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Resources updated between Monday, April 19, 2021 and Sunday, April 25, 2021

April 25, 2021

French police (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Killer of French Police Officer Was a Radicalized Islamist, Prosecutor Says

20,000 protesters at Paris rally calling for justice for Sarah Halimi (Photo courtesy social media)

Protests in France as man who killed Jewish woman avoids trial

Rockets fired from Gaza (File photo from screenshot)

Terrorists in Gaza fired rockets toward Israel for the third night in a row on Sunday and early Monday, with the Iron Dome system intercepting two of the five projectiles.

Four people, including a pregnant woman, were lightly wounded after falling while running to bomb shelters early Monday, medics said.

A first projectile was detected by the Israel Defense Forces, which said it only set off red alert sires in an open area where it evidently fell. A second rocket landed inside Gaza near the security fence.

Just after 3. a.m, three more rockets were fired, with the Iron Dome system intercepting two of them. A third fell inside Gaza, the army said.

The launches came hours after the Gaza-ruling Hamas issued a statement calling on "our noble resistance in Gaza to keep their fingers on the trigger, to keep their rockets on standby to target the enemy's fortresses and military and vital structures."

Just after midnight Sunday, the Israeli military announced that it would be restricting the fishing zone off the Gaza coast from 15 to 9 nautical miles, starting at 6 a.m. Monday until further notice.

"The decision was made in light of repeated terrorist acts from the Gaza Strip against the citizens of the State of Israel during the recent days, which constitute a violation of Israeli sovereignty," said a statement from the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which is the branch of the Defense Ministry responsible for liaising with the Palestinians.

"Hamas is held accountable for all that is done in and from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, and it will bear the consequences for the violence committed against the citizens of the State of Israel, the statement said.

Fishing is a significant source of revenue for the enclave. The size of the fishing zone has varied over the years. It was set at 20 nautical miles by the Oslo peace accords in the 1990s before being reduced to six miles under the joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas took over the Strip in a violent coup against the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Israel has raised and lowered the limit several times in recent years in a bid to pressure Hamas.

Gazan armed factions have launched over 40 rockets into Israel over the weekend. On Saturday, a number of Palestinian terror groups fired experimental rockets toward the Mediterranean Sea as a show of force.

Palestinian terror groups have said that the weekend's rocket attacks were in response to ongoing unrest in Jerusalem, where Arab residents have demonstrated for several days against Ramadan restrictions on congregating near Jerusalem's Damascus Gate. Those restrictions were lifted by police just over an hour before the rocket was fired, leading to some speculation that the launch had been a "celebratory" measure.

Two Gaza factions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a branch of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, claimed responsibility for the Friday-Saturday rocket fire. But Israel holds Hamas directly responsible for all fire from the enclave into Israeli territory, charging that it takes place with the terror group's consent.

The Hamas leadership earlier Sunday called East Jerusalemites to continue "mobilizing in the Old City and at its gates." Hamas also said night patrols of Palestinians ought to be formed to protect East Jerusalem residents from assaults by Jewish extremists.

The widening circle of clashes has sparked concerns in Israel that the situation could escalate across the West Bank and Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Saturday for the military to "prepare for any scenario" with Gaza. Defense Minister Benny Gantz similarly said that the Israel Defense Forces "will do what is necessary so the calm is preserved," following security consultations at defense headquarters in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military notably refrained from conducting retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, in an apparent bid to ease tensions. Israel normally adopts a tit-for-tat strategy, responding to Gazan rocket fire by shelling Hamas observation posts or imposing restrictions on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Terrorists Fire Rockets from Gaza Into Israel for 3rd night, 4 Israelis Hurt Running for Shelter

April 24, 2021

April 23, 2021

CFI Vice Chairman Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers MP and CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE

UK Government urged to boycott Durban IV commemoration in September

April 22, 2021

Sarah Halimi

"The sister of an Orthodox Jewish woman murdered in France in 2017 is to file a legal claim in Israel in the hope of getting a trial against the killer.

Kobili Traoré cannot stand trial in France after a court deemed he was not criminally responsible due to his mental state.

He killed Sarah Halimi, 65, in what French courts have now accepted was an anti-Semitic attack.
...
Israel's criminal law may apply to anti-Semitic crimes committed abroad that have been denounced by an Israeli citizen, in this case Ms Halimi's sister Esther Lekover. However, France does not extradite its nationals.
...
The court said that it did not matter that his mental state was affected by years of drug-taking.

Lawyers for the Halimi family, however, argued that he had consumed drugs of his own volition and the same rules should apply as if he had committed the murder while drunk.

The decision prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to call for a change in the law. 'Deciding to take narcotics and then 'going mad' should, not in my view, remove your criminal responsibility,' he told Le Figaro newspaper earlier this week.
..."

Sarah Halimi: Frenchwoman's sister seeks trial in Israel over killing Article

April 21, 2021

Egyptian women protesting (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

How Egypt's State Sanctioned Violence On Women Erodes Its Ancient Prestige Article

Arab youth attack a Jew, knocking him off his bicycle outside the Old City of Jerusalem, April 19, 2021. (Photo courtesy Telegram/Screenshot)

Police arrest 30 in wave of Arab attacks on Jews in Jerusalem Document

Sarah Halimi, 66, killed on April 4, 2017. (Courtesy)

Israel blasts French ruling keeping Sarah Halimi's killer from trial Article

April 20, 2021

An ISIS-linked terror group in Egypt has executed Nabil Habashi Salama, 62, a Coptic Christian (Photo courtesy Twitter)

ISIS affiliate claims responsibility for Egypt beheadings Document

An UNRWA facility (File photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

"The Biden administration's course of action has thus far simply been to cancel everything the Trump administration did. Whether we agreed or disagreed with former President Trump, he is a President who thought outside the box, otherwise, these historical Abraham Accords would never have happened. This is what the Biden administration needs; its decision-making is stagnant because it is only returning us to the pre-Trump era, especially with its Middle Eastern foreign policy, which very few now support.

The Biden administration plans to provide $235 million in aid to the Palestinians, reinstating part of the assistance package that was axed by his predecessor, President Donald Trump. Of this budget, $150 million will go to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), $75 million in US economic and development assistance and $10 million is earmarked for peace-building programs.

The Biden administration should have made reinstating Palestinian aid conditional. This would mean that if the Palestinian Authority did not actively participate in finding a realistic solution to the conflict rather than rejecting out of hand each and every peace initiative, the UNRWA would threaten to pull out. This renewal should also require that UNRWA textbooks are monitored and faculty members are screened.
..."

UNRWA textbooks must be monitored Article

April 19, 2021

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, April 14, 2021 (Screenshot)

America's Racial Self-Flagellation at the U.N. Only Helps Rogue States Article

Footage shows the two Arabs kicking the rabbi. (Twitter/Naftali Bennett/Screenshot)

Yeshiva rabbi attacked in Jaffa, kicked and beaten by two Arabs Document

Sarah Halimi

"...How can a democratic society accept that a perfectly rational perpetrator of an antisemitic crime can escape responsibility simply by claiming he used drugs?

How is cannabis an excusing factor for antisemitic murder, when it is only an aggravating factor for all other crimes?

If the killer's mental state at the time of the crime exacerbated his antisemitism - as all reports seem to indicate - why refuse to see that there was antisemitism indeed prior to the use of drugs?

By saying that Sarah Halimi's willful, hate-filled murderer is not responsible for his crimes, the Cour de Cassation has definitively deprived Sarah's family of a trial essential to their mourning, but also the People of France of a necessary trial of antisemitism.

To put it simply, murdering Jews is no longer a criminal act in France if the killer can make a certain case to the court system. ..."

Sarah Halimi Atrocity - There Is No Law Without Justice Article

An Islamic State terrorist (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Escaped girls tell of insurgents' mass abductions in Mozambique Document

A sign protesting the decision on Sarah Halimi case (Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

France's Macron calls for change in law following Sarah Halimi ruling Article

LGBTQ flag (File photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Among most dangerous places for gays: West Bank, Gaza, Iran, UAE and Yemen Document

Fadi Elsalameen

Prominent Palestinian-American activist and political commentator Fadi Elsalameen on Monday expressed fear for his life after receiving a death threat from Fatah's armed wing, Al-Aqsa Martrys Brigades.

Elsalameen, who is a US citizen, told The Jerusalem Post that he has contacted the US State Department, the US Embassy in Israel, the White House and members of Congress to notify them about the threat.

"It is a known secret that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is a front for the Palestinian Authority's intelligence agencies, and therefore I see the threat coming directly from [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas and his intelligence services," Elsalameen told the Post.

Born in Hebron, Elsalameen is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the American Security Project, a Washington-based think tank.

His criticism of Abbas and corruption in the PA has earned him many followers on various social media platforms, including Facebook.

The threat was published in a March 20 leaflet issued by the Fatah group, one day after Elsalameen arrived to visit his family in the West Bank.

Denouncing Elsalameen as a "traitor, spy and one of the most prominent US and Israeli agents," the leaflet said that the rifles of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades will be directed against him.

"I am very worried for my life," Alsalameen said. "President Abbas has refused to condemn the death threat, essentially green-lighting it. This is not the first time that the PA uses violence or threatens to use violence against me. In October 2016, they shot live bullets at my family's home in Samu' village near Hebron. We collected 60 cases of live ammunition. They almost killed my entire family. Even then, the Palestinian Authority refused to condemn the attack or launch an investigation. There is a pattern here of encouraging violence against me by the Palestinian Authority, and it should stop."

Elsalameen expressed hope that efforts to get Abbas to condemn the threat will succeed. According to Elsalameen, his efforts to expose corruption in the PA, which began more than 10 years ago, were solely aimed at "reforming" Palestinian society.

"This effort should be welcomed, not fought with bullets and death threats," he said. "President Abbas does not tolerate any form of criticism, let alone the type I have practiced over the past decade and which has amassed a following in the millions and included hard evidence of corruption, human rights abuses, and anti-democratic practices."

According to the American news website Axios, the US has raised concerns with the PA over the death threat made against Elsalameen.

"We see rampant corruption, from salaries to job placements to bribes and all the way to the distribution of vaccines against the coronavirus and hospital failures to adequately address patients," he said. "The uproar wouldn't happen if people didn't reach a level of being fed up with corruption in Palestine."

Asked about the mood on the Palestinian street ahead of the May 22 election for the Palestinian Legislative Council, Elsalameen said that from his visit and interactions, "I see poverty, enormous economic setbacks, very high unemployment among young Palestinians, and a very weak Palestinian Authority."

Some Palestinians, he added, are cautiously optimistic that the upcoming elections, if and when they take place, "might turn this reality into something better."

Elsalameen said that he also sees a "clear mistrust" between the Palestinian people and their politicians. "The people don't believe or buy their slogans or rhetoric," he said. "Even when it comes to the elections, I believe people will vote for those who could offer them a better life, not empty promises. The people want a change they can believe in. They want a better life today, not in the distant future."

Elslameen said he did not rule out the possibility that Abbas will delay or cancel the elections because of the split in Fatah. "Fatah has split into three camps, and none of them are strong enough to win a majority on their own," he said. "I believe Abbas sees this threat and will likely move to postpone or cancel the elections."

Palestinian officials and factions have warned that there would be no elections unless Israel allowed the vote to take place in Jerusalem.

The PLO Executive Committee met in Ramallah on Sunday evening to discuss the issue of the participation of Jerusalem Arabs in the elections.

PLO official Ahmad Majdalani said on Monday that the committee emphasized that the elections cannot be held without Jerusalem. He said that Israel has still not replied to a request from the PA to hold the elections in Jerusalem.

A senior Fatah official told the Post that he did not rule out the possibility that Abbas would delay or cancel the vote as a result of the controversy surrounding the participation of Jerusalem Arabs.

Asked about Hamas's chances of winning the parliamentary vote, Elsalameen said: "Hamas has done a terrible job governing the Gaza Strip. Voters will make them pay for this failure. Nonetheless, Hamas remains united as a slate, and from an organizational sense they could technically secure a bigger win than any of Fatah's three lists. Yet, Hamas is not popular anymore. This is clear from the sentiment coming out of the Gaza Strip, and its victory is not as guaranteed as it was in the last parliamentary election in 2006."

Palestinian American activist: Abbas's Fatah threatening to kill me Document