Weekly roundup of world briefs

Israel’s controversial Oscar submission gets snubbed on the 2022 Academy shortlist

By Tom Tugend

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — There was no holiday cheer for Israel’s filmmakers in the shortlists for the 2022 Academy Awards.

The country’s official submission for this year’s Best International Feature Oscar, “Let It Be Morning,” was not among the 15 entries that made the cut in the category, despite being helmed by a pedigreed director (Eran Kolirin, of “The Band’s Visit” fame) and attracting global attention for its all-Palestinian cast.

The movie, which won the Ophir Award, Israel’s equivalent to the Oscars, for best film for its depiction of life in Israel from a Palestinian perspective, generated controversy upon its debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year. Most of its Palestinian cast and crew did not attend the premiere, nor the Ophir awards ceremony, protesting the fact that the movie — based on a novel by the Arab Israeli author Sayed Kashua and financed primarily by Israeli producers — was being categorized as an Israeli film.

“Let It Be Morning” will be released in the United States in 2022.

In addition, a handful of high-profile Israeli documentaries missed out on the Best Documentary shortlist, including Maya Sarfaty’s “Love It Was Not,” about an unlikely romance between a Jewish prisoner of Auschwitz and an SS officer in the death camp, and Vanessa Lapa’s “Speer Goes To Hollywood,” about a Nazi architect’s attempts to reinvent himself after WWII. The latter had generated its own controversy for purportedly fictionalizing elements of key archival conversations.

The 94th Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on March 27, 2022.

Terrorist rams vehicle into IDF post in northern West Bank, is shot dead by soldiers

(JNS) — A Palestinian terrorist conducted a car-ramming attack against an Israel Defense Forces military post near the community of Mevo Datan, in the northern Samarian Hills on Tuesday evening.

The IDF said in a statement that soldiers at the location opened fire at the vehicle. The assailant, named as 25-year-old Hachmat Abd Al-Aziz, was killed, Army Radio reported.

“During the neutralization, the vehicle crashed into a military vehicle that was in close proximity to the post. As a result, the vehicles caught on fire. No IDF injuries were reported,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

The incident comes amid an increase in terrorist incidents in recent days.

On Sunday, Israeli police arrested a 20-year-old resident of Anata, north of Jerusalem on suspicion of attempting to stab a passerby in Jerusalem earlier in the day, according to the Israel Police.

The suspect fled after attempting to stab a young Jerusalem resident who had been walking down Hanevi’im Street with a friend, police said in a statement.

1,900-year-old sarcophagus lid rescued from Ashkelon garbage dump

(Israel Hayom via JNS) — A marble sarcophagus lid dating back some 1,900 years has been rescued from a garbage dump site in southern Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority reported Monday.

In a social media post, the IAA reported that last Thursday, Yoav Mizrahi from the Antiquities Robberies Prevention Union at the IAA, with help from the Ashkelon District Police, located the artifact, which weighs some two tons. The lid belonged to a sarcophagus made of fine marble from Roman times, and inspectors are trying to track down the rest of the sarcophagus.

Authorities think that the lid was stolen from a construction site and discarded at an unauthorized dumpsite in Ashkelon.

This report first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Erdan asks UN to stop funding to NGOs groups tied to Palestinian terror group

(JNS) — Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan has urged U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to not allow the international body’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to donate to two organizations that have ties to the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The OCHA published last week its Humanitarian Response Plan for 2022 and it includes proposed partnerships with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees on food security, and the Union of Health Work Committees on issues related to health and nutrition.

Erdan wrote in an urgent letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday that both organizations have been designated by Israel as terrorist organizations for supporting to PFLP.

Erdan told Guterres, “It is outrageous that an organization with a mission to ensure international peace and security would partner with organizations that directly and materially support terrorism and provide the PFLP — a designated terrorist organization worldwide, including in Israel, the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Japan — with its financial lifeline.”

“I call on you to take urgent and deliberate action to ensure that OCHA does not collaborate with or give an active hand to the malign activities of these ostensible civilian institutions that serve as the backbone of the PFLP money laundering and financing network,” Erdan added. “It would be both unfortunate and ironic if it was the U.N. and its bodies that gave these organizations the guise of legitimacy that they need in order to continue to materially support terrorist activities.”

Antisemitic fliers blaming Jews for COVID-19 found in at least eight states

(JNS) — People in at least eight states found anti-Semitic fliers claiming Jews are responsible for COVID-19 on the yards over the weekend, according to the Secure Community Network.

The leaflets were part of a “coordinated flier drop,” by the antisemitic Goyim Defense League, according to SCN, and were found in Alabama, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, Texas and Vermont. The leaflet, one of which was titled “Every Single Aspect of the Covid Agenda Is Jewish,” included a QR code that linked to an antisemitic website run by the Goyim Defense League.

“This is another reminder that the Jewish community is a target in the United States,” said Michael Masters, CEO of SCN. “There continue to be groups willing to do anything they can to attack Jewish people, including blaming them for a pandemic that has affected so many lives across the globe. We must continue to fight anti-Semitism and ensure the Jewish community can flourish.”

This is not the first time the Goyim Defense League has left fliers on people’s yard, but it may be the first time they have left them in so many locales at once. Just before Chanukah, the group left fliers at homes in Beverly Hills, Ca., and earlier this fall the group hung a banner from an overpass in Austin, Texas, saying “Vax the Jews.”

Israel will likely administer a 4th dose of coronavirus vaccine

By Shira Hanau

(JTA) — Israel will likely begin administering a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine to seniors, immuno-compromised people, and healthcare workers in an effort to stem the spread of the Omicron variant.

The move was recommended Tuesday by the panel of experts advising Israel’s government on the coronavirus pandemic. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had been hinting at the possibility of a fourth shot and embraced the recommendation in a statement Tuesday.

“This is wonderful news that will assist us in getting through the Omicron wave that is engulfing the world,” Bennett said, according to The Times of Israel.

Nachman Ash, the director-general of Israel’s Health Ministry, still has to approve the decision before the shots can be administered.

The step towards administering another booster shot came as the number of cases of the Omicron variant in Israel continues to increase despite travel bans meant to keep out travelers from countries where Omicron is spreading wildly. Bennett acknowledged Tuesday that a fifth wave of the coronavirus within Israel was inevitable.

“We cannot prevent the [next] wave. It’s just not a possibility,” Bennett said in a meeting with members of the government’s coronavirus task force. “But we can certainly give the citizens of Israel the tools to protect themselves, mainly from serious illness, if some of them become infected.”

Israel was the first country in the world to administer a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine as a booster dose, which it began rolling out to those at highest risk from the coronavirus in July.

Immigration to Israel surges in 2021 by 30 percent

(JNS) — New figures from the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, The Jewish Agency, and Nefesh B’Nefesh show the highest aliyah from France in four years, a dramatic increase in arrivals from South Africa, and the continued trend of rising aliyah among youth.

There were 27,050 new immigrants to Israel in 2021, a 30 percent increase from the previous year’s 21,820 immigrants.

This past year also brought a record-breaking 4,000 immigrants from the United States who arrived in Israel with the assistance of Nefesh B’Nefesh.

This immigration from the U.S. constituted a 30 percent increase from 2020 and the highest annual number since 1973. In addition, another 400 immigrants arrived this year from Canada, bringing the expected total of immigrants from North America to over 4,400.

Interestingly, aliyah from France jumped 40 percent with 3,500 new arrivals, the largest number in the past four years.

Immigration from Russia stood at 7,500, 3,000 from Ukraine, and 1,636 from Ethiopia.

Another significant number came from Argentina (900), a jump of 55 percent from last year.

The growing immigration from the younger generation continued with 14,620 (55 percent) of all immigrants under the age of 35.

Aliyah is facilitated by the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and The Jewish Agency, with Nefesh B’Nefesh, Ofek Israeli, The Jewish Federations of North America, Keren Hayesod, The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and friends of Israel from around the world.

Current nuclear talks with Iran ‘may be exhausted within weeks,’ says US national security advisor

(JNS)— The United States and its partners “are discussing time frames for nuclear diplomacy with Iran,” Reuters quoted U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan as telling reporters on Wednesday. Sullivan delivered a warning that the current round of negotiations could be exhausted “within weeks,” the report said.

“We’re not circling a date on the calendar in public, but I can tell you that behind closed doors we are talking about time frames and they are not long,” Sullivan told reporters in Israel.

“Asked to elaborate on the timeline, Sullivan said: ‘Weeks,’” said the report.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Sullivan on Wednesday earlier in the day at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.

The two discussed a variety of subjects, among them the ongoing negotiations in Vienna between Iran and the other signatories to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement, according to a statement from Bennett’s office.

During his remarks to reporters, Sullivan said Washington continues to believe that “diplomacy, deterrence and pressure” remain the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, said Reuters. 

He added that he and Israeli leaders “discussed means of ensuring that we are holding the international community together to maintain the pressure on Iran to live up to its obligations and to come back into compliance,” the report added.

“And in terms of operational matters, I think those are best left for private diplomatic discussions between the United States and Israel,” he added.

Illinois votes to divest state pension fund from Unilever due to Ben & Jerry’s boycott

(JNS) — The Illinois Investment Policy Board voted on Wednesday to divest the state’s pension funds from Unilever.

The move comes after a July announcement by its subsidiary, Ben & Jerry’s, that it plans to stop selling its product in parts of Israel that it calls “occupied Palestinian territories,” but are in fact parts of Israel including eastern Jerusalem and the Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. Though owned by Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s maintains some decision-making autonomy, particularly around social issues.

Several states, including Illinois, have laws on the books that prohibit them from investing in companies that boycott Israel, leading them to reconsider their stakes in Unilever. Already, Arizona has sold off $93 million worth of investments, while New Jersey began pulling out its $182 million investment earlier this month.

Responding to the Illinois decision, Yinam Cohen, the consul general of Israel to the Midwest, said, “Israel has always claimed that any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be reached through direct, bilateral negotiations between the two sides. Any third party’s attempts to predetermine the parameters of the final status agreement are counterproductive to solving the conflict. Today’s decision by the Illinois Investment Policy Board towards Unilever reaffirms this message.”

Not all agree. Earlier, the group Americans for Peace Now had released a letter asking the policy board to “refrain from adding Unilever PLC to the Illinois Prohibited Investment List,” saying to do so would be a “departure” from U.S. foreign policy. Referring to themselves as “Jewish Illinoisans” they said the decision by Ben & Jerry’s “to cease sales of its product in Israeli settlements is a principled pro-Israel position.”

Olympic Committee says competitions must be open to all athletes, including Israelis

(JNS) — The International Olympic Committee said sports federations worldwide must make competitions available to athletes from all countries, after a championship in Malaysia was canceled because it banned Israel’s participation.

“We urge all [international federations] to be extremely vigilant when allocating and organizing international sports competitions,” IOC’s sports director Kit McConnell and director of Olympic solidarity James Macleod wrote in a letter, The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.

The IOC added that leaders of sports federations must get a written declaration from the government of a tournament’s host country, stating that all eligible athletes and teams will be able to compete and be treated without discrimination.

The letter cited the cancellation of this month’s World Team Squash Championships in Kuala Lumpur, after Malaysia refused to allow Israeli athletes into the country, and Serbia not allowing Kosovo’s boxing team to compete in the AIBA World Boxing Championship that took place Oct. 24-Nov. 6.

The IOC said it will work with the National Olympic Committees of Malaysia and Serbia to determine a solution to their banning of certain countries, and that failure to do so would “exclude themselves from the right to host international sports events until all the necessary assurances can be obtained and respected.”

The guidelines stated in the letter are part of “the fundamental principles which govern the Olympic Movement,” the IOC said.

Israeli firm completes supply of first advanced video systems for IDF armored personnel vehicles

(JNS) — Nir-Or, an Israeli electronic systems manufacturer, announced on Tuesday that it completed the supply of its first models of advanced video systems for Israel Defense Forces’ Namer armored personal carrier.

Ni-Or’s systems are designed to maximize force lethality and survivability, and its video system includes several displays. “This is a new generation of Nir-Or’s combat-proven video system, and the IDF is the first customer to receive it,” said the company in a statement.

“The company now moves to the next step, which includes the serial supply of the systems to the IDF. Later on, Nir-Or’s video systems will also be supplied for the IDF’s Eitan APC,” it added. While Namer vehicles are tracked, the Eitan armored personnel carriers are wheeled.

Nir-Or’s CEO, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Roy Riftin, said, “Nir-Or has been a trusted supplier of the IDF for many years, and we are honored to announce that we have completed the delivery of the first models of our advanced video system to the IDF’s new Namer APC. Nir-Or’s line of solutions includes multi-dimensional situational Awareness, AI-powered video systems for armored vehicles and designated military platforms that maximize force lethality and survivability.”

Nir-Or is a subsidiary of IMCO Industries, which is a defense provider, and has been involved in venerations of fighting vehicles, including the IDF’s Merkava tank and Namer APC.