JERUSALEM NEWS
NEWS AND INFORMATION
Events, happenings, and Opinions Concerning
Israel, Israelites, Judah, and Everyone Else
News, Views, Blues, Jews, Whos, and US
Jerusalem News 858
17 Iyar Nisan 5769, 11 May 2009
Contents:
1.
EU
Legalizes Kosher Slaughter, Pro-Animal Groups Want Ban
2. No Substance To Rumors of
Transfering Mount Zion to the
Vatican
3. Efrat:
Abortions in Israel the worst enemy!
1.
EU
Legalizes Kosher Slaughter, Pro-Animal Groups Want Ban
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/131239
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Extract:
The European Union Parliament on Wednesday voted to legalize kosher
slaughtering, which has been outlawed by six countries -- but a critical vote
next month will determine if EU countries can effectively get around the
approval by demanding pre-stunning, which violates Jewish dietary laws.
The European Jewish Congress and conference of European Jewish Rabbis lobbied
heavily for the bill and defeated efforts by animal rights groups to ban kosher
slaughtering, which demands swift death to the animal by use of a sharp knife at
the throat.
Animal rights groups have claimed the method is cruel and have succeeded in
banning kosher slaughtering in Latvia,
Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania.
Switzerland allows the method for
poultry but not for other animals.
Rabbi Michael Melchior, former chief rabbi of Norway and currently an Israeli
Knesset Member, has said that kosher slaughter is actually more humane than the
practices in slaughterhouses. "The Torah forbids cruelty to animals, and the
shechitah [slaughter] process ensures that the animal loses consciousness
immediately," he explained. "We have been dealing with this issue for many
years, and there are many scientific studies that back us up."
The crucial vote on pre-stunning worries European Jews. "The [proposed]
regulation must not be drafted to allow governments in Europe to threaten our
culture and our freedom to observe our religion," said Philip Carmel of the
Conference of European Rabbis. Serge Cwajgenbaum, Secretary General of the
European Jewish Congress, added that "the Jewish community takes seriously the
issues of human rights and the humane treatment of animals."
The anti-kosher slaughtering bills have been viewed as anti-Semitic by many Jews
in Europe, where Hitler banned the method as one of his first steps against
Jews.
When Holland called kosher slaughtering "cruel" in 2003 but allowed Jews to
continue using the method, Rabbi Melchior responded, "They simply don't want
foreigners, and they don't want Jews. I won't say this is the only motivation,
but it's certainly no coincidence that one of the first things Nazi Germany
forbade was kosher slaughter.?
Attempts by Swiss Jews to lift its
100-year-old ban on kosher slaughtering caused an anti-Semitic backlash. In
Sweden, there have been attempts to forbid circumcision, a Jewish law that has
bound Jews for 3,500 years.
2. No Substance to Rumors of a Mount
Zion Transfer
http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/05/07/top_stories/doc4a01526569b5f208885862.txt
Peres: Israeli Would Not Agree To Hand Over Site To Vatican
By David Bedein, Middle East Correspondent
Extract:
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Jerusalem. As the Papal visit in Jerusalem approaches, rumors have run rampant
that the Israeli government, including Israeli President Shimon Peres, plans to
use the timing of the visit to endorse a diplomatic request from the Catholic
Church to hand over the site of the Last Supper on Mount Zion in Jerusalem to
Vatican authorities.
When reached in Washington, Mr. Peres, now on a sensitive state visit there,
said the rumors were untrue and explained the Israeli government would not agree
to such a request.
This unsubstantiated rumor began in 1993, when the late Dr. Manfred Lehman, a
historian with a great interest in the Vatican, told reporters at the time of
the signing of the Vatican-Israel diplomatic agreement, that the Israeli
government had made secret agreements to hand over such a site in the future.
People who were engaged in an e-mail campaign against the Papal visit started
the rumor. They claimed that the Israeli government was about to make this
gesture to the Vatican.
When these e-mail campaigners were asked for documentation of their claim, they
said that they had none.
Based on that e-mail campaign, Israel Army radio, the Jerusalem Post and UPI
still published the claim that the Israeli government had agreed to hand over
Mount Zion during this Papal visit.
None of these news agencies had any substantiation for their reports from any
Israeli government official.
The most prominent site in question is the room on Mount Zion said to mark the
burial site of Kings Solomon and Hezekiah, known by Catholics as the Last Supper
Room.
It is also located in the same structure that houses King David's Tomb. Said to
be the oldest Catholic church in the world, the building has also served as a
synagogue and a mosque in the past; Muslim inscriptions still adorn the walls.
Since 1967, however, it has been under Israeli control, part of a complex leased
and run by a Jewish seminary for over 40 years.
An estimated 10,000 Jewish students have studied in this seminary, also known as
a yeshiva, since then. For many of them, it was their first stop on their way to
becoming more Jewish and their first step in their immigration to Israel.
Shmuel Ben-Shmuel, the head of the Religions Department in the Israel Foreign
Ministry, affirmed there is no chance of Israel "giving away" this property.
Israeli Attorney Aviad Visoly, who represents the Jewish seminary on Mount
Zion, said that recent meetings between Israel and the Vatican had nothing to
do with Mount Zion, adding the meeting is held annually and will be nothing more
than a briefing on the status of the negotiations thus far.
He said Israel has politely decline the Vatican request for sovereignty on Mt.
Zion, and the Vatican respected that position.
3.
Efrat:
Abortions in Israel the worst enemy!
http://samsonblinded.org/efrat/
Over 1,700, 000 abortions in Israel mostly for economic reasons!
Last year in an average week in Israel
9 people were killed in road accidents
1 Israeli soldier was murdered by Arabs
500 babies were lost to abortion mainly due to economic concerns.
There are close to 50,000 abortions in Israel every year
Many of these abortions could be prevented, if only the woman was provided some
basic social and financial support.
Last year alone, Efrat saved the lives of 3,027 Jewish children in Israel.
If we had twice our budget we could have saved twice as many children.
No Country Could Survive Two State
Solution!
Map of Proposed Two State Solution
No Country Could Survive!
