Chikli slams EU sanctions, vows continued building in Judea and Samaria
(JNS) — Israel’s Diaspora and Countering Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli on May 11 sharply criticized a European Union decision earlier in the day to impose sanctions on Jewish Israeli civil society organizations in Judea and Samaria, accusing E.U. foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas of drawing a false equivalence with the Hamas terrorist group.
In a post on social media, Chikli called Kallas’ statement “pathological, grotesque, and an unprecedented moral collapse in Europe’s policy toward Israel.”
He reposted the Estonian politician and diplomat’s post from hours earlier, which stated that “EU Foreign Ministers just gave the go-ahead to sanction Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians. They also agreed new sanctions on leading Hamas figures. It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery. Extremisms and violence carry consequences.”
Chikli rejected the sanctions as ineffective, saying Israel would continue building in Judea and Samaria.
“If Ms. Kallas believes this decree will uproot even a single Jew from his ancestral homeland, she is deeply mistaken. It will achieve nothing of the sort. The European Union has become a decaying superstructure that has brought ruin and cultural suicide upon Europe’s nation states. It is consumed from within by obsessive hatred of Israel and raw antisemitism,” Chikli wrote.
Civilian, three IDF soldiers charged with spying for Tehran
(JNS) — The Haifa District Prosecutor’s Office indicted a civilian and three Israel Defense Forces soldiers on May 8 for allegedly carrying out spying missions for Iranian intelligence agents, the Israel Police said.
The soldiers are suspected of acting on behalf of an Iranian handler before their enlistment.
The four suspects were arrested in March in the wake of an investigation by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), IDF Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 8200, the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 unit and the Military Police Investigation Unit, the police said.
The investigation revealed that one of the defendants recruited the other suspects, and that they carried out photography missions across the country and were asked to acquire weaponry, the statement read.
The defendants allegedly documented and transmitted to their handlers photos and videos of various sites, including train stations, shopping centers and security cameras.
Additionally, they transmitted documentation of the Israeli Air Force Technological College (also known as the Techni School) in Haifa where some of the suspects studied, the police added.
Some of the defendants allegedly approached their handler on their own initiative to carry out security missions, and some were involved in vandalizing property as part of the missions, according to police.
Kristof column alleging Israeli abuse of Palestinian prisoners sparks outrage, scrutiny and debate among Jews
(JTA) — A New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof published May 11 detailed graphic allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli guards, amplifying claims that guards had used dogs to rape Palestinian detainees.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry described his writing as “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press.”
“In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the country would “fight these lies with the truth — and the truth will prevail.”
Michelle Ahdoot, EndJewHatred’s director of programming and strategy, told the JTA that the column was a “direct cause of true incitement and violence against the Jewish people.”
Elissa Wald, a Jewish activist living in Oregon, argued in a social media essay late May 11 that while she believed The New York Times had a “strong anti-Israel bias,” many things could be true at once.
“Just as we don’t know enough to immediately believe everything written in this piece, especially given the context we’re all familiar with, I also don’t think we know enough to immediately discount and dismiss it all.”
Israeli soldiers jailed for desecration of Virgin Mary statue in Lebanon
(JNS) — Two Israeli soldiers have been jailed for placing a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon, the military announced on May 11, in an incident which was widely condemned.
The swift disciplinary action came after a photo of the incid ent went viral.
The soldier posing was sentenced to 21 days in military prison, and the soldier who photographed it was sentenced to 14 days, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
“Such behavior stands in direct contradiction to the values of the State of Israel, which is committed to respecting freedom of religion, holy sites, and religious symbols of all faiths and communities,” Ambassador George Deek, who served as the first Christian Ambassador of the Jewish state, posted on social media.
He said that the military has reinforced guidelines for conduct around religious institutions and symbols for forces who are operating against Hezbollah in the country.
The military investigation found that the photo was taken in the southern Lebanese village of Debel several weeks ago, and posted online last week.
The incident comes a week after two Israeli soldiers were jailed for 30 days and dismissed from combat duty after one damaged a statue of Jesus in the village and the other photographed the widely condemned incident.
Israel bars YouTuber Tyler Oliveira from entering country, citing ‘harassment of Jews’ on social media
(JTA) — Israel’s Diaspora affairs minister, Amichai Chikli, confirmed on May 11 that right-wing YouTube provocateur Tyler Oliveira had been barred from entering Israel, accusing him of coming to the country with the “aim of spreading hatred.”
Amid reports that Oliveira had been rebuffed at Ben Gurion Airport, Chikli resurrected a weeks-old post from the YouTuber asking, “You guys think Israel will let me into the country?” and replied with a blunt, one-word answer: “No.”
Oliveira has drawn allegations of antisemitism in recent months over videos in which he claimed to expose widespread fraud in Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic enclave in upstate New York, and Lakewood, a heavily Orthodox town in New Jersey.
The videos, which each garnered over 9 million views, drew outcry from Jewish leaders who accused Oliveira of trafficking in antisemitic stereotypes and mischaracterizing Jewish communities as hotbeds of corruption.
On May 8, Oliveira sat for an interview with the conservative influencer Tucker Carlson, who himself claimed in February that he had been “detained” after arriving at an Israeli airport to conduct an interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Both Huckabee and Israel denied Carlson’s allegation.
