Izraelski apartheid

   Malgorzata Koraszewska

Jordan releases soldier who killed 7 Israeli schoolgirls in 1997 massacre

AP AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Ahmed Daqamseh, who served 20 years in prison, received at family home in northern town of Irbid with celebration and song

Ahmed Daqamseh on trial in Jordan in 1997. (YouTube screenshot)

Amman, Jordan — A Jordanian soldier who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls during a class trip to his country was released Sunday, after serving 20 years in prison, an official said.
Ahmed Daqamseh had killed the eighth graders in a 1997 shooting rampage at the scenic “Island of Peace” border post where he was stationed. Seven other girls were wounded at the time. The late-night release comes a day before the 20th anniversary of the massacre.
The release could raise tensions between Israel and Jordan. In 2011, Israel summoned Jordan’s ambassador to express anger after the kingdom’s justice minister at the time called for Daqamseh’s release.

Daqamseh was received early Sunday at his family home in the northern Jordanian town of Irbid with celebrations, including music and singing around his home. Media outlets in the kingdom carried photos of the celebrations.

Daqamseh is considered a hero by many in the country. Israeli media reported early Sunday that Jordanian authorities’ decision to release him in the middle of the night, at approximately 2 a.m. Sunday, was intended to prevent larger celebrations from being held for him in his hometown

Amer Sartawi, a spokesman for Jordan’s Public Security Directorate, said Daqamseh was freed early Sunday.

A military court deemed him mentally unstable at the time and sentenced him to life in prison, which in Jordan typically means 25 years. Jordanian lawmakers had lobbied for his early release.

After the shooting, Jordan’s King Hussein — the late father of the current king, Abdullah II — rushed to Israel and paid condolence visits to the girls’ families, a gesture that touched many Israelis at the time.

The shooting came three years after Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty.

Acre, Israel 4K by Eyal Asaf

   Eyal Asaf

Rabbi comes under fire after deriding ‘crazy’ female troops

TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

Defense minister says he will reconsider position of Yigal Levinstein as head of pre-army academy; female general calls comments ‘infuriating’

Soldiers of the Caracal Battalion prepare for a hike as part of their training on September 3, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday said he would consider removing a rabbi from his position as head of a pre-army yeshiva, after the cleric was heard telling new army recruits that military service drives female soldiers “crazy” and strips them of their Jewishness.

In footage broadcast by Channel 2 news on Tuesday — just a day before International Women’s Day — Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, who runs a pre-army religious academy in the West Bank settlement of Eli, told several hundred graduates of another academy, in the settlement of Bnei Atzmon, that IDF service has “driven our girls crazy.”

The comments drew wide condemnation for Israeli government officials and Liberman said Levinstein could be stripped of his position in the Eli school.

“We will reconsider the position of Rabbi Levinstein and his fitness to prepare young people for service in the Israel Defense Forces,” Liberman said in comments widely reported in Hebrew-language media.

“Since the establishment of the state, women have served in the IDF and made an enormous contribution to the security of Israel,” Liberman added, speaking from Washington, where he is on an official visit. “Rabbi Levinstein’s verbal attack not only hurts women in Israel but also hurts the IDF, the IDF’s heritage and the basic values of the State of Israel.”

Zionist Union’s MK Tzipi Livni at a party faction meeting in the Knesset on January 16, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) told Israel Radio that the pre-army academy in Eli could not be recognized for the purpose of government funding while Rabbi Levinstein remained its head.

“This has nothing to do with women. It’s about how we prepare our young people,” she said. “There is nothing that connects Rabbi Levinstein to education.”

Gila Gamliel, Likud’s social equality minister, initially refused to comment on Rabbi Levinstein’s words, saying she wanted to hear the Defense Ministry’s position and that she had “not yet heard” what Levinstein said.

Pressed for a third time, she told Israel Radio that the rabbi’s expressions were “unfortunate” and “dark” and that many women, including religious women, served in the army.

But she insisted that it was premature to express a conclusive view because people sometimes retracted their words, so she did not “want to rush.”

In the recording, Levinstein is heard disparaging female soldiers.

“They recruit them to the army, where they enter as Jews, but they’re not Jews by the time they leave,” he said. “Not in the genetic sense, but all of their values and priorities have been upset and we must not allow it.”

“What happens if there’s a female company commander? This is a question of madness, it belongs in an insane asylum,” Levinstein said.

Rabbi Yigal Levinstein speaking at the ‘Zion and Jerusalem’ convention, July 2016. (Screen capture: YouTube)

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New horizons for religious moms in high-tech

Abigail Klein Leichman

On International Women’s Day, ISRAEL21c takes a look at ultra-Orthodox women taking their place in the startup nation.

The reception area at Jerusalem Hub, a co-working space for religious women run by Temech. Photo by Abigail Klein Leichman

Sari Roth, an ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) mother of seven from Bnei Brak, was invited to represent Haredi women in high-tech at an International Women’s Day gathering this week hosted by Israeli First Lady Nechama Rivlin.

oth cofounded Bontact with Tzvi Cohen in 2015 as a smart multi-channel platform for customer-to-business communication, and today boasts an international clientele.

She is married to a full-time Talmudic scholar and has no formal business training.

Sari Roth, left, was invited to a represent Haredi women in high-tech at an International Women’s Day gathering this week hosted by Israeli First Lady Nechama Rivlin. Photo: courtesy

“My husband learns and this is why I’m doing what I’m doing. It’s not for the sake of being a career woman,” Roth tells ISRAEL21c in self-taught English. “I learned programming in seminary for one year and got married in the middle and didn’t continue. When we got married, I saw he had the talent to be a great learner and I said I’d do my best to support the family.”

In many Israeli Haredi families, the wife is the breadwinner as her husband devotes his days to religious study. Over the past decade, all-female programming shops have sprung up to provide an alternative to traditional childcare and teaching professions.

These “near shore” shops offer outsourcing services at near off-shore rates. The women earn software engineering certificates in post-high-school religious seminaries and accept lower wages in return for a work environment that suits their lifestyle and large families. But they have few opportunities for skills development and advancement.

Women like Sari Roth, Tikva Schmidt and Shaindy Babad are trailblazing a new direction.

The TIDE turns

“The first revolution was pushing women into software development and the second revolution is making it into a satisfying profession,” Schmidt tells ISRAEL21c at TIDE’s Jerusalem office, where photos aren’t permitted out of respect for the employees’ strict code of modesty.

Schmidt, now 43, founded TIDE (Technology. Innovation. Delivery. Excellence.) five years ago to offer Haredi women “the opportunity to work at a high professional level in a stable, supporting environment while constantly learning and being empowered.”

She believes this environment also leads to better results for clients, which include startups and established businesses in Israel and the United States.

Born to American immigrants, Schmidt earned a computer science degree from Hebrew University and worked for 20 years as a developer, software system architect and R&D manager. She credits her husband with encouraging and facilitating her career as they raised their 10 children.

“In my previous job in Ramat Gan, for seven years I was the only woman in R&D, the only religious person in the company and the only one with more than three kids,” Schmidt relates.

“I realized I could do something for religious women that no one else could do. I had an inner drive to create high-quality jobs in high-tech so that women – not only Haredi — could combine top-level development with being mothers, and enjoy both. Regular high-tech is not structured correctly for mothers; it’s geared to coming in late, having long lunches and working overtime.”

Co-working hub

Schmidt has resisted offers of investment and acquisition so as to….

read more: New horizons for religious moms in high-tech