The commander in chief Barack Obama becomes the first sitting U.S. president to appear on the show.
(BLOG) New PA Libel: Israel Tortures Prisoners With Hot Irons & Electric Drills
"Libelous drawings depicting fictitious 'Israeli torture' are part of the new introduction to a PA TV program for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and their families.
Purporting to show how Palestinian prisoners are tortured by Israel, the drawings portray Israeli prison guards:
1- Burning into a prisoner's chest with a hot iron;
2- Drilling a hole through a prisoner's hand;
3- Burning into a prisoner's shoulder with a soldering iron;
4- Whipping a prisoner while hanging him by his feet ;
5- Squeezing a prisoner's head in a medieval looking head press;
6- Chopping off a prisoner's arm below the elbow;
7- Hanging a prisoner by his arms while chains pull from his chest and neck.
Broadcast twice a week, the program For You is aimed at Palestinians imprisoned for terror offenses in Israeli prisons, where they watch the program. It includes footage from the prisoners' home villages and interviews with their family members, who send them televised messages.
PA TV is controlled by the office of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
It should be noted that no accusations about this kind of treatment have ever been made against Israel by the International Red Cross, by human rights groups or by Palestinian prisoners themselves.
In a striking irony, in the same week that the PA started to disseminate these libelous drawings on TV, an article in the official PA daily indicated that the prisons are very different than these libels portray. It stated that Palestinian prisoners are given educational opportunities. The PA daily celebrated how 'prisoners in occupation [Israeli] prisons complete university studies and obtain MA and Ph.D. degrees,' and proudly cited that 'since 2000 more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners have attained matriculation certificates while still in the occupation prisons.' [Transcript below]
Another testimony corroborating the fact that prisoners are well treated in Israeli prisons came from a Palestinian prisoner interviewed on the For You program the day he was released from prison. The PA TV host was trying to have him express criticism of prison conditions, and repeatedly asked him about prison. The prisoner kept answering that prisoners 'lack nothing' in the Israeli prisons:
PA TV Host: 'You were in Megiddo [prison]. How are the guys?
You were released from prison just today.'
Prisoner: 'By Allah, the guys in the prison are fine. They lack nothing. They are doing fine.'
Host: 'Do they lack nothing?'
Prisoner: 'They are doing really fine.'
Host: 'They lack nothing, not even freedom?'
Prisoner: 'No. Freedom, Allah willing, there will be freedom.'
Host: 'How long were you in prison?'
Prisoner: 'Two years.'
Host: 'And you say that they lack nothing?'
Prisoner: 'I don't know.' (source)
Purporting to show how Palestinian prisoners are tortured by Israel, the drawings portray Israeli prison guards:
2- Drilling a hole through a prisoner's hand;
3- Burning into a prisoner's shoulder with a soldering iron;
4- Whipping a prisoner while hanging him by his feet ;
5- Squeezing a prisoner's head in a medieval looking head press;
6- Chopping off a prisoner's arm below the elbow;
7- Hanging a prisoner by his arms while chains pull from his chest and neck.
Broadcast twice a week, the program For You is aimed at Palestinians imprisoned for terror offenses in Israeli prisons, where they watch the program. It includes footage from the prisoners' home villages and interviews with their family members, who send them televised messages.
PA TV is controlled by the office of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
It should be noted that no accusations about this kind of treatment have ever been made against Israel by the International Red Cross, by human rights groups or by Palestinian prisoners themselves.
In a striking irony, in the same week that the PA started to disseminate these libelous drawings on TV, an article in the official PA daily indicated that the prisons are very different than these libels portray. It stated that Palestinian prisoners are given educational opportunities. The PA daily celebrated how 'prisoners in occupation [Israeli] prisons complete university studies and obtain MA and Ph.D. degrees,' and proudly cited that 'since 2000 more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners have attained matriculation certificates while still in the occupation prisons.' [Transcript below]
Another testimony corroborating the fact that prisoners are well treated in Israeli prisons came from a Palestinian prisoner interviewed on the For You program the day he was released from prison. The PA TV host was trying to have him express criticism of prison conditions, and repeatedly asked him about prison. The prisoner kept answering that prisoners 'lack nothing' in the Israeli prisons:
PA TV Host: 'You were in Megiddo [prison]. How are the guys?
You were released from prison just today.'
Prisoner: 'By Allah, the guys in the prison are fine. They lack nothing. They are doing fine.'
Host: 'Do they lack nothing?'
Prisoner: 'They are doing really fine.'
Host: 'They lack nothing, not even freedom?'
Prisoner: 'No. Freedom, Allah willing, there will be freedom.'
Host: 'How long were you in prison?'
Prisoner: 'Two years.'
Host: 'And you say that they lack nothing?'
Prisoner: 'I don't know.' (source)
(NEWS) Canadian Grandmothers Petition For Gilad Shalit
"If Sally Zerker, 81, and a group of grandmothers she assembled have their way, Canada will soon play more of an active role in the attempt to free captured Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldier Gilad Schalit from Hamas.
A York University economics professor emeritus, Zerker formed the group Grandmothers for Gilad in September. The group consists of some 50 grandmothers who are determined to push Canada into a leadership position on the Schalit file.
To that end, Zerker drafted a petition that calls on the Canadian government, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as other humanitarian relief agencies, to 'uphold the applicable standards of international humanitarian law, including proof of life, visitation rights and communication between him and his family as a bare minimum.'
The petition also states that Canadian aid be transferred to Gaza on the condition that the Palestinian Authority 'commit itself to Schalit’s repatriation, and that Canada use its good offices to put an end to these violations of international humanitarian law to secure his release and return him to his family as a matter of fundamental decency and justice.'
Zerker’s petition was tabled in the House of Commons on Oct. 27 by Liberal MP and human rights advocate Irwin Cotler.
Schalit was taken captive by Hamas on June 25, 2006, after operatives of the terrorist group attacked his IDF unit in a cross-border raid at Kerem Shalom.
All Israeli and international efforts to determine his location and negotiate his release have failed to date, although he’s presumed to be held in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
A videotaped message from Schalit dated Sept. 14, 2009, was obtained by Israel in exchange for the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. In it, he states he’s being treated well by his captors and longs to be free. It’s so far the only proof of Schalit’s condition.
Speaking to The CJN last week, Zerker said there are 56 signatories on her petition, all of whom are grandmothers who sympathize with the Schalit family.
Twenty-five signatures are required on a petition for it to be tabled in Parliament.
'In August, I sent out a group e-mail to my grandmother-friends and wrote the petition and started a blog,' Zerker said.
She then sent her petition to Cotler’s office for review, and his office responded saying it was a 'strong' document and that the MP for Mount Royal would gladly table it in front of Parliament.
Zerker said the world community has been largely silent on Schalit’s four-plus years in captivity and that if no one speaks up more vociferously, the only outcomes that await Schalit are indefinite captivity or his release at the extreme cost of Israel.
Hamas has asked for Israel to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been convicted on terrorism charges, and the release of all female and underage prisoners in exchange for Schalit. Israel has balked at the conditions.
'I don’t know if [my petition] will make any difference. But my feeling is one has to try and bring this into the international arena, much like you see with other cases of abduction. Those become a focus for international protest, and this has not happened in the case of Gilad Schalit,' Zerker said.
'I can only start this in Canada, but I think it should spread to France, where the Schalit family is from… but we see no action outside of Israel. And I don’t think it should be left to only Israel.'
Zerker said she’s urging the members of her grandmothers’ group and anyone else to write their MPs and ask them to act on the petition.
In Parliament last week, Cotler read the petition and said he was 'pleased' to table the document, which he described as 'grounded in a profound commitment to international law and human rights.'
Zerker said she’s now planning to make her cause more public.
For more information, visit http://grandmothersforgilad.blogspot.com." (source)
A York University economics professor emeritus, Zerker formed the group Grandmothers for Gilad in September. The group consists of some 50 grandmothers who are determined to push Canada into a leadership position on the Schalit file.
To that end, Zerker drafted a petition that calls on the Canadian government, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), as well as other humanitarian relief agencies, to 'uphold the applicable standards of international humanitarian law, including proof of life, visitation rights and communication between him and his family as a bare minimum.'
The petition also states that Canadian aid be transferred to Gaza on the condition that the Palestinian Authority 'commit itself to Schalit’s repatriation, and that Canada use its good offices to put an end to these violations of international humanitarian law to secure his release and return him to his family as a matter of fundamental decency and justice.'
Zerker’s petition was tabled in the House of Commons on Oct. 27 by Liberal MP and human rights advocate Irwin Cotler.
Schalit was taken captive by Hamas on June 25, 2006, after operatives of the terrorist group attacked his IDF unit in a cross-border raid at Kerem Shalom.
All Israeli and international efforts to determine his location and negotiate his release have failed to date, although he’s presumed to be held in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
A videotaped message from Schalit dated Sept. 14, 2009, was obtained by Israel in exchange for the release of 20 female Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. In it, he states he’s being treated well by his captors and longs to be free. It’s so far the only proof of Schalit’s condition.
Speaking to The CJN last week, Zerker said there are 56 signatories on her petition, all of whom are grandmothers who sympathize with the Schalit family.
Twenty-five signatures are required on a petition for it to be tabled in Parliament.
'In August, I sent out a group e-mail to my grandmother-friends and wrote the petition and started a blog,' Zerker said.
She then sent her petition to Cotler’s office for review, and his office responded saying it was a 'strong' document and that the MP for Mount Royal would gladly table it in front of Parliament.
Zerker said the world community has been largely silent on Schalit’s four-plus years in captivity and that if no one speaks up more vociferously, the only outcomes that await Schalit are indefinite captivity or his release at the extreme cost of Israel.
Hamas has asked for Israel to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been convicted on terrorism charges, and the release of all female and underage prisoners in exchange for Schalit. Israel has balked at the conditions.
'I don’t know if [my petition] will make any difference. But my feeling is one has to try and bring this into the international arena, much like you see with other cases of abduction. Those become a focus for international protest, and this has not happened in the case of Gilad Schalit,' Zerker said.
'I can only start this in Canada, but I think it should spread to France, where the Schalit family is from… but we see no action outside of Israel. And I don’t think it should be left to only Israel.'
Zerker said she’s urging the members of her grandmothers’ group and anyone else to write their MPs and ask them to act on the petition.
In Parliament last week, Cotler read the petition and said he was 'pleased' to table the document, which he described as 'grounded in a profound commitment to international law and human rights.'
Zerker said she’s now planning to make her cause more public.
For more information, visit http://grandmothersforgilad.blogspot.com." (source)
(NEWS) Miraculous Story Of PA Arab Ex-Con Who Is Converting To Judaism
"As more details on the story of an Palestinian Authority Arab ex-con on his way to converting to Judaism are revealed, the more astonishing it becomes.
Yaniv Ben-David, an Arab from the PA territories and Haifa whose official name until recently was Busmon Abu-Ras, found Judaism and G-d while serving a 12-year term in prison. The full miraculous story has come out in three interviews, including one with Arutz-7’s Hizky Ezra and another on Radio Kol Chai with the head of the Civil Administration, Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, known as Poli.
Yaniv’s speech is liberally sprinkled with 'May G-d’s Name be blessed' and the like, as if he had grown up all his life in a traditional Sephardic neighborhood. But in actuality, his story is very different. Without getting into details, he explains that he became involved in criminal activity of which today he is very ashamed, but that once in jail, no one in his family ever visited him. 'My crime was not related to terrorism, Heaven forbid, chas veshalom,' he says, 'but I don’t want to discuss it.'
'Some of the Jews in prison with me,' he relates, 'began talking to me, and said things like, ‘There’s something special about you, something that doesn’t seem to belong to that world that you came from... You seem to have a spark of Jewishness... Specifically, one very special guy began teaching me about Judaism, and little by little, I began to enter the world of holiness and Torah and the Chosen Nation, etc., may G-d’s Name be blessed...'"
Yaniv Ben-David, an Arab from the PA territories and Haifa whose official name until recently was Busmon Abu-Ras, found Judaism and G-d while serving a 12-year term in prison. The full miraculous story has come out in three interviews, including one with Arutz-7’s Hizky Ezra and another on Radio Kol Chai with the head of the Civil Administration, Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, known as Poli.
Yaniv’s speech is liberally sprinkled with 'May G-d’s Name be blessed' and the like, as if he had grown up all his life in a traditional Sephardic neighborhood. But in actuality, his story is very different. Without getting into details, he explains that he became involved in criminal activity of which today he is very ashamed, but that once in jail, no one in his family ever visited him. 'My crime was not related to terrorism, Heaven forbid, chas veshalom,' he says, 'but I don’t want to discuss it.'
'Some of the Jews in prison with me,' he relates, 'began talking to me, and said things like, ‘There’s something special about you, something that doesn’t seem to belong to that world that you came from... You seem to have a spark of Jewishness... Specifically, one very special guy began teaching me about Judaism, and little by little, I began to enter the world of holiness and Torah and the Chosen Nation, etc., may G-d’s Name be blessed...'"
(MED) Israel Invents A New Way For AAT Patients To Take Their Meds
"Kamada's flagship inhalable AAT replacement treatment has succeeded in five clinical trials and 'the safety is almost perfect,' bringing hope to sufferers of this fatal genetic disorder.
Approximately one out of every 2,500 people in the world suffers from a deficiency of the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin or AAT protein. Untreated, this genetic disorder - which affects the liver and lungs - is always fatal. Now an Israeli bio-pharmaceutical company has developed a more efficient treatment delivery system, holding out the promise of both an improvement in a patient's quality of treatment, and their quality of life.
Kamada is no newcomer to drug development and manufacturing. Founded in 1990, the company went public in 2005 and has more than 15 products on the market. But it is hoping that the next generation of its flagship product - an inhalable version of its AAT replacement treatment - will be its biggest winner yet.
VP of business development Yaron Cherny, tells ISRAEL21c just what's so revolutionary about Kamada's latest medication. AAT deficiency, he says, starts in the liver and results in chronic inflammation of the lungs, which slowly suffocates the patient. There are currently only two ways to treat the ailment: Via a lung and liver transplant or a lifetime of receiving AAT intravenously.
For most patients, where transplants are not an option, intravenous AAT delivery requires weekly hospitalization and medical support; it is also often prohibitively expensive - upwards of $100,000 a year. Insurance companies, which nearly always cover the treatment, are acutely aware of this fact.
Inhaling your meds
An inhalable version of AAT can be used at home, obviating a trip to the clinic. That both makes the process less expensive and grants the patient significantly more freedom. From a medical point of view, since the inflammation is in the lungs, inhaling the drug directly makes more therapeutic sense, not to mention that it avoids the risks of infection that comes with using an IV.
While there are three other firms with AAT intravenous solutions, Kamada is the only one with an inhalable version (competitor Talecris Biotherapeutics was working on one but dropped out earlier this year).
Still, people suffering from AAT deficiency shouldn't rush to their doctors to demand the drug just yet. The inhalable product is now in Phase I and II tests in Europe, which are slated to be completed in 2012. Indeed, Kamada only received FDA approval for the intravenous version in July of this year. And, as Cherny explains, until a drug is officially approved, 'there's always uncertainty.'
The good news is that Kamada's inhalable AAT has already succeeded in five clinical trials 'with no adverse effect,' according to Cherny, who adds that 'the safety is almost perfect.'
An additional benefit is that Kamada's IV version is in liquid rather than powder form. That means it doesn't need mixing before delivery, as do the medications from the other companies. 'We don't have to develop the drug all over again,' Cherny says, since 'the liquid particles are the right size to go into the inhalation device.'
Good news for investors
Inhalable AAT has been approved for 'orphan' drug status, a form of marketing protection that is given to drugs for diseases affecting small numbers of people. As the developer of an orphan drug, Kamada has the exclusive rights to marketing inhalable AAT for 10 years in the US and 12 years in the European Union, which 'for many companies, is better than a patent,' Cherny declares.
This should also put investors at their ease - it can take more than half a billion dollars and 10 years of development and testing to bring a biological drug to market.
Only 5,000 people in the US and 6,000 in Europe have been diagnosed with AAT deficiency. However, Cherny estimates there may be upwards of 200,000 people suffering from the genetic disorder in those two regions alone. That makes the potential market much more lucrative. And if inhalable AAT brings greater awareness to physicians, Kamada will have contributed to much more than its own corporate bottom line.
AAT replacement therapy may also have implications for people suffering from cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis, Cherny reveals. And new research by Dr. Eli Lewis of Israel's Ben Gurion University of the Negev suggests it may help those suffering from Type 1 diabetes, although this is not related to AAT deficiency and Kamada is not active in this area.
All of Kamada's products are based on the company's in-house developed chromatographic purification technology. This was originally used to create only the active ingredients in drugs, which large pharmaceutical companies would then mix together to create complete medications. Kamada now manufactures the entire drug for its products.
Deal with Baxter
In August, Kamada signed a strategic agreement with Baxter International for production and marketing of its intravenous AAT drug. Shipments will begin in September. It's a deal that CEO David Tsur believes will help make the company profitable and could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. Kamada will receive up to $45 million in milestone payments, including a $20m. upfront payment.
For inhalable AAT, the company has partnered with PARI, a German-based firm specializing in inhalation solutions.
In other sectors, Kamada has just registered its passive rabies vaccine in Russia, and expects to begin sales in the first half of 2011. The vaccine is derived from human plasma with additional antibodies, and is used to prevent rabies, which affects the central nervous system.
Kamada was founded by Argentinean Jewish immigrant Ralf Hahn, whose family has been active in the drug industry for years, and businessman Tzur.
The company, which is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, has raised more than $139 million. Kamada's stock price has increased more than 70 percent since 2007, despite the worldwide economic crisis.
Kamada has 250 employees, 30 in its Rishon Letzion headquarters, and 220 in the company's manufacturing plant on Kibbutz Beit Kama. The name is a play on words composed of the name of the kibbutz plus the world mada, which is Hebrew for 'science.'" (source)
Approximately one out of every 2,500 people in the world suffers from a deficiency of the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin or AAT protein. Untreated, this genetic disorder - which affects the liver and lungs - is always fatal. Now an Israeli bio-pharmaceutical company has developed a more efficient treatment delivery system, holding out the promise of both an improvement in a patient's quality of treatment, and their quality of life.
Kamada is no newcomer to drug development and manufacturing. Founded in 1990, the company went public in 2005 and has more than 15 products on the market. But it is hoping that the next generation of its flagship product - an inhalable version of its AAT replacement treatment - will be its biggest winner yet.
For most patients, where transplants are not an option, intravenous AAT delivery requires weekly hospitalization and medical support; it is also often prohibitively expensive - upwards of $100,000 a year. Insurance companies, which nearly always cover the treatment, are acutely aware of this fact.
Inhaling your meds
An inhalable version of AAT can be used at home, obviating a trip to the clinic. That both makes the process less expensive and grants the patient significantly more freedom. From a medical point of view, since the inflammation is in the lungs, inhaling the drug directly makes more therapeutic sense, not to mention that it avoids the risks of infection that comes with using an IV.
While there are three other firms with AAT intravenous solutions, Kamada is the only one with an inhalable version (competitor Talecris Biotherapeutics was working on one but dropped out earlier this year).
The good news is that Kamada's inhalable AAT has already succeeded in five clinical trials 'with no adverse effect,' according to Cherny, who adds that 'the safety is almost perfect.'
An additional benefit is that Kamada's IV version is in liquid rather than powder form. That means it doesn't need mixing before delivery, as do the medications from the other companies. 'We don't have to develop the drug all over again,' Cherny says, since 'the liquid particles are the right size to go into the inhalation device.'
Good news for investors
Inhalable AAT has been approved for 'orphan' drug status, a form of marketing protection that is given to drugs for diseases affecting small numbers of people. As the developer of an orphan drug, Kamada has the exclusive rights to marketing inhalable AAT for 10 years in the US and 12 years in the European Union, which 'for many companies, is better than a patent,' Cherny declares.
This should also put investors at their ease - it can take more than half a billion dollars and 10 years of development and testing to bring a biological drug to market.
Only 5,000 people in the US and 6,000 in Europe have been diagnosed with AAT deficiency. However, Cherny estimates there may be upwards of 200,000 people suffering from the genetic disorder in those two regions alone. That makes the potential market much more lucrative. And if inhalable AAT brings greater awareness to physicians, Kamada will have contributed to much more than its own corporate bottom line.
AAT replacement therapy may also have implications for people suffering from cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis, Cherny reveals. And new research by Dr. Eli Lewis of Israel's Ben Gurion University of the Negev suggests it may help those suffering from Type 1 diabetes, although this is not related to AAT deficiency and Kamada is not active in this area.
All of Kamada's products are based on the company's in-house developed chromatographic purification technology. This was originally used to create only the active ingredients in drugs, which large pharmaceutical companies would then mix together to create complete medications. Kamada now manufactures the entire drug for its products.
Deal with Baxter
In August, Kamada signed a strategic agreement with Baxter International for production and marketing of its intravenous AAT drug. Shipments will begin in September. It's a deal that CEO David Tsur believes will help make the company profitable and could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. Kamada will receive up to $45 million in milestone payments, including a $20m. upfront payment.
For inhalable AAT, the company has partnered with PARI, a German-based firm specializing in inhalation solutions.
In other sectors, Kamada has just registered its passive rabies vaccine in Russia, and expects to begin sales in the first half of 2011. The vaccine is derived from human plasma with additional antibodies, and is used to prevent rabies, which affects the central nervous system.
Kamada was founded by Argentinean Jewish immigrant Ralf Hahn, whose family has been active in the drug industry for years, and businessman Tzur.
The company, which is listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, has raised more than $139 million. Kamada's stock price has increased more than 70 percent since 2007, despite the worldwide economic crisis.
Kamada has 250 employees, 30 in its Rishon Letzion headquarters, and 220 in the company's manufacturing plant on Kibbutz Beit Kama. The name is a play on words composed of the name of the kibbutz plus the world mada, which is Hebrew for 'science.'" (source)
(NEWS) Netanyahu: IDF Didn't Kill 12-Yr-Old; Media Should Beware Of PA Claims
"Ten years too late, the Prime Minister’s Office makes it official: Just like the Muhammed Al-Dura shooting was staged for maximum anti-Israel effect, so too international media should not publish PA claims without checking them first.
The National Information Directorate of the Prime Minister’s Bureau has released a lengthy statement relating to the case of Muhammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old Arab boy who was allegedly killed during a crossfire between Israeli and PA forces in Gaza ten years ago. The France2 television network broadcast footage of the incident around the world, with narration by Jerusalem bureau chief Charles Enderlin announcing that Israeli soldiers killed him.
An Israeli general quickly assumed IDF responsibility for the boy’s death, and the issue became a cause celebre for the PA side against Israel. Evidence produced over the ensuing months and years proving that Israel was in fact not responsible for the death were all but ignored by media and Arab populaces around the world."
This is the video which debunked this staged incident.
The National Information Directorate of the Prime Minister’s Bureau has released a lengthy statement relating to the case of Muhammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old Arab boy who was allegedly killed during a crossfire between Israeli and PA forces in Gaza ten years ago. The France2 television network broadcast footage of the incident around the world, with narration by Jerusalem bureau chief Charles Enderlin announcing that Israeli soldiers killed him.
An Israeli general quickly assumed IDF responsibility for the boy’s death, and the issue became a cause celebre for the PA side against Israel. Evidence produced over the ensuing months and years proving that Israel was in fact not responsible for the death were all but ignored by media and Arab populaces around the world."
This is the video which debunked this staged incident.
(NEWS) Arson Attempted On German Synagogue
"German officials condemned an attempted arson on a new synagogue in the city of Mainz.
A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the synagogue on Saturday evening. No one was injured and there was no damage.
The firebomb went out after landing on a tree. Witnesses who saw the short-lived flames informed police immediately, but there was no need to douse any flames, according to reports.
Police and prosecutors have set up a hot-line for tips."
A Molotov cocktail was thrown at the synagogue on Saturday evening. No one was injured and there was no damage.
The firebomb went out after landing on a tree. Witnesses who saw the short-lived flames informed police immediately, but there was no need to douse any flames, according to reports.
Police and prosecutors have set up a hot-line for tips."
(NEWS) Diskin: Internet Technology Makes Terrorism More Lethal
"At Israel's first homeland security int'l conference, Shin Bet head says Google Earth, the Internet, Apple's iPhone help terrorists obtain intelligence they could not before; says terrorist threat more complex.
The transformation of the world to a 'global village,' the Internet, as well as additional available technology to the public has made terrorism more lethal in the 21st century, head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Yuval Diskin said Monday.
Speaking at the first Israeli homeland security international conference, Diskin said that Google Earth, the internet, and applications that can be downloaded to Apple's iPhone were available for terrorists to use and obtain intelligence that they could not receive before."
The transformation of the world to a 'global village,' the Internet, as well as additional available technology to the public has made terrorism more lethal in the 21st century, head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Yuval Diskin said Monday.
Speaking at the first Israeli homeland security international conference, Diskin said that Google Earth, the internet, and applications that can be downloaded to Apple's iPhone were available for terrorists to use and obtain intelligence that they could not receive before."
(NEWS) Northwestern Jewish Center In Illinois Vandalized
"One day after federal authorities stopped a plot to send explosive packages to Chicago-area synagogues, nine light bulbs were ripped from their sockets on the 6-foot Hanukkah menorah in front of a Northwestern Jewish center. One arm of the menorah was torn at its base, left hanging limply.
Someone vandalized the menorah in front of the Tannenbaum Chabad House, 2014 Orrington Ave., on Saturday night, Chabad director Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein said. The Evanston Police Department, which could not be reached for comment, informed Klein of the vandalism early Sunday morning, he said.
'I've been in this community for so long, and we've never had vandalism of this nature,' Klein said. 'I was pretty saddened by it. I felt somewhat violated.'
Chabad plans to address the incident in a forum Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. in an undecided location, Klein said.
Rachel Zinn, president of Chabad's student executive board, said though the details of the forum are tentative, she wants participants to engage in a conversation about how incidents like the vandalized menorah affect the community. Zinn has been in touch with the chaplain's office and hopes President Morton Schapiro will be involved with the forum.
'I hope that anyone who feels that hate crimes are unacceptable will be there,' the SESP senior said. 'I hope there are people there who want to learn about different religions, particularly about the symbols of those religions.'
Klein compared the Chabad vandalism to previous Halloweens, when students dressed up in blackface — causing heated debate about race on campus — as well as the chalking of stick figure versions of Mohammed by Secular Humanists for Inquiry and FreeThought last year. He said it is important to have formal and casual conversation among NU community members to address these issues.
'It's about learning from everybody and trying to gain understanding from different people in our community and around the world,' he said. 'We need to stand up as a community and say this is not acceptable.'
Although Klein said police have classified the incident as a hate crime, he does not know if the vandal intended to target Chabad.
'Sometimes people throw eggs at houses (on Halloween), but it's very different when you're targeting a religious organization on campus,' he said. 'Even if they did it accidentally, or it was just mischief on Halloween, it's a lack of sensitivity and a lack of awareness of the importance of Jewish items and symbols.'
In the more than 15 years the menorah has stood outside the Chabad House, Klein recalls only one other act of vandalism targeted at Chabad, which occurred about 12 years ago.
Although Klein said he doubts Saturday's vandalism is connected with the explosive packages directed at Chicago synagogues Friday, he said the incidents give him a sense of risk in the community.
'Maybe you have to look over your shoulder once in a while for people who feel hatefulness toward the Jewish community,' he said. 'It's a significant campus community, so it's an attack on the entire campus.'
Michael Lobel, president of NU Fiedler Hillel Leadership Council, said NU and its Jewish community should be more aware of these threats.
'It was definitely a little bit of a reminder that despite the fact we live in a very supportive and great environment at Northwestern and in general, there's people out there that don't like the Jewish people,' the Weinberg senior said. 'And they would like to hurt me, my friends and my family because of who I am — that's disturbing.'
Hillel Executive Director Michael Simon said Hillel will be heightening its awareness of the situation and monitoring suspicious activity. However, he does not believe the explosive packages are connected to the Chabad vandalism.
Simon said he hopes the vandalized menorah is an isolated incident and not meant to target a particular group.
'We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Chabad House and hope there are not further actions of this kind,' Simon said. 'It's not in keeping with neighborly environment of Northwestern.'" (source)
Someone vandalized the menorah in front of the Tannenbaum Chabad House, 2014 Orrington Ave., on Saturday night, Chabad director Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein said. The Evanston Police Department, which could not be reached for comment, informed Klein of the vandalism early Sunday morning, he said.
'I've been in this community for so long, and we've never had vandalism of this nature,' Klein said. 'I was pretty saddened by it. I felt somewhat violated.'
Chabad plans to address the incident in a forum Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. in an undecided location, Klein said.
'I hope that anyone who feels that hate crimes are unacceptable will be there,' the SESP senior said. 'I hope there are people there who want to learn about different religions, particularly about the symbols of those religions.'
Klein compared the Chabad vandalism to previous Halloweens, when students dressed up in blackface — causing heated debate about race on campus — as well as the chalking of stick figure versions of Mohammed by Secular Humanists for Inquiry and FreeThought last year. He said it is important to have formal and casual conversation among NU community members to address these issues.
'It's about learning from everybody and trying to gain understanding from different people in our community and around the world,' he said. 'We need to stand up as a community and say this is not acceptable.'
Although Klein said police have classified the incident as a hate crime, he does not know if the vandal intended to target Chabad.
'Sometimes people throw eggs at houses (on Halloween), but it's very different when you're targeting a religious organization on campus,' he said. 'Even if they did it accidentally, or it was just mischief on Halloween, it's a lack of sensitivity and a lack of awareness of the importance of Jewish items and symbols.'
In the more than 15 years the menorah has stood outside the Chabad House, Klein recalls only one other act of vandalism targeted at Chabad, which occurred about 12 years ago.
Although Klein said he doubts Saturday's vandalism is connected with the explosive packages directed at Chicago synagogues Friday, he said the incidents give him a sense of risk in the community.
'Maybe you have to look over your shoulder once in a while for people who feel hatefulness toward the Jewish community,' he said. 'It's a significant campus community, so it's an attack on the entire campus.'
Michael Lobel, president of NU Fiedler Hillel Leadership Council, said NU and its Jewish community should be more aware of these threats.
'It was definitely a little bit of a reminder that despite the fact we live in a very supportive and great environment at Northwestern and in general, there's people out there that don't like the Jewish people,' the Weinberg senior said. 'And they would like to hurt me, my friends and my family because of who I am — that's disturbing.'
Hillel Executive Director Michael Simon said Hillel will be heightening its awareness of the situation and monitoring suspicious activity. However, he does not believe the explosive packages are connected to the Chabad vandalism.
Simon said he hopes the vandalized menorah is an isolated incident and not meant to target a particular group.
'We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Chabad House and hope there are not further actions of this kind,' Simon said. 'It's not in keeping with neighborly environment of Northwestern.'" (source)
(VIDEO) Palestinian Girl Calls For Genocide Of Jews On PA TV
Peaceful religion? I think not!
At a rally in Gaza during a meeting of the Arab Summit, a Palestinian girl declared on official Palestinian Authority television that other countries should provide weapons to Palestinians so that young boys and girls like herself can kill all the Jews.
Palestinian girl:
"We ask that the countries stand by our side. We want them to help us. We only want them to give us weapons. We on our own, young boys and girls, will kill them (the Jews) on our own, murder them, shoot all of them. Just give us weapons. The boys and the girls themselves will kill them all (the Jews). We won't leave a single Jew. We won't leave a single Jew here."
At a rally in Gaza during a meeting of the Arab Summit, a Palestinian girl declared on official Palestinian Authority television that other countries should provide weapons to Palestinians so that young boys and girls like herself can kill all the Jews.
Palestinian girl:
"We ask that the countries stand by our side. We want them to help us. We only want them to give us weapons. We on our own, young boys and girls, will kill them (the Jews) on our own, murder them, shoot all of them. Just give us weapons. The boys and the girls themselves will kill them all (the Jews). We won't leave a single Jew. We won't leave a single Jew here."
(MED) In Israel, Growing Tobacco To Save Lives
"In a greenhouse in northern Israel, a company is growing tobacco plants yielding a surprising product that is vastly different from cigarettes. These plants produce genetically-engineered human collagen, a protein vital for tissue repair that is used by surgeons to fill bone voids in cancer patients, fix heart valves and heal severe wounds.
The genetic engineering technology that allows the tobacco plants to generate the collagen was developed by CollPlant based in Rehovot in central Israel. This novel use of the tobacco plant answers a major unmet medical need.
A scientific achievement with commercial potential
'Collagen is used in about a thousand important medical products, but until now manufacturers have had to derive it from pigs, cows or human corpses,' says CollPlant CEO Yehiel Tal, noting that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other international health regulatory agencies have expressed serious safety concerns with respect to the use of both animal and human corpse tissues.
CollPlant’s plant-derived collagen poses no safety risks and can be considered a green technology, eliminating the industrial waste and ecological damage associated with the raising of livestock. In addition, the company is providing tobacco farmers with a healthier and more lucrative use for their crops.
'The leaves of a single tobacco plant can yield about 100 grams of tobacco (for cigarettes) or about a gram of genetically-engineered human collagen,' says Prof. Oded Shoseyov, CollPlant’s co-founder and the inventor of the technology. 'And from a single gram of collagen it is possible to produce, for example, about three injections of highly-valuable wound healing gel for patients suffering from diabetic ulcers.'
In developing CollPlant’s innovative technology, Shoseyov had to overcome a formidable scientific challenge. 'Most proteins in the body are the result of a single gene but there are five different genes responsible for the production of collagen.'
Shoseyov’s success in transferring all five genes into a transgenic plant that could produce collagen was acknowledged earlier this year when he was awarded the prestigious Hebrew University Kaye Innovation Award for 'scientific excellence with commercial potential.'
Good news from the FDA
CollPlant is well on the way to leveraging the commercial potential of Shoseyov’s invention. The company has begun to market collagen as a raw material to Japanese manufacturers and in August received good news from the FDA about its first product.
'The FDA informed us that they have agreed to classify our Vergenix wound dressing as a medical device, rather than as a drug or biologic product,' says Tal. 'This is a breakthrough because the medical device regulatory review process is much simpler and quicker than that used for products defined as drugs or biologics.'
Vergenix is just the first of several regenerative tissue products in the CollPlant pipeline that target the multi-billion dollar wound management market. These products include gel formulations for deep-tunneled wounds associated with diabetic ulcers, as well as wound dressings for acute and chronic wounds.
Other CollPlant products will attempt to meet the growing demand for collagen-based orthopedic products. In the US alone, each year there are about 800,000 ligament and tendon repair procedures, 400,000 shoulder operations and more than 500,000 bone graft procedures, all of which require collagen.
CollPlant has received strong support from leading investors since its inception. Investment funds headed by two prominent healthcare industrialists, former Teva Pharmaceuticals CEO Eli Hurvitz and Perrigo founder Mory Arkin, were among the founding investors. Earlier this year the company began to trade publicly on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange." (source)
The genetic engineering technology that allows the tobacco plants to generate the collagen was developed by CollPlant based in Rehovot in central Israel. This novel use of the tobacco plant answers a major unmet medical need.
A scientific achievement with commercial potential
'Collagen is used in about a thousand important medical products, but until now manufacturers have had to derive it from pigs, cows or human corpses,' says CollPlant CEO Yehiel Tal, noting that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other international health regulatory agencies have expressed serious safety concerns with respect to the use of both animal and human corpse tissues.
CollPlant’s plant-derived collagen poses no safety risks and can be considered a green technology, eliminating the industrial waste and ecological damage associated with the raising of livestock. In addition, the company is providing tobacco farmers with a healthier and more lucrative use for their crops.
'The leaves of a single tobacco plant can yield about 100 grams of tobacco (for cigarettes) or about a gram of genetically-engineered human collagen,' says Prof. Oded Shoseyov, CollPlant’s co-founder and the inventor of the technology. 'And from a single gram of collagen it is possible to produce, for example, about three injections of highly-valuable wound healing gel for patients suffering from diabetic ulcers.'
In developing CollPlant’s innovative technology, Shoseyov had to overcome a formidable scientific challenge. 'Most proteins in the body are the result of a single gene but there are five different genes responsible for the production of collagen.'
Shoseyov’s success in transferring all five genes into a transgenic plant that could produce collagen was acknowledged earlier this year when he was awarded the prestigious Hebrew University Kaye Innovation Award for 'scientific excellence with commercial potential.'
Good news from the FDA
CollPlant is well on the way to leveraging the commercial potential of Shoseyov’s invention. The company has begun to market collagen as a raw material to Japanese manufacturers and in August received good news from the FDA about its first product.
'The FDA informed us that they have agreed to classify our Vergenix wound dressing as a medical device, rather than as a drug or biologic product,' says Tal. 'This is a breakthrough because the medical device regulatory review process is much simpler and quicker than that used for products defined as drugs or biologics.'
Vergenix is just the first of several regenerative tissue products in the CollPlant pipeline that target the multi-billion dollar wound management market. These products include gel formulations for deep-tunneled wounds associated with diabetic ulcers, as well as wound dressings for acute and chronic wounds.
Other CollPlant products will attempt to meet the growing demand for collagen-based orthopedic products. In the US alone, each year there are about 800,000 ligament and tendon repair procedures, 400,000 shoulder operations and more than 500,000 bone graft procedures, all of which require collagen.
CollPlant has received strong support from leading investors since its inception. Investment funds headed by two prominent healthcare industrialists, former Teva Pharmaceuticals CEO Eli Hurvitz and Perrigo founder Mory Arkin, were among the founding investors. Earlier this year the company began to trade publicly on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange." (source)
(VIDEO) Celebrities Supporting The "American Jewish World Service"
This AJWS public service announcement, created by uber-producer/director/writer Judd Apatow, shows a funnier, edgier side of global justice and features some big-name stars: Ben Stiller, Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld, John Mayer, Susan Sarandon, Sir Patrick Stewart, Andy Samberg, Ken Jeong, Tracy Morgan, Helen Hunt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Gilbert Gottfried, Brian Williams and Triumph the Insult Comedy Dog. The PSA premiered at AJWS's 25th anniversary celebration on October 28, 2010.
(h/t: IsraellyCool)
(h/t: IsraellyCool)
(BLOG) Anti-Israel Hatefest Season Kicks Off
"Last wednesday I went to hear two pro-Hamas supporters give a talk to a group of revolutionary communists at a London pub. The subject of the talk was 'Ten years of Intifada – What Future for Palestine?'.
I cleared it with the pub manager beforehand so I wasn’t barred as happened to me when I tried to attend a Middle East Monitor meeting at the House of Commons in July.
Seems our pubs are more democratic than Parliament."
I cleared it with the pub manager beforehand so I wasn’t barred as happened to me when I tried to attend a Middle East Monitor meeting at the House of Commons in July.
Seems our pubs are more democratic than Parliament."
(NEWS) Only 2 Jewish Survivors Remain From Nazi Camp Treblinka
"BAT YAM, Israel -- They are believed to be the last two survivors of the most chillingly efficient killing machine of the Nazi Holocaust: the Treblinka extermination camp in occupied Poland.
Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, 87-year-old Israelis, are devoting their final years to trying to preserve the memory of the 875,000 people systematically murdered in a one-year killing spree at the height of World War II. Almost all of them were Jews.
Only 67 people are known to have survived the camp, fleeing in a brazen revolt shortly before Treblinka was destroyed. Following the recent death of a prominent chronicler, Israel's national Holocaust memorial says the two Israeli men are now the final living link to one of the most notorious death camps in human history.
'The world cannot forget Treblinka,' said Willenberg.
'Soon there will be no one left to tell,' added Taigman.
Treblinka holds a notorious place in history as perhaps the most vivid example of the 'Final Solution,' the Nazi plot to rid Europe of Jews.
Along with the lesser known Belzec and Sobibor camps, it was designed with the sole intention of exterminating Jews, and Treblinka was by far the deadliest. Victims, transported there in cattle cars, were gassed to death almost immediately upon arrival.
Only a select few - mostly young, strong men like Willenberg and Taigman, who were both 20 at the time- were spared an immediate trip to the gas chambers and assigned to maintenance work instead.
On Aug. 2, 1943, a group of Jews stole some weapons, set fire to the camp and headed to the woods. Hundreds fled, but most were shot and killed by Nazi troops in the surrounding mine fields or captured by Polish villagers who returned them to Treblinka.
The survivors became the only source of knowledge about Treblinka, because the Nazis all but destroyed it in a frantic bid to cover their tracks.
Willenberg said he was shot in the leg as he climbed over bodies piled at the barbed wire fence and catapulted over. He kept running, ignoring dead friends in his path. He said his blue eyes and 'non-Jewish' look allowed him to survive in the countryside before arriving in Warsaw and joining the Polish underground.
Later in life, he took to sculpturing to describe his experiences. His bronze statues reflect what he saw - Jews standing on a train platform, a father removing his son's shoes before entering the gas chambers, a young girl having her head shaved, prisoners removing bodies.
'I live two lives, one is here and now and the other is what happened there,' Willenberg said in an interview at his Tel Aviv apartment. 'It never leaves me. It stays in my head. It goes with me always.'
His two sisters were murdered there. He described his survival as 'chance, sheer chance,' choking back tears. 'It wasn't because of God. He wasn't there. He was on vacation.'
In all, the Nazis and their collaborators killed about 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. The death toll at Treblinka was second only to Auschwitz - a prison camp where more than a million people died in gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labor.
Taigman said he recalls the uprising vividly, and that resisting the Germans was a 'dream' for the prisoners.
He entered Treblinka holding the hand of his mother, who was quickly pulled away from him and murdered. He left watching a Nazi flag burning in the distance from a blaze they had set - a small piece of revenge after nearly a year of torment.
'It was hell, absolutely hell,' said Taigman, who lives in a retirement home south of Tel Aviv.
'A normal man cannot imagine how a living person could have lived through it - killers, natural-born killers, who without a trace of remorse just murdered every little thing.'
Taigman, who wandered in the Polish countryside for nearly a year after his escape, said his most lasting memory of Treblinka is fellow prisoners who had to remove bodies - often their own relatives - from gas chambers.
Treblinka holds such a powerful grip on the Jewish psyche that the will of a recently deceased Holocaust survivor in Israel instructed her children to cremate her body and sprinkle her ashes at the Polish memorial site - so that she could finally be reunited with her relatives who perished there.
After the war, Willenberg and Taigman made their ways to Israel, where they pursued careers and raised families. Willenberg became a surveyor in Israel's Housing Ministry, while Taigman was an importer. The survivors have maintained their special connection, meeting each other often over the years.
David Silberklang, a senior historian at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, said that in contrast to other camps where Jews were also used for industrial labor, Treblinka truly represented the essence of the Nazi Final Solution.
'Treblinka had nothing, just killing, and they almost finished the job. These camps left us almost nothing,' he said.
Without the survivors, he said 'it would just be a black hole, we would know nothing. With them, we know quite a lot,' he said.
One of the men most responsible for documenting the atrocities was Eliahu Rosenberg, who was tasked with removing bodies from gas chambers and dumping them into giant pits. He passed away in September, but before his death recounted his experiences in a video testimony to Yad Vashem.
'It poisoned, choked people within 25 minutes, all would suffocate. It was terrible to hear the screaming of the women and the children. They cried: 'Mama!' 'Tata! (Dad)' but in a few minutes they choked to death,' he said.
'The crematoriums were train rails which lay on a concrete base. On them were wood planks, we called it 'grills.' We threw the body parts onto those 'grills,' and with a match everything burnt. And we stood there ... and it burned all night, all night long.'
After the revolt, the Nazis attempted to destroy all evidence of their atrocities. The camp structures were destroyed, the ground plowed and planted over. Today, all the remains at the site are a series of concrete slabs representing the train tracks, and mounds of gravel with a memorial of stone tablets representing lost communities.
The two remaining survivors have returned to lead tours of the site. Taigman made the trip just one time, saying it was too painful to go back again, while Willenberg has gone on several occasions, most recently last week.
'There are only two of us left. After we go, there will be nothing,' said Willenberg. 'All I will leave behind are my sculptures and most importantly, my daughter and my grandchildren.'" (source)
Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, 87-year-old Israelis, are devoting their final years to trying to preserve the memory of the 875,000 people systematically murdered in a one-year killing spree at the height of World War II. Almost all of them were Jews.
Only 67 people are known to have survived the camp, fleeing in a brazen revolt shortly before Treblinka was destroyed. Following the recent death of a prominent chronicler, Israel's national Holocaust memorial says the two Israeli men are now the final living link to one of the most notorious death camps in human history.
'The world cannot forget Treblinka,' said Willenberg.
'Soon there will be no one left to tell,' added Taigman.
Treblinka holds a notorious place in history as perhaps the most vivid example of the 'Final Solution,' the Nazi plot to rid Europe of Jews.
Along with the lesser known Belzec and Sobibor camps, it was designed with the sole intention of exterminating Jews, and Treblinka was by far the deadliest. Victims, transported there in cattle cars, were gassed to death almost immediately upon arrival.
Only a select few - mostly young, strong men like Willenberg and Taigman, who were both 20 at the time- were spared an immediate trip to the gas chambers and assigned to maintenance work instead.
On Aug. 2, 1943, a group of Jews stole some weapons, set fire to the camp and headed to the woods. Hundreds fled, but most were shot and killed by Nazi troops in the surrounding mine fields or captured by Polish villagers who returned them to Treblinka.
The survivors became the only source of knowledge about Treblinka, because the Nazis all but destroyed it in a frantic bid to cover their tracks.
Willenberg said he was shot in the leg as he climbed over bodies piled at the barbed wire fence and catapulted over. He kept running, ignoring dead friends in his path. He said his blue eyes and 'non-Jewish' look allowed him to survive in the countryside before arriving in Warsaw and joining the Polish underground.
Later in life, he took to sculpturing to describe his experiences. His bronze statues reflect what he saw - Jews standing on a train platform, a father removing his son's shoes before entering the gas chambers, a young girl having her head shaved, prisoners removing bodies.
'I live two lives, one is here and now and the other is what happened there,' Willenberg said in an interview at his Tel Aviv apartment. 'It never leaves me. It stays in my head. It goes with me always.'
His two sisters were murdered there. He described his survival as 'chance, sheer chance,' choking back tears. 'It wasn't because of God. He wasn't there. He was on vacation.'
In all, the Nazis and their collaborators killed about 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. The death toll at Treblinka was second only to Auschwitz - a prison camp where more than a million people died in gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labor.
Taigman said he recalls the uprising vividly, and that resisting the Germans was a 'dream' for the prisoners.
He entered Treblinka holding the hand of his mother, who was quickly pulled away from him and murdered. He left watching a Nazi flag burning in the distance from a blaze they had set - a small piece of revenge after nearly a year of torment.
'It was hell, absolutely hell,' said Taigman, who lives in a retirement home south of Tel Aviv.
'A normal man cannot imagine how a living person could have lived through it - killers, natural-born killers, who without a trace of remorse just murdered every little thing.'
Taigman, who wandered in the Polish countryside for nearly a year after his escape, said his most lasting memory of Treblinka is fellow prisoners who had to remove bodies - often their own relatives - from gas chambers.
Treblinka holds such a powerful grip on the Jewish psyche that the will of a recently deceased Holocaust survivor in Israel instructed her children to cremate her body and sprinkle her ashes at the Polish memorial site - so that she could finally be reunited with her relatives who perished there.
After the war, Willenberg and Taigman made their ways to Israel, where they pursued careers and raised families. Willenberg became a surveyor in Israel's Housing Ministry, while Taigman was an importer. The survivors have maintained their special connection, meeting each other often over the years.
David Silberklang, a senior historian at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, said that in contrast to other camps where Jews were also used for industrial labor, Treblinka truly represented the essence of the Nazi Final Solution.
'Treblinka had nothing, just killing, and they almost finished the job. These camps left us almost nothing,' he said.
Without the survivors, he said 'it would just be a black hole, we would know nothing. With them, we know quite a lot,' he said.
One of the men most responsible for documenting the atrocities was Eliahu Rosenberg, who was tasked with removing bodies from gas chambers and dumping them into giant pits. He passed away in September, but before his death recounted his experiences in a video testimony to Yad Vashem.
'It poisoned, choked people within 25 minutes, all would suffocate. It was terrible to hear the screaming of the women and the children. They cried: 'Mama!' 'Tata! (Dad)' but in a few minutes they choked to death,' he said.
'The crematoriums were train rails which lay on a concrete base. On them were wood planks, we called it 'grills.' We threw the body parts onto those 'grills,' and with a match everything burnt. And we stood there ... and it burned all night, all night long.'
After the revolt, the Nazis attempted to destroy all evidence of their atrocities. The camp structures were destroyed, the ground plowed and planted over. Today, all the remains at the site are a series of concrete slabs representing the train tracks, and mounds of gravel with a memorial of stone tablets representing lost communities.
The two remaining survivors have returned to lead tours of the site. Taigman made the trip just one time, saying it was too painful to go back again, while Willenberg has gone on several occasions, most recently last week.
'There are only two of us left. After we go, there will be nothing,' said Willenberg. 'All I will leave behind are my sculptures and most importantly, my daughter and my grandchildren.'" (source)
(ARTS) Israel's 'Intimate Grammar' Wins At Tokyo Film Festival
"Director Nir Bergman's film based on a novel by David Grossman wins prize in Japan following win at Jerusalem Film Festival.
The Israeli film, Intimate Grammar, won the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prize Film Award at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival on Sunday.
The film, directed by Nir Bergman and starring actress Orly Zibershatz, was based on a novel by Israeli author David Grossman."
The Israeli film, Intimate Grammar, won the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prize Film Award at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival on Sunday.
The film, directed by Nir Bergman and starring actress Orly Zibershatz, was based on a novel by Israeli author David Grossman."
(NEWS) PA Shooter Nabbed Just Hours After Attack
"Israeli security forces have nabbed a Palestinian Authority terrorist who tried to murder a Jewish couple on Saturday night. The arrest took place on Saturday night shortly after the attack, and was cleared for publication on Sunday evening.
The terrorist opened fire on a couple from Har Gilo in Jerusalem as they drove south of the city. The ambush took place near the Arab village of Walajeh.
The intended victims were not hurt in the attack. Their car was hit. An initial investigation found that the terrorist used a Kalashnikov in the assault."
Related Article:
The terrorist opened fire on a couple from Har Gilo in Jerusalem as they drove south of the city. The ambush took place near the Arab village of Walajeh.
The intended victims were not hurt in the attack. Their car was hit. An initial investigation found that the terrorist used a Kalashnikov in the assault."
Related Article:
(NEWS) 200-300 Hamas Men Died In Cast Lead, Group Admits For First Time
"Israel Radio quotes Hamas minister as denying al Qaida is active in Gaza, saying 'We are moderates - we don't like extremists or fanatics.'
Hamas confirmed for the first time on Monday that between 200 and 300 members of the organization's military wing were killed during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip at the end of 2008, Israel Radio reported.
Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 in efforts to curb missile fire from the Palestinian territory into Israel's southern communities. Immediately following the operation, Hamas reported that less than 50 of its men had been killed."
Hamas confirmed for the first time on Monday that between 200 and 300 members of the organization's military wing were killed during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip at the end of 2008, Israel Radio reported.
Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 in efforts to curb missile fire from the Palestinian territory into Israel's southern communities. Immediately following the operation, Hamas reported that less than 50 of its men had been killed."
(NEWS) Israel To Join List Of 'Adequate' Data Protection Nations
"EU personal company data can be transferred freely by end of year.
Israel will become just the seventh country to have its data protection laws approved by the European Union. The approval means that companies can transfer personal data to that country freely, without breaking EU law.
Uruguay's application for the same treatment has been backed by a technical committee but still requires political approval before making it on to the list of approved nations.
The Data Protection Directive generally prevents personal data being sent outside of the European Economic Area – except to countries whose data protection regimes are deemed to give 'adequate' protection, unless the transfer can be justified by other means.
A European Commission list of countries (54-page / 349KB PDF) deemed to be adequate consists of Switzerland, Argentina, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Isle of Man, the Bailiwick of Jersey and Canada, as long as the recipient of the information is subject to the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
Data can also be transferred to the US if the organisation receiving the material subscribes to the US Department of Commerce's Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.
Israel will join the approved list in a month. Though the European Parliament has a month to scrutinise the decision, it cannot change it, a European Commission spokeswoman said.
'The draft Commission Decision on the adequate protection of personal data in the State of Israel has been adopted on 25 October in the comitology procedure (so called Article 31 Committee),' said the spokeswoman. 'The European Parliament has one month of scrutiny. Its opinion is however not binding for the Commission.'
'So after the expiry of the scrutiny period, the Commission decision is adopted via the normal written procedure. The adequacy of Israel should therefore be formally approved by the end of the year,' she said.
Israel's inclusion on the list was opposed by Ireland in the aftermath of the use of eight Irish passports in an assassination carried out in Dubai. Israeli secret service Mossad was widely alleged to have been behind the action.
The Article 29 Working Party, which is made up of data protection watchdogs from the EU's 27 member states, has separately approved Uruguay's application (20-page / 85KB PDF) to join the list of nations with adequate data proteciton regimes.
That application was made in 2008 but the Working Party has only now approved the country's laws, following the commissioning of an academic report into its legislation.
Countries that outsource work which demands the transfer of personal data to countries outside of the EU must ensure that the material is protected.
If that country is not in the short list of 'adequate' countries, then companies must use specially-drafted 'model clauses' created by the EU in their contracts with companies. Failing that, they can use 'binding corporate rules' to ensure that the data is protected." (source)
Israel will become just the seventh country to have its data protection laws approved by the European Union. The approval means that companies can transfer personal data to that country freely, without breaking EU law.
Uruguay's application for the same treatment has been backed by a technical committee but still requires political approval before making it on to the list of approved nations.
The Data Protection Directive generally prevents personal data being sent outside of the European Economic Area – except to countries whose data protection regimes are deemed to give 'adequate' protection, unless the transfer can be justified by other means.
A European Commission list of countries (54-page / 349KB PDF) deemed to be adequate consists of Switzerland, Argentina, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Isle of Man, the Bailiwick of Jersey and Canada, as long as the recipient of the information is subject to the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
Data can also be transferred to the US if the organisation receiving the material subscribes to the US Department of Commerce's Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.
Israel will join the approved list in a month. Though the European Parliament has a month to scrutinise the decision, it cannot change it, a European Commission spokeswoman said.
'The draft Commission Decision on the adequate protection of personal data in the State of Israel has been adopted on 25 October in the comitology procedure (so called Article 31 Committee),' said the spokeswoman. 'The European Parliament has one month of scrutiny. Its opinion is however not binding for the Commission.'
'So after the expiry of the scrutiny period, the Commission decision is adopted via the normal written procedure. The adequacy of Israel should therefore be formally approved by the end of the year,' she said.
Israel's inclusion on the list was opposed by Ireland in the aftermath of the use of eight Irish passports in an assassination carried out in Dubai. Israeli secret service Mossad was widely alleged to have been behind the action.
The Article 29 Working Party, which is made up of data protection watchdogs from the EU's 27 member states, has separately approved Uruguay's application (20-page / 85KB PDF) to join the list of nations with adequate data proteciton regimes.
That application was made in 2008 but the Working Party has only now approved the country's laws, following the commissioning of an academic report into its legislation.
Countries that outsource work which demands the transfer of personal data to countries outside of the EU must ensure that the material is protected.
If that country is not in the short list of 'adequate' countries, then companies must use specially-drafted 'model clauses' created by the EU in their contracts with companies. Failing that, they can use 'binding corporate rules' to ensure that the data is protected." (source)
(NEWS) 49 Jewish Gravestones Smashed In France
"French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche says incident took place Friday night in cemetery in northeastern town of Bar-le-Duc. Police searching for several people believed to be involved.
Anti-Semitism raising its head? Dozens of gravestones were smashed Friday night in a Jewish cemetery in northeastern France, French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche reported Sunday.
According to the newspaper, at least 49 gravestones were destroyed. No graffiti was found in the area."
Anti-Semitism raising its head? Dozens of gravestones were smashed Friday night in a Jewish cemetery in northeastern France, French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche reported Sunday.
According to the newspaper, at least 49 gravestones were destroyed. No graffiti was found in the area."
(NEWS) Yishai: I’ll Do All I Can To Preserve Jewish Majority
"Coalition, opposition both drafting comprehensive immigration bills; gov't estimates as many as 1,000 people enter from Egypt illegally every month.
Interior Minister Eli Yishai said on Sunday that he will do everything possible to maintain Israel’s Jewish majority.
Speaking at a conference in the capital on the nation’s immigration policy, Yishai said that faced with the threat of hundreds of thousands, and perhaps even millions, of Africans who want to enter the country, Israel would advance legislation to protect its Jewish character."
Interior Minister Eli Yishai said on Sunday that he will do everything possible to maintain Israel’s Jewish majority.
Speaking at a conference in the capital on the nation’s immigration policy, Yishai said that faced with the threat of hundreds of thousands, and perhaps even millions, of Africans who want to enter the country, Israel would advance legislation to protect its Jewish character."
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