Ben Harris Email RSS

is JTA's former associate editor.

Latest

• Israel unveils monument to fallen soldiers ahead of Memorial Day

  April 28, 2017 10:54am

  (JTA) — The Israeli Defense Ministry unveiled a new memorial in Jerusalem to the 23,000 fallen Israeli soldiers. The site, revealed just days before Israel’s Memorial Day, Yom Hazikaron, will be marked on Sunday evening. It is located in Mount Herzl national cemetery and next to the country’s Holocaust memorial and museum. According to The…

• 6 Palestinians injured in West Bank clashes with Israeli troops

  April 28, 2017 10:47am

  (JTA) — Six Palestinians were wounded in a series of clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. The clashes Friday came amid a so-called day of rage in support of Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli prisons, The Times of Israel reported. In the village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah,…

• New Jersey university students vote down BDS resolution

  April 28, 2017 8:48am

  (JTA) — The student government at Montclair State University reportedly voted down a resolution calling on the school to boycott Israel. The measure was defeated Wednesday by a vote of 11-1, with six abstentions. An earlier survey aimed at gauging student support for the measure found that 64 percent of students at the New Jersey…

• Israeli police question second American businessman in Netanyahu corruption probe

  April 28, 2017 8:29am

  (JTA) — Israeli police reportedly questioned Jewish-American businessman Spencer Patrich as part of a corruption investigation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Haaretz reported Friday that the police have interviewed Patrich, a real estate investor who lives in Michigan. Police also have reportedly questioned Arnon Milchan, a Los Angeles filmmaker, as part of their probe….

• Trump: ‘Ask me in a month’ about Jerusalem move

  April 28, 2017 7:48am

  (JTA) — President Donald Trump deflected a question about whether he was preparing to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital during his upcoming trip to the Jewish state. “Ask me in a month on that,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. The comment came on the same day that Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., suggested Trump…

• US senators to UN: Treatment of Israel ‘must change’

  April 28, 2017 7:15am

  (JTA) — All 100 members of the U.S. Senate signed a letter to the leader of the United Nations urging a comprehensive effort to remedy the organization’s “anti-Israel agenda.” The letter, which was sent Thursday to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, praised his recent decision to disavow an anti-Israel report from the U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for…

• Arab rights group demands end to Passover ban on bread products in Israeli hospitals

  April 13, 2017 9:31am

  (JTA) — An Arab rights group said it plans to file a legal appeal protesting a ban on bringing leavened bread products into Israeli hospitals during the Passover holiday. In a statement Thursday, Adalah-The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said the ban forces Arab Israelis to adhere to Jewish religious law, which forbids…

• Abbas warns of ‘unprecedented steps’ to end political division with Hamas

  April 13, 2017 9:24am

  (JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he would take decisive action to end the political split between his regime and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. “These days, we are in a dangerous and tough situation that requires decisive steps, and we are to take these decisive steps,” Abbas said Wednesday, according to an Associated Press…

• China says lack of Palestinian state is ‘historical injustice’

  April 13, 2017 9:04am

  (JTA) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Israeli-Palestinian peace talks should be revived in an effort to correct the “historical injustice” of Palestinians not having their own state. Wang’s comments on Thursday came at a news conference following his meeting with Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki in Beijing, The Associated Press reported. Wang said it is “unfair”…

• Israeli leaders slam Haaretz for article saying religious Zionists ‘more dangerous than Hezbollah’

  April 13, 2017 8:49am

  (JTA) — Israeli political leaders condemned an article in the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz saying Israel’s national religious community is “more dangerous than Hezbollah.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday on Facebook that the article is “shameful and disgraceful,” and called on the newspaper to apologize. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, opposition leader Isaac Herzog and Yesh…