Israel’s Weapons Sales to Europe More Than Double Amid Refugee Crisis

 Gili Cohen – Haaretz Correspondent

Photo: Israel Aerospace Industries, License: N/A2016-04-06

Sales to Europe grew from $724 million in 2014 to $1.63 billion in 2015, presumably as a consequence of the refugee crisis and the rise in terror attacks on the continent. Sales to North America also climbed, to $1.02 billion.

Israel signed contract for arms deals worth $5.7 billion last year, a slight increase over 2014 but down sharply from 2013 levels, Michel Ben-Baruch, head of Sibat, the Defense Ministry’s defense export agency, said on Wednesday.

“Completing a challenging year, we succeeded through collaborative and determined work to preserve the scope of contract signings compared to 2014,” he said, citing $5.6 billion of new orders in 2014 and $6.5 billion in 2013.

Sales to Europe more than doubled last year to $1.63 billion from $724 million, presumably as a consequence of the refugee crisis and the rise in terror attacks on the continent. Sales to North America also

But after three years of growth in weapons sales to African states, 2015 saw a drop of almost 50% to $163 million, down from $318 million in 2014 and $223 million in 2013. Sales to Latin America fell to $577 million while those to Asian countries — by far Israel’s biggest regional market — declined to $2.3 billion from just under $3 billion in 2014.

Asian sales should show improvement next year as Israeli companies pursue major arms deals with India. Last week, Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and India’s Reliance Defense said they were forming a joint venture in India to manufacture air-to-air missiles, air defense systems and observation balloons in order to address procurement programs valued at $10 billion over the next decade.

Earlier in March, India’s Cabinet Committee on Security approved the purchase of two additional Phalcon Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems from Israel.

In all, India is expected to procure Israeli military equipment worth an estimated $3 billion ahead of a visit to Israel by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to a report on the IHS Jane’s 360 website.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said this week that global military spending rose for the first time in several years in 2015, to nearly $1.7 trillion.

But the Defense Ministry termed 2015 “another challenging year for defense industries around the world” amid declining oil prices and unfavorable exchange rates. It said sales for 2016 should remain steady.

Some 700 small and medium-sized Israeli companies export defense equipment, but between 75% and 80% of Israeli military exports are generated by just three companies — the state-owned Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries and the publicly traded Elbit Systems.

The largest single category of the military exports, accounting for 14% of all new contracts, was upgrading aircraft and aerospace systems. Radar and electronic systems came in second, at 12%, and drones at 11%. Intelligence and information systems made up 10%.

Płońsk. „Mój jest ten kawałek cmentarza”

Krzysztof Bielawski

Płot odciął wstęp na cmentarz żydowski w Płońsku. Czy powstanie na nim centrum handlowe?

Przed 1939 r. cmentarz miał powierzchnię ok. 3,3 ha. Po wojnie większość jego terenu stopniowo zabudowano. Na pozostałym, niewielkim skrawku do niedawna stał pomnik poświęcony ofiarom Zagłady. Nieoczekiwanie pod koniec lutego rozebrała go firma City Star, która chce w tym miejscu zbudować centrum handlowe.

Pomnik na cmentarzu w Płońsku w 2009 roku (fot. Sławomir Topolewski)

Działka jest własnością Skarbu Państwa, a City Star w 2013 r. stał się jej wieczystym użytkownikiem. W oparciu o tą umowę firma zdecydowała się usunąć pomnik. Spotkało się to z protestami środowisk żydowskich oraz władz miasta.

O zwrot cmentarza zabiega Związek Gmin Wyznaniowych Żydowskich w RP. Sprawa toczy się przed Komisją Regulacyjną, która zajmuje się restytucją mienia dawnych gmin żydowskich – głównie synagog i cmentarzy. Rozstrzygnięcia wciąż nie ma, ale City Star nie ustępuje.

Kilka dni temu firma zasłoniła blaszanym ogrodzeniem pusty już plac.

Ogrodzenie na cmentarzu w Płońsku (fot. nieznany/zbiory GWŻ w Warszawie)

„Cmentarz został ogrodzony w taki sposób, że nie wiemy, co się obecnie na nim dzieje. (…) Biorąc pod uwagę wcześniejsze działania tej firmy, obawiamy się, że jej działania mają na celu zniszczenie cmentarza żydowskiego oraz budowę na tym terenie centrum handlowego, na co nie możemy się zgodzić” – alarmują przewodniczący Związku Gmin Wyznaniowych Żydowskich w RP Lesław Piszewski oraz przewodnicząca Gminy Wyznaniowej Żydowskiej w Warszawie Anna Chipczyńska.

Wcześniej Gmina Wyznaniowa Żydowska w Warszawie wystąpiła o wpisanie cmentarza do rejestru zabytków.

Zapędy inwestora próbują powstrzymać także lokalne władze. Starostwo zawiesiło rozpatrzenie wniosku City Star o pozwolenie na budowę na cmentarzu centrum handlowego.

– Postępowanie zawieszono na czas nieokreślony, czyli do momentu, gdy Komisja Regulacyjna podejmie decyzję w sprawie – poinformowała Anna Goliasz ze Starostwa Powiatowego w Płońsku.

Zarząd City Star twierdzi, że w planie zagospodarowania przestrzennego nieruchomość przeznaczono pod zabudowę.

Problemem zajmują się również władze województwa. Jednym z sugerowanym rozwiązań jest przekazanie inwestorowi działki zamiennej. Spór trwa.

Źródło: Nie ma zgody na budowę na cmentarzu żydowskim w Płońsku, ale cmentarz ogrodzono [online] http://wyborcza.pl/1,91446,19851325,nie-ma-zgody-na-budowe-na-cmentarzu-zydowskim-w-plonsku-ale.html [dostęp: 05.04.2016].

Only 26 Jews left in this Indian city — and they still can’t get along

Danna Harman

The wedding of Sarah Cohen. At 93, she is Cochin’s oldest Jew. Courtesy of Sarah Cohen

The Jewish community of Cochin faces a dwindling population, neglected synagogues and cemeteries, and internal conflict that dates back centuries.

KERALA, INDIA – Cochin, a large port city in southwest India, boasts not one but two streets named “Jew.” There is the trinket-lined Jew Street in the pretty, touristy Mattancherry neighborhood, known by some as “Jew Town,” which is home to India’s oldest functioning synagogue, Paradesi. And nine kilometers away in crowded downtown Ernakulam, amid the wholesalers hawking plastic flip flops and fried banana chips, is the second Jew Street. Hidden behind a pet fish and flower shop, is another, less visited synagogue whose ark is empty, its Torah scrolls gone — along with the congregation — to Israel.

These are just two of the seven synagogues in the coastal state of Kerala. (Another one, the striking Parur synagogue, is located 25 kilometers away on another Jew Street.) Despite these symbols, one thing Kerala does not have much of anymore is Jews. Today, there are only 26 Jews left in Cochin — though some don’t speak to, or even recognize, the others.


A worker sits on the back of a cart near a roadside crafts and antique stall in the Jew Town area of Cochin, India, May 29, 2015. / Credit Bloomberg

According to some accounts, the first Jews arrived in Kerala as merchants in the 11th century B.C.E. and sent ivory, monkeys and parrots from here back to King Solomon’s temple in the Kingdom of Israel. Other narratives suggest they showed up later, after the destruction of the second temple, settling in Cranganore, the ancient capital of Cochin.

When the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela visited India around 1170, he reported that there were about 1000 Jews in the south, “all of them black.” He was referring to the Malabari Jews, so named after the Malabar coastline. Starting in the late 16th century, the Malabaris were joined by other, lighter skinned Jews arriving from Portugal, Spain and elsewhere in Europe. The communities, by most accounts, never mixed well or at all, either because of racism, as the older community claims, or personal and cultural differences, as the others explain.
Welcomed by the local rulers and populations, the communities thrived until the late 1940s, when both Israel and India gained independence within months of each other, spurring a mass exodus in both communities from here to the Holy Land.

At 93, Sarah Cohen is Cochin’s oldest Jew. / Danna Harman

Depending on what time of the day one catches her in her little home-turned-embroidery-and-trinket-store in Jew Town, she can sometimes seem a little confused.

But when asked how many Jews remain in Cochin today, she doesn’t hesitate: “Six,” she says. This is because she doesn’t count the Malabari Jews downtown. She does count herself and the members of the Hallegua family three doors down — not enough for a minyan at the famous 1568 Paradesi Synagogue down the street.

“But we come together and sing songs,” she says, putting on her glasses to see who she is speaking with.

“Those Jews [in Mattancherry] are idiots,” snorts Josephai Elias, known to all as Babu, who is the unofficial leader of the Malabari Jewish community in Ernakulam. Babu, 60, owns the Ernakulam pet fish and flower shop and single-handedly cares for the Kadavumbagam Synagogue behind it, which has sat at this spot since the 16th or 17th century and has not been used since the 1970s.

Josephai Elias, known as Babu, the unofficial leader of the Malabari
Jewish community in Ernakulam. / Credit Danna Harman

A trained kosher butcher, he says he refuses to “cut chicken” for the tiny white Jewish community, referring to Cohen and her neighbors. They reject him; he rejects them.

Relations between Babu and the other Malabari Jews — most of them his own brothers — are not perfect either, he admits with a shrug. He is ready to pack up and leave.

“Twice I wanted to move to Israel,” he says. Once, his grandmother begged him to stay. The next time, his mother made it clear she couldn’t do without him. Of his nine siblings, four have made aliyah, and the rest have stayed in Kerala, but either married non-Jews or are no longer interested in Jewish community issues.

Babu prays alone most Shabbats, he says, sitting on one of the wooden synagogue benches, with orange, blue and green lamps lighting the room from above. “What can I do?” He asks. “At least I pray from the heart.”

Babu’s eldest daughter Avithal, 27, fell in love with Israel on a Birthright tour and stayed to do a master’s degree at the Technion. Then she fell in love with an American Jewish immigrant from Maryland. The wedding is next month in Haifa. His younger daughter, 24-year-old Leya, moved to Mumbai for school and now works at the Jewish Community Center there. He hopes she’ll move to Israel as well and find a groom there. “She is a very good cook,” he says, “and a wonderful dancer!”

The only thing keeping Babu in Cochin is the synagogue. And he is not the only one concerned with the future and fate of this and other Jewish landmarks there. The 8,000 Cochin Jews living in Israel have discussed this issue at annual gatherings, and other Jewish communities around the world have also shown an interest. Meanwhile, the Indian authorities ­— the government archeological survey in particular — have put their minds to the matter, along with a local ecotourism project.

A threatened symbol of Jewish presence

Prof. C. Karmachandran, a retired history and government
teacher who is working to preserve a Jewish cemetery. / Danna Harman

One person who has dedicated years of his life to the question of preservation is a retiree who goes by the name of Prof. C. Karmachandran. A retired history and government teacher, Karmachandran, who is not Jewish, is passionate about — and some would say obsessed with — the fate of the Jewish cemetery in Mala, a sprawling town 50 kilometers north of Mattancherry and Ernakulam. It is the largest Jewish burial ground in India, he claims, and the final resting place of what he estimated to be between 2500-3000 Jews.
“This is one of the few and most important surviving symbols of Jewish presence in Kerala,” Karmachandran says.

The last Jews of Mala, approximately 300 of them, left for Israel in early 1955. Before doing so, documents show, they signed an official agreement with the local municipality entrusting it with the care and conservation of the cemetery as well as the synagogue. The synagogue, it was stipulated, should never be used as another house of worship or turned into a slaughterhouse.

While the former synagogue has been nominally watched over by authorities and used from time to time for educational or cultural functions, the cemetery down the road is a different story: A soccer stadium is slated to be built there.
“The cemetery is being destroyed by the local authorities,” says Karmachandran, charging them with cashing in on the real estate. “If we do not prevent this, there will be nothing to preserve for future generations.” He adds, “The situation is pathetic.”

Karmachandran is not alone in this struggle. He belongs to a group of activists — among them Hindus, Muslims, and Christians — who have been fighting for the preservation of the Mala cemetery for several years.

One of many “Jew Streets” in the state of Kerala, India./ Credit Danna Harman

So far, the tiny remaining Cochin community has voiced support for the campaign, but has not actively joined it, either because they are too old or too caught up in their own preservations struggles. Karmachandran understands this, but hopes the larger Jewish Indian community will spread awareness of the situation. Most helpful, he says, would be for Israeli leaders to raise the matter with the Indian government, which, under Prime Minister Narenda Modi, has become closer to Israel.

Karmachandran admits that after years of neglect, there is precious little to preserve. Today, only three tombstones remain, all with Hebrew engravings.

But the fight is a matter of principle, stresses Karmachandran, as well as a test case of India’s ability to safeguard its rich multi-ethnic heritage. “We have a tradition of protecting our minorities. They were never treated as second rate citizens in Kerala,” he says. “I am not Jewish, but I am proud of the Jewish culture. It is part of our Indian culture.”

Danna Harman, Haaretz’s former Europe correspondent, returned to Israel this year to write feature stories for the paper’s new digital edition. Prior to joining Haaretz, Danna worked for the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) as their Africa Bureau Chief, based in Nairobi, as well as their Washington, D.C.-based national feature writer, and their Latin America bureau chief (in a joint appointment with USA TODAY), based in Mexico City.

Danna has further travelled the globe on special reporting assignments for CSM and other papers and magazines to everywhere from Iraq, Yemen, Burma and Afghanistan to the jungles of Papua New Guinea. She began her journalism career 16 years ago as an Associated Press local hire in her hometown of Jerusalem, and later became the Jerusalem Post’s diplomatic correspondent, covering three prime ministers and half a dozen peace talks. Danna has a BA from Harvard University, and an MA in Islamic Studies from Cambridge University.

Antysemicka nagonka na polskiego ambasadora w USA

TVN24

Ryszard Schnepf nie wytrzymał „Boję się o dzieci. Boję się o Polskę” – pisze Ryszard Schnepf, polski ambasador w Waszyngtonie. Zlustrowany w prawicowej gazecie i opluty setkami komentarzy wsparcia od rządu nie dostał. A szkoda, bo ambasador to Polska.