Report: Trump Administration to Take Palestinian ‘Right of Return’ Off the Table

Benjamin Kerstein

US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport on May 23, 2017. Photo by Kobi Gideon / GPO

The Trump administration is prepared to announce a new policy that effectively cancels the so-called “right of return” for Palestinian refugees.

According to Israel’s Channel Two, the policy relates to both the refugees themselves and UNRWA, the UN agency that serves them.

UNRWA is controversial because it counts as refugees not only those Palestinians displaced in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, but also their descendants. As a result, there are now over five million registered Palestinian refugees, an enormous number of whom have never set foot in what was British Mandatory Palestine.

The Palestinians insist the refugees must be allowed to return to Israel, which would effectively destroy the country and replace it with an Arab-majority state.

Channel Two reports that the Trump administration’s plan to solve the issue will be announced at the beginning of September and will have several stages.

First, a report will be issued on the Palestinian refugees, which will number them at approximately 500,000, rather than the five million registered by UNRWA.

Second, the US will formally reject UNRWA’s definition of refugee status as inheritable.

Third, UNRWA’s budget for operating in the West Bank will be cut.

Fourth, Israel will be asked to reconsider allowing UNRWA to operate in the West Bank altogether, in order to prevent the Arab countries from making up the shortfall from the US cuts.

According to Channel Two, the Israeli government sees the plan as a “historic step” on par with Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy there. They see it as effectively taking the refugee issue — one of the thorniest in the Middle East conflict — off the table.

The White House had no comment on the story, saying only that it would make its stance clear at the appropriate time.

Senator McCain speaks to Arutz Sheva

Arutz Sheva Staff

John McCain was in Israel in October 2015, when he spoke to Arutz Sheva about recent terror attack in Tel Aviv, and the proper US response.

JEREMY CORBYN CALLED TZIPI LIVNI A ‘WAR CRIMINAL’ IN 2010

JEREMY SHARON

Separately, a member of the Scottish Parliament for Labour, Anas Sarwar, called on Corbyn to ensure that Labour adopts in full the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance antisemitism definition
Jeremy Corbyn (L) and Tzipi Livni (R). (photo credit: REUTERS/MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Jeremy Corbyn’s past anti-Israel activity and association with terrorists and antisemites continues to haunt the UK Labour Party leader as comments he made describing former foreign minister MK Tzipi Livni as “a war criminal” came to light.

Corbyn made his comments in 2010, after a visit to Gaza that followed efforts in the UK government to thwart politicized arrest warrants against Israeli officials, i24News reported on Tuesday.

“Any plans by the British government to curtail the opportunity to arrest war criminals – as in the case of former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni – would be seen as yet another confirmation of British duplicity in the treatment of Palestinian people,” Corbyn wrote in the tabloid Communist Party newspaper Morning Star.

He was referring to the fact that Livni, currently the leader of the opposition in the Knesset, was Israel’s foreign minister during the IDF’s wide-ranging Operation Cast Lead in Gaza at the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009.

The Labour Party did not respond to a i24News request for comment as to whether Corbyn still believes Livni is a war criminal.

An arrest warrant was issued against Livni by a British court in 2009 under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

She later canceled a scheduled visit the UK and the warrant was subsequently withdrawn.

Several attempts were made by pro-Palestinian activists in the UK to have Israeli officials arrested over IDF operations in Gaza, until legislation passed by the Conservative Party government in 2011 put an end to such efforts.

Separately, a member of the Scottish Parliament for Labour, Anas Sarwar, called on Corbyn to ensure that Labour adopts in full the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.

The Labour Party and Corbyn have been at the center of a protracted row over the party’s failure to address antisemitism within its ranks and its recent decision to adopt an abridged version of the internationally recognized definition of antisemitism by the alliance.

“It is for the Jewish community to lead and shape what the definition of antisemitism is because they are the ones who experience it,” Sarwar, who is Muslim and has campaigned against Islamophobia, told the Daily Record’s politics podcast.

“I think the Labour Party, without delay, should adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism immediately and without delay and without caveats,” he continued, noting that while he has been a critic of Israeli policy, the IHRA definitions did not preclude such criticism.

Temple University SJP Posts Column Supporting Palestinian Terrorists

John Rossomando

An SJP protest at Northeastern University. Photo: Dexter Van Zile.

The Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group is the “most ideologically clear organization in the Palestinian liberation movement,” a Temple University Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) officer wrote on Thursday. The statement appeared in a column promoted and linked to by the group.

It should be noted that the PFLP’s goal is Israel’s complete destruction.

The PFLP rejects “concessions made by the Arab misleadership class, which has supported so-called ‘peace’ agreements with Israel,” wrote Temple SJP Vice President Brandon Do. “These agreements have allowed the forces of occupation to extend deeper into Palestine and diminished chances of Palestinian liberation.”

The PFLP rose to notoriety in the 1960s and 1970s through a series of airline hijackings, including the 1976 hijacking of a Paris-bound Air France flight, which was then flown to Entebbe, Uganda. In a legendary operation, the IDF stormed Entebbe airport and rescued the hostages.

The PFLP was also responsible for a 1972 airport massacre that left 26 people dead. During the Second Intifada at the beginning of the century, several PFLP terrorists committed suicide bombings.

Brandon Do has also supported PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh, who played a key role in a 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two people. A 2016 picture posted by the Temple SJP chapter shows Do holding a sign calling for charges against Odeh to be dropped.

In his column, Do praised PFLP founder George Habash, who has been called the “godfather of Middle East terrorism” as an authority for “raising the Arab world’s consciousness” against Israel. He also attacked Palestinians who he claimed “sell out” their own people to Israel. The Palestinian Authority’s establishment following the 1993 Oslo Accords, he says, created a “crypto-Zionist front.”

Do’s SJP chapter has also praised other PFLP terrorists, includingLeila Khaled, who hijacked two planes in 1970. Khaled is currently a member of the PFLP’s political bureau and has been involved in fundraising for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS aims to economically isolate Israel by encouraging the boycott of Israeli goods and divestment from the Israeli economy, as well as the imposition of sanctions. SJP is a key component of the BDS movement in the US.

Do also attempted to link black Americans with the Palestinian fight against Israel.

“By embracing our shared destiny with Black America and those living under the degradation of imperialism worldwide, the Palestine solidarity movement in the United States will say that a free Palestine is possible, and that with struggle, we can restore humanity back to its rightful place, where the civilizations of the world are once again united and no longer living under the threat of invasion, partitioning, and mass exploitation,” Do wrote.

The PFLP has repeatedly drawn the same connection in articles on its website and it is a tactic it hopes to use to destroy support for Israel in the United States.

John Rossomando is a senior analyst at The Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Israeli high-tech firms raised $1.61b in Q2/2018

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July continues the strong fundraising trend of the three previous months, led by a $125 million round for retail-tech company Trax Image Recognition.

During the month of July 2018, fundraising by Israeli companies was as hot as the weather, following on the heels of an IVC Research Center report revealing that Israeli high-tech companies raised $1.61 billion in 170 deals in Q2 of 2018.

The single largest deal during that quarter was Landa Digital Printing’s$300 million, while artificial intelligence (AI) companies attracted the highest capital share among the leading verticals.

In July, Trax Image Recognition led the pack with a $125 million raise from Boyu Capital Consultancy and British production company DC Thomson. Trax provides image-recognition and computer-vision analytic tools used by retailers in some 50 countries to track inventory. The company’s research-and-development center is in Tel Aviv; headquarters are in Singapore.

Next Insurance of Kfar Saba, a fast-growing, disruptive digital insurance company for small businesses, raised $83 million in a Series B round led by Redpoint Ventures with an eye toward continued expansion throughout the United States (where it has a California office). Other investors in the round included Nationwide Insurance, Munich Re, American Express Ventures, Ribbit Capital, TLV Partners, SGVC and Zeev Ventures.

3D imaging company Mantis Vision of Petah Tikva raised $55 million from Samsung Catalyst Fund, Chinese company Luenmei Quantum and an undisclosed third investor. The company has been operating in China as part of a joint venture with Luenmei Quantum.

Tel Aviv-based monday.com, developer of a team management and communication platform for businesses, closed a $50 million Series C investment round led by New York-based Stripes Group along with existing investors Insight Venture Management and Entrée Capital.

ObserveIT insider threat-management software developer raised $33 million from NightDragon Security, Spring Lake Equity Partners and major shareholder Bain Capital Ventures. Founded in 2006 and currently headquartered in Boston, ObserveIT’s main R&D center is in Tel Aviv.

ThetaRay of Hod Hasharon completed an oversubscribed fundraising round of approximately $30 million led by OurCrowd and including Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), GE, Bank Hapoalim and SVB Investments. ThetaRay makes AI and big-data analytics solutions for crime prevention, operational efficiency and threat detection, with offices in New York, London and Singapore.

AnyVision of Holon secured $28 million in Series A financing led by Bosch, the German multinational technology group, with participation of two American private equity groups. AnyVision has developed proprietary AI solutions for the HLS/Police, airports, sports/entertainment, smart cities, critical infrastructure, banks, transportation and retail verticals.

BioCanCell raised $22.9 million from new and existing investors in a private placement of nearly 6 million shares and some warrants. The biopharmaceutical company, based in Jerusalem and Cambridge, Massachusetts, plans clinical trials of new therapies to treat cancer.

Viz.ai raised $21 million in Series A funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The corporate venture capital arm of Alphabet also participated. Based in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, Viz.ai develops automated analyses of CT brain scans to help doctors identify and treat strokes quickly.

Oramed Pharmaceuticals of Jerusalem sold $18.1 million of shares of common stock in a registered direct offering with several healthcare-focused institutional investors. Oramed is developing oral drug-delivery systems.

Industrial cybersecurity provider Radiflow, based in Tel Aviv with offices in the US and Europe, closed an $18 million investment round led by ST Engineering Ventures, the corporate venture capital unit of ST Engineering of Singapore. Radiflow’s existing investors, led by Zohar Zisapel, also participated.

Real-estate tech startup Skyline AI of Tel Aviv and New York raised $18 million in a Series A round from TLV Partners, Sequoia Capital, Jones Lang LaSalle IP, iAngels Crowd, Arbor Ventures and Nyca Partners.

Tel Aviv-headquartered marine data startup Windward raised $16.5 million in Series C funding led by XL Innovate with the participation of existing investors.

Cybersecurity company Siemplify (Cyarx Technologies) raised $14 million in a Series B round from Jump Capital, G20 Ventures and 83North. Based in New York with offices in Tel Aviv, Siemplify provides security orchestration, automation and response tools to enterprises.

New York- and Tel Aviv-based K Health raised $12.5 million from Mangrove Capital Partners, Lerer Hippeau, Primary Venture Partners, BoxGroup, Max Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and Comcast Ventures. The company is developing a crowdsourced digital health assistant to provide diagnostic information and treatment suggestions. K Health recently launched its free web and mobile app in New York.

Tel Aviv-based commercial insurance data platform startup Planck Resolution raised $12 million in a funding round led by Arbor Ventures. The same amount was raised by BlueVine Capital, with R&D in Tel Aviv, from Microsoft’s M12 venture fund and Nationwide Financial Services. This brings BlueVine’s Series E funding round, announced in June, to $72 million.

Cybersecurity startup PlainID of Tel Aviv raised $11 million in a Series A funding round from Viola Ventures, Springtide Ventures, Capri Ventures and iAngels.

Tel Aviv-based high-resolution radar startup Arbe Robotics closed a $10 million funding round led by 360 Capital Partners. Existing investors Canaan Partners Israel, iAngels, Manic Mobility, OurCrowd and O.G. Tech Ventures also participated. Medical device company Medigus of Omer also raised $10 million, in an underwritten public offering.

Fresenius Medical Care Ventures invested $2 million in the Series B financing round for Tel Aviv-based Vectorious Medical Technologies. The medical device company raised more than $10 million in this financing round, including a recent grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 R&D program.

Aurora Labs completed an $8.4-million Series A funding round led by Fraser McCombs Capital as well as MizMaa Ventures. Founded in 2016 and based in Tel Aviv and Munich, Aurora Labs is developing on-the-go automotive software fixes and predictive maintenance for connected vehicles.

Tel Aviv retail-tech company Trigo Vision emerged from stealth mode with the announcement of a $7 million seed funding round by Hetz Ventures and Vertex Ventures Israel. Trigo Vision’s platform combines a customizable ceiling-based camera network with machine-vision algorithms to identify and capture customers’ shopping items, eliminating the need for a checkout process.

Trigo Vision is developing retail-tech to eliminate the checkout process. Photo: courtesy

Cloud solutions provider AllCloud of Rosh HaAyin raised $7 million from the investment arm of Israel Discount Bank, Hallett Capital, Jesselson Capital Corporation and the Weil Family.

Octopai of Rosh HaAyin raised $4.5 million in a Series A funding round from North First Ventures, iAngels Crowd, Gefen Capital Management, Moneta Seeds Management Company and Club100 Plus Communication Investments. Founded in 2015, Octopai makes a solution for managing metadata.

NewStem, a biotech spinoff of Yissum, the tech-transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, raised $4 million in seed financing from a publicly-traded US-based company to be named NovelStem International Corp. NewStem is developing precision-medicine technology to increase chemotherapy’s effectiveness.

Nobio of Petah Tikva raised $3.6 million in Series A funding from life-sciences venture fund aMoon and oral surgeon Ole Jensen. Nobio is developing an antimicrobial additive for synthetic materials used in dental and medical devices.

PlantArcBio of Givat Hen, a biotechnology startup for the improvement of crop yield, completed a $3 million funding round from private investors and Israel Innovation Authority grants. PlantArcBio signed an agreement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to test its drought-tolerance genes in soybean greenhouses and fields in the United States.

From left, PlantArcBio’s Aviva Katz, Arava Shatil, Noam Grimberg and Dror Shalitin. Photo: courtesy

OrthoSpin, a portfolio company of The Trendlines Group, completed an investment round of $3 million for its smart robotic external fixation system for orthopedic treatments. Johnson & Johnson Innovation led the investment round.

Proggio of Kfar Saba raised $2 million in an investment round led by Mangrove Capital Partners. Founded in 2016, Proggio offers Projectmap, http://projectmap.solutions/ an online service for creating collaborative visual timelines for projects and managing individual tasks by a business team.

Nanomaterials company Dotz Nano of Petah Tikva and Australia raised about $1.8 million in a private placement on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Škoda Auto, a Czech subsidiary of Volkswagen, announced a $1.5 million investment in Anagog, a Tel Aviv startup whose AI driver-tracking technology is already used in more than 100 different smartphone apps. Also contributing to the investment was Škoda’s strategic partner and importer Champion Motors; the two companies cofounded the joint venture Škoda Auto DigiLab Israel in Tel Aviv at the end of 2017.

Tel Aviv-based e-commerce startup Bllush Visuals closed a $1.2 million seed round led by Moscow-based Leta Capital. Bllush’s software matches fashion and design e-commerce brands with product images sourced from user-generated photos. The same amount was raised by regenerative medicine company CollPlant of Ness Ziona, which recently received grant approval from the Israel Innovation Authority to develop rhCollagen-based bio-ink for 3D printing human tissues and organs.

Tel Aviv-based research database startup Materials.Zone raised $1 million from Sarona Ventures. Materials.Zone develops a blockchain-based online system that allows scientists, labs, and academic and industrial researchers worldwide to collaborate and share data regarding new lab-made materials.

Binah.ai received $150,000 from the new investment fund TAU Ventures as the first-place winner in the Tel Aviv University startup competition in which 70 new Israeli startups competed. Binah provides actionable answers to critical business challenges via a virtual data science platform.

Hyundai Motor Group of Seoul announced that it is investing “several million dollars” in a strategic partnership with Autotalks, a Kfar Netter-based company specializing in Vehicle to Everything (V2X) communication chipsets. Prior to this investment, Autotalks completed four funding rounds totaling more than $80 million.

Singapore-based United Overseas Bank invested an undisclosed sum in AI banking software company Personetics Technologies of Givatayim.