Supreme Court in Israel wants action on Western Wall
Israeli Supreme Court justices have chastised the government for not implementing the government’s plan to create an ecumenical prayer section at the Western Wall.
The Sept. 12 hearing was in response to a 3-year-old petition complaining about the treatment of egalitarian worshippers at the site. At the hearing, the justices called for the plan to be implemented. The petition, which predated the plan, was filed by Women of the Wall; Kolech, an Orthodox feminist organization; and the Conservative and Reform movements.
The justices gave the petitioners three weeks to update their complaint to include developments at the site over the last several months.
The agreement announced in January would expand the egalitarian section at the wall and place it under the authority of a pluralist committee while solidifying haredi Orthodox control over the site’s traditional, Orthodox section. Women of the Wall, the women’s prayer group that holds monthly services in the Orthodox section, would move to the non-Orthodox section once the deal is implemented.
In June, a group of Orthodox Jewish organizations filed a petition with Israel’s Supreme Court to prevent the establishment of the egalitarian section.
“Enough is enough,” said the Supreme Court president, Miriam Naor, criticizing the state prosecutor for defending the government’s “foot-dragging on various occasions in the last eight months, since the government approved the plan.”
“We are gratified,” said Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall, “that the Supreme Court, in its wisdom, has accepted our long-held argument that the Western Wall cannot be held hostage by a minority sect.” Hoffman attended the hearing wearing a tallit. — jta
Aid group acts on info about Hamas, halts work in Gaza
The evangelical Christian aid group World Vision has suspended its operations in Gaza following Israel’s accusations last month that the local director had funneled funds to the Hamas terrorist group.
World Vision provided contractors a letter in Arabic saying the group could not pay them because Israel had frozen its bank accounts and money could not be transferred to Gaza, Reuters reported on Sept. 9.
Approximately 120 contractors had been let go, according to Reuters, but a World Vision spokesman only confirmed that operations were suspended, not that the contractors had been laid off.
“Due to the seriousness of the allegations laid against Mohammad El-Halabi, World Vision has suspended operations in Gaza,” the group said, referring to the Gaza branch director. “We are conducting a full review, including an externally conducted forensic audit.”
World Vision is one of the largest charitable and humanitarian aid organizations in the world. It receives support primarily from the United Nations and Western governments.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service said last month that El-Halabi was a Hamas member who infiltrated the American aid group to divert tens of millions of dollars to the Gaza-based terrorist organization. According to the Shin Bet, some of the money went to pay the salaries of Hamas terrorists and, in some cases, senior Hamas terrorists took large sums of money for their own personal use. — jta
J Street: If a group is pro-settlement, IRS should nix ’em
J Street has called on the U.S. Treasury Department to review the tax-deductibility status of groups that support settlement activity in the West Bank.
The liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, in a statement posted on its website and sent to journalists, pointed out that the United States has “consistently opposed the construction and expansion of settlements under each and every president — Democratic and Republican — since Israel started building on territories captured in the 1967 war,” and a legal determination that the settlements are illegal under international law remains in place.
“A sophisticated private network has sprung up in the United States, funded by tax-deductible donations, that has channeled millions of dollars to strengthen the settlements and weaken the Palestinians’ presence in the West Bank,” J Street charged in the statement.
The statement singled out the Regavim organization, which monitors and pursues legal action against construction lacking Israeli permits undertaken by Palestinians or Bedouins in Israel and in the West Bank; Elad, which helps Jewish families move into Arab neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem; and the Hebron Fund, which helps Jews move to the largely Palestinian-populated West Bank city of Hebron.
Internal Revenue Service requirements are clear about the criteria organizations must meet to benefit from tax-deductible, charitable donations, J Street pointed out, citing the tax code as saying the groups’ activities must not be “illegal [or] contrary to a clearly defined and established public policy.”
“Clearly the United States has not effectively put real weight behind its opposition to Israeli settlements,” said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami. “It must do more to maintain the viability of a two-state solution.” — jta