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Windows shattered at headquarters of Holocaust memorial site foundation in Germany
BERLIN (JTA) — Police are seeking witnesses to a violent act of vandalism early Tuesday morning that destroyed windows at the headquarters of a foundation that manages multiple Holocaust memorial sites.
The Foundation for Memorial Sites in Lower Saxony, in the town of Celle, oversees the memorials at the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and the Wolfenbüttel Prison, a major Nazi execution site, as places of commemoration and learning.
Police told German news media that an unknown number of perpetrators tore an information board from the building’s outside wall and used it to smash the windows. Elke Gryglewski, the foundation’s executive director, told the NDR broadcasting company that charges have been filed with the police.
Menachem Rosensaft, associate executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress, who was born in the displaced person’s camp in Bergen-Belsen, said he was “appalled” by the attack, which he called “the latest in a spate of such vandalizations of German memorial centers and institutions devoted to Holocaust remembrance.”
Last week, a free library of Holocaust-related books near a Holocaust memorial in Berlin was destroyed in a fire that is alleged to be an arson. State police are investigating the incident.
Police have told news media that they have no evidence of political or other motivations in Tuesday’s attack, but some observers have suggested that recent political activism by the foundation may have drawn the attention of right-wing extremists.
The foundation recently joined a broad coalition of groups calling for a demonstration against the statewide political conference of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, to be held in Celle on Saturday and Sunday. The foundation’s headquarters had already caught the attention of some people who left political stickers at the site in recent days.
Michael Fürst, head of the Jewish Community of Lower Saxony, said on Wednesday that there had been online incitement against the foundation following its support for the protest.
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil urged foundation’s employees “not to be intimidated” by the incident. Foundation staff have now intensified their call for people to join the protest, news reports said.
The weekend demonstration is scheduled to begin at the Celle train station on Saturday morning and will include a cultural program in front of the building where the AfD plans to hold its conference. Organizers told a Protestant news service they want to respond to the AfD’s “nationalist and racist agitation as well as antisemitism and Islamophobia” with “justice, appreciation and solidarity.”
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The post Windows shattered at headquarters of Holocaust memorial site foundation in Germany appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.
According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.
In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.
The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.
Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.
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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen
The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.
Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.
Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.
Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.
Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.
“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”