Weekly roundup of world briefs

Israeli cargo ship hit by missile near Yemen in suspected Iranian attack

By Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) — An Israeli-owned cargo ship was struck by a missile in the Arabian Sea in a suspected Iranian attack, an Israeli security official said.

The ship was sailing from Tanzania to India and continued its voyage after the attack Thursday, the official told Reuters. He was not named.

The vessel, which is owned by the XT Management firm from Haifa, was flying a Liberian flag and did not sustain major damage, the report said.

Since 2019, Israel has been attacking ships carrying Iranian oil and weapons through the eastern Mediterranean and Red seas, according to a New York Times article published Friday. The Iranians recently have begun to retaliate by targeting Israeli vessels, the report said.

Last month, an Israeli cargo ship, the Helios Ray, sustained minor damage when explosives attached to its hull were set off by what The Times said was an Iranian commando unit.

Earlier this month, an Iranian ship, Shahr e Kord, was hit in an explosion and slightly damaged about 50 miles off the coast of Israel. The state-run Iranian shipping company said the vessel had been heading to Spain and called the explosion a “terrorist act.”

Biden administration formally resumes assistance to Palestinians with $15 million in COVID aid

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration formally relaunched U.S. assistance to the Palestinians with $15 million in COVID relief.

The money, which will go to nongovernmental institutions distributing medical care and food assistance in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, reverses Trump administration policies of all but cutting off aid to the Palestinians, fulfilling a pledge Joe Biden made as a presidential candidate.

By distributing the money to nongovernmental groups, the Biden administration may be able to circumvent laws that ban aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as it subsidizes the families of Palestinians who have violently attacked Israelis and Americans.

“This small step in advancing the well-being of the Palestinian people is fully in keeping with American values,” the State Department said Thursday in announcing the disbursal.

Germany to draft law expanding citizenship to descendants of Nazi victims

(JNS) — The German government on Wednesday agreed to draft a law that would allow more descendants of those persecuted by Nazis to reclaim German citizenship.

The government said the new law would be a change to rules adopted in 2019, which were supposed to give descendants of Nazi victims more opportunities to acquire citizenship.

“This is not just about putting things right, it is about apologizing in profound shame,” said Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. “It is a huge fortune for our country if people want to become German, despite the fact that we took everything from their ancestors.”

Some descendants of Nazi victims have been denied citizenship because their ancestors fled Germany and changed citizenship before Nazi Germany revoked theirs, according to Deutsche Welle. Others were denied German citizenship because they were born before April 1, 1953, to a German mother but a non-German father.

In 1941, the Nazi regime revoked the citizenship of German Jews living outside the country, which left Jewish refugees stateless. Beforehand, many victims of Nazi persecution had their citizenship stripped for political or racial reasons.

Germany’s Central Council of Jews campaigned for the new law.

The organization’s president, Josef Schuster, said: “During the Nazi era, countless German Jews were forced to flee or were expatriated. In addition, Jews were fundamentally excluded from acquiring German citizenship due to racist legislation. This injustice cannot be undone. But it is a gesture of decency if they and their descendants are given legal opportunities to regain German citizenship.”

State Department revives pre-Trump use of ‘occupied’ Israeli territory language

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden’s State Department has revived the use of the term “occupied,” but with caveats noting Trump administration changes in policy.

In 2018, the State Department stripped “occupation” and “occupied” from the sections of its annual human rights report dealing with Israel and Palestinian areas at the behest of David Friedman, then-President Donald Trump’s ambassador, who has ties to the settlement movement. Under Republican and Democratic presidents, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights had been called the “occupied territories.”

In the first human rights report under Biden, the term reappears, but with an explanatory note: “The United States recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017 and Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights in 2019. Language in this report is not meant to convey a position on any final status issues to be negotiated between the parties to the conflict, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the borders between Israel and any future Palestinian state.”

The Times of Israel first reported the change.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has affirmed Biden’s pledge that the United States will uphold the Trump recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, although the Biden administration is also taking steps that implicitly recognize a Palestinian claim to the eastern part of the city, including plans to reopen a Palestinian-specific U.S. consulate.

Blinken has stopped short of recognizing Israel’s claim to the Golan Heights, as Trump had done, but has also said that the question is moot as long as the Assad regime is in place in Syria — a status unlikely to change anytime soon.

Polish woman who doted over Jewish boy she rescued from the Holocaust dies at 101

By Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) — Anna Kozminska, a Polish woman who rescued a Jewish boy from the Holocaust, has died. She was 101.

Kozminska, who was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations — Israel’s title for non-Jews who saved Jews from the Holocaust — died last week, the Polin Jewish museum in Warsaw wrote Monday on Facebook. She was among the world’s oldest people.

In September 1942, when the Germans began destroying the Czestochowa ghetto near Krakow, Kozminska and her late stepmother, Maria, took in and hid in their home 8-year-old Abraham Jablonski, who had escaped from the ghetto with the help of relatives who were already in hiding.

Abraham had spent days hiding in barns and feeding on scraps at night to avoid detection when his uncle secured a hiding place for him at the Kozminskas.

Maria and Anna “looked after Abraham devotedly, saw to all his needs, made him feel safe, and raised his spirits when he was feeling low,” the file about them in Yad Vashem reads. They also saw to his education, “taught him to read and write, and at great personal risk, took him occasionally for walks outside.”

Kozminska’s apartment also served intermittently as a temporary shelter for a Jewish refugee by the name of Rubinsztain as well as two women, Stefa and her daughter Rita. Abraham Jablonski stayed in his hiding place until January 1945, when the area was liberated by the Red Army. After the war he immigrated to Israel.

The Kozminskas consistently declined any payment or compensation for their actions.

Bahrain appoints first ambassador to Israel

By Gabe Friedman

(JTA) — Following up on its signing of the historic Abraham Accords last summer, Bahrain has appointed its first ambassador to Israel.

Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma, named Monday in a statement from Manama and reported by the state’s Bahrain News Agency, will report to Israel soon.

“In the coming weeks, a team from Bahrain will arrive in Israel to make the necessary arrangements,” a statement from Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi’s office said, according to The Times of Israel.

“The decision of the Bahraini government to appoint an ambassador to Israel is another important step in the implementation of the peace agreement between and of the strengthening of ties between the two countries.”

An ambassador from the United Arab Emirates, another country to sign onto last year’s accords establishing formal diplomatic relations between Israel and three of its Arab neighbors, arrived in Israel earlier this month.

Houthis expel Yemen’s few remaining Jewish families

By Shahar Klaiman

(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Yemen’s millennia-old Jewish population has come down to only four elderly men, after the last few remaining Jewish families were expelled this week by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports.

According to the report, one expelled family includes 13 men and women who agreed to leave Yemen if the Houthis freed a Jew who had been in prison for some six years.

The Saudi newspaper reported that the Houthis have made it a goal to wipe out the Yemenite Jewish community entirely. Until recently, the Jewish families resisted pressure to leave. However, when the relatives of the Jewish prisoner, Levy Salam, visited him in prison, the Houthi intelligence services offered to free him if the family would leave the country.

Salam was arrested for publishing an old version of the Torah.

One of the Jews who recently left told Asharq Al-Awsat, “Our choice was between remaining a target for harassment and them not letting Levy out of prison, or leaving, and him being set free.”

“Therefore, we were forced to leave. History will document us as the last Yemenite Jews who clung to their home until the last moment. We refused much temptation in other times, but now we must leave,” the man said.

Recently, another group of Jewish families left Yemen and found a home in the United Arab Emirates. The latest refugees are looking for a country to take them in, as they do not want to make aliyah.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram wins two gold medals at world championship

(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram won two gold medals and one bronze in the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup this weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Ashram was first among 44 competitors on Saturday, after earning a score of 98.450, winning the individual events, including separate showings with a hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon.

On Sunday, she snagged another gold medal in the ball event with a 26.5 score and a bronze medal in the hoop event with a score of 26.1.

The competition in Sofia is one of four Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup events ahead of the 2021 Olympics and serves as a qualifier for the Games.

Ashram, 21, arrived in Bulgaria two days after Israel’s rhythmic gymnastics team won gold in the group all-around category.

Also on Sunday, Israeli judoka Inbar Lanir won the bronze medal at the Tbilisi Grand Slam in Georgia.

The 20-year-old, who competes in the under-78 kilograms (170 pounds) category, won her match with an ippon within nine seconds of going onto the mat.

The Tbilisi Grand Slam featured 464 athletes and 278 officials from more than 80 countries.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

World-renowned Israeli chef Shalom Kadosh in critical condition after assault

By Efrat Forsher 

(Israel Hayom via JNS) — World-renowned Israeli chef Shalom Kadosh remains in critical condition on Monday, after being assaulted last week during an attempted robbery in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem District Police have arrested Ali Adkidak, 41, from eastern Jerusalem, on suspicion that he was the assailant. Adkidak had a prior criminal record and was recently released from prison, according to local media reports. He denies any involvement in the case.

Kadosh, 74, sustained a head injury during the mugging, which occurred while he stopped to put air in his tires at a Jerusalem gas station — mere hours before his daughter’s wedding.

He was rushed to Hadassah Medical Center-Ein Kerem in the capital, where doctors continue to fight for his life.

Kadosh is one of the most internationally well-known Israeli chefs, cooking for many world leaders. In January 2020, he prepared the food for the World Holocaust Forum gala in Israel attended by 41 heads of state.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

1 in 4 American Jews has experienced anti-Semitism since 2016, ADL finds

By Ben Sales

(JTA) — An annual survey from the Anti-Defamation League found that a quarter of American Jews have personally experienced anti-Semitism in the past five years, and that most American Jews have witnessed anti-Semitic comments targeting others.

In that same time period, 9 percent of Jewish respondents said they have been the victim of an anti-Semitic physical attack.

In total, 63 percent of Jewish respondents reported that they had either witnessed or experienced anti-Semitism in the years since 2016, an increase from 54 percent last year. The survey was taken in early January and includes responses from 503 Jewish-American adults. The margin of error is 4.4 percent.

The proportion of Jews who said they have experienced anti-Semitism or been the victim of a physical attack are slightly higher than they were last year but are within the margin of error. Last year, 20 percent of Jews said they had experienced anti-Semitism over the past five years, while 5 percent reported being the victim of a physical attack.

In addition, 40 percent of respondents said they heard anti-Semitic comments directed at someone else over the past year. Some 59 percent of respondents said they feel Jews are less safe in the United States than they were a decade ago, similar to the figure from last year’s survey.

Biden administration to allocate $90 million in aid to Palestinians

(JNS) — The Biden administration has allocated $90 million in aid to the Palestinians, with only a portion of the money being publicly announced, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The United States announced last week that it would give $15 million in coronavirus relief to the Palestinians. However, the Biden administration notified Congress a day later, without a public announcement, that it will allocate $75 million to the Palestinians for economic support to be used in part to regain their “trust and goodwill” following Trump administration cuts, the AP report said.

The State Department declined to comment on the report, and it remains unclear if the $75 million includes the $15 million in COVID aid.

U.S. President Joe Biden has been outspoken in wanting to re-engage with the international community, especially European allies but also with Iran and the Palestinians, and rolling back many of former President Donald Trump’s foreign-policy positions.

State Department spokesman Ned Price says that in general, the United States supports the restoration of aid to the Palestinians.

“We continue to believe that American support for the Palestinian people, including financial support, is consistent with our values. It is consistent with our interests. Of course, it is consistent with the interests of the Palestinian people. It’s also consistent with the interests of our partner, Israel, and we’ll have more to say on that going forward,” he told reporters.

The Trump administration cut nearly all aid to the Palestinian Authority as part of the Taylor Force Act, which prohibits U.S. aid to the P.A. as long as it continues to provide support to terrorists or their families.

According to USAID’s congressional notification, much of the $75 million will go towards short-term projects aimed at rebuilding U.S.-Palestinian relations. This includes $5.4 million to Palestinian civic groups, including possibly independent media in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as funding for the health-care sector and the resumption of assistance to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network.

Additionally, the Biden administration seeks to fund sanitation, water supply, transportation infrastructure, social services, job training for Palestinian youth, micro-loans and grants for small businesses, and disaster preparedness.

The USAID notification said that it would adhere to U.S. law for providing the money.

Said the notice: “USAID adheres to rigorous partner anti-terrorism vetting and certification, auditing and monitoring procedures to help ensure that its assistance does not go to Hamas or other terrorist organizations.”