Israel

EasyJet pays damages to woman forced to move by ultra-Orthodox Jewish men

11 Mar 2021; MEMO: EasyJet has paid compensation to a woman who was forced to move twice on flights from Tel Aviv to London after ultra-Orthodox Jewish men said they did not want to sit next to a woman.

Thirty-eight-year-old Melanie Wolfson was asked if she would swap seats with a man a few rows ahead of her so that she would not be sitting next to an ultra-Orthodox man and his son.

Egypt is doing everything possible to make Sinai safe for Israeli tourists

11 Mar 2021; MEMO: Israel's Minister of Intelligence has said that Egypt is doing everything possible to make Sinai safe for Israeli tourists, local media have reported. Eli Cohen made his comments during meetings with Egyptian Deputy Intelligence Minister Nasser Fahmi in the Sinai resort of Sharm El-Sheikh earlier this week.

Israel almost done with COVID restrictions: Netanyahu

08 Mar 2021; MEMO: Israel has almost emerged from its COVID-19 closures, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on the campaign trail, said on Sunday as restaurants reopened under an exit plan fuelled by fast-paced vaccinations, reported Reuters.

But health officials cautioned that rising contagions could trigger another lockdown – a possible dampener on Netanyahu's hope of parlaying his pandemic policies to victory in a March 23 ballot.

Israel's Arabs rise up against organised crime, police complicity

06 Mar 2021; MEMO: Tens of thousands of Arabs in Israel marched on the northern city Um Al Fahem city on Friday to protest against spiralling levels crime in their communities.

Um Al Fahem residents have been holding weekly demonstrations against violence and organised crime for the past two months. Yesterday's turnout was, however, significantly higher.

Some reporters described Friday's protest as the largest staged by Palestinians in Israel since the 1980s.

Israel approves 3rd-phase exit from full lockdown

JERUSALEM, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli cabinet on Saturday approved the third phase of the exit plan from the full lockdown imposed in the country on Dec. 27, 2020, the Prime Minister's Office and the Health and Transport Ministries said in a joint statement.

As part of the decision, the ban on the entry of Israelis to the country was cancelled, but no more than 3,000 will be allowed to enter per day.

Israel army updates plans to target Iran, Lebanon

06 Mar 2021; MEMO: The Israeli army has updated its map of targets relating to Iran's nuclear facilities and Hezbollah's military facilities "being conducted from civilian infrastructure," Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz has revealed to Fox News on Thursday.

"We have them [the attack plans] in our hands, but we will continue [to] constantly improve them," Gantz confirmed in an exclusive interview with Fox News.

Converting to Judaism ruling sparks political uproar in Israel

06 Mar 2021; MEMO: A decision issued by the Supreme Court to end the monopoly of ultra-Orthodox Jews to allow converting to Judaism sparked a political uproar in Israel, Anadolu Agency reported.

On Monday, the court ruled that the people who converted to Judaism in Israel through the reform and conservative movements must be recognised as Jews, and thus are entitled to obtain Israeli citizenship.

Israel, Denmark and Austria join forces against COVID-19

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel, Denmark and Austria agreed on Thursday to join forces in the fight against COVID-19 with an investment in research and roll-out of vaccines to protect people against new surges and mutations of the coronavirus.

The leaders of the three countries said their alliance will set up a foundation and vaccine distribution plants in Europe and Israel, based on Israel’s world-leading inoculation drive.

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