News Nosh 09.18.14

by APN 09/18/14
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APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday September 18, 2014

Quote of the day:
"There was a time when police would beat the people being interrogated. Today they use psychological methods - they convince them that this way will be better for them."
--Criminal law professor Boaz Sangero explains why innocent people say they are guilty of crimes and sit in jail in Israel.**

Front Page News:
Haaretz
Yedioth Ahronoth
  • "I got my life back" - Political bomb - (Interior) Minister Gideon Saar resigns
  • He will return // Nahum Barnea
  • Starting second chapter // Sima Kadmon
  • Right to broadcast - Channel 1 news director, Ayala Hasson, cancelled the suspension of anchorwoman (and wife of Saar) Geula Even: "Her husband resigned and there is no conflict of interests"
  • Diet? That's fattening - Israeli study found that artificial sweeteners actually cause weight gain and diabetes
  • Britain's judgment day
Maariv This Week (Hebrew links only)
Israel Hayom
News Summary:
The 'political bomb' dropped by a popular Likud minister Gideon Saar when he resigned from politics was the top story in today's Hebrew newspapers. The commentators suggested that Likud lost another valuable person because of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In a snarky comment about Netanyahu, Yedioth's Nahum Barnea wrote, "As long as Netanyahu is Prime Minister, no one has a chance of rising. 'Under large trees only mushrooms grow,' says an ancient Russian proverb. In the case before us, under small trees nothing grows."
 
Meanwhile, indirect negotiations between a joint Palestinian delegation and Israel for a long-term ceasefire between Gaza and Israel will begin within the next week in Cairo, said senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouq, adding that he is waiting for a phone call from the head of the Fatah delegation in Cairo, Azzam al-Ahmad, to set a time and place for an awaited meeting between Fatah and Hamas leaders, prior to the Israeli one. 

Interestingly, a Hamas MP called on members of Hamas not to participate in the Cairo talks with Israel over an airport and a seaport saying that Palestinian Authority leaders should "be commissioned” for the job of finishing the negotiations: "They are the authority, the legitimacy, and the government and they hold the decision to peace and the decision to war. It is their job to break the siege." 
 
Meanwhile, Labor Party and opposition chief Isaac Herzog urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to take unilateral steps towards statehood at the upcoming UN General Assembly. Herzog heard out Abbas' complaints about Netanyahu's unwillingness to negotiate. After the meeting, Herzog said that Abbas would not push for a vote at the UN in the coming weeks, but would instead wait until after US congressional elections in November. The Palestinians hope that the electoral results could create political conditions that would allow the US not to veto the resolution they would submit to the UN Security Council, Haaretz wrote. According to Herzog: "A diplomatic arrangement is vital to both sides, and we need to base it on the Arab Peace Initiative."  The Meretz party cancelled its meeting with Abbas because Palestinian president's adviser promised Meretz chairwoman Zahava Gal-On that Abbas' first meeting with Israeli officials before UN General Assembly would be with representatives of her faction
 
In the meantime, details of an agreement between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the UN over Gaza's post-war reconstruction are emerging. A UN envoy said building materials entering Gaza may quadruple in coming months. Israel agreed yesterday that the UN monitor the flow of goods to address Israeli security concerns. Until now, however, the Palestinians say there has been no change to the Gaza blockade since the ceasefire.

E. Jerusalem 
Over the last week there have been numerous reports and features about increased outrage and rioting in East Jerusalem following the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, by Jews and more recently the killing of Mohammed Sunuqrut, 16, by Border Police. Here are a few highlights: 
  • Rioting in Jerusalem derails dream of unification - Some 100 instances of attacks on trains since beginning of July; summer hotel occupancy rates at lowest point since 2000. (Haaretz+) 
  • 22 Palestinians arrested in East Jerusalem unrest - Over 700 Palestinians arrested for violence since July, police note significant increase in number of minors taking part in riots. (Ynet) 
  • Police arrest four E. Jerusalem boys for suspected gas station arson - Attack followed police shooting and death of Mohammed Sunuqrut, 16, a week ago.The September 7 attack on the Menta gas station in French Hill, a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, followed the police shooting and death of Mohammed Sunuqrut during a stone-throwing protest. Police said they shot Sunuqrut, 16, in the leg and he died from hitting his head on the pavement after falling, but Israeli and Palestinian sources say the boy's autopsy, conducted at Israel's Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, showed that he died from a bullet to the head. His family say photographs from the scene show Sunuqrut was not throwing stones at time he was shot. (Haaretz+)
  • Shuafat refugee camp residents fire at Israeli officers - Video obtained by Ynet documents masked gunmen shooting at Israeli Border Police post; Palestinians residents claim police negligence in handling situation.
  • In a rare move, the residents are going against these armed cells and their activities, but say they have no cooperation from the police. (Ynet) 
  • Israeli court sentences 6 Palestinians, ages 12-14, to house arrest - A Jerusalem court sentenced the children from E. Jerusalem for "throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails" at residential buildings housing Israeli settlers. (Maan) 
  • Israeli injured after vehicle hit with stones in East Jerusalem - A 44-year-old Jewish man was injured in the face after stones smashed his windshield when he was traveling along the main road to Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem. (Maan)
  • Israeli police beat, detain 10-year-old during East Jerusalem clashes - The Silwan-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center said that Israeli forces detained and beat 10-year-old Udayy al-Rajabi as well as Samir Idkeidik and Ahmad Nadir Audah during the clashes. (Maan)
Quick Hits:
  • Poll shows shift in Israeli public's security perception - Public weighs in on budget fight: 60% oppose increasing defense spending at cost of education, welfare, health. (Ynet) 
  • Palestinian prisoner says slain cellmate was killed in Israeli jail in span of minutes - A Palestinian prisoner said he saw his cellmate, Raed al-Jabari, who was believed to have been beaten to death by Israeli prison guards, only minutes before Jabari's death last week. "In the morning, when we arrived to Eshel (prison), Raed and (another prisoner) were taken inside the prison and I stayed in the vehicle. Fifteen minutes later, one of the soldiers came and told me that Raed was dead." [Al-Jabari, a father of five, had turned himself in saying he had accidentally hit a checkpoint in Gush Etzion. Israel accused him of attempting to make a terror attack and kept him detained for 50 days, then said he hung himself. - OH] (Maan)
  • Israeli forces confiscate farming tools and tractors near Tubas - Vehicles belonging to Israel's civilian administration arrived in northern West Bank areas, told farmers they were banned from working there and confiscated farming tools and tractors. Several days ago, the famers announced a project to extend eight kilometers of water pipes to several plots of land at their own expense, which would cost 200,000 shekels ($55,000). (Maan)
  • Clashes as soldiers escort Israelis to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus - Witnesses said more than 30 military vehicles escorted eight buses of religious Jews. Palestinian protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the military vehicles as they drove near Balata and Askar refugee camps. Israeli troops responded with tear gas and rubber-coated bullets. (Maan)
  • Rightist group stopped from building campsite in East Jerusalem - Planning committee nixes Elad organization plan to build permanent facility in Peace Forest between Arab and Jewish neighborhoods. Committee did, however, allow Elad to apply retroactively for permits for some of the structures it built, and to submit new plan for developing the campsite. Peace Forest is located between Silwan, Abu Tor and Armon Hanatziv neighborhoods. (Haaretz+) 
  • Israeli forces attempt to arrest students in Bethlehem school - Witnesses said soldiers in the village of Tuqu [next to the settlement of Teqoa - OH] brought pictures of students they accused of throwing stones at Israeli vehicles in the area, and tried to enter a boys' school, but were prevented from doing so by administrators and teachers. (Maan)
  • Palestinian prisoner released after 20 years in Israeli jails - Said Khatatba, from Beit Furik in Nablus, was detained on July 19, 1994. (Maan)
  • 70 ex-prisoners re-arrested without cause threaten to launch protests -  More than 70 Palestinians who were arrested in the last three months by Israeli authorities in violation of a 2011 deal that freed them on Wednesday threatened to take protest measures against their continued detention. (Maan)
  • High Court upholds residential screening law, enabling Jewish villages to keep Arabs out - Rights groups say legislation, which allows small communities to screen potential members, promotes racism and discrimination. (Haaretz+)
  • Israeli officials: Hamas arrested militants who fired on Israel - Security sources say Gaza group sent message through mediators that it would respect ceasefire, punish cell responsible for attack. Al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper report: Hamas arrested two Salafi activists.
  • (Maariv and Ynet)
  • Senior military source: "The relationship between Qatar and Hamas is crumbling" - Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE, which together with Jordan Israel considers the 'moderate alliance,' warned Qatar they would make sanctions against it and cause the country economic harm if Qatar continued to give unlimited support to radical Islamic organizations, said a senior Israeli military source. As a result, said the source, Qatar is limiting entry of senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood. (Maariv) 
  • Anger in Jordan: Palestinian issue and Jerusalem "dropped" from the textbooks - Jordanian MPs point to "increasing US and Israeli pressures, in light of the donations received by the kingdom" that caused a change in the curriculum. Among other things, a lessons on Jerusalem and on the first Arab pilot who attacked Israel were dropped from the teaching book for Arabic. (Maariv)
  • Former IDF chief rabbi was dismissed for supplying classified information to Bayit Yehudi Chairman Bennett - Bennett, a senior cabinet member used the information to criticize the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense during Operation Protective Edge. Minister Ya'alon: "The conduct of ministers during the war caused Israel (to pay a) heavy price." Gen. Avichai Rontzky denied the allegations against him. (Maariv and Ynet)
  • Diskin: Netanyahu, Ya'alon control Cabinet - After former IDF rabbi relieved of duty for leaking information to Bennett, former Shin Bet chief backs ministers: Netanyahu, Ya'alon have disregard for Cabinet ministers, don't allow real debate. (Ynet)
  • State comptroller promises swift Gaza campaign probe - State Comptroller Yosef Shapira tells Knesset's State Control Committee that investigation into Operation Protective Edge will "take less time than it does to dig a tunnel."  Report to review government decisions, defense establishment's conduct. (Israel Hayom)
  • Dozens of soldiers in letter to Netanyahu: IDF service leaving us in poverty - Soldiers tells PM, Defense Min., IDF chief that those without parents to help cannot survive on military salary. (Haaretz)  
  • Lone soldiers' parents being brought to Israel for High Holy Days - El Al airlines will be flying in 125 parents from 10 cities in North America and Europe. The families also will receive five free days in hotels that belong to the Israel Hotel Association. (JTA, Haaretz) 
  • Revealed: Former minister questioned over bribery is Stas Misezhnikov - Misezhnikov, a former tourism minister part of Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party, often found himself in controversial situations during his tenure. (Haaretz+ and Ynet)
  • Study: Autism much rarer among Israel's Arab, ultra-Orthodox societies - Researcher rules out underreporting as reason. (Haaretz+)
  • Lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide to be filed in Argentina - Argentine lawyer Carlos Slepoy singles out Israeli leaders including PM Benjamin Netanyahu in response to Israel’s 50-day operation in Gaza this summer. The suit is in conjunction with the American Association of Jurists. (JTA, Haaretz)
  • IDF officer to become first Israeli UN peacekeeper - Israeli major will take key role in organizing peacekeeping forces throughout the world; Foreign Ministry: 'This is our small contribution to peace and security in the world'. (Yedioth/Ynet)
  • Israel passing intel on Islamic State to U.S., says senior IDF officer - Israel may not be a target for now, but the militant group isn't about to disappear, according to army source. (Haaretz+ and Ynet)
  • Israel 'deeply concerned' by Iran nuclear talks - Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz says Iran has shown no real flexibility on the two main issues: uranium enrichment centrifuges and the heavy-water reactor in Arak. "No deal is better than a bad deal," Steinitz says. (Israel Hayom)
  • Prominent Syrian opposition leader urges rebel cooperation with Israel - Speaking in Jerusalem, Kamal al-Labwani told Israeli media that Syrian rebels should make peace with Israel in return for support in overthrowing the current Syrian government. (Haaretz)  
  • Report: Syrian rebels seize UN weapons on Golan - Syrian ambassador says Jabhat al-Nusra has driven out all UN peacekeeping forces from Golan Heights, captured their uniforms, vehicles. (Agencies, Ynet)
  • Middle East Updates / Rohani: Islamic State wants to 'kill humanity' - Qatar ruler assures Merkel his country never financed militants in Iraq, Syria; Syrian air strikes kill nearly 50, activists say; Islamic State releases anti-Obama clip. (Haaretz)
  • Scores of Gazan die at sea in attempt to flee Gaza - After Gaza op, more and more Gazans are attempting to flee Gaza through Egypt into Europe – recent boat crash near Malta which saw over 500 people go missing or die highlights perils Palestinian face en route to new life in EU. (Ynet)
  • Scotland's Jews prefer to stay with England - While Jewish community leaders decide to remain neutral on historic referendum taking place Thursday, many believe independence will lead to a more anti-Semitic and anti-Israel Scotland. (Ynet)
Commentary/Analysis:
Put the children first: Lift the blockade on Gaza (Chris Gunness, Haaretz+) UNRWA's Chris Gunness: It's against Israel's own interests to deprive the next generation in Gaza of a future. But we can't rebuild Gaza with the Israeli blockade tying our hands behind our backs. 
The 'dual loyalty' myth (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) The ex-IDF chief rabbi Brig. Gen. (res.) Avichai Rontzki's alleged misconduct will serve as fodder for opponents of religious officers. Rontzki allegedly shared classified information regarding Israeli military activity with Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett [of the religious nationalist Habayit Hayehudi party] during Operation Protective Edge. A democratic society worth its salt would not tolerate a situation where senior officers leak information based on their political views. If Rontzki did what he is accused of doing, he has unjustifiably tarnished an entire community of religious officers -- a group whose members spearhead Israel's fighting force. These officers have often been accused of dual loyalty just because of their religiosity.
Tunnels, kugel and war: Israel’s young right-wing minister and his secret army contacts (Amos Harel, Haaretz+) Naftali Bennett sure knew a lot of details about the military’s operations during the Gaza war. This is a very serious breach, his critics say. 
War? What war? Gaza gets forgotten in a hurry (Gideon Levy, Haaretz+) Even if we put aside the moral blindness in Israel, which wasn’t shocked by a single event during the fighting, it’s impossible to comprehend the complacency afterwards. Gaza hasn’t forgotten. There’s a whole list of people who can never forget: the 1,500 orphaned children; the 3,000 wounded children; the 1,000 crippled children...There was a war here, Israel paid too, and already it’s forgotten? No soul-searching? No cost-benefit analysis, at least? The public debate hasn’t found time for questions that should disturb every Israeli, like, uh, was it worth it? What did Israel get out of this war? What’s it doing to prevent the next one? Do not disturb, Israel is busy with zero-VAT on apartment purchases.
The hidden holiday: 36 years of peace with Egypt (Eitan Haber, Yedioth/Ynet) Very few of Israel's citizens know that they owe their lives today to the leadership which signed Camp David Accords.
The myth that sanctions felled apartheid (David Rosenberg, Haaretz+) Two unfortunate lessons for the global BDS movement: White rule in South Africa didn't end because of boycotts, and Israel isn’t like the old South Africa.
5775: A year for correction (Dr. Haim Shine, Israel Hayom) Many Jews in Israel are looking to grasp our religious and national heritage.
The watchdog of the IDF (Emanuel Gross, Haaretz+) The thankless role of the Military Advocate General Corps, which helps commanders understands which targets are legitimate under international law, testifies to the strength of a country in an asymmetric war.
Don't put the flags away yet (Itai Zilber, Israel Hayom) We need a peacetime reminder of the beautiful aspects of Israeli society.
Jerusalem is burning (Israel Harel, Haaretz+) Rioting and violence against Jews in Jerusalem is downplayed in the media and ignored by police.
Righting a historic wrong (Dror Eydar, Israel Hayom)
Welcome to Israel's Aramean Christians, who are shaking off the cultural identity imposed upon them by Muslim invaders and seeking to integrate into Israeli society.
My students are considering boycotting Israel. That would be a serious mistake (Peter Beinart, Haaretz+) Isolating Israeli academics from their counterparts overseas only weakens their efforts to combat the hyper-nationalism of the Israeli right.
UNDOF fled (Elliott Abrams, Israel Hayom) The failure of U.N. peacekeepers in the Golan proves that a U.N. presence in the West Bank would never work. 
Zouheir Bahlul: Poetic politics (Tal Schneider, Maariv) The (famous Arab-Israeli) sports broadcaster negotiating to join the Meretz party list offers a polite alternative, even if it is vague, future relations between Jews and Arabs, with the occupation. In an interview on Channel One with Yigal Ravid he said, "To conquer the culture of another people you need three things: language, love and provocation." "Love?" Ravid was surprised, "Where do you find love between Jews and Arabs after this last summer?" And Bahlul explained: "You don't need the nuclear atom to conquer it. You don't need arms and weapons. The minority can be conquered through the microphone and through culture." Perhaps when he says "language, love and provocation" he means that instead of the Israeli leadership preaching all day to Arabs how to act (not to use diplomatic terrorism, and of course, God forbid, not to use real terrorism), Bahlul is pointing towards a more polite domination of the Jews over Arabs, both the minority in Israel and the millions living under occupation. Food for thought.
Likud’s loss of another rising star shows nothing can grow in Netanyahu’s shadow (Yossi Verter, Haaretz+) Gideon Sa’ar’s speech suggests he may join forces with Moshe Kahlon, the popular minister who also bolted the party.

Interviews: 
**Innocent people are persuaded to make admissions of guilt for crimes the did not do - and go to jail, says criminology professor
The head of the Criminal Law & Criminology Department at the College of Law and Business in Ramat Gan. Prof. Boaz Sangero. spoke about the Public Defender's Office report (Maariv Hebrew) that found that about 1000 innocent people are sitting in jail in Israel and that aside from a growing number of false convictions and arrests, there are other problems in the law enforcement establishment, including preventing people under interrogation from obtaining legal advice and restricting the possibility of retrials. (Interviewed in Yedioth's '24 Hours' supplement by Moshe Ronen in 'Five Little (Questions)')
Q: The report talks of your research, according to which five percent of the prisoners in Israel are innocent.
BS: "I based it on research from abroad that proved this, and since we have 20,000 prisoners, that means 1000 are innocent at any given time."
Q: How can you know if they are innocent, if it was not proven?
BS: "Unfortunately, we cannot know for certain who is innocent. But we have the same illnesses as they do abroad: our judges convict on the basis of a single piece of evidence and there are many mistakes."
Q: The central problem is the admission of guilt?
BS: "Correct. Innocent people admit to guilt, and they also make plea bargains in which they admit (to things they did not do)."
Q: Why?
BS: "There was a time when police would beat the people being interrogated. Today they use psychological methods - they convince them that this way will be better for them. When they have other evidence against them. And they admit even when they are not guilty."
Q: Why aren't the mistakes revealed?
BS: "Because the prosecution and the judges do not want to expose mistakes that were done by their friends (colleagues -OH)."
 
Peres' post-presidency vision: Hamas-free Gaza, peaceful Israel
After almost 70 years of public service, Peres has left the president's official residence in Jerusalem and moved into an apartment in Tel Aviv; he hosted Yedioth for a series of special conversations on war, peace, his late wife Sonia and his plans for the future at the age of 91. (Interviewed by Avner and Reli Avrahami in Yedioth/Ynet) 



Prepared for APN by Orly Halpern, independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.

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