Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Facebook is not planning to fact check statements made by Israeli politicians on the social network during upcoming national elections. After extensive discussion of the issue, Facebook determined that fact-checking politicians’ statements is tantamount to censorship, Jessica Zucker, a product policy manager, told Israeli reporters on… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Islamic State said it will focus its new attacks on Israel. The terror group, also known as ISIS, issued a 37-minute audio message on Monday by its spokesman, Abu Hamza al-Quraishi, the AFP news agency reported. Speaking on behalf of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s attorney general filed the indictment on charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery against Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hours after the prime minister withdrew his request for parliamentary immunity. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit filed the charges in three corruption cases against Netanyahu in Jerusalem… Read more »

(JTA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has pardoned Naama Issachar, an Israeli-American backpacker who was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for drug smuggling. The Russian news agency Interfax News reported Wednesday that Putin had issued the pardon. Issachar, 26, had been returning from India to Israel by way… Read more »

(JTA) — The Trump administration put questions about the seriousness of its Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal to rest Tuesday by delivering a 181-page, detail-laden document that outlines a clear — if one-sided — vision for the future of the region. The document includes sections on history, security and economics, among… Read more »

(JTA) — President Donald Trump unveiled his long-awaited Middle East peace plan on Tuesday, and the release event was a doozy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Trump at a news conference and compared it to President Harry Truman’s recognition of the State of Israel in 1948. Netanyahu also… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s attorney general filed the indictment on charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery against Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hours after the prime minister withdrew his request for parliamentary immunity. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit filed the charges in three corruption cases against Netanyahu in Jerusalem… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Moments after President Donald Trump announced his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem released a security alert that warned against traveling to some areas of Jerusalem. The alert referenced “widespread calls for demonstrations in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza,” and… Read more »

(JTA) — As part of President Donald Trump’s proposed plan for Middle East peace, Israel says it will “apply its laws” to the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. At a press conference on Tuesday with Trump at the White House discussing the broad outlines of… Read more »

MISGAV, Israel (JTA) – As more than 20 men wearing blue-and-white baseball uniforms walked along Tel Aviv’s bustling Allenby Street on a recent Tuesday, a motorcyclist called out in Hebrew and English. “Good luck! We’re behind you!” the man shouted to the group, members of the baseball team that… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — American teen Ezra Schwartz will never play on the baseball field in Raanana that bears his name. But hundreds of Israeli young people, including some of Ezra’s cousins, will have the chance. In doing so, they will be honoring the memory of a young man who… Read more »

(JTA) — A mosque in Jerusalem was burned down in an apparent hate crime. The torching of the mosque in the Sharafat area on Thursday right resulted in no injuries. But nearby, spray painted in Hebrew, was the message: “Wreck Jewish — enemy homes will be wrecked.” Graffiti… Read more »

(JTA) — British Jews protested what they perceived to be a BBC reporter’s claim that the Holocaust has distorted Israelis’ perception of reality and the occupation of Palestinian land. The rebuke Thursday by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Campaign Against Antisemitism and the editor in chief… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli seventh-grader who was foraging for mushrooms near his home unearthed a marble slab with a Greek inscription from the Byzantine period. Stav Meir, 13, of Caesarea, found the artifact last week, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Stav saw… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli soldiers shot three suspected Palestinian terrorists on Wednesday who had crossed the Gaza border fence into southern Israel. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that the infiltrators were hiding in a wooded area opposite Kibbutz Kissufim near the border. After one of the… Read more »

(JTA) — Amar’e Stoudemire has signed to play with the defending Israeli basketball champions Maccabi Tel Aviv, stirring calls of traitor from fans of his former Israeli squad of which the one-time NBA All-Star was a part owner. Stoudemire returns to Israel through the end of the season after… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — French President Emmanuel Macron shouted at Jerusalem police officers on Wednesday when they tried to accompany him into a Jerusalem church owned by the French government and considered French territory. “We know perfectly — everybody knows the rules. I don’t like what you did in front… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli President Reuven Rivlin promised Polish President Andrzej Duda “some kind of platform” to speak if he attended the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, according to a Rivlin official. The president’s residence director-general, Harel Tubi, told Radio South that Rivlin plans to invite Duda to… Read more »

(JTA) — Two center-left parties in Israel merged their electoral lists last week ahead of a submission deadline for the March 2 election. Labor, the “founding party” of Israel, will run with Meretz, a left-wing party long committed to ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state. This reluctant… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A major gathering of world leaders in Jerusalem meant to highlight the world’s determination to learn the lessons of the Holocaust has become mired in controversy even before it has started, dragging Israel into a battle over history debates still raging in Europe three-quarters of a… Read more »