Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Tuesday, Feb. 28 '17, ב' באדר תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. OFRA EVICTIONS: 3 HOMES EVACUATED, 5 OFFICERS INJURED
2. AHMADINEJAD TO TRUMP: US BELONGS TO EVERYONE
3. AMONA HQ ANNOUNCES HUNGER STRIKE
4. 'WHEN YOU'RE DATING AN ARAB MAN, YOU'RE NOT REALLY YOURSELF'
5. RABBI: 'I WAS LYNCHED BY THE LGBT COMMUNITY'
6. ALAN DERSHOWITZ WILL NOT LEAVE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
7. TRUMP: OBAMA IS BEHIND LEAKS
8. WATCH: PUTIN DEFENDS HIMSELF AGAINST BBC REPORTER
1. OFRA EVICTIONS: 3 HOMES EVACUATED, 5 OFFICERS INJURED
by Arutz Sheva Staff
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Security forces operating in the town of Ofra, north of Jerusalem, have evacuated three of the nine homes slated for demolition Tuesday afternoon.
Protesters opposing the evictions scuffled with police in and around the nine homes, leaving five officers injured. Two protesters have been arrested.
The evacuation of nine houses in the Givat Tzvi neighborhood of Ofra commenced just after 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, after Border Police officers sealed off access to the homes slated for demolition.
Hundreds of demonstrators faced off against security forces deployed to the town, with some protesters barricading themselves inside houses facing demolition.
Prior to the evacuation, more than 100 Border Police officers deployed around the nine homes slated for demolition in Ofra.
Officers blocked off access to the Givat Tzvi neighborhood, isolating the area ahead of the evacuation. In addition, security forces surrounded each of the nine homes individually, cutting off movement within the neighborhood.
Confrontations between security forces and demonstrators were reported early Tuesday morning ahead of the evacuation.
On Monday, the Supreme Court announced that they rejected the residents' petition asking not to demolish the nine homes.
The judges did not accept the request of the residents to seal the nine houses rather than demolish them and also clarified that the recently approved Regulation Law does not apply to them.
Last Wednesday the state responded to the Ofra residents' request that the nine houses not be destroyed but rather sealed.
In its response, the state argued that the Regulation Law does not apply to these nine homes. The state noted that it did not believe there is reason not to destroy the homes and thus its position is that the request should be rejected. MK Smotrich, who drafted the law, believes the opposite is true.
The residents had requested in a separate petition that the courts give them a three month extension to find alternate housing, so they could move "from door to door" in their words. Chief Justice Miriam Naor rejected the request.
The land on which the houses were built has not been claimed by any specific Arab. Jordan claimed sovereignty over Judea and Samaria after conquering the area in 1949 from the fledgling Jewish state to whom it had been granted, but Jordan's claim was recognized only by the UK and Pakistan. Jordan then handed out land, much of it to fictitious owners according to Yehuda Yifrach, head of the legal desk at the Hebrew Makor Rishon newspaper, and some to owners who cannot be located and have never used the land or paid taxes on it.
The homes are in the middle of Ofra, in a populated residential area, so that it is doubtful that an Arab, if one with proofs of ownership appears, would want to build on the land. Compensation for any [as yet unknown] owner, unless mandated by the Israeli government, would put the owner in danger in the PA, where selling land to Jews is punishable by death.
Esther, one of the mothers whose home is to be destroyed today, spoke on Israel's Reshet Bet this morning and said what many Israelis have realized: "The left has little electoral power, as the Israeli voter has abandoned leftist philosophy since the 'disengagement' from Gush Katif, when instead of peace, Israel suffered thousands of rockets launched from Gaza. The left has learned to use the Israeli Supreme Court to achieve its goals."
She stressed: "The Courts did not ask for proof. They did not ask for a landowner or his descendants to claim the land. My home was built with a permit from the regional authority exactly the way other homes are built in Israel. We were even not given a day in court to present our case. The court simply accepted the leftist NGO's claim. This means that Israel's Supreme Court has decided to accept Jordan's sovereignty over the land! And our Prime Minister has had 4 terms to do something about it and has done nothing. I hope he did not sleep last night. I didn't."
Esther has moved out of her home, which she says is empty of her possessions but is still filled with love. However, to prevent trauma to her children, her family has moved to a temporary home in Ofra and intends today, she says, to lay the cornerstone for a larger and even more beautiful, loving home in Ofra.
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2. AHMADINEJAD TO TRUMP: US BELONGS TO EVERYONE
by David Rosenberg
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a 3,500 word letter to President Donald Trump in which he slams the new administration's restrictions on immigration and US "dominance" of the United Nations.
The letter was transferred to the US via the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which serves as the point of contact between the United States and Iran.
In the document, Ahmadinejad congratulated President Trump's November win and praised his 2016 campaign, which the former Iranian leader said "truthfully described the US political system and electoral structure as corrupt."
But Ahmadinejad, who during his tenure as president threatened to "wipe Israel off the map" and publicly suggested the Holocaust was a hoax, chided Trump over his recent executive order temporarily restricting immigration from seven high-risk countries, saying the US must "value respect toward the diversity of nations and races."
Ahmadinejad went on to argue that the United States "belongs to all nations", suggesting the US has no right to regulate immigration into the country.
"In other words, the contemporary US belongs to all nations, including the natives of the land," Ahmadinejad wrote. "No one may consider themselves the owner and view others as guests or immigrants."
The former Iranian leader made no reference in the letter to Iran's nuclear program or tensions with the West stemming from Iran's recent ballistic missile tests. Instead, Ahmadinejad berated American "dominance" of the United Nations, assailing it as the cause of "insecurity, war, division, killing, and displacement of nations."
Ahmadinejad also penned letters to presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during their terms in office.
3. AMONA HQ ANNOUNCES HUNGER STRIKE
by Uzi Baruch
The Amona headquarters announced a hunger strike to begin Wednesday opposite the Prime Minister's house in central Jerusalem.
"Demolition follows demolition. The promises are meaningless and the nationalist government led by Binyamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett has lost its right to exist," said Amona leaders.
"It is inconceivable that after wiping out Amona, while hearts are still weeping and refusing to be comforted over the destruction of twenty years of life's work, with Amona families in unlivable conditions for a month already, eight people per room and parents and their children in one room -and just a few hundred meters away the government destroys another neighborhood of permanent dwellings and removes their residents. Is this the government we voted for?
"How can you, Naftali Bennett, who committed to building a new community in place of the one destroyed, rest on your bed in Raanana and sleep peacefully despite the destruction and the human tragedy and moral cataclysm? How can you, Binyamin Netanyahu, who signed and committed to the members of Amona to build a new town, how can you continue to trot around the world while here at home, towns and entire neighborhoods of pioneers, citizens who voted for you, are wiped out and their entire lives are ruined?" ask the Amona leaders.
"As of tomorrow we will begin a hunger strike at a tent we have set up opposite the prime minister's house until the fulfillment of the commitment to establish a new town in place of Amona. We ask the public to join us in our strike at the protest tent."
4. 'WHEN YOU'RE DATING AN ARAB MAN, YOU'RE NOT REALLY YOURSELF'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Some 70 women and their children who were rescued from Arab villages took part in a special event organized by the Yad L'Achim anti-assimilation group Friday and Saturday in the town of Kfar Chabad.
The two-day event included a wide variety of activities for the women and their children, beginning with the baking of hallot bread for Shabbat.
After evening prayers on Friday, the women shared their personal stories with one another.
"The girls stayed up until the wee hours of the night with the staff who organized the Shabbat, holding discussions and asking many of the questions bothering them," a statement from Yad L'Achim read.
The goal of the event, say organizers, was to provide the women and their children a safe, welcoming atmosphere to connect with their Jewish roots.
"Aside from giving the mothers space and peace of mind," said Suri Kostelitz, one of the organizers, "the goal of the activities was to strengthen their Jewish identity, and give them an understanding of basic concepts in Judaism It was amazing to see after Shabbat a six-year old boy who insisted on hearing the Havdalah (ritual ending Shabbat) twice – once with the other children and once with the mothers. It was the first time in his life that he was exposed to this."
For the young women born in Arab villages to a Jewish mother and Arab father, special discussions were held separately, focusing on the idea of Jewish identity.
During one such discussion, S., a 45-year old woman with an Arab father and Jewish mother who left her village half a year ago, described her own experiences in a mixed family.
"My mother married an Arab, and passed away at age 52 from a serious illness. A few days before she died she told me that her dream was that one of her daughters would leave the village and return [to Judaism]."
S. added that she felt she was fulfilling her mother's dying wish, and said she had decided to begin observing Shabbat from now on.
Another woman recently rescued from an Arab village, R., described her life with an Arab husband.
"When you're with an Arab [man], you're an Arab woman," she said. "You're dressed like an Arab, speak like an Arab, run the house like an Arab, and even eat like an Arab. You aren't yourself! That's what bothered me."
5. RABBI: 'I WAS LYNCHED BY THE LGBT COMMUNITY'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Rabbi Haim Navon, a leading Religious Zionist rabbi in the town of Modi'in and popular columnist and lecturer, has temporarily closed his Facebook site after a post he wrote regarding the definition of family aroused the ire of the LGBT community.
"I was lynched by the LGBT's, so I temporarily closed my Facebook account," Navon told Arutz Sheva.
The controversial post was written in response to the publication on the Israeli Air Force Facebook site of a post about two men who are "married" to one another. Navon responded to the IAF's defense of the "marriage" claiming that "we are all equal," stating that equality was not the issue here.
"If I can't play football, I can't demand of the Football Association to recognize my chess team as a football team...Marriage and family are the oldest human institutions and they do not refer to a relationship between two men as being a marriage. Anyone can live with whomever he or she wants, but they cannot force us to change our definitions of matrimony and family. Those who activate the IAF Facebook page also do not have that right... If they wish to celebrate marriage and family values they ought to maintain the definition of marriage as written in Israeli law," wrote Navon.
Rabbi Navon referred to Israeli law and did not refer to Jewish law, which expressly forbids the homosexual act and does not even consider the idea of a same sex relationship being termed a marriage.
6. ALAN DERSHOWITZ WILL NOT LEAVE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
by Gary Willig
World famous legal scholar and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz announced that he would not leave the Democratic party following Keith Ellison's defeat in the election for Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman, the Algemeiner reported.
Dershowitz had earlier announced that he would leave the party if Ellison, a former member of the Nation of Islam movement who stated at a fundraiser in 2010 that US foreign was "governed" by Israeli interests and who voted against providing funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, was elected the DNC chairman.
While Ellison was narrowly defeated by former Labor Secretary Tom Perez, Perez immediately announced that he was appointing Ellison his deputy.
Ellison's appointment was not enough to prompt Dershowitz to leave the Democratic party. Instead he pledged to ""remain and fight hard for it to move toward the center and away from the anti-Israel and far-Left trends" which have seeped into the Democratic party.
Dershowitz expressed his dissatisfaction with Perez's appointment of Ellison. "I wish Perez had not appointed Ellison as his deputy. I consider Ellison to be disqualified, due to his association with Nation of Islam leader the Reverend Louis Farakhan; his denial that Farakhan is an antisemite; and because he opposed providing the Iron Dome missile defense system to Israel."
However, he said that Ellison's defeat made him hopeful that the extremist element in the Democratic party could be defeated as well.
7. TRUMP: OBAMA IS BEHIND LEAKS
by David Rosenberg
President Donald Trump has accused his predecessor, Barack Obama, of instigating a series of leaks within the administration and the raucous town hall meetings facing Republican lawmakers across the country.
The White House has faced a wave of leaks to the media since inauguration day more than a month ago, as the administration works to fill hundreds of remaining vacancies, leaving temporary Obama administration holdovers in place.
As the Trump administration looks to plug the leaks, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer ordered staffers to submit their cellular devices for examination, to ensure they had not made unauthorized contacts with media outlets.
Multiple sources told CNN Monday night that this heightened surveillance was approved by President Trump, who they say is outraged over the leaks.
Spicer denied that claim, however, saying the president "did not sign off or even know what I did. That is not accurate."
Speaking with Fox News on Monday, President Trump suggested that his predecessor, President Obama, was responsible for both the recent flood of leaks and disruptions of town hall meetings held by Republican lawmakers.
"I think he is behind it," said Trump. "I also think it is politics, that's the way it is."
"I think that President Obama is behind it because his people are certainly behind it. And some of the leaks possibly come from that group, which are really serious because they are very bad in terms of national security. But I also understand that is politics. In terms of him being behind things, that's politics. And it will probably continue."
Among the recent leaks to media outlets are the details of a tense phone call to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and security meetings between White House representatives and Russian army officials.
8. WATCH: PUTIN DEFENDS HIMSELF AGAINST BBC REPORTER
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