💧News of the Crisis💧 April 8th
In an interview for the Knesset channel, Knesset Member Limor Son Har Melech of zealot far-right party Otzma Yehudit revealed the government ministries are working on a plan to create a Jewish repopulation of the Gaza Strip. "We have a vision for the day after”, quoth she, “and that is the renewal of settlement in the Gaza Strip....in the next session (of the Knesset) you will see the same activity that I am talking about coming to life", adding this refers to "practical moves, including outlines, including work in the offices".
🔥 The torch-lighting ceremony in Israel, which traditionally marks the end of Memorial Day and commencement of Independence Day, was in the past a stately, prestigious and respectable event. In the past few years, Netanyahu has given the planning duty for this event to Minister Miri Regev, and she continues to do so even though her ministry, Transportation, has little to do with it.
Regev has done her best to make the ceremony a cult of personality manifestation for the Prime Minister and his wife. Six years ago they decided the premier will speak at the event, despite the ceremony being a supposedly non-partisan event. Each year, the televised event cut often to close-ups of Sara Netanyahu, usually with Regev smiling and whispering in her ear.
This year, Regev will be darned if she gives up on the event. Why should she? Did something happen 6 months ago? Her only caveat is that the ceremony will take place in the West Negev rather than the traditional Mount Herzl in Jerusalem and will not include a live audience. But, hey, close-ups galore!
📚 June is considered “reading month” in Israel, with the Culture and Sports Ministry sponsoring many literary-adjacent events (sometimes only peripherally adjacent). This year, it may not happen, as the ministry did not pass any part of its promised budget to the public libraries. Yannets Levi, one of the best selling children’s authors, wrote today: “Public libraries in general and Reading Month in particular are at the heart of our culture and society - for children, youth and adults all over the country. Precisely in these days, when our enemies are trying to erase our culture and our freedom and wreak havoc on the people of the book, we must do everything to maintain our free and open culture.
"This poses severe damage to the livelihood of male and female writers, male and female creators, who conduct activities in public libraries, and the month of reading is an important anchor in their annual income”.
🛞 Haim Sirotkin, a soccer coach and former player who plowed into protesters with his car on Kaplan junction during Saturday’s rally, injuring four of them, one of them moderately, was released to house arrest today (Monday) while the charges against him are aggravated - initially police charged him with risking human life on a transport route, now he is suspected of aggravated sabotage.
Social activist Sapir Slutzker-Amran wrote:
"If Haim Sirotkin were Arab, he would have been dead by this morning.But Sirotkin is not Arab, so he was released already tonight after running over five protesters, injuring them.
When I was arrested for trying to non-violently prevent the eviction of poor women from public housing, I spent more time in custody.
When I entered the offices of the Forum Kohelet armed with a handwritten sign, I spent more time in custody.
When I demonstrated against the murder of women and police negligence, I spent more time in custody.
When a police officer sexually harassed me and then arrested me to cover up his crimes, I spent more time in custody.
But Haim Sirotkin is neither an Arab nor a leftist”.