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Why a Maine town swapped out a Star of David from its holiday display
(JTA) – A suburb of Portland, Maine, has removed a Star of David from its annual holiday lights display after a local Arab American organization complained, reportedly calling it “offensive” in light of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
But the mayor of Westbrook told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the reason for the star’s removal had more to do with the city’s efforts to follow the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which is understood to forbid overtly religious displays on public property. He added that local Jewish groups agreed it should be taken down and that Hanukkah would still be represented for the first time in the city’s holiday display via a series of dreidels.
“I think it was all positive intent to just try and be more inclusive,” Mayor Michael Foley said, adding that, since the story broke in local media, he had been fielding calls from people accusing him of antisemitism. “There’s been no ill intention by it. It was simply an honest mistake and it was never included on our display.”
Foley said the star had been ordered by a city employee without his knowledge. He added, “I still don’t truly understand” why the local Arab group, the New England Arab American Organization, had complained about it.
The Star of David has been widely used by Jewish communities since the 17th century; it has also been used to identify Jews by their adversaries, notably the Nazis. The Star of David is also the centerpiece of the Israeli flag, adopted in October 1948, months after Israel became a country.
“They view it as the city taking a side in the war, we’re supporting one country over another,” Foley said about the group that objected to the symbol. The organization did not respond to JTA requests for comment.
As the debate around Israel and Gaza has remained heated since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and Israel’s ensuing war on the terror group in Gaza, even public displays have not been immune to the war. Earlier this week the University of Texas in Dallas removed “spirit rocks” that had been fixtures on campus for years because, administrators said, students were using them to paint increasingly aggressive messages about Israel, Gaza and the Palestinians.
But the presence (or lack thereof) of Jewish symbols in city holiday displays is a much older issue, one that has been litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court. A 1989 case found that the public display of a Nativity scene in a Pittsburgh courthouse was not permissible because it could be interpreted as the city promoting one religion over another, but that the display of a Chabad-Lubavitch menorah was allowed because the city demonstrated pluralism by pairing it with a Christmas tree.
Foley had been hoping to find a similar pluralistic spirit in Westbrook. For the last few years the city sought to expand its holiday display to include Hanukkah and other celebrations, while avoiding having any explicitly religious symbols on the advice of their legal counsel. “We just tried to stick with colors and snowflakes and snowmen and animals,” he said.
City staff decided on dreidels, he said, because they “seemed like a reasonable compromise with members of the community.” This was to be the first year when the dreidels would join the display (Westbrook, which has a population of around 20,000, does not have any synagogues).
Foley said he didn’t know that a member of the display’s installation team also ordered the Star of David and was unaware that it is seen as a broader religious symbol for Jews beyond Hanukkah.
“As far as I’m concerned, I think the dreidel’s a really appropriate winter holiday symbol in the context of a holiday light display,” Molly Curren Rowles, the director of the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, told JTA.
Rowles said that her Portland-based group was looped in late on the dispute but now hopes to turn it into an interfaith teaching opportunity. She has reached out to the Arab American group to better understand their objection but hasn’t heard from them yet.
“I think obviously we would be concerned if the Star of David were perceived as an offensive symbol,” she said. While the alliance would “give deference to the Establishment Clause,” she added, “we’re happy to have Stars of David wherever people want to put them up.”
Talks are in the works to add a menorah to the city’s display, while a local church has offered to put the Star of David on its own property — what Foley said is meant as a gesture of solidarity to the Jewish community. But, he said, he will follow local Jewish guidance on whether that would be appropriate.
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The post Why a Maine town swapped out a Star of David from its holiday display appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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France Believes Israel’s Netanyahu Has Immunity From ICC Arrest Warrant
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
France said on Wednesday it believed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had immunity to actions by the International Criminal Court (ICC) which is seeking his arrest for alleged war crimes in Gaza, given Israel has not signed up to the court statutes.
France‘s view, issued a day after the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah brokered by the US and France, was condemned by rights groups. Other countries including Italy have also questioned the legality of the mandate.
A statement by the French Foreign Ministry said it would continue to work closely with Netanyahu.
Paris has taken almost a week to come up with a clear position, after the court in The Hague issued arrest warrants on Nov. 21 for Netanyahu, his former defense chief Yoav Gallant, and a leader of the Hamas Palestinian terrorist group.
After initially saying it would adhere to the ICC statutes, France‘s foreign ministry fine-tuned that in a second statement on Nov. 22 amid concerns that Israel could scupper efforts for a ceasefire in Lebanon, saying it noted that the court’s decision merely formalized an accusation.
On Wednesday, the ministry pointed out that the Rome Statute that established the ICC provided that a country cannot be required to act in a manner incompatible with its obligations “with respect to the immunities of States not party to the ICC.”
“Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other relevant ministers and will have to be taken into consideration should the ICC request their arrest and surrender.”
The French ministry statement, referring to what it called the historic friendship between two democracies committed to the rule of law, said France intended to continue to work closely with Netanyahu and other Israeli authorities “to achieve peace and security for all in the Middle East.”
The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. Other countries including the US have similarly not signed the ICC charter. However, the ICC has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, despite no such state being recognized under international law.
Rights groups suggested France had tempered its response in order to maintain a working relationship with Netanyahu and his government.
“Some shocking nonsense from France here. No one gets immunity from an ICC arrest warrant because they’re in office – not Netanyahu, not Putin, no one,” Andrew Stroehlein, European media director at Human Rights Watch, said on X.
He pointed to article 27 of the Rome Statute on the “irrelevance of official capacity.”
Amnesty called France‘s position “deeply problematic.”
“Rather than inferring that ICC indictees may enjoy immunity, France should expressly confirm its acceptance of the unequivocal legal duty under the Rome Statute to carry out arrest warrants.”
Israeli leaders have lamabsted the ICC’s allegations against Netanyahu and Gallant as false, politically motivated, and “antisemitic.”
The US similarly rejected the arrest warrants for the Israelis.
The post France Believes Israel’s Netanyahu Has Immunity From ICC Arrest Warrant first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Intercepts Vast Iranian Arms Shipment Intended for West Bank
Israeli military, Jenin area, West Bank, August 31, 2024. Photo: Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
JNS.org — Israel’s security forces recently thwarted an attempt by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to smuggle heavy weaponry to Palestinian terrorist cells in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said on Wednesday.
Israeli intelligence believes that the arms were sent by Unit 4000 — the special operations division of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organization — and Unit 18840, the special operations unit of its Quds Force in Syria.
Among the weapons seized by Israel were 40 standard large Claymore mines, including detonators and wireless activation systems; 37 handguns; 33 improvised Claymore mines; 24 RPG-18 and RPG-22 rockets; 20 60mm mortar shells; seven Hunter sniper rifles; six RPG-7 launchers; six M16 rifles and 1 M4 rifle, along with ammunition; three 107mm rockets; and two 60mm mortar barrels, the joint statement said.
The majority of the weapons were buried in a location that was discovered by Israeli forces after the shipment was intercepted.
SEIZED: Iranian weapons used to arm terrorists in Judea and Samaria
The smuggling was orchestrated by Iran’s IRGC 4000th Division, led by Jawad Ghafari, and the Quds Force’s Unit 840 in Syria, commanded by Etsar Bakri.
The weapons seized included rockets, Claymore… pic.twitter.com/AlUn08pGye
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 27, 2024
The statement noted that Israeli security forces in recent months have “identified attempts by Iranian forces to resume smuggling advanced weapons into Israel, intended for the Judea and Samaria area [the West Bank].”
“This is part of an ongoing Iranian campaign to destabilize the region’s security by arming terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria, to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” it continued.
The IDF and Shin Bet vowed to “continue to monitor and thwart in advance any Iranian activity aimed at smuggling weapons into Israel and the Judea and Samaria area.”
In two separate operations in the past week, Israel Police officers foiled attempts by Israeli Arab citizens to smuggle large quantities of ammunition from northern Israel across the West Bank security barrier.
On Monday, a female resident of the Israeli Arab town of Kfar Qasim was pulled over by police officers near Yokneam. A search of her vehicle revealed several boxes containing more than 6,000 ammunition rounds.
On Friday, two men from Ma’ale Iron, a local council made up of five Arab towns near Megiddo, were caught attempting to transport a larger stockpile of over 20,000 bullets. The Arab suspects were pulled over at a junction a mere minutes’ drive away from the Samaria security barrier.
Earlier this month, Palestinian terrorists in western Samaria for the first time tried to fire a rocket with powerful explosives at Israel’s central region. The terrorist rocket, whose warhead contained high explosives with the potential to cause mass casualties, was discovered in bushes in the village of Budrus near Ramallah, about six miles from Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel Hayom reported on Nov. 13.
The outlet noted that this marked the first time that a “high quality” (e.g., non-improvised) rocket warhead was found in the West Bank. It was also the first time a rocket was located in the area but outside northern Samaria.
In June, Palestinian Authority security officials told Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster that Iranian-backed terrorist groups might be able to fire advanced rockets at central Israel from the West Bank within a year.
The Islamic Republic continues to instigate terrorism in the West Bank by flooding the area with weapons, The New York Times reported in April, citing American, Israeli, and Iranian officials.
The majority of the weapons smuggled into the West Bank are small arms and assault rifles, analysts said. However, the US and Israeli officials said that the Islamic Republic is also smuggling in advanced weaponry, including anti-tank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
In the first six months of 2024, the West Bank saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to data made public by Hatzalah Judea and Samaria (Rescuers Without Borders).
During that period, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges, and 109 shootings.
Terrorists murdered 14 people and wounded more than 155 others in the West Bank between January and July, the rescue group said.
The post Israel Intercepts Vast Iranian Arms Shipment Intended for West Bank first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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McGill cancels talk with former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate, citing fears of violence
McGill University has canceled an on-campus event planned by Jewish students—and temporarily halted bookings for all extracurricular activities—following threats of violence along with a death threat, as outlined in a […]
The post McGill cancels talk with former Hamas insider turned Israel advocate, citing fears of violence appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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