09/06 Links Pt2: UN “human rights defender”, AJ “Pal supermom” claims Jews drink Arab blood ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Palestinian ‘Supermom’ Claims That Jews Drink Arab Blood

The United Nations has crowned her a “human rights defender,” while Al Jazeera hails her as a “Palestinian supermom.” But Manal Tamimi’s links to violence — and tweets accusing Jews of “drinking Palestinian blood” — are prompting some of her backers to reconsider their support.
Tamimi, a 45-year-old mother of four, is a leader of the Popular Resistance Organizing Committee in the town of Nabi Saleh, near the Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled city of Ramallah.
Nearly every Friday for the past seven-and-a-half years, Tamimi and her colleagues have marched to the nearby Jewish community of Halamish to demand its expulsion. Halamish is the village where — on July 21 — a Palestinian terrorist stabbed to death three members of the Salomon family at their Shabbat dinner table.
During the weekly Friday protests, many of the marchers have hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers who guard the town; the soldiers have responded with tear gas or rubber bullets. Tamimi, her husband Bilal and their children have attracted international attention by posting videos of the Israeli soldiers on the internet. The Tamimis contend that the soldiers’ arrests of rock throwers constitutes persecution of the residents of Nabi Saleh.
Tamimi was included in a list of “human rights defenders” in a recent report by S. Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the disputed territories.
In response, NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based organization that tracks the activities and funding of self-described human rights groups, informed the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that Tamimi has authored tweets such as: “Vampire zionist celebrating their Kebore day [written on Yom Kippur] by drinking Palestinian bloods, yes our blood is pure & delicious but it will kill u at the end.”

How Ted Kennedy fathered BDS and Linda Sarsour

We were talking about the crisis in Tel Aviv, where thousands of infiltrators have taken over parts of the town, when my friend said it’s just as bad here in the United States, except that these invaders were brought here legally. “There’s more than one Linda Sarsour,” he said. “Thousands. Maybe millions.”
For him – and for many others – it’s personal. Marv has two kids going back to college in a few weeks and he fears for their safety.
“In my day,” he said, “the college years were the best of times.”
Not so in our day. His two kids aren’t saying much about it, choosing a brave front, but he knows they’re glum about campus life gone so terribly wrong.
Because going back to school now means going back to BDS.
That means facing the taunts, slurs and anti-Semitic Beer Hall tactics that are a specialty of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement peopled largely by “students” who came over from Arab countries…courtesy of Ted Kennedy and the Immigration Act of 1965.
“Our kids are being intimidated, harassed and threatened by them,” says Marv. “They make life miserable. It’s the biggest domestic alarm facing America today.”
He added, “It’s about time you wrote something about this.”

Can't We Talk About This - Theo Van Gogh's last words

Can’t We Talk About This? The Islamic Jihad Against Free Speech, a shocking new film and follow-up video series detailing the concerted effort by international organizations to compel the U.S. and other Western countries to curtail the freedom of speech and criminalize criticism of Islam.
Featuring exclusive new interviews with Pamela Geller, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Geert Wilders, Mark Steyn, Douglas Murray, Ezra Levant, Lars Vilks, Garland Muhammad cartoon contest winner Bosch Fawstin, and many other heroes of freedom, this web series will be the first ever to expose the war on free speech. It is certain to shock the American public and awaken many. These interviews reveal events at Garland and its aftermath that have never before been made public, and demonstrate how far advanced the war on free speech really is.

IsraellyCool: Palestine Poster Propaganda A Reminder of Fraudulent Nature of Palestinian Cause

The Times of Israel reports on a current propaganda effort by the haters.
A little over two-thousand years ago, while traveling from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus were stopped by a giant cement wall.
It’s not exactly how the New Testament story is told, but in a recently printed version of the iconic “Visit Palestine” poster, that’s how the scene is portrayed.
The posters, widely available in Jerusalem’s Old City market, constitute unsubtle criticism of Israel’s security barrier, which Palestinians say is an unjust impediment to their freedom of movement.
The poster also taps into the recent trend in Palestinian nationalism, in which Jesus of Nazareth is regarded as a Palestinian. The poster suggests that even Jesus couldn’t have made it into modern day Jerusalem from Bethlehem.
There is so much about this that is symbolic of the palestinian cause – namely shooting themselves in the foot.
For a start, they are using a Jewish agency poster, showing Jewish presence in ‘Palestine’ pre-1948.
As the report mentions, this is “Visit Palestine” poster first designed in 1936 to promote Jewish tourism to the Holy Land prior to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. It is a favorite of Israel haters and antisemites, who are apparently unaware of the poster’s origin, or banking on their followers not being familiar with Google.
But more than that, they are using a Jew – perhaps the world’s most famous Jew – to try and make their point.

Daily Wire: Sarsour:I Was An 'Ordinary White Girl' 'Til I Put On A Hijab

Linda Sarsour’s status as a “person of color” is contingent on her wearing a hijab (an Islamic headscarf for females), according to her own self-description in a video segment excerpted by Elder of Zion:
When I wasn’t wearing a hijab I was just some ordinary white girl from New York City. Wearing hijab made you know that I was Muslim.
If defining “whiteness” by skin color, Sarsour qualifies as a fair-skinned person.
Sarsour regularly describes herself as a “person of color”; a term deployed by theLleft to refer to non-whites. She regularly describes “white supremacy” as a pervasive social force and political attitude among Americans, framing “people of color” as broadly marginalized through a neo-Marxist sociological paradigm.

Washington Standard: LOL: Linda Sarsour Claims that Wearing a Hijab Transformed Her from “White” Into a “Person of Color”

Editor’s Note: This is as ridiculous as Bruce Jenner attempting to become a woman through body mutilation or Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who “identifies” as black. People were up in arms over Dolezal when that story broke to the point she lost her job with the NAACP. I wonder if black Americans are going to find this to be the straw that broke the camel’s back with Ms. Sarsour. Sarsour has a lot to learn in the that blacks can’t change their skin color, but she can take off and put on that rag on her head anytime she feels like it. It just demonstrates that Sarsour will use any means to advance her seditious message.
Elder of Ziyon has made the most amazing discovery: Linda Sarsour “magically changed from white to a ‘woman of color’ in an instant,” just by putting on a hijab.

As University of Cape Town Debates Israel Boycott, South African Pro-BDS Leader Faces Legal Action Over ‘Jewish Soap’ Holocaust Tweet

The leader of a black nationalist organization in South Africa with close ties to the BDS movement is facing legal charges over a virulently antisemitic social media post.
On Monday, South Africa’s Jewish Board of Deputies (BoD) announced it was launching legal proceedings against Andile Mngxitama‚ the leader of the radical Black Land Black First (BLF) movement, over an August 23 tweet in which he remarked, “For those claiming the legacy of the holocaust is ONLY negative think about the lampshades and Jewish soap.”
Mngxitama later sent out a further tweet referring to “the aroma of the burning flesh from the furnace of the holocaust may wet [sic] the appetite of the SA cannibals.”
Announcing its decision to take Mngxitama to South Africa’s Equality Court — which adjudicates on matters including discrimination and hate speech — the BoD said his comments‚ “in addition to the distress they have caused to the Jewish community‚ have been greeted with widespread outrage throughout South African society.”
The statement continued: “The SAJBD has, therefore, decided to approach the Equality Court to vindicate the violation of our rights to dignity and to prevent comments such as these from being made in the future.”

A New Stanford Study Asked Students If There’s Anti-Semitism on Campus. Here’s What They Found.

As Jewish students head back to school, one of the many issues on their minds—and that of their parents—is anti-Semitism. Recent extreme incidents of anti-Jewish prejudice at campuses like Oberlin have colored the perception of higher education for many, as have anti-Israel boycott campaigns. At the same time, other campuses like Stanford have rallied around their Jewish students in the face of anti-Semitism, painting a different picture.
This week, Stanford’s Research Group in Education and Jewish Studies released a study about Jewish life on campus that dives into these concerns, based on interviews with 66 students from five California campuses: UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State University, and Stanford. The findings, however, don’t fit neatly into any of the usual boxes.
I spoke with one of the researchers, Stanford associate professor of education and Jewish studies Ari Kelman, about the study, its implications, and his own experiences on campus.
So what did you learn from your conversations with these students?
We had two major findings. All these are based on our limited sample that was not a representative sample of Jews on campus. Number one, based on the California campuses we looked at, we didn’t find Jewish students who felt themselves under threat or in hostile conditions. We didn’t find students who characterized their campuses as anti-Semitic. And the other finding is that with respect to the Israel/Palestine conflict, we found that students choose to put themselves on the sidelines of that debate. They are turned off by the tone of that debate on both sides. They find it vociferous and strident in a way that doesn’t capture their pretty complicated understandings of the issue.
They’re turned off by the expectation from people who are critical of Israel that Jews are responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. And they’re similarly turned off by the assumptions of people in the Jewish community that all Jews will get behind the actions of the state of Israel. Unwilling to be conscripted into both sides of that fight, and not liking how that fight goes down on campus, they often choose to walk away.

NGO Monitor: Consolidated Palestinian NGO Funding Database

The central role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the Arab-Israeli conflict is facilitated by substantial financial support, primarily from donor governments. The following analysis demonstrates the trail of funding leading from foreign governments to self-proclaimed Palestinian human rights NGOs. Some of these groups also have alleged ties to terrorist organizations. Some recipients are involved in the whitewashing of violence and terrorism, legal warfare (“lawfare”) against Israeli officials, BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns, and even promoting antisemitic propaganda.
This analysis will present the details of funding to 36 Palestinian NGOs, including the identities of the donors (government or private), the grant’s time frame, and the source of the data. The report utilizes two primary data sources: NGO annual reports and websites and information published by donor governments.
There are two unique challenges in researching funding to Palestinian NGOs, compared to Israeli grantees:

NGO Transparency: NGOs registered in the Palestinian Authority are bound by an “NGO Law,” instituted in 2000. According to Article 13 of the law, “No later than four months following the end of the fiscal year, an NGO must present to the relevant ministry… a financial report approved by an accountant and includes detailed income and expenditures of the organization, relative to the property listed in its name.” (NGO Monitor translation). Not included is reference to any requirement that these reports be made available to the general public.

Donor Government Transparency: The level of reporting and transparency differs by country. Many states do not publish exact grant amounts or details regarding their grantees.

When "Progressivism" Crushes Muslim Women

In spite of repeated and verified accounts of the physical and sexual abuse of women and girls throughout Muslim parts of the world, Western feminists at best remain silent, and at worst supportive of the male oppressors.
It seems illogical for self-described "progressives" to turn a blind eye to the misery of fellow females forced to endure the kind of unimaginable treatment documented by best-selling authors Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Azar Nafisi. The reason for that is rooted in a regard for "multiculturalism" in which anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism are considered more vital than the victimization of women.
In such a value system, the highest priority is the ultimate goal of destroying pluralistic and democratic Western values, which the far-left views as a euphemism for conservative, capitalist, colonialist, imperialist ideals that must be eradicated. They do not even bother to realize that throughout history, Muslim conquests -- not even speaking of Asia -- but of the Christian Byzantine Empire, the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, Greece, Spain and Northern Cyprus have been even more repressive, brutal and absolute. According to this "liberal," essentially totalitarian, worldview, the United States and Israel are what the Iranian ayatollahs call the "Great Satan" and the "Little Satan," while radical groups and regimes that oppose America and the Jewish state are supposedly allies.
It is thus that Judith Butler, professor of comparative literature at University of California, Berkeley and a "gender and third-wave feminist queer theorist," justifies her support for Islamist terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which she referred to at a 2006 anti-Israel teach-in as "social movements that are progressive... part of a global Left."

Combating the UN's (illegal) anti-Jewish BDS campaign

Ezra Levant of TheRebel.media interviews Benjamin Ryberg from The Lawfare Project about his group's efforts to combat the Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign against Israel:

CFIA stalls on exposing bureaucrat behind memo “banning” Israeli wine

Rebel viewers may recall our story about a junior bureaucrat at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency who sent an unauthorized memo to provincial liquor boards, indicating that it was unacceptable to stock Israeli wines.
It was all politically-driven garbage of course, and once the story hit the news, CFIA quickly withdrew its ludicrous order.
But The Rebel wanted to know who exactly was responsible for this fiasco — and find out if rumours were true:
That the CFIA bureaucrat who carried out this anti-Israeli act was a member of the Green Party, were true.
To that end, we submitted a Freedom of Information request.
SEE the incredible response we received, which brings to mind jokes about the speed at which government workers operate.
Once again, Justin Trudeau’s pledge about open and transparent government has bitten the dust.

Israeli wine ban: Agency won't reveal memo's author

PreOccupiedTerritory: Six Flags Introduces ‘Punch A Nazi In The Mouth’ Game (satire)

One of the largest theme park operators in the world has installed a new feature in its gaming arcades and contest booths in which contestants don a boxing glove and punch a Nazi in the mouth.
Punch A Nazi was installed over the weekend at Six Flags Great Adventure, and company executives intend to open similar attractions in other Six Flags parks through the year, in addition to licensing the game for use by other theme park operators. Initial popularity has proved promising, they reported Wednesday, with most players not even asking for prizes or prize tickets.
“We have folks lined up to play, and sometimes one or two ask what you have to do to win a prize, but most just pay money, punch the Nazi, and leave – or get back in line to do it again,” noted park staff member Anne Tiffa. “Technically, you’re supposed to punch the Nazi in the mouth hard enough for a bell to ring, but nobody seems to care.”
The attraction has proved so popular, in fact, that park management installed all seven units in locations around the facility, instead of keeping two in storage as backup in case one of the others malfunctioned. Visitors spoke positively of playing the game.
“You don’t get to punch Nazis around here very much,” lamented Lynne de Sarsur of Brooklyn. “I’m glad someone is doing something about that.”

CAMERA Op-Ed: USA Today’s Orwellian Report on Anti-Jewish Violence

In his dystopian novel 1984, the British author George Orwell famously wrote: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” In a similar vein, a recent USA Today report that details anti-Jewish violence is headlined “Palestinians give peaceful protest a chance.”
In reality, the August 3, 2017, dispatch, by special correspondent Noga Tarnoplsky, reported the complete opposite.
The article covered Palestinian Arab objections to Israeli efforts to increase security measures at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which sits on the Temple Mount —Judaism's holiest site.
Israeli authorities sought to install metal detectors at the site after a July 14, 2017, terror attack in which three Arab Israelis murdered two Israeli policemen with weapons hidden in the mosque. Holy sites of all faiths around the world employ similar security measures.
Yet the Palestinians reacted to the announcement of measures designed to protect both them and Israelis from violence—with violence.
As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) and others have detailed, Palestinian authorities employed the so-called “Al-Aqsa libel”—claiming that Jews held secret designs to “destroy” or “defile” the mosque— to incite anti-Jewish violence.
In the past, this lie has often preceded anti-Jewish massacres. This time was no different.

After UCI Sanctions for SJP, LA Times Gives Voice Only to Those Who Drowned Out Other Voices

On May 10, Students for Justice in Palestine disrupted a pro-Israel event at UC Irvine with hateful shouting and vitriolic chants, preventing IDF reservists from continuing with the panel until the group left. As a result, the campus administration slapped SJP with a two-year probation and affirmed the university's commitment to "protect everyone’s right to express themselves without disruption."
Meanwhile, a Los Angeles Times article about the university's decision to sanction the group for its attempts to drown out others' voices in violation of university policy gave voice to only one side: Students for Justice in Palestine.
The one-sided Sept. 4 article (online only) entitled "Pro-Palestinian UCI students appeal sanctions after Israeli event protest" dedicated three out of seven paragraphs to statements provided by SJP. It reported:
In a statement, representatives for the group said that their clapping and chanting at the event -- sponsored by Students Supporting Israel -- was in response to aggressive behavior by a member of the soldiers' group.
"It's outrageous that the university is punishing us, students, instead of protecting us from aggressive foreign military agents on campus," Daniel Carnie, a Jewish UCI students, said in a statement. "We're a diverse group of Palestinian, black, Latino and Jewish students who attended the soldiers' speaking event and asked critical questions." . . .
Students for Justice in Palestine said its members have been harassed and cyber-bullied since the event; the group said it has filed a discrimination complaint.
In contrast, Los Angeles Times reporter Hillary Davis devoted not one sentence to panelists representing Reservists on Duty, or to representatives from Students Supporting Israel, which hosted the event. Nor did she convey the views of pro-Israel students who attended.

Political NGOs and dissonance in BBC report on Jerusalem eviction

Readers find a 21-word reaction from a member of the evicted family and a thirty-six word long comment from the political NGO ‘Peace Now’. The article does not include any response from or on behalf of the property’s owner.
The report correctly explains that the property in question – which is actually located in the Shimon HaTsadik neighbourhood rather than in Sheikh Jarrah as stated – was originally owned by Jews.
“The land in Sheikh Jarrah was originally owned by a family among the thousands of Jews who fled or were expelled from eastern Jerusalem by Jordanian forces in the 1948-9 war.”
The purchase of the land upon which the property was built was made in 1876.
“…in 1876 the cave [of Shimon HaTzadik] and the nearby field were purchased by Jews, involving a plot of 18 dunams (about 4.5 acres) that included 80 ancient olive trees. The property was purchased for 15,000 francs and was transferred to the owner through the Majlis al-Idara, the seat of the Turkish Pasha and the chief justice. According to the contract, the buyers (the committee of the Sephardic community and the Ashkenazi Assembly of Israel) divided the area between them equally, including the cave on the edge of the plot.
Dozens of Jewish families built homes on the property. On the eve of the Arab Revolt in 1936 there were hundreds of Jews living there. When the disturbances began they fled, but returned a few months later and lived there until 1948. When the Jordanians captured the area, the Jews were evacuated and for nineteen years were barred from visiting either their former homes or the cave of Shimon HaTzadik. […]
After 1948 the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Shimon HaTzadik came under Jordanian control and the Jewish-owned land was handed over to the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property. In the mid-1950s the Jordanian government settled Arabs there. They took over the homes of the Jews and paid rent to the Jordanian Custodian.”
However readers are – as usual in BBC content – encouraged to view Jewish presence on land legally purchased over 140 years ago as ‘illegal settlement’ and the BBC offers no explanation for its promotion of that incongruous and partial politically motivated narrative.

UKMW prompts Indy correction to story about 2006 Gaza beach incident

Editors agreed, and amended the language accordingly:
Huda Ali Ghalia was just 12 years old when her family was enjoying a day out at Sudaniya beach in northern Gaza in June 2006.Suddenly, explosions – alleged to be the result of Israeli shelling – hit the beach killing several people, including her father, stepmother and five of her siblings.
We also pointed out that the following paragraph, towards the end of the article, included an erroneous claim:
While the Israeli military initially said it was responsible for the bombing, which killed eight civilians and wounded more than 30 during the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hamas, a subsequent Israel Defence Force (IDF) investigation found that the explosion had been caused by a Palestinian landmine.
Contrary to this claim, Israel did NOT ever admit responsibility. Rather, during a cabinet meeting two days after the incident, Israel’s prime minister merely expressed “regret” for the civilian deaths while awaiting results of the investigation.
Editors again agreed, and revised the passage to more accurately reflect the Israeli response:
The Israeli military initially said it regretted the loss of life – the explosions killed eight civilians and wounded more than 30 and came during the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hamas. However, a subsequent Israel Defence Force (IDF) investigation concluded that the explosion had been caused by a Palestinian landmine.

Daily Mirror posts 4 year-old pics of Gaza ‘Tunnel Children’, pretends they’re current.

On Sept. 2nd, Daily Mirror published a photo essay on the “tunnel children” of Gaza, “brave youngsters” who, we are told, keep the economy in the strip going.
Though most don’t typically turn to the British tabloid for hard ‘news’, the piece, by Tom Howell, doesn’t adhere to even the most minimum standards of accuracy, and is in fact more akin to Hamas propaganda than anything resembling journalism.
For starters, it completely ignores the use of such tunnels by Hamas for terror purposes. It also perversely describes Hamas’s illegal use of child labor in these tunnels as something noble, rather than the cynical exploitation of young boys by a terrorist organization.
The piece is also in some sort of time warp, as Egypt closed all but a few of the smuggling tunnels in 2013 and 2014, flooding most of them with raw sewage, collapsing what was known as the “underground Gaza economy”. Sure enough, when we did a search, it turns out that all of the tunnels in the series were first published in 2013, a fact not revealed by editors.
In fact, one of the captions was copied almost word for word from a 2013 Reuters story. See this caption which appeared beneath another Daily Mirror photo of a child working in the tunnels.

HR Prompts Gaza Strip Crossing Correction

On September 1, The Independent reported on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ visit to Israel, including this paragraph, which sought to paraphrase his comments:

We contacted The Independent, pointing out that the Rafah crossing is the sole responsibility of Egypt and it was nigh impossible that Guterres had said anything about Israel opening it.
In fact, while Israel has allowed enormous amounts of goods and aid into the Gaza Strip and facilitated transfer of humanitarian and medical cases, Egypt’s border at Rafah has, in recent times, remained mostly shut.

Man who burned Jewish effigy sues over anti-Semite label

The Polish man sentenced to prison for burning an effigy of a haredi Jew said he will sue the leaders of the Wroclaw, Poland Jewish community for publicly naming him an anti-Semite.
Piotr Rybak, who was sentenced to three months in prison for the November 2015 incident, said the leaders named in his lawsuit are Aleksander Gleichgewicht, chairman of the Jewish community in Wrocław; and Rafał Dutkiewicz, president of the Wroclaw Jewish community.
Rybak burned an effigy of a haredi Orthodox Jew during a demonstration in Wroclaw against accepting refugees in Poland. The original Wroclaw court sentenced him to 10 months in prison. An appeals court reduced the sentence to three months in prison.
Rybak asked for the possibility of serving his penalty under house arrest with an electronic surveillance system. The original court rejected this request. On Tuesday, the appeals court ordered the lower court to reconsider this request.
After leaving the courtroom, Rybak said: “With my lawyers we are already considering how to sue Dutkiewicz and Gleichgewicht, who called me a fascist, anti-Semite, and stinking nationalist.”

Polish rescuers of Jews during Shoah honored for ‘true heroism’

Some 30 Polish rescuers of Jews living in Warsaw during the Holocaust were honored by a foundation that assist Righteous Gentiles.
The rescuers who met Sunday at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jewry in Warsaw range in age from late 80s to 101, according to the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, or JFR.
The event was attended by foreign diplomats, religious leaders and community leaders, who recognized the rescuers’ heroism.
“For the State of Israel, as Jews and as human beings, it is our privilege to honor and remember the true heroism these Righteous emulate. They risked not only their lives, but the lives of their families to extend a helping hand to their Jewish neighbors in need. They serve as a moral compass and a beacon of hope in our society,” Ruth Cohen-Dar, deputy ambassador of Israel to Poland, said during the event.
“These are heroic people of exceptional character who risked their lives and often the lives of their families to save Jews during the Holocaust,” said Stanlee Stahl, the foundation’s executive vice president.

Israeli company wins contract in Asia

Elbit Systems Ltd. announced on Monday that it was awarded an approximately $11 million contract for the supply of an integrated maritime C4ISR system to an Asia-Pacific navy.
The contract, to be performed over a two-year period, will include interconnected coastal sensor towers, naval command centers and maritime C4I capabilities, as well as ongoing maintenance.
It will support commanders and other users (headquarters, command centers, coastal observation posts and vessels) throughout routine and special operations and will also be used for training and simulation.
Elbit Systems Land & C4I General Manager Yehuda Vered said, "As a leading C4ISR company, we were able to provide the customer with a complete situational awareness and networked real-time solution, integrating radar, electro-optic systems, radio and communications systems."

Bank Hapoalim, Microsoft join forces on Blockchain technology

Israel’s Bank Hapoalim and software giant Microsoft said Wednesday they would collaborate to set up a platform to create digital bank guarantees, based on Blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology is a leading global software platform for digital assets. Bank guarantees are a guarantee from a lending institution — like a bank — that ensures the liabilities of a debtor will be met. They enable customers to buy goods or equipment backed by the guarantee from the bank.
The cooperation with Microsoft will make Bank Hapoalim the first bank in Israel to harness Blockchain technology for the use in financial contracts, the lender said in a statement. The “pioneering project” will help make the process of signing up guarantors a simple and quicker process, the bank said — clients who require a bank guarantee today need to physically enter a branch, transfer the guarantee to the beneficiary and return it to the bank if not used.
“The new process will enable Bank Hapoalim customers to receive security documents in a digital, automated and secure manner, without physically coming to the branch and in a very short process,” Hapoalim’s chief executive officer Arik Pinto said in a statement. “The use of Blockchain technology will significantly improve the customer experience and the level of trust in the banking system.”

Israel set for $28 billion infrastructure spending boost

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday his office would soon publish a multiyear infrastructure spending plan worth over 100 billion shekels ($28 billion).
Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the planned projects would include private sector investment.
Bank of Israel Governor Karnit Flug told the meeting that improving public transport infrastructure would be one area of investment.
"The level of infrastructure in Israel is insufficient, particularly in the area of public transportation, and mainly in the major cities, but also in the electricity delivery system and in communication infrastructure," Flug told ministers.
"The volume of annual investment is low by international comparison, and we are therefore not closing the gap in the level of infrastructure compared to other advanced economies, which weighs down productivity and the growth potential of the economy."

2,546,153 travelers in Tel Aviv's airport

The number of travelers in August surpassed the Israel Airports Authority's (IAA) expectations, with over 2.5 million people passing through Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport in a single month.
At the beginning of August, it was expected that 2.3 million passengers would depart and arrive at Ben Gurion Airport.
However,according to the IAA, August saw 2,546,153 travelers pass through the airport, on 15,857 international and local flights. Over two million international passengers are expected to pass through the airport in September, representing a 12% rise.
Since January, the number of international tourists has risen 18%, reaching a record high of 20 million travelers since the beginning of the year.
According to the IAA, part of the reason for the rise is Israel's "Open Skies" agreement, and part is the 25% increase in the number of low-cost flights.
1.5 million passengers traveled via low-cost flights, representing a full 15% of the total number.

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