JERUSALEM – It seems almost Kafkaesque: Ten safety deposit boxes of never-published writings by Franz Kafka, their exact contents unknown, are trapped in courts and bureaucracy, much like one of the nightmarish visions created by the author himself. The papers, retrieved from bank vaults where they have sat untouched and unread for decades, could shed new light on one of … Read More
Thousands of marchers for captive soldier bring Israel’s cultural and financial capital to a standstill. The AP’s Aron Heller reports for KFWB Radio (Los Angeles) from Tel Aviv. [url href=”http://aronheller.com/articles/mass-march-for-captive-soldier-divides-israel “Watch the Video” target=external] [url href=”http://audioboo.fm/boos/149097-says-if-you-missed-ap-s-aron-heller-report-from-israel-on-the-calls-to-free-schalit-from-gaza-militants-on-kfwb-listens” content=”Listen to Report” target=external]
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) _ Thousands of marchers brought Israel’s cultural and financial capital to a standstill, urging the government to do whatever it takes to win freedom for a soldier captured four years ago by Gaza militants. Near Israel’s border with Gaza, thousands more gathered for a concert led by a world-famous conductor to press Hamas to let the … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel — Pounding his piano in blue-tinted sunglasses before nearly 50,000 screaming fans, Elton John took center stage in a battle over Israel’s image. The legendary British rocker’s concert on Thursday night followed a string of cancellations by artists like Elvis Costello and the Pixies. Resisting a growing wave of calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish … Read More
JERUSALEM — An Israeli-Arab lawmaker’s decision to join hundreds of activists on a pro-Palestinian flotilla has elevated her from relative political obscurity, transforming her into the poster child for the growing rift between Israel’s Jewish majority and its Arab minority. Unapologetic for defying Israel’s Gaza blockade and being on board the boat where activists clashed with Israeli commandos during last week’s … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — As a 9-year-old girl, Shoshana Neuman was forced by Nazi collaborators to march across what is now Ukraine in a brutal six-week trek that her father and sister did not survive. The only image she has of her dead family is a painting she drew 40 years later of an exhausted, bearded man, his eyes closed, hoisting a … Read More
PARDES HANNA, Israel (AP) — Some patients refuse to shower because it reminds them of the gas chambers. Others hoard meat in pillow cases because they fear going hungry. At the Shaar Menashe Mental Health Center in northern Israel, it’s as though the Holocaust never ended. As Israel on Sunday night begins its annual 24 hours of remembrance of the … Read More
JERUSALEM – Israel lifted months of censorship on a military espionage case Thursday, confirming the house arrest of a former female soldier charged with leaking more than 2,000 military documents to a newspaper. Anat Kamm, 23, has been under house arrest since December, but the case was kept under wraps by a court-imposed gag order. The restrictions were eased Thursday … Read More
JERUSALEM — Israel is launching a potentially trailblazing experiment in organ donation: Sign a donor card, and you and your family move up in line for a transplant if one is needed. The new law is the first of its kind in the world, and international medical authorities are eager to see if it boosts organ supply. But it has … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) —Shahar Peer’s stirring run to the semifinals last week at the Dubai Championships was significant in more ways than one: The challenges the Israeli athlete faced off the court were as formidable as the dominating play of Venus Williams on it that ultimately sent her packing. Because of security concerns, Peer was largely confined to her hotel room … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — The neat lines and red rectangular sketches look like any typical architectural design. But the handwritten initials H.H. – belonging to the infamous Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler – indicate what the drawings represent: wooden barracks, gas chambers and crematoria. Just ahead of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Israel’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem is … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — When Tel Aviv marked its centennial last year, part of the festivities honoring 100 years since the founding of the first modern Hebrew city included restoration of its oldest buildings. Now, thanks to a chance archaeological find, the residents of Tel Aviv have discovered that their city dates back millennia earlier. Two weeks ago, Israeli … Read More