Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Israeli-Arab Group Slams End of Police Fatal Shooting Probe
An Arab civil rights group has slammed Israeli police over closing its investigation into the fatal shooting of an Arab that sparked violent protests last year.
Adalah said Wednesday that the decision "demonstrates the impunity enjoyed by the Israeli police" and gives the police a "virtual green light" to commit crime.
The police probe cleared officers of any wrongdoing in the shooting of 22-year-old Heir Hamdan last November.
Footage captured the man repeatedly banging on the window of a police vehicle with a knife in his hand. When officers emerged to confront him, he started walking back and was then shot. He later died in a hospital.
Thousands of Arabs took to the streets in northern Israel after the incident, burning tires and hurling rocks and firebombs at the police.
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Why Lauryn Hill Canceled Her Concert in Israel
Lauryn Hill has canceled her concert in Israel three days before she was scheduled to perform after trying to set up a similar concert in the Palestinian territories.
"When deciding to play the region, my intention was to perform in both Tel Aviv and Ramallah," she wrote on Facebook Monday. "Setting up a performance in the Palestinian Territory, at the same time as our show in Israel, proved to be a challenge."
She added, "I've wanted very much to bring our live performance to this part of the world, but also to be a presence supporting justice and peace. It is very important to me that my presence or message not be misconstrued, or a source of alienation to either my Israeli or my Palestinian fans. For this reason, we have decided to cancel the upcoming performance in Israel, and seek a different strategy to bring my music to ALL of my fans in the region."
She concluded her post with, "May healing, equanimity, and the openness necessary for lasting resolution and reconciliation come to this region and its people."
Hill had been scheduled to perform in Israel on May 7. But in recent weeks, she has been targeted on Twitter by Palestinian activists using the hashtag #KillingMeSoftly -- a reference to her 1996 hit with the Fugees -- to urge her to cancel the show.
Activists also used the popular song in a video to describe Israel's policies involving the Palestinians.
Since serving time in prison for tax evasion in 2013, Hill, who won five Grammys for her solo album, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill," has returned to recording and the stage.
This isn’t the first time Israel has been a flashpoint for musicians.
Earlier this year, Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd, sparred on social media with Alan Parsons, the engineer on the band’s biggest album, “The Dark Side of the Moon,” for agreeing to play a concert in Israel, according to Rolling Stone.
In addition, Paul McCartney refused to cancel a show in Israel in 2008 despite outrage voiced by supporters of the Palestinian cause, The Guardian reported.
Oldest Complete Copy of Ten Commandments Displayed in Israel
The world's oldest complete copy of the Ten Commandments is going on rare display at Israel's leading museum in an exhibit tracing civilization's most pivotal moments.
The 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scroll, from a collection of the world's most ancient biblical manuscripts discovered near the Dead Sea east of Jerusalem, has never before been publicly displayed in Israel and has only been shown in brief exhibits abroad, said Pnina Shor of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The manuscript is so brittle that it will only be on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for two weeks before it is returned to a secure, pitch-black, climate-controlled storage facility at the museum.
It is one of 14 ancient objects displayed in "A Brief History of Humankind," an exhibit of historical objects spanning hundreds of thousands of years.
"When you are thinking about universal law, the universal principle of ethics, ... this is the first law that comes to your mind," exhibit curator Tania Coen-Uzzielli said.
The exhibit includes tools used in an elephant hunt from 1.5 million years ago, the oldest known remains of a communal bonfire from 800,000 years ago, skulls from the oldest remains of a family burial and the world's oldest complete sickle — a 9,000-year-old object that represents the transition from hunter-gatherers to settled civilization working the land.
These objects, framed in dramatically lit cases in a dark exhibition hall, all were discovered in the Holy Land, a testament to the region's central role in human history. The museum is mounting the exhibit to mark its 50th anniversary.
"After only 50 years, we may be one of only a very few museums worldwide that can tell such a broad story from its own holdings," museum director James Snyder said. "We are doing so with objects that originated here."
A 5,000-year-old Mesopotamian tablet on loan to the museum and 2,700-year-old coins from what is now Turkey, are also on display. An original handwritten manuscript of Albert Einstein's groundbreaking theory of relativity caps the exhibit.
Monday, May 4, 2015
Israeli Foreign Minister Takes Party Into Opposition
Israel's foreign minister says he will not sit in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's incoming government and instead will take his Yisrael Beitenu party into the opposition.
Monday's announcement by Avigdor Lieberman dealt a setback to Netanyahu, who is trying to cobble together a majority coalition in the 120-seat parliament by a Wednesday deadline. Lieberman has served two terms as foreign minister and has been a key ally of Netanyahu's throughout the years.
Lieberman said he could not sit in the government after Netanyahu struck a series of deals with ultra-Orthodox partners. Lieberman's party is secular.
Lieberman's once-powerful party plummeted in the March election to just six seats. Without Yisrael Beitenu, Netanyahu is expected to have a slim majority of just 61 seats, leaving him susceptible to the demands of partners.