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Immigration to the State of Israel soared in the past 12 months, figures released ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year’s celebration, showed. The Jewish state absorbed 60,000 new citizens since the start of 5782 — a 128% increase compared with 2021, when only 28,500 Jews came on Aliyah.
Those brought to Israel in Operation ‘Olim Return Home,’ the drive to absorb immigrants from the region directly impacted by the Russia-Ukraine war, accounted for almost 75 percent of the new immigrants. Meanwhile, 6% of this year’s Olim came from the United States, 4% from France, and 2% from Ethiopia. Some 12% arrived from other countries.
According to the data released by the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, the city that took in the most newcomers in 5782 was Tel Aviv with 6,327 immigrants, followed by Haifa with 6,182, Netanya with 6,069, and Jerusalem with 4,285.
Outgoing Aliyah Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata told journalists this week that Israel has welcomed 323,000 immigrants over the past decade. “There is a change of consciousness in Israeli society,” the minister said, explaining: “Once Israelis thought that the Aliyah Ministry was sort of a ‘stepchild,’ an unimportant ministry,” and that immigrants were not treated well.
With Rosh Hashanah set to begin at sundown on Sunday, September 25, Jerusalem’s Central Bureau of Statistics also published its annual census, indicating that the Israeli population grew by 187,000, or about 2%, this year. Roughly 177,000 babies were born, while 53,000 Israelis passed away.
The country’s population is on course to reach 10 million by the end of 2024, will be 15 million by late 2048, and 20 million by 2065, the CBS report noted.
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An elderly woman was murdered Tuesday evening in what security forces believe was a Palestinian terror attack. Shulamit Rachel Ovadia, 84, was killed by blows to the head with a sharp object in the central Israel suburb of Holon.
CCTV footage showed a man in dark clothes trailing the woman as she walked toward her house. He then attacked her from behind, landing multiple blows before fleeing the crime scene. Conspicuously, nothing was stolen from her. A neighbor called the police after hearing Ovadia’s screams.
In the hours following the incident, officials confirmed the involvement of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), stating that suspect Mousa Sarsour — a 28-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank town of Qalqilya — likely acted out of nationalistic motives. He had a permit to enter Israel for work.
המחבל מהפיגוע בחולון שם קץ לחייו | תיעוד הרצחhttps://t.co/Xb6s2lMyW9@SivanSisay pic.twitter.com/ZnIYRz8PN5
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 21, 2022
Prime Minister Yair Lapid, currently in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, was updated on the attack. “This is a shocking attack by a despicable and cowardly terrorist who murdered an elderly woman who could not fight back,” a spokesperson for the PM said.
Following an hours-long manhunt, police officers discovered Sarsour’s lifeless body in an abandoned building in the center of Tel Aviv. He apparently died by suicide.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces announced troops arrested five suspects in the town of Sarta, among them Sarsour’s relatives, in connection with the attack.
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As the United Kingdom and the world bade farewell to Queen Elizabeth II this week, British Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan expressed hope that King Charles III would visit Israel during his reign. Speaking to local media, he revealed that the incoming monarch has a “good and warm relationship” with the Jewish state.
“It’s true that the Queen never visited Israel, but King Charles has visited several times as prince and was received by President Isaac Herzog very cordially,” Wigan said, adding that Prince William also traveled to Jerusalem several years earlier.
“He [King Charles] has to decide on his [foreign] visit plans and has an obligation to Commonwealth countries such as Canada and Australia first,” the diplomat explained. Herzog, who joined Wigan in London for the royal funeral, already told King Charles on Sunday that Israel would be delighted to host him.
According to Wigan, when then-prince Charles was in Israel, he went to the Israel Museum and “was fascinated by the Dead Sea Scrolls. The subject of the Holocaust is also very important to him, and he has friends who are survivors. I saw how moved he was when he met Auschwitz survivors. I don’t know how deeply the royal family is involved in Israeli politics, but they do have a great interest in Israel in general, so I’m optimistic.”
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A US court has ordered the Hezbollah terror group to pay millions of dollars in damages to several Americans who filed a lawsuit after being injured by the Iran-backed organization’s rockets during the 2006 Second Lebanon War in Israel.
Judge Steven L. Tiscione of the Brooklyn federal court awarded the plaintiffs $111 million in damages under the US Anti-Terrorism Act. In their complaint, they demonstrated that Hezbollah caused them physical and emotional harm, as well as property damage.
Civil lawsuits brought against terror groups are notoriously difficult to enforce, but Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said it was a significant legal victory. “Only by exacting a heavy price from those who engage in the business of terrorism can we prevent the suffering and loss of additional victims to their violence,” Darshan-Leitner commented.
During the month-long Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah fired over 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities — more than 100 per day. Around one-quarter landed in civilian areas of Haifa, Hadera, Kiryat Shmona, Safed, Tiberias, and Nazareth. One million Israelis had to stay within close range of bomb shelters, while 250,000 residents were forced to leave northern cities for safer areas beyond rocket range.
According to US State Department estimates, the Islamic Republic of Iran provides most of Hezbollah’s funding; it sends the group some $700 million per year. Hezbollah moreover receives hundreds of millions of dollars through its global business activities, international criminal enterprises, and the Lebanese diaspora.
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An Israeli government minister announced he would fight a plan by popular travel website Booking.com to add a “safety warning” to listings in Judea and Samaria, condemning the action as a politically motivated decision.
On Monday, a spokesperson for Amsterdam-based Booking.com stated that the company planned to “display… banners and notifications to customers related to relevant local safety considerations” for listings in the West Bank, similar to current labels for Ukraine or Cyprus. He added that the details and implementation date of the notice were still being discussed.
Booking.com has yet to explain if the corporation, whose website describes the West Bank as “Palestinian Territory,” takes a position on the region’s final status.
In response, Israeli Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov told local media he had written to Booking.com and threatened “diplomatic war” by his government to reverse the move. “Millions of tourists visit Israel, including this area,” he claimed on Ynet TV. “In the end of the day, there is no problem.”
For his part, Wasel Abu Youssef, a senior official with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), voiced conditional approval. “If there is such a decision, it must focus on the colonial settlements of the Israeli occupation [sic],” he said.
In 2018, Airbnb said it would delist Israeli-owned properties in Judea and Samaria, but backed off following protests by Jerusalem and legal challenges in some US states.
Recommended Reading
- Biden to Host First-Ever White House Rosh Hashanah Party (Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
- Standing Tall as IDF Fighters Where Our Families Were Murdered (Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Israel Hayom)
- Can Reform and Conservative Judaism Support for Zionism Be Revived? (Jonathan S. Tobin, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Sinkhole Safety: AI Sees Underground After Tel Aviv Drama (John Jeffay, NoCamels)
- ICC Stand on Israel Didn’t Stop International Judicial Group Conference (Yonah Jeremy Bob, Jerusalem Post)
Featured Image: Hillel Maeir/TPS
