Pro-Israel Irish Christians To Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister: Reject Israel Boycott
(JNS.org) Irish Christian Friends of Israel (ICFI) called on Eamon Gilmore, Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs and trade, to reject a push to label West Bank goods as “settler” products at the European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting of June 14. “We appeal to the Minister not to use the last EU Foreign Ministers Council meeting, to sponsor the labeling of West Bank Settlement products and the subsequent proposed ban on them,” ICFI said in a statement.
Last month, Gilmore announced that Ireland will embark on a campaign to urge fellow EU states to label Israeli products from the West Bank as “settler” products and to eventually encourage a boycott. “Settlements on the West Bank are illegal and therefore the produce of those settlements should be treated as illegal throughout the European Union,” Gilmore said, the Jerusalem Post reported. Ireland currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
Sweden Considering Reducing Aid to Palestinians
(Jerusalem Post)–The Swedish government may cut back on financial assistance to the Palestinians following their failure to move forward with peace negotiations with Israel, Swedish news site The Local reported. Sweden donates $107 million annually to Gaza and the West Bank, a move that Development aid minister Gunilla Carlsson says has been made to fortify the Palestinian’s position in any peace talks. However, if there are no negotiations, then the Swedish demonstration of support would become meaningless, she said. “I don’t want to haggle with Swedish aid money, but I can only take the perspective of the Swedish taxpayers….One wants results.”
Archbishop of Canterbury to visit Israel
(JNS.org)—England’s new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, and Jordan next week. Welby, whose father was Jewish, recently discovered that he had lost relatives in the Holocaust and on his trip to Israel will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. After Welby was appointed as the head of the Church of England in November 2012, he found out that his father was born a Jew. Welby’s Jewish grandfather, Bernard Weiler, came to England from Germany in in the late 19th century and married Londoner Edith James. Weiler and James were both described as “Hebrews” on the ship registry of an overseas trip they took.
Memorial To Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Is Vandalized
Warsaw—Vandals defaced the entrance to the memorial mound of Mordechai Anielewicz, commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters earlier this week. “Jude Raus! (Jews Out!)” was scrawled on the walls, but the Polish police are not hopeful of finding the vandals, because security at the site is lax. The memorial is on Mila Street, the street made famous by Leon Uris in his book, Mila 18, which told the story of the uprising, and was headquarters for Anielewicz and his fighters.
