The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they unfold.
Jordan’s king to donate $1.5m to Temple Mount Waqf
Jordan’s King Abdullah II will reportedly donate 1 million Jordanian dinars ($1.4 million) to the Waqf, the Islamic authority that administers the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem.
According to reports, the donation will go to fund an Islamic museum on the compound.
Jordan, which acts as custodian of the Temple Mount and funds the Waqf, has played a key role amid the ongoing crisis, sparked after Israel installed metal detectors following an attack at the Mount on July 14 in which three terrorists used guns smuggled into the sacred compound to shoot dead two Israeli policemen guarding outside.
Earlier today Abdullah said his government was “closely monitoring the situation in Jerusalem. The challenge is a political one, not just security.”
Over 70% of Jewish Israelis support death penalty for terrorists, poll finds
A vast majority of Jewish Israelis support recent calls made by high-profile politicians for the implementation of the death penalty for terrorists, according to a new poll.
According to the latest monthly Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University Peace Index poll, 25.8% of respondents said they “moderately” supported the “the execution of Palestinians found guilty of murdering Israeli civilians for nationalist reasons,” while another 44% expressed “strong” support. Only 24% expressed opposition.
In the wake of a brutal terrorist attack in the West Bank settlement of Halamish last month in which three members of a family were stabbed to death, a number of prominent ministers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed their belief that Israeli military courts should seek the death penalty for the Palestinian attacker.
IDF raids Hebron home of Yavneh supermarket terrorist
Israeli soldiers raid the West Bank home of a Palestinian terrorist who stabbed and critically injured an Israeli man at a supermarket in the coastal Israeli city of Yavneh earlier today.
Ismail Ibrahim Ismail Abu Aram, 19, from the village of Yatta near Hebron, attacked a 43-year-old employee of the Shufersal supermarket, stabbing him multiple times in the chest, neck and head.
According to the Shin Bet security service, Abu Aram entered Israel illegally, without the required permit.
He had no history of terrorist activity. Police handed Abu Aram over to the Shin Bet for further questioning, the security service says.
An IDF spokesperson said the soldiers had not arrested anyone, but were “conducting searches” in the house. She would not elaborate further on what the troops were looking to find.
— Judah Ari Gross
Knife-carrying Palestinian arrested at Gush Etzion Junction
Israeli soldiers in the West Bank arrest a Palestinian woman carrying a knife at the Gush Etzion Junction, the army says.
According to the IDF, the Palestinian woman walked toward a group of soldiers guarding the intersection while displaying suspicious behavior.
After the soldiers called on the suspect to stop she threw her knife to the ground. She was arrested and taken in for questioning.
Israel National Library launches digital manuscript archive
Israel’s National Library launches an online database aggregating tens of thousands of digitized Jewish manuscripts belonging to collections from across the globe.
Starting today, scholars and laypersons can access almost half of the known handwritten Jewish texts from Spain to Afghanistan, which have been digitized and cataloged online.
The National Library partnered with some of the largest collections of Jewish manuscripts, including the British Library, Parma’s Palatina Library and the Vatican Library, in an effort to bring the nearly 100,000 known texts under one digital roof.
The archive currently contains nearly 4.5 million images from 45,000 manuscripts, including prayer books, biblical texts and commentary, philosophy, literature and scientific writings, in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic and more.
Work is ongoing to get the remaining thousands of volumes online.
— AP
ADL praises Google, YouTube for expanding efforts to combat extremism
The Anti-Defamation League welcomes progress announced by Google and YouTube in blocking and removing extremist content on YouTube.
“The fight against terrorist use of online resources and cyberhate has become one of the most daunting challenges in modern history,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s CEO.
“Google has been a leader in this area from the beginning. The reality is extremists and terrorists continue to migrate to and exploit various other social media platforms. We hope that those platforms can learn from and emulate what YouTube is doing to proactively identify and remove extremist content.” he says in a statement.
Google recently began utilizing machine learning technology to remove over 75 percent of extremist and violent videos posted on YouTube in the last month.
Footage of apparent terror stabbing in Yavneh released
Authorities release footage of an apparent terror attack earlier today in which a Palestinian teenager stabbed and critically injured an Israeli supermarket employee.
Graphic security camera footage from inside the Shufersal store shows a 19-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank city of Nablus begin stabbing the 43-year-old as he stocked shelves.
After the employee’s back was turned, the attacker can be seen drawing a knife and stabbing the man in the upper body several times.
Medical officials say the victim suffered stab wounds to the chest, neck and head and is in unstable condition.
After the stabbing, the Palestinian teenager fled and was tackled to the ground by civilians.
— with Judah Ari Gross
German prosecutor says ‘Bookkeeper of Auschwitz’ fit to serve sentence
A former Nazi SS guard known as the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, now 96, is fit to serve out his sentence, say German prosecutors.
Oskar Groening was found guilty in July 2015 of being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 people at the camp and sentenced to four years in prison.
“The prosecutor has rejected the application from the defense for a sentence suspension,” court spokeswoman Kathrin Soefker tells AFP, confirming local media reports.
A summons for the start of the sentence has not been issued, she says, adding that the prosecutor will make a decision separately on this.
— AFP
Family of Kansas City JCC shootings settles gun lawsuit
The family of two people fatally shot outside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, settle a lawsuit with Walmart over one of the guns used in the shooting.
The Kansas City Star reports the settlement’s terms between Walmart and the family of William Corporon and his grandson, Reat Underwood, are confidential.
The two were killed in April 2014 by F. Glenn Miller Jr., who was trying to kill Jews. He also killed Terri LaManno at a nearby care center. None of the victims was Jewish.
The lawsuit contends at least one Walmart employee was present when another man bought the shotgun used to kill Corporon and Underwood at a Walmart in Republic, Missouri. Miller could not buy a gun because he was a felon.
A similar lawsuit filed by LaManno’s family is pending.
— AP
Haifa Chemicals workers protest outside Negev ammonia plant
Hundreds of workers from Haifa Chemicals are protesting the impending closure of the company, hours after the fertilizer maker announced the company would be closing and that all 800 workers would be fired.
Workers protesting against the closure blocked the entrance to the company’s ammonia plant in the Negev.
Earlier today, Haifa Chemicals owner Jules Trump announced he was shutting down operations and letting go of all workers after a compromise for the continued operations of the firm was not reached with the government.
“With great sorrow, and after many efforts, we have reached a point in which we can no longer contain the activities of the company in Israel,” writes Trump writes in a stinging letter directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I understand that we will not get the permit to return to our activities in the near future and so we don’t have a choice but to shut down the firm immediately,” he writes.
The Haifa Chemicals’ ammonia plant in the Haifa Bay was ordered to be shut down in 2013, pitting local residents concerned over the potential for a deadly chemical leak against those who say its closure would adversely affect the economy.
— with Shoshanna Solomon
