Tues. Jan 26, 2021
Published in
4 min readJan 28, 2021
Israel Daily News Wrap
Gantz says we can’t lift the lockdown until everyone complies; Israel opens its mission in Morocco & Olive trees are uprooted.
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- A Palestinian man has been shot dead after attempting to stab two Israeli soldiers in the west bank. It happened today, just south of Nablus. The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death of Atallah Mohammed Rayan who was 17 years old. He tried to stab a male squad commander and female combat soldier who were doing security at the intersection. The female soldier and Palestinian man wrestled and he tried to stab her multiple times. Then the commander shot and killed the boy.
- After 20 years, Morocco has a new liaison office for Israel and its new Ambassador, David Govrin has arrived in Rabat, the nation’s capital. The liaison office was opened up back in 1994, but closed 6 years later during the second intifada. Morocco also had an office in Israel , which was in Tel Aviv. That location is set to reopen as well. Govrin says he intends on improving relations between the two countries and boosting tourism.
- Hours before closing down Israel’s main airport, Israeli authorities finally extradited former school teacher Malka Leifer, to Australia. This is the end of a chapter and comes after a six-year legal battle that led to some increased tensions between Canberra and Jerusalem. The fifty-four year old Leifer has been fighting extradition back to Australia since being accused in 2013 of sexually abusing three sisters who had attended Leifer’s Orthodox girls’ school in Melbourne. Leifer, who holds both Israeli and Australian citizenship, left Israel in 2000 to take a job at Adass Israel, but when initial allegations of sexual abuse began to appear eight years later, school board members purchased Leifer a flight back to Israel — allowing her to escape Australia before charges were officially filed. Leifer’s lawyers have tried to argue she is mentally unfit for extradition, but Israeli courts threw the appeal in the garbage. In a unanimous decision to reject Leifer’s final appeal, the Israeli Supreme Court wrote, “All who seek to evade justice shall know that they will not find a place of refuge in Israel.” Leifer’s defense attorney says if she will have to serve punishments for any of the 74 charges of sexual abuse against her, he would try to arrange for her to do the jail time in an Israeli prison. He says an Australian prison would not permit Leifer to observe her Orthodox lifestyle.
- Defense Minister Benny Gantz says that the cabinet will not continue to discuss lifting the lockdown in Israel until Covid restrictions are enforced equally all across the country. Reports say many within the ultra-Orthodox community have refused to comply with national protocols, holding large gatherings and keeping schools open. In neighborhood like Meia Sharim and Bnei Brach just to name a couple, there have been physical scuffles with police and even reports of cars being destroyed and set on fire. The Haredi community has accounted for more than a third of positive COVID cases in the Holy Land.
- 3,000 olive trees have been uprooted in the West Bank during a land dispute. The trees belong to Palestinian olive grove farmers in the area, but Israeli officials say the land is government property. The trees were uprooted quickly, despite a formal legal appeal that the locals made asking to keep the trees in place. Israeli authorities say they had not seen the appeal before uprooting the trees. It’s a bit of a sad story, since Jews around the world and especially those in Israel will be celebrating the birthday of trees — or the new year of trees, which is a Jewish holiday called Tu Bshavt where we celebrate all that the trees provide for us. That holiday begins Wednesday night and ends Thursday at sundown.
- A small dispute could become something to moo about at the border of Israel and Lebanon. Reuters is reporting that some Lebanese herders had 7 cows snatched away from them by Israeli border patrol. The cows have been grazing freely in that area for more than 2 decades. Each one costs about 2,000 dollars. Sunday of this week the people from the village of Wazzani alleged Israeli patrols crossed into the gray zone between the fence and the imaginary blue line which makes up the border. United Nations officials in Lebanon say they are aware of the allegations and are in touch with both sides and are working to rectify the problem. A young boy from another border village also told Reuters in December that his chicken wandered off behind the border fence and that it was never returned. As he ran for the fowl Israeli border officers fired into the air. The two countries are still technically at war. The little guy says he wants his chicken back and that phrase has become a trending hashtag on twitter in Arabic!
- And to end on a nice note — a new layer of the world’s oldest mosque is being excavated. And it’s in Israel. Up in the city of Tiberias, the Al-Juma Mosque or in English, the Friday mosque has been being worked on for 11 years and scholars think the structure is even older than what was originally assumed, dating back to the seventh century. The lead archaeologist says its rare to get a chance to excavate ancient mosques, since usually newer mosques are built right on top. Friday mosques became popular as places for Imams to preach their Friday sermons. Researchers say Tiberias is a great example of coexistence between Jews and Muslims who have both lived in the Tiberias area for generations.