Once-isolated Albania hopes for Israeli tourist boom with launch of El Al direct flights
(JTA) — One block off Tirana’s Skanderbeg Square, Harel Kopelman, a 31-year-old Israeli-born ex-yeshiva student who grew up in Sunnyvale, California, is bringing traditional Albanian culture — in the form of dazzling wedding rituals, colorful costumes and delicious wines and cheeses — to foreigners visiting what was once one of Europe’s most brutal dictatorships.
After earning a master’s degree in business analytics from Fordham University, Kopelman ended up in Albania by chance four years ago while traveling the globe.
“I fell in love with the country,” said Kopelman, who now speaks fluent Albanian in addition to his native Hebrew and English.
For Israelis at least, Albania is about to get a lot more accessible. Next week, El Al will launch direct, nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and Tirana through its low-cost subsidiary, Sundor.
Meri Kumbe, Albania’s ambassador to Israel, said that among other things, the new service — set to operate three times a week — “will give Israelis an excellent opportunity to discover the historical significance of Albania’s role in saving Jews during the Holocaust.”
‘BBC’ chief refused antisemitism training
(JNS) — BBC Director-General Tim Davie repeatedly rejected offers of training on antisemitism, the British government’s official adviser on anti-Jewish discrimination revealed in an interview with The Telegraph this week.
Lord John Mann, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s independent adviser on antisemitism, told the newspaper he visited the BBC‘s senior leadership to offer training on three occasions since taking up the role in 2019.
Mann’s call for Davie to resign from his position came weeks after the U.K. broadcaster issued an apology for “serious flaws” in a documentary about the Gaza Strip it broadcasted featuring the son of a Hamas official.
The apology centered on the fact that the film’s narrator was the son of a minister in the Hamas government. The producers knew this but didn’t inform the BBC, which then failed because it “did not uncover that fact and the documentary was aired,” according to the Feb. 27 statement.
Beirut says it detained suspects in rocket attacks on Israel
(JNS) — Several people had been arrested in connection with the launching of rockets into Israel last week, the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces said on Saturday.
The suspects are being questioned, Gen. Rodolph Haykal, who took up his post on March 13, told the state-run National News Agency (NNA). He did not name them.
Haykal said that rocket attacks from Lebanese territory serve “the enemy,” meaning Israel, and reaffirmed the army’s commitment to safeguarding Lebanon and its people.
On Friday, the Israeli Air Force attacked targets in Southern Lebanon and a building in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahieh in response to two rockets fired toward the Galilee, neither of which reached Israeli territory. Lebanese officials reported that the Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 21.
The airstrike on Dahieh, a densely populated Hezbollah stronghold, was Israel’s first in the area since November. Hezbollah denied that the Islamist group was connected to the rocket fire on Friday, or to a previous launch of rocket fire on Metula in Israel the previous week.
