EU court adviser wants Hamas off terrorism list
The European Jewish Congress has described as “unconscionable” the recommendation by an adviser to the European Union’s top court to remove Hamas from the EU terrorism watch list.
The advocate general at the European Court of Justice made the recommendation last week. It came after the Council of European Union member states appealed a decision by the court in late 2014 to remove Hamas from the list based on a technicality.
That decision said Hamas was placed on the list based on media reports and that the evidence against Hamas had not been properly examined and confirmed.
Removal from the terrorism watch list would unfreeze Hamas assets in EU countries. The decision of the advocate general is not binding, but its advice is usually followed by the judges of the court.
“It is unconscionable that European bureaucrats are playing with people’s lives due to a technicality and narrow-mindedness,” Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the EJC, said in a statement. “Hamas has murdered countless people and ensures millions more live in misery, and their means to kill many more could be given to them on a silver platter because someone in Europe feels there is not enough evidence to define them as a terrorist organization.”
Hamas’ military wing was added to the first EU blacklist of terrorist groups issued in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. Hamas’ political wing was blacklisted in 2003. — jta
Bernie Sanders’ brother runs for British Parliament
The brother of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is running for Parliament in Britain.
Larry Sanders, 81, is running as the Green Party candidate for the seat being vacated by former Prime Minister David Cameron, who has held it for the Witney constituency in Oxfordshire in southern England since 2001.
Cameron resigned as prime minister in July, and announced earlier this month that he would leave Parliament as well.
The election is scheduled for Oct. 20. The main issue of his campaign is expected to be privatizing Britain’s national health care service.
Larry Sanders, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, has lived in Oxford since 1969, and taught at Oxford University in the department of social administration. He was active in politics in the Labour Party, which he left in 2001, saying it had moved too far to the right. He then joined the Green Party. He currently serves as health spokesman for the party.
Sanders was a delegate to this year’s Democratic National Convention representing Democrats Abroad. — jta
Assistance on way for ‘countless’ Jews in former USSR
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has pledged $52 million to provide food and medicine to elderly Jews living in the former Soviet Union through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
The Food and Medicine Lifeline, a four-year commitment of $13 million per year, was announced by the IFCJ, which said many of the recipients are impoverished Holocaust survivors, according to the IFCJ.
The assistance will be delivered through the JDC’s local network of humanitarian services throughout former Soviet states.
“There are countless hungry and sick elderly Jews across the FSU, including over 100,000 needy elderly and Holocaust survivors, who depend on our help,” Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, IFCJ founder and president, said in a statement. “Too many Jews around the world, but especially in the former Soviet Union, struggle to meet their most basic needs.” — jta
Jewish politician bolts Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected head of the British Labour Party on Sept. 24, leading to the resignation of a Jewish official from the party.
After Corbyn handily defeated challenger Owen Wilson, 313,000 to 193,000 according to the party, Parry Mitchell announced his resignation. He had told the London-based Jewish Chronicle last month that he would no longer represent the party if Corbyn remained its leader.
Corbyn has faced allegations that his pro-Palestinian politics and endorsement of radical anti-Semites has encouraged hate speech against Jews. He been accused of doing too little to curb rampant anti-Semitism among party members and lawmakers, some of whom have been suspended for making racist and anti-Semitic statements in public forums.
Mitchell, who became a member of the House of Lords in 2000, told the BBC on Sept. 25: “I’m Jewish, and I’m very strongly Jewish, and I make no bones about it, and there’s no doubt in my mind that Jeremy himself is very lukewarm on this subject. But even more than that, he surrounds himself with a coterie of people who hold violent, violent anti-Israel views and allied with it they are very hostile to Jews so, in my view, they’re pretty bad guys.” — jta