by migrants have been closed by the US government if the applicants don’t have a criminal record or are otherwise not deemed a threat to the country.
After having their case terminated, the migrants are removed from the legal system and are no longer required to even check in with authorities. Migrants can then legally roam around America, indefinitely, without fear of deportation.
Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge, described by saying: “This is just a massive amnesty under the guise of prosecutorial discretion,”.
“You’re basically allowing people who don’t have a right to be in the United States to be here indefinitely,” he said to The Post.
During 2020, under the Trump administration, 48,000 migrants were ordered removed from the US by immigration court judges. Fewer than 20,000 migrants were granted asylum by the US, and 4,700 people had their cases closed or were otherwise allowed to remain in the country, according to data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
However in 2022, with Biden as President, a memo issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s principal legal adviser, Kerry Doyle, and seen by The Post instructed prosecutors at the agency to allow cases to be dismissed for migrants who aren’t deemed national security threats.
That year, 36,000 were ordered removed, 32,000 were awarded asylum, and 102,550 had their cases dismissed or otherwise taken off the books – 10 times the number from back in 2014.
In 2023, there were 149,000 cases in this latter category, and so far in financial year 2024 — which ends Sept. 30 — the data is certain to surpass that, with 114,000 cases closed already.
Since Biden became the President, 77% of asylum seekers have been allowed to remain in the country, according to TRAC. That equates to 499,000 of the 648,000 who applied for asylum in the US in that time.
The current backlog of asylum cases stands at an overwhelming 3.5 million, and shaving more than 100,000 people a year is a way to make this administration look better, sources told The Post.
{Matzav.com}
Last week Agudath Israel’s Yahalom Division convened a special advocacy trip to Albany on behalf of the special needs community. The group comprised more than 25 parents, professionals, and advocates who spent the day in the Capitol meeting with lawmakers and government officials. Throughout the day parents shared their personal experiences with lawmakers who were clearly moved by the challenges faced by the special needs community. Many issues were discussed with legislators including Agudah’s opposition to a proposed amendment that would infringe on the due process protections for parents of students with disabilities, expanding access to OPWDD (Office of People with Developmental Disabilities) home disability services, centralizing the fingerprinting registry used to conduct background checks for Direct Service Providers, and mandating insurance companies to cover Dexcom sugar monitoring device for children with glycemic diseases. Agudah’s delegation met with Alyson Tarek, Assistant Secretary for Human Services and Mental Hygiene, OPWDD Commissioner Kerri Neifeld, Senators Samra Brouk, Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, Jessica Scarcella-Spanton, and Bill Weber, as well as Assemblymembers Sam Berger, Chris Eachus, Simcha Eichenstein, Jodi Giglio, Aileen Gunther, Chantel Jackson, John W. McGowan, Karen McMahon, and David Weprin. They also met with staff members of Senators Simcha Felder, John Manion, and Roxanne J. Persaud. “It was inspiring to see so many passionate, dedicated, and knowledgeable professionals, parents, and supporters giving up their time to advocate for this important cause,” said Laura Rosenberg, a mother of a child with special needs. “The government officials connected with us and took our issues seriously and we hope that our efforts will ensure that New York will continue to expand the critical supports and services for our children.”
The Maldives has announced a ban on Israeli passport holders entering the country, amid rising public anger over the ongoing war in Gaza. The Foreign Ministry has recommended Israeli citizens, including those with dual citizenship, to avoid traveling to the Maldives and consider leaving the archipelago if they are already there, as assistance may be difficult in case of distress. The Maldives government’s decision comes after increased anti-Israel sentiment, with public comments from officials contributing to a heightened atmosphere. Nearly 11,000 Israelis visited the Maldives last year, accounting for 0.6% of total tourist arrivals. Israel had previously issued a travel warning in December, citing the tense atmosphere. The Maldives, known for its luxury resorts and stunning beaches, has a predominantly Muslim population. President Mohamed Muizzu has announced a national fundraising campaign, “Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine,” and plans to appoint a special envoy to assess Palestinian needs. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The Israel Police announced on Sunday that its forces thwarted a planned terrorist attack in the Old City of Yerushalayim, arresting a Palestinian residing in the country illegally.
The Palestinian, a 31-year-old from Yehuda and Shomron, was arrested around two weeks ago in the Old City with a knife in his possession. He turned himself in to officers after allegedly planning to carry out a stabbing attack and changing his mind at the last minute, the police said.
The investigation revealed that another suspect directed him to carry out the attack. The pair also planned to purchase a Carlo-type improvised submachine gun and carry out an attack in the area of Beit El, an Israeli town in the Binyamin region of southern Shomron.
The accomplice was arrested in the Ramallah area around three days after the initial arrest, with the assistance of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Defense Forces.
An indictment was expected to be filed against the two terrorists on Sunday.
{Matzav.com}
For retirees Tom and Beverly McAdam, the good news is the value of their two-bedroom home in suburban Denver has risen 45% since they purchased it more than six years ago. That’s also the bad news, costing them thousands more in real estate taxes and leaving less for discretionary spending. “To pay the higher property taxes, it just means we’ve got to take more money out of our investments when it comes time to hit those big bills,” Beverly McAdam said. She backs a Colorado ballot proposal that could cap the growth of property tax revenue. It’s one of several measures in states this year to limit, cut or offset escalating property taxes in response to complaints. Over the past five years, single-family home prices have risen about 54% nationally, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. That means higher tax bills for homeowners when governments don’t offset higher real estate values by reducing tax rates. And with offices seeing higher vacancies as people still work from home after the coronavirus pandemic, some commercial property values are declining, putting even more pressure on residential properties to deliver revenues. “With assessed values skyrocketing over the past few years,” said Jared Walczak, vice president of state projects at the nonprofit Tax Foundation, “homeowners are clamoring for relief, and state policymakers are increasingly exploring ways to provide it.” Colorado, like Alabama and Wyoming, also has a new law that will limit the growth in tax-assessed values for homeowners. Property tax relief will be part of a special legislative session beginning June 18 in Kansas, while Nebraska also could hold a special session to cut property taxes. Georgia voters will decide in November whether to authorize a new law limiting increases in assessed home values for tax purposes to the rate of inflation, unless local governments or school boards opt out. Five years ago, Lanell Griffith and her husband paid a little less than $2,700 in property taxes on their Topeka, Kansas, home in a historic neighborhood of tree-lined, brick streets. Their bill last year was more than $3,700. “The government shouldn’t be able to arbitrarily just increase what they say you owe them without any sort of guardrails on that,” Griffith said. Kansas lawmakers this year passed three measures that would have reduced the state’s property tax levy for public schools. But each was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly because of concerns about other sections to cut income taxes. The special session will mark a fourth attempt at consensus. In Vermont, Republican Gov. Phil Scott has vowed to veto a bill that would raise property taxes by an average of nearly 14% to provide more money for public schools. Scott said people “simply cannot afford a historic, double digit property tax increase.” In many states, property taxes are primarily a function of local governments such as counties, cities, school boards and special districts for libraries, fire departments and water systems. Each entity sets its own property tax rate, which is added to the others to come up with an overall tax bill for property owners. State legislatures can intervene in a variety of ways. They can establish statewide limits on how much assessed property values can rise, create partial tax exemptions for all homeowners or provide income tax credits to help offset property […]
Chabad’s Rabbi Mendy Carlebach on Sunday attended the Israel Day Parade in New York City, not so much to march in the annual procession, but to share the mitzvos with Jews in attendance who may not have the chance to do them otherwise. At least two of the Jews approached by Rabbi Carlebach were New Jersey State Troopers. Fully clad in the NJSP uniform, Rabbi Carlebach put yarmulkas on their heads, wrapped tefillin on them, and made the brachos – a beautiful example of public kiddush sheim shamayim.
The President of the Maldives, Mohamed Muizzu, announced on Sunday that Israelis would be banned from entering the country.
Muizzu also announced that his country would appoint a special envoy to aid Palestinians.
Additionally, the Maldives Homeland Security Minister is expected to hold a rally titled: “The Maldives in Solidarity with Palestine.”
Last December, the Israeli Foreign Ministry urged Israelis not to visit the country, after several anti-Israel remarks.
At the time, the Foreign Ministry wrote that “the atmosphere in the Maldives against Israel is intensifying and therefore Israeli citizens are advised to avoid traveling to the Maldives at this time.”
{Matzav.com}
Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war on Friday, each sending back 75 POWs in the first such swap in the past three months, officials said. A few hours earlier and at the same location, the two sides also handed over bodies of their fallen soldiers. The Ukrainian POWs, including four civilians, were returned on several buses that drove into the northern Sumy region. As they disembarked, they shouted joyfully and called their families to tell them they were home. Some knelt and kissed the ground while many wrapped themselves in yellow-blue flags and hugged one another, breaking into tears. Many appeared emaciated and poorly dressed. The exchange of the 150 POWs in all was the fourth swap this year and the 52nd since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The United Arab Emirates said it helped negotiate this latest exchange. The two sides have traded blame for what they say is a slowdown in the swaps. Ukraine has in the past urged Russia to swap “all for all” and rallies calling for the release of POWs take place across Ukraine weekly. A Ukrainian official at the headquarters coordinating the exchanges, Vitalii Matviienko said that “Ukraine is always ready.” Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights ombudsperson, said earlier this week that Kyiv was making “new artificial demands,” without elaborating. Among those who were returned home to Ukraine on Friday was Roman Onyschuk, an IT worker who joined Ukrainian forces as a volunteer at the start of the Russian invasion. He was captured in March 2022 in the Kharkiv region. “I just want to hear my wife’s voice, my son’s voice. I missed his three birthdays,” he said. In the more than 800 days he spent in captivity, he never communicated with his family and he doesn’t know what city they are in now, he said. “It’s a little bit overwhelming,” Onyschuk added. With the exchanges, including Friday’s, Ukraine has gotten back a total of 3,210 members of the Ukrainian military and civilians since the outbreak of the war, according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for Treatment of POWs. Neither Ukraine nor Russia disclose how many POWs there are in all. Dmytro Kantypenko was captured on Snake Island in the Black Sea in the first days of the war. He was among those freed Friday and said he called his mother to tell her he was back in Ukraine. “I’ll be home soon,” he said, wiping away his tears. He learned that his wife had fled to Lithuania with their son. The Russians woke him up in the middle of the night without any explanation, he said, giving him a short time to change his clothes before they were on their way. Kantypenko said they were tortured with electroshock shortly before the exchange, and his fellow POWs standing beside him confirmed that. According to U.N. reports, the majority of Ukrainian POWs are subject to routine medical neglect, severe and systematic mistreatment, and even torture while in detention. There have also been isolated reports of abuse of Russian soldiers, mostly during capture or transit to internment sites. At least one-third of Ukrainians who returned home suffered “injuries, severe illnesses, and disabilities,” according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs. Among those returned Friday were 19 Ukrainian fighters from Snake island, 14 people […]
An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft touched down on the far side of the moon Sunday, China’s space agency said, marking its second mission to a lunar region that no other country has landed on amid a growing international rivalry over space exploration. If successful, it will be the first mission in history to retrieve samples from the far side of the moon.
The China National Space Administration sent the Chang’e 6 lunar probe to collect rock and other material near and around an impact crater called the Apollo basin, which is part of the larger South Pole-Aitken basin of the moon, according to the country’s official Xinhua News Agency.
The Chang’e 6 landed at 6:23 a.m. local time after it was launched into space on May 3 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center, located on the southern island of Hainan. In Chinese mythology, Chang’e is the goddess of the moon.
China, the United States, Japan, India and Russia have invested heavily in space exploration in recent years – crowding a field that has throughout history been touted as a symbol of national power and progress.
For China and the United States, in particular, a rivalry is escalating over scientific frontiers in space; both nations are gunning for the accolade of having sent humans to the moon for the second time in history, with the United States planning to do so as soon as 2026 and China planning the same by 2030. (The United States was the first country to land people on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.)
The far side of the moon – also known as the dark side of the moon – is the lunar hemisphere that always faces away from Earth. The word “dark” doesn’t refer to a lack of light but rather the fact that scientists know so little about this hemisphere.
Astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission were the first to see the dark side in 1968, and the Chang’e 4 made the first-ever landing there in January 2019. Communications are more difficult on the far side because radio waves are blocked by thick, solid rock, requiring scientists to use a relay satellite to send signals to the space craft and to work under a shorter window for sample collection. Rough terrain also makes for difficult landings.
The Chang’e 6 is expected to take about 15 hours to collect the samples. To adjust to that short time frame, CNSA scientists developed the space craft to make autonomous judgments while executing fewer commands than on previous missions, according to Xinhua.
The mission aims to develop key sampling technology, as well as takeoff and ascent capabilities from the far side of the moon, Xinhua added.
(c) Washington Post
Saudi Arabia and allied oil producing countries on Sunday extended output cuts through next year, a move aimed at supporting slack prices that haven’t risen even amid turmoil in the Middle East and the start of the summer travel season. The OPEC+ alliance, made up of members of the producers cartel and allied countries including Russia, extended three different sets of cuts totaling 5.8 million barrels a day. International benchmark Brent has loitered in the $81-$83 per barrel range for the past month. Even the war in Gaza and attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels in Yemen have not pushed prices up toward the $100 per barrel level last seen in September 2022. Reasons include higher interest rates, concerns about demand due to slower than desired economic growth in Europe and China, and rising non-OPEC supply including from U.S. shale producers, Yet the Saudis need higher oil prices to fund ambitious plans by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the country’s economy away from fossil fuel exports. Higher oil prices would also help Russia maintain economic growth and stability as it spends heavily on its war against Ukraine. Analysts say the cuts could push oil prices higher in coming months, but much depends on demand for oil going forward. The summer usually sees a spike in demand through the July-September quarter, but uncertainty about demand grows after that. U.S. motorists have benefitted from weaker oil prices. Gasoline prices have been quiescent recently, averaging $3.56 per gallon last week, a penny less than a year ago. That is down from a record national average high of $5 per gallon in June 2022. U.S. prices can vary by region and Western states have been paying more, with gas hitting an average $5.05 per gallon in California. U.S. gas prices rise along with crude because the price of oil makes up half the cost of a gallon of gasoline. The price swings are much smaller in Europe because there taxes make up a bigger proportion of the price of fuel. The cuts that are being extended break down as follows: 2 billion barrels a day agreed among all 23 OPEC+ members were extended through the end of 2025, according to an OPEC statement. Then, voluntary reductions of 1.65 million barrels a day by a smaller group of members was extended until end 2025 as well, according to a report on the official Saudi Press Agency. And another 2.2 million barrels a day in voluntary cuts, due to expire at the end of this month, were extended until September but would then be gradually reduced month by month until they are eliminated by September 2025. (AP)
Veteran Hollywood actor Michael Douglas met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem on Wednesday, following a visit to the Gaza border region, where he witnessed the devastating impact of the October 7 attacks. Douglas, whose father Kirk Douglas was Jewish, expressed his solidarity with Israel, saying, “We’re just happy to be here in support of Israel, and to share with you the fact that America is definitely your ally as our president has shared with you.” He also expressed hope for the successful outcome of negotiations and the safe return of hostages. During his visit to Kibbutz Be’er and the Supernova massacre site, Douglas was deeply moved by the atrocities committed by Hamas. He described the experience as “very difficult” and sensed a “deep shock” among the people he met. In his meeting with President Herzog, Douglas was presented with a yellow hostage pin and a dog-tag necklace bearing the message “Our heart is held captive in Gaza.” He also expressed concern over the recent wave of pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests on US college campuses, attributing the students’ views to “brainwashing” due to a lack of education and knowledge on the issue. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
A raging forest fire that forced the evacuation of the Israel Museum in Yerushalyim’s Givat Ram neighborhood on Sunday was brought under control, the museum stated.
The blaze caused damage to the roof of the youth wing building but did not threaten the art and archaeological institution’s collection, according to the statement.
There were no injuries during the incident.
Fire and rescue teams earlier battled the blaze in an open space near the complex, in the Valley of the Cross. The Israel Museum and the Knesset overlook the valley, which is named after the Monastery of the Cross located in the valley.
There were no reports that the Knesset was threatened, or the monastery.
Four firefighting planes participated in the containment efforts.
The Israel Museum is the country’s largest cultural institution and is home to the Shrine of the Book, which contains the Dead Sea Scrolls.
{Matzav.com}
In a historic election over the weekend, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), once led by Nelson Mandela, lost its absolute majority for the first time since apartheid ended 30 years ago. The blow to the ANC follows its outrageous claims against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it is committing genocide in Gaza and its threats to arrest its citizens who serve in the IDF. In February 2024, MP Kenneth Meshoe attacked the ANC and predicted that the party will be cursed for cursing Israel. “I want to remind the ANC today that Isaiah 54:17 says that no weapon that is formed against Israel shall prosper and every tongue that rises against it in judgment will be condemned,” he said. “ANC, you have gone too far and your judgment is imminent. When the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob said that He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse her, He was not joking but meant every word He said. You have invited the curse on yourself and you’re going to get it!” Last month, a group of 160 lawyers said that South Africa was allegedly bribed by Iran to file the false claims against Israel at the ICJ in exchange for the Islamic Republic covering the party’s debts. The lawyers sent a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying that the ANC experienced a sudden and unexplained financial turnaround after it filed the case against Israel and demanded that an inquiry be launched under the anti-corruption Magnitsky Act. The ANC’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor flew to Tehran shortly after October 7th and according to Pandor, discussed “Israeli apartheid.” Additionally, ANC leaders hosted Hamas leaders on a visit to South Africa in December. The ANC will now likely need to look for a coalition partner or partners to remain in the government and reelect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second and final term. Parliament must meet to elect the South African president within 14 days after the election result is declared. “The way to rescue South Africa is to break the ANC’s majority and we have done that,” said John Steenhuisen, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Alliance party. Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party, said that the ANC’s “entitlement of being the sole dominant party” was over. The way forward could be complicated for Africa’s most advanced economy, and there’s no coalition on the table yet. The three main opposition parties and many more smaller ones were in the mix as the bargaining begins. “We can talk to anybody and everybody,” ANC Chairman Gwede Mantashe said on national broadcaster SABC. Steenhuisen’s Democratic Alliance received around 21% of the vote. The new MK Party of former President Jacob Zuma, who has turned against the ANC he once led, was third with just over 14% of the vote in the first election it has contested. The Economic Freedom Fighters was fourth with just over 9%. DA has been the most critical opposition party for years and doesn’t share the ANC’s pro-Russia and pro-China foreign policy. South Africa takes over the presidency of the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging-market nations next year. An ANC-DA coalition “would be a marriage of two drunk people in Las […]
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