Israel news:
A 1,500 year old artifact was found in the Sea of Galilee by a woman touring the area and she gave it to the national treasury. Experts guess it was on a boat that sunk in the sea with all its contents.
A large cache of weapons and ammo was found in an East Jerusalem home when the Jerusalem Police searched in the storage room of a young man’s home.
The Supreme Court is celebrating the ‘changing of guards’ as Chief Justice Miriam Naor steps down and hands the baton to Esther Hayut the new chief justice.
Outgoing Justice Miriam Naor takes a parting shot at Shabbat today as she decided the Tel Aviv Municipality can issue work permits to stores wishing to open on Shabbat. She does away with the harm it does to people who want Shabbat as a day of rest who will be forced to work just to compete, not to mention harming the very sanctity of the day on a national level where work is not done. Miriam Naor thus concludes her last day in office in shame. The timing of this should not be lost on a nation who will keep Shabbat together this week all over the world.
Building in Israel must increase to lower prices: Professor Zvi Eckstein, the former assistant head of the Bank of Israel says Israel must have at least 80,000 new building starts a year to bring prices down to affordable levels. “All the government did was decrease the demand for buying but it did nothing to decrease the demand for housing.”
UN still preparing its blacklist of Israeli companies that do business on the West Bank which they claim is in violation of the law. Ahava, Amisragas, Dor Alon, Angel bakery, Hot, Electra, Hewlett Packard, Sonol and Supersol, Arison Investments, Ashdar, Clal Industries, Café Café, Cellcom, Matrix Systems, Motorola, Nesher, Partner, Paz, Rami Levi, Remax, Shikun Binui, Trima, Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bezeq, Coca Cola, Africa Israel, Teva, IDB, Egged, Mekorot, Netafim, and Elbit Systems are but a few companies on this list with over 150 companies with revenues in the billions.
The ‘Human Rights’ director of the UN Prince Zaid Ben Ra’id Al Hussein sent out letters to 130 Israeli companies and 60 international corporations warning them that they are the UN blacklist for violating UN resolutions and international law. Israel calls this politically motivated and not having anything to do with human rights as no such letters were sent to companies operating in countries with human rights violations like Western Sahara or the Crimean Peninsula.
It should be noted firstly, that these lists and the backlash against these companies follow in the line of the BDS movement which is Illegal and the UN is in violation of the law. Secondly, using Sodastream as a case in point, after complaints were made to boycott its products because they have a factory in Maale Adumim, a part of Greater Jerusalem, the company was forced to relocate to the Negev and fire 700 Arabs who lost their jobs due to the relocation. Sanctions against any companies on the list and even making the list, is illegal and will ultimately harm the tens of thousands of Arabs employed in these companies bringing them massive unemployment and a far lower quality of life. Will the real proponents of human rights please stand up?