Renowned Austrian Jewish photographer Erich Lessing dies at 95

AFP

Austrian Jewish photographer Erich Lessing during an interview in Vienna on March 16, 2012. (AFP Photo/APA/Herbert Neubauer)

VIENNA, Austria — Renowned Austrian photographer Erich Lessing has died at the age of 95, Austria’s Jewish community organization, the IKG, said on Wednesday.

Lessing’s career in photojournalism saw him document many of the key moments of postwar European history, such as the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and Charles de Gaulle’s 1958 visit to Algeria.

Lessing worked with the Associated Press and the Magnum Agency and his photos also appeared in publications such as Time, Paris Match and Fortune.

Born in 1923 in Vienna, the son of a dentist and a concert pianist, Lessing fled the Nazis to British Mandatory Palestine at the age of 16. His mother and grandmother were murdered in the Holocaust.

In 1947 he returned to Austria, having taken up his childhood hobby of photography as a profession, including for the British Army during the war.

From the 1960s he increasingly focused on art and historical subjects in his work.

He later taught photography at various venues and his work was published in around 60 volumes.

In 2013 he donated 60,000 images to the archives of the Austrian National Library.

HANEEN ZOABI COMES TO CORBYN’S DEFENSE OVER ANTISEMITISM CHARGES

JONATHAN WEBER ROSEN

“Corbyn’s criticism is justified. And the state, which deals with theft, murder and racist acts under the law of nationality, is rightly justified by this criticism.”

Haneen Zoabi Jpont List MK during a Knesset discussion . (photo credit: HADAS PARUSH)

MK Haneen Zoabi (Joint List) condemned the Israeli media’s recent upsurge in reportage about the United Kingdom’s Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, which portrays him as an antisemite, as “unjust, offensive and absurd.” 

The lawmaker specifically singled out in her statement a piece published in The Jerusalem Post‘s sister publication, Ma’ariv, Wednesday morning.

The Joint List MK referenced Corbyn’s statement regarding a controversial Gaza flotilla raid, a military operation in which the IDF seized six civilian ships in international waters in May of 2010. Corbyn argued that Israel wrote speeches for UK parliamentarians about the incident.

Zoabi was aboard the ship Mavi Marmara, along with a group of activists which included a smaller group of IHH activists (humanitarian relief foundation, which the quasi-government Tirkel Commission Report identified as being affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood) boarded a number ships to try to break Israel’s blockade of Hamas in Gaza.

While Israel commandeered and stopped most of the ships without incident, Israel Navy commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara and were attacked by IHH activists, leading to the injury of some commandos and the eventual deaths of 10 IHH activists. 

“The Gaza flotilla raid, just like the El Auda and Huria boats that were seized a few weeks ago by the navy in international waters, are far from the territorial waters of Israel. They are civilian ships, foreign-owned, who sailed under a foreign flag and brought humanitarian supplies to Gaza,” Zoabi stated.

“When Corbyn criticizes the policy of the navy alongside the policy of public relations, they [the media] do everything possible to present it as antisemitic or as a visionary who imagines a conspiracy,” Zoabi continued.

Zoabi has called Israel a “fascist country” which is “only looking for an excuse to kill the Palestinians” and only months ago, Zoabi was suspended from the Knesset for a week for calling IDF soldiers murderers.

“Corbyn’s criticism is justified. And the state, which deals with theft, murder and racist acts under the law of nationality, is rightly justified by this criticism, and courageous politicians such as Corbyn will continue, even when they try to silence them.”

In a video from the 2010 meeting of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in London, Corbyn claimed that Israeli officials control speeches by British MPs. 

“[British MPs] all turned up [to the debating chamber] with a pre-prepared script. I’m sure our friend Ron Prosor [the Israeli ambassador] wrote it.”

“Because they all came up with the same key words. It was rather like reading a European document looking for buzz-words.

“And the buzz-words were, “Israel’s need for security”. And then “the extremism of the people on one ship”. And “the existence of Turkish militants on the vessel.”

“It came through in every single speech, this stuff came through,” Corbyn claimed. 

Besides leading the opposition party in the United Kingdom, Jeremy Corbyn is known for his Jewish conspiracy theories and comparing the State of Israel to Nazi Germany.

Lahav Harkov and Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report. 

Trump cuts more than $200 million in aid to PA

Elad Benari, Canada

Reuters / Abbas and Trump

 The Trump administration has decided to cut more than $200 million in bilateral assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA), following a review of the funding for projects in the Judea, Samaria and Gaza, U.S. officials and congressional aides said Friday, according to The Associated Press.

The State Department notified Congress of the decision Friday, said the officials and aides, who spoke condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the move ahead of its formal announcement.

But in a brief, three-paragraph notice sent to lawmakers and obtained by AP, the department said it will redirect the money to “high-priority projects elsewhere.”

“At the direction of President Trump, we have undertaken a review of U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority and in the West Bank and Gaza to ensure these funds are spent in accordance with U.S. national interests and provide value to the U.S. taxpayer,” the State Department said in the notice.

“As a result of that review, at the direction of the President, we will redirect more than $200 million … originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza,” it added.

“This decision takes into account the challenges the international community faces in providing assistance in Gaza, where Hamas control endangers the lives of Gaza’s citizens and degrades an already dire humanitarian and economic situation,” the notice continued.

The notice did not give an exact amount of the funds to be cut, but says it is more than $200 million that was approved in 2017.

The White House announced earlier this year that it had decided to re-examine the aid provided by the United States to the PA, in light of the ongoing disconnect between the sides since the decision to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognize it as the capital of Israel.

Nine Democratic members of Congress recently sent a letter to President Donald Trump demanding he publish whether aid to the PA has been reduced or eliminated without first speaking to Congress.

Earlier this month it was reported that the State Department had transferred dozens of millions of dollars to the PA preventive security forces.

American officials said the purpose of the money transfer is to enable the PA security apparatuses to act in the most effective way to prevent terrorism in Judea and Samaria.

The funds in question did not amount to more than 12% of the budget originally due to be transferred to the PA and which stands at close to $240 million.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

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