40 passengers from Israel briefly detained at Moscow airport
(JNS) — About 40 passengers from Israel were detained for several hours at an airport in Moscow on Apr 20 before being let into Russia following an intervention by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
“As soon as the incident became known, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, acting on the instruction of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, contacted the foreign ministry in Moscow and the Russian embassy in Israel and, following this intervention, the issue was resolved and the entry of the Israelis was approved,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson told JNS.
“It was made clear to the Russians that this conduct is utterly unacceptable and that Israel views the incident very seriously,” the spokesperson added.
According to Mediazona, an opposition news site reporting on Russia, the passengers were interrogated and made to sign a statement affirming that they had been “warned.” The report did not say what they had been warned about. The detainment at Domodedovo Airport continued for about five hours, according to the report.
Bilateral relations between Russia and Israel have deteriorated following the Russian invasion in 2022 into Ukraine, which made many of Israel’s Western allies downgrade relations with Moscow, and amid conflicts in the Middle East, which have pitted Israel against several of Russia’s allies.
Eight more suspects detained in London on suspicion of plotting attacks on Jewish sites
(JNS) — Counterterrorism police officers in London have arrested eight people in connection with an alleged conspiracy to commit arson at a Jewish community institution, the Metropolitan Police said on Apr 21.
“While it is believed that the intended target of this conspiracy is a venue related to the Jewish community, the specific target or venue is not known,” according to a police statement.
The arrests follow the indictment of a 17-year-old male on Apr 21, allegedly for starting a fire on Apr 19 at the Kenton United Synagogue.
The arrests are part of a police response to a string of arson incidents, including the torching on March 23 of four ambulances.
Three of the eight arrests took place in Harpenden, on Apr 19, according to police. The detainees were aged 24, 25 and 26, police said, and they have been released on bail.
On Apr 20, police arrested a 25-year-old man in nearby Stevenage and three others, a 26-year-old man and two women aged 50 and 59, near Birmingham. On Apr 21, police arrested a 39-year-old man in Ealing in connection with an “investigation following the discovery of jars of a non-hazardous substance in Kensington Gardens,” according to the police statement.
A search was “ongoing at a premise in east London,” police also said on Apr 21.
Since the attack on the Hatzola ambulances, a total of 23 people have been arrested in connection with that incident or similar ones, police also said.
French appeals court rejects antisemitism charge in poisoning of Jewish family by nanny
(JTA) — A French appeals court ruled on Apr 22 that a nanny from Algeria who was convicted of poisoning the Jewish family she worked for was not motivated by antisemitism.
The decision by the Versailles Court of Appeal comes months after the nanny, identified as Leïla Y., 42, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by the Nanterre criminal court in December for attempting to poison the Jewish family she worked for with cleaning supplies.
During her arrest and a subsequent search of the home on Feb. 5, 2024, Leïla Y. told police, “Because they have money and power, I should never have worked for a Jewish woman; she only brought me trouble.”
Despite the nanny’s comments, the Nanterre court rejected the aggravating circumstance of antisemitism in the case, and the Versailles Court of Appeal ruled in its latest decision that the nanny’s remarks did not constitute antisemitic statements.
The family’s lawyers, Patrick Klugman and Sacha Ghozlan, decried the ruling in a press release, saying that they would seek to appeal the decision again.
“This decision makes judicial repression of antisemitism impossible and turns legal texts, meant to be protective, into mere useless scraps of paper,” Klugman and Ghozlan said. “Faced with such a decision, litigants risk losing all confidence in and protection from the judicial institution.”
Iran says no gesture made for Trump regarding 8 female detainees
(JNS) — Iran’s judiciary on Apr 22 rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that it had rescinded its ruling to execute eight Iranian women, saying that they never faced the death sentence to begin with.
“None of these women were facing execution for their sentences to be revoked,” the judiciary said in a statement cited by London-based Iran International, an opposition outlet.
Trump is “trying to manufacture achievements from false news,” the statement read.
Earlier on Apr 22, the U.S. president wrote on social media that he had “just been informed that the eight women protesters who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed.”
He continued, “Four will be released immediately, and four will be sentenced to one month in prison. I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request, as President of the United States, and terminated the planned execution. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The issue was first raised by Trump the previous day, when he cited an influencer on social media who posted an image with the faces of the alleged eight detainees and warned that Tehran was about to hang them.
Trump wrote, “To the Iranian negotiators, who will soon be in negotiations with my representatives: I would greatly appreciate the release of these women… Please do them no harm! Would be a great start to our negotiations!!!”
Prince Harry, Meghan Markle meet with survivors of Bondi Beach Hanukkah shooting in Sydney
(JTA) — Meghan Markle appeared to fight back tears as she listened to Jessica Chapnik Kahn describe shielding her young daughter as gunmen fired on the Hanukkah celebration they were attending in Sydney.
Chapnik Kahn told Markle about her experience during the shooting as Markle and her husband, Prince Harry, visited Bondi Beach as part of the couple’s trip to Australia.
Markle embraced Chapnik Kahn, whose daughter Shemi is less than a year older than her own daughter Lilibet.
The couple also spoke with first responders from the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club; Elon Zizer, who was shot six times in the attack; and representatives from the Sydney Jewish Museum, which is preparing to open an exhibit about the shooting and its aftermath.
Among the artifacts to be displayed, Chapnik Kahn recently shared on social media, is a jelly donut that her daughter saved after not being able to eat it during the party. Fifteen people were killed in the shooting, which targeted a Chabad Hanukkah event and has prompted new efforts to curb antisemitism in Australia.
