House approves sanctions on Hezbollah

Elad Benar

House of Representatives backs sanctions on Hezbollah as part of effort to take tough line against its chief backer, Iran.

Hezbollah supportersReuters

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday backed new sanctions on the Hezbollah terrorist group, Reuters reported.

The sanctions are part of an effort to take a tough line against Iran, which is Hezbollah’s chief backer, without immediately moving to undermine the nuclear agreement signed between the West and the Islamic Republic in 2015.

Three Hezbollah-related measures passed by voice vote, without opposition, according to Reuters. The House will vote on Thursday on another bill, to impose additional sanctions on Iran related to its ballistic missiles program.

The move comes nearly two weeks after President Donald Trump said he would not certify Iran is complying with an international agreement on its nuclear program.

Trump’s action opened a 60-day window for Congress to act to reimpose sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program that were lifted under the agreement, but there has been no move to do so in the House or Senate.

Aides told Reuters that, for now, House lawmakers are focusing on clamping down on Iran in other ways such as the Hezbollah and missile-related sanctions.

The first of the Hezbollah-related measures passed on Wednesday would impose new sanctions on any entities found to support the group, such as by providing weapons to Hezbollah. The second imposes sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah for using civilians as human shields.

The third was a resolution urging the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. In 2013, the European Union blacklisted Hezbollah’s “military wing” as a terrorist organization, while failing to blacklist the group’s political arm as well.

The U.S. named Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. Earlier this month, Washington offered multimillion-dollar rewards for two of its officials as the Trump administration developed its strategy for countering Iran’s growing regional influence.

“These critical measures will impose new sanctions to crack down on Hezbollah’s financing, and hold it accountable for its acts of death and destruction,” said Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, according to Reuters.

Washington has in the past imposed sanctions on Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and two other members of the organization, for their alleged role in aiding the Syrian government in its crackdown on opposition forces.

Israeli soldiers sing alongside Idan Raichel

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UNRWA DEMANDS END TO TUNNEL BUILDING UNDER ITS SCHOOLS

TOVAH LAZAROFF

Palestinian militants must stop building tunnels under Gaza schools, UNRWA says

A hamas militant takes part in a tunnel attack simulation during a graduation ceremony in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, last November. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Palestinians must stop building tunnels under Gaza schools, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East said this weekend, as it made public the presence of a new tunnel under one of its schools.

UNRWA said it first discovered “what appeared to be a tunnel” under one of its schools on October 15.
It sealed the tunnel and reopened the school on October 25.

“The presence of a tunnel underneath an UNRWA installation, which enjoys inviolability under international law, is unacceptable.

It places children and agency staff at risk,” the organization said in a statement.

“The agency again demands full respect for the neutrality and inviolability of United Nations premises at all times. Any activities or conduct that put beneficiaries and staff alike at risk, and undermine the ability of UNRWA staff to provide assistance to Palestine refugees in safety and security, must cease,” UNRWA said.
Israel has long warned that Hamas, which controls Gaza, hides military installations, tunnels and weapons under schools and hospitals in the Strip. The terrorist group has increasingly focused on the construction of concrete tunnels to launch attacks against Israel.

“Hamas is using the UNRWA facilities to build a network of terror,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said. “We are glad that UNRWA noticed what we have been telling them for years,” he said.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said: “Yet another terror tunnel under an UNRWA school yard – this is what Hamas rule looks like and this is more proof of the double warcrime committed as terror tunnels are built to attack Israelis, while using the children of Gaza as human shields.

“We cannot accept a situation in which UNRWA schools are used as terror bases. This dangerous incident must not be ignored and strict oversight is needed to ensure that UN facilities are not used to protect terrorists.”

In June, UNRWA similarly reported it had discovered a tunnel that passed under two of its primary schools, which had already closed for the summer. That tunnel has also been sealed.

FRENCH STARS GERARD DEPARDIEU AND ISABELLE ADJANI TO PERFORM IN ISRAEL

AMY SPIRO

The two will perform ‘Love Letters’ for two performances in March.
Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani. (photo credit:Courtesy)

Two famed French stars are coming to perform in Israel – for two nights only. In March, actors Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani will be performing Love Letters in Haifa and then Tel Aviv. The show, written by the late A. R. Gurney, has been played by dozens of actors and actresses over the years. It features a man and woman, seated side by side, reading over notes, letters and cards from 50 years of life.

It has been performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, and at theaters around the globe, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

The play is known as a favorite for busy actors since they don’t need to memorize the lines – which can be written on the notes and cards they hold.

It will be performed in French with subtitles in Hebrew and Russian. Depardieu and Adjani are two of France’s most well-known film stars; he is most famous for Cyrano de Bergerac and she for Possession and One Deadly Summer.

While Adjani has never visited Israel before, Depardieu has been here many times, including to film 2008’s Hello Goodbye which also starred Lior Ashkenazi and Sasson Gabai.

Love Letters will be performed first in Haifa on March 3 and then in Tel Aviv on March 5. Tickets, which range from NIS 205- 505, are available at kupatbravo.co.il

UN blacklist of corporations that do business with Israel moves forward

Ebin Sandler, World Israel News

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. (AP/Eduardo Verdugo)

Following up on previous threats regarding a blacklist of corporations that conduct business in Judea and Samaria and other regions in Israel, a UN agency has reportedly begun circulating letters to these companies.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appears to be preparing to make good on its previous warnings that it will publish a blacklist of businesses who have dealings in the Judea and Samaria region of Israel. While these businesses improve the economy in this area, benefiting both Israelis and Palestinians, the UNHRC appears committed to a boycott policy that many have demonstrated actually harms Palestinian residents of the region.

According to a report on Thursday in Yediot Aharonot, 25 Israeli companies have already been targeted by the UNHRC for its “database,” a term the agency is using for its anti-Israel blacklist. Multinational corporations that have also apparently been targeted include household names such as Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and RE/MAX real estate. Similarly, Channel 2 reported that US companies such as Priceline.com, Coca-Cola, and Caterpillar have also been implicated.

The UN’s proposed blacklist has been controversial since details of its existence emerged several months ago. For many Israelis, the notion that businesses operating in the Jewish state will be singled out and ostracized feels eerily reminiscent of Nazi tactics in Germany leading up to the Holocaust, which included boycotts of Jewish businesses.

While the UNHRC claims that businesses with dealings in Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights, and certain portions of Jerusalem violate human rights law, the reality on the ground tells a different story. In a report in the Jerusalem Post, a leading representative of Jewish communities in the Judea and Samaria region, Oded Revivi, retorted, “I suggest that instead of boycotting the companies on the blacklist the UN should hand them Nobel Peace Prizes. These companies are the ones that employ and support thousands of Palestinian families.”

The UNHRC has a longstanding tradition of fixating on Israel as the target of its human rights initiatives, singling out the Jewish state instead of focusing on the egregious practices and heinous crimes committed by regimes in a variety of countries in the Middle East and Africa.