Today’s Top Stories
1. Israel arrested the Gaza director of a humanitarian organization, accusing him of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. World Vision — a Christian aid group based in the Seattle area and operating in almost 100 countries — clearly has some ‘splaining to do.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says Mohammed el-Halabi was a Hamas member from his youth and was sent to infiltrate World Vision in 2005. Haaretz explains what he did afterwards:
For its part, the Shin Bet contends that about 60 percent of the funds from World Vision’s Gaza operations were diverted to Hamas. Under Shin Bet interrogation, Halabi is said to have provided considerable information about the methods used to transfer the funds. He would allegedly invite a fictitious public bidding process in which the funds would actually be sent directly to Hamas. The Islamic group’s members would purportedly be recorded as farmers entitled to assistance and their children would allegedly be recorded as having disabilities so that they would also qualify for assistance.
Some of World Vision’s own funds were said to have been transferred to Hamas to building military positions and to finance tunnel digging, through the purchase of excavation equipment, iron, piping and building materials.
World vision int. financed "unwittingly " Hamas terror tunnels . How negligent can you be?! Money for kids used for terror
— Emmanuel Nahshon (@EmmanuelNahshon) August 4, 2016
World Vision’s bad PR day was compounded by a separate New York Times dispatch suggesting some dodgy fundraising practices for West Bank families. At least one donor said he felt “misled.”
2. Oberlin College put anti-Semitic Professor Joy Karega on leave and will not be teaching at the Ohio institution this semester as the administration investigates a number of disturbing social media posts.
Karega attained notoriety over the last year when her anti-Jewish Facebook postings came to light. Among other assertions, Karega dubbed ISIS a “CIA and Mossad operation,” posted a video asserting that Israel perpetrated 9/11, claimed the Jewish state downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, said the Mossad perpetrated the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and shared an anti-Semitic meme of Jewish banker Jacob Rothschild that declared, “We own your news, the media, your oil, and your government.”
Oberlin’s move to suspend Karega from teaching marks the first concrete step taken by its administration towards addressing Karega’s bigotry.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
3. Nazareth mayor claims Mahmoud Abbas interfered in Israel’s election:
Abbas called Nazareth Mayor Ali Salam on Election Day and urged him to push residents to vote for the Arab-dominated Joint List. The official sources said they have information that confirms this.
The PA denies the mayor’s claim.
Israel and the Palestinians
• Pandering for popular support ahead of October elections, Fatah brags (inaccurately) of killing 11,000 Israelis, sacrificing 170,000 martyrs and more.
• The West Bank town of Tulkarem has been without electricity since Monday because municipal officials and the PA are at loggerheads over who exactly is responsible for a NIS 208 million debt owed to the Israel Electric Corporation, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Some 400 Palestinians demonstrated against their government’s inaction and youths clashed with PA security forces.
• Sorry AFP, but people who commit mass murder in a Tel Aviv coffee shop are not assailants. Four Israelis were killed when cousins Mohammed and Khaled Mahamra walked into a Max Brenner cafe in the Sarona shopping market and opened fire on unsuspecting diners.
• AP: Israel was threatened in a video purportedly by Islamic State in Egypt.
• Meet Major Alaa Waheeb, an Israeli Arab who couldn’t be prouder to serve in the IDF:
“I believe that those who refuse to recognize Israel’s existence and call this land ‘Palestine’ are hypocritical,” he said. “I can understand the Druze of the Golan who reject Israeli citizenship and insist they are Syrian, but these people carry Israeli IDs and enjoy state benefits. They effectively recognize the Israeli regime. I can’t wrap my head around it.”
Around the World
• Anti-Semitic incidents rise 11 percent in UK this year.
In its report, the CST said the average monthly number of hate incidents directed at the Jewish community was now almost double that recorded in 2011-13.
• The Jewish Chronicle obtained a copy of Baroness Janet Royall’s full report on anti-Semitism in the Oxford University Labour Club. The main takeaway, according to the Times of London: The party suppressed anti-Semitic incidents related to the club by only publishing Royall’s recommendations.
A party source said the full report had been omitted to protect names of vulnerable young people at university. Labour did not usually explain the decisions of the NEC, however, there are no names mentioned in the report, the source said.
• It took 44 years, but the Olympics finally commemorated the victims of the Munich massacre.
• Black Lives Matter platform says Israel an ‘apartheid state’ committing ‘genocide’
• Worth reading: Visiting Israel for the first time, Honore Gatera, the director of the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, talked to the Times of Israel about surviving the Hutu massacre of millions of Tutsis, the chills he gets from Iranian threats to annihilate Israel, and how incitement fueled the killings.
Gatera again fully concurred with the prime minister: Iranian leaders’ threats clearly constitute “incitement to genocide,” he said. While admitting not to fully understanding the roots of Israeli-Iranian enmity, he said the UN should request an explanation from Tehran. “Wiping someone off the map — that’s eradicating all the people from that country. And those speeches enter the minds of the young people as they grow up and may end up committing genocide.”
@Kigali_Memorial team in Israel https://t.co/y7FiI0a94q #holocaust #genocide pic.twitter.com/at9SMrSs50
— 千尺?ᗪ 爪山闩丂闩 (@mwasa) July 29, 2016
• Fathers of AMIA bombing victims added as plaintiffs in Nisman investigation into Iran coverup
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Jeff Jacoby: Palestinian Olympians deserve better than Jibril Rajoub
– Aviva Klompas: Arafat is not a hero
– Asaf Romirowsky, Alexander Joffe: The anti-Israel movement’s ‘anti-normalization’ campaign
– Fred Maroun: Arabs must turn a new page with Israel
– Elyakim Haetzni: The Balfour judgment
– Brian Murphy: Why wealthy Qatar keeps the money flowing to Gaza
– A.J. Caschetta: Flaws in the ‘lone wolf’ analysis
– Emily Landau: The slippery logic of Iran deal supporters
– Mariam Lau: What Israel can teach Germany about living with terrorism (via Google News)
Featured image: CC BY-NC-SA Christoph Schrief with additions by HonestReporting; Nazareth CC BY-NC-ND hectorlo;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
Before you comment on this article, please remind yourself of our Comments Policy. Any comments deemed to be in breach of the policy will be removed at the editor’s discretion.
