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Spanish court ends probe of Israel's killing of Hamas leader
MADRID (WJC)—Spain's National Court has closed an investigation of Israeli officials for allegedly committing crimes against humanity during a 2002 air raid in Gaza targeting a senior Hamas leader. Monday's decision to end the probe of the bombing in which Salah Shehade was killed came after the Spanish parliament granted preliminary approval to legislation which says that cases investigated by the court must involve a Spanish citizen or a defendant actually on Spanish soil.
Judge Fernando Andreu announced in May that he would pursue an investigation into the 2002 bombing even though prosecutors advised against it and Israel investigated the killing itself. The court, under the principle of universal jurisdiction, had argued that it could investigate and try human rights and war crimes cases if the country of origin did not.
Iranian delegation walks out as Peres speaks in Kazakhstan
ASTANA, Kazakhstan—Iranian representatives have staged a walkout during President Shimon Peres's keynote address at the Congress of World and Traditional Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, refusing to return as long as the Israeli leader spoke. "We have come to listen to religious leaders and Peres is not a religious leader." Iranian delegation member Mehdi Mostafavi told the 'Jerusalem Post'.
Peres was not originally scheduled to attend the conference, but since he was in Kazakhstan he was invited as a guest of honor by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. When asked if he would speak to the attending Israeli chief rabbis or any of the American rabbis present, Mostafavi, an adviser to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said: "We'll see." Another member of the Iranian delegation told Israeli journalists that "Israel won't attack us [Iran]; we're not afraid of Israel or the United States. Your president is a stealer of lands and a conqueror, and we're not willing to hear him," the delegate continued. "Peres represents an abominable Zionist personality, and his place is not here.”
On Monday, Iran recalled its ambassador to Azerbaijan for consultations, a day after President Peres visited the country. According to the Iranian news agency INSA, the envoy was recalled due to both Peres' visit and unspecified "threats" it said Israel's ambassador in Baku had voiced against Iran.
In his speech to the inter-faith conference, Peres called on King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who instigated the Arab peace initiative, to meet in Jerusalem or in Riyadh, or to travel to Kazakhstan, where – together with other Arab leaders – he could advance the Israeli-Arab peace process. "We are aware of the big change which has occurred in the positions of a majority of Arab countries toward peace with Israel, a transition from the ‘three no's of Khartoum – no negotiation, no recognition, no peace – to the ‘three yeses’ of the Saudi initiative," Peres said.
Construction begins on Museum
of the History of the Polish Jews
WARSAW (WJC)—The start of construction of a new museum which will chronicle Poland's Jewish heritage was marked at a ceremony in Warsaw. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, set for completion in 2011, is being built on the site of the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, razed by the Nazis in 1943 after the Jewish uprising.
"This is going to be a living museum located in a place scarred by death," the city’s mayor, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, said at a ground-breaking ceremony also attended by Poland's culture minister, foreign ambassadors and American Jewish groups.
Most of Poland's 3.5 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. The five-storey museum which will include a library, a cinema, a concert hall and cafes, and it is intended to document a millennium of Jewish life in Poland.
Organizers said the museum would also encourage discussion and debate and not lay down a single view of the past. "This museum will show the truth about how Jewish life flourished here, the truth also about how there were problems here," Michael Schudrich, chief rabbi of Poland, told the Reuters news agency, adding that he would welcome lively debate.
"The point about dialogue is understanding what causes pain to the other side. As long as we remember that, there is a chance we can get closer to the truth... A nation that does not have truth can't really know its past or build for its future," Schudrich pointed out.
Developing stories
The U.S. State Department issued a statement on June 30 about the release of Jewish American from a Belarus jail:
"American citizen Emanuel Zeltser was released from Belarusian custody on June 30.," the statement said. "The United States welcomes this positive step. Consular officials in
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the Department and Embassy Minsk are currently working with Mr. Zeltser’s family to arrange his swift and safe return to the United States."
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In an equally terse statement, San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said her office will investigate whether a sheriff's deputy used excessive force June 26 at a house party for Democratic congressional hopeful Francine Busby which he allegedly went to quiet. Here's what the DA had to say yesterday:
“The San Diego County Sheriff’s investigation of a disturbance during a fundraiser for a Congressional candidate has been turned over to the District Attorney's Office for review. We will look at all the facts and circumstances and conduct further interviews of witnesses as needed. An independent decision on whether or not to file criminal charges will be based on the evidence and the law.”
Although district attorney is a non-partisan office, Dumanis is a registered Republican.
Cyber-Referrals
SAN DIEGO—Our readers have passed along a number of articles bearing on Jewish affairs nationally and globally.
Bruce Kesler in Encinitas spotted a piece in the June 28 edition of Los Angeles Times by Yisrael Medad, a resident of Shiloh, in defense of the "settlements" beyond the Green Line and in response to President Obama's demands that such building be stopped. Here's the link.
Both Hillel Mazansky and Gert Thaler, both of La Jolla, passed along a conservative columnist Burt Prelutsky's jibe at President Obama's anti-Israeli settlements policy. Here's a link to his column.
Dan Schaffer in San Diego saw a copy of an informative speech given by Khalend Abu Toameh, an Israei Arab reporter for the Jerusalem Post about Hamas, Fatah, and the situation of Israeli Arabs. Here's the link.
Howard Wayne spotted an AP story in the San Diego Union-Tribune about how Norm Coleman's defeat for Senate reelection by Al Franken, a fellow Jew, has left the GOP with no Jewish senators and only one member of the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor. Here's the link.
New York State withdraws $86.2 million in pension funds from 9 firms doing businesss with Iran
ALBANY, N.Y. (Press Release)--New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced Tuesday that his state is withdrawing $86.2 million in state retirement fund investments from nine companies that do business with Iran and Sudan, Bloomberg reported.
"These companies failed to meet even the minimum requirements of the risk mitigation programs we initiated two years ago," DiNapoli said, noting that Iran supports terrorism, is trying to become a nuclear power and has called for Israel’s destruction, while Sudan is committing genocide.
"Can we afford to risk pension fund investments in nations led by these kinds of regimes?" he asked. Tuesday's announcement is the latest in a string of steps taken in New York relating to Iran's illicit nuclear pursuit. In April, the Manhattan district attorney's office charged a Chinese businessman and his company with a conspiracy relating to the sale of potential nuclear materials to Iran.
ZOA says Sarkozy should stay out of internal Israeli affairs
NEW YORK (Press Release)—The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has strongly criticized French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, for blatantly interfering in Israeli internal affairs by urging visiting Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to replace Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman with another figure more acceptable to European and other leaders. He also compared Lieberman to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant French politician.
“This sort of interference is unacceptable everywhere, yet when the country in question is Israel, even people who call themselves friends of Israel feel free to make an exception. Yet, how would President Sarkozy react if a visiting Israeli head of state told the French President to remove one of his senior Cabinet ministers? President Sarkozy must surely be aware of the exceptional breach of respect and protocol he committed in making these statements and should apologize for having done so.
“As his remarks last year to the Knesset show, this is not the first time in which President Sarkozy saw it fit to lecture Israel on what it must do. It is to be regretted that the warm personal feeling for Israel that Sarkozy has often expressed does not translate into a policy of respect towards Israel’s sovereign independence and its elected government. "
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