Jerusalem Post: “We are of the same race and blood, and cooperation will bring great prosperity to the land,” wrote Emir Faisal to Felix Frankfurter in 1917. Faisal was known for his affinity to the Zionists who had begun streaming to the Holy Land; in 1919, he signed a cooperation agreement with Chaim Weizmann, to whom he wrote that he was “mindful of the racial kinship and ancient bonds existing between the Arabs and the Jewish people.”
But Faisal’s proclamations of kinship with the Jews were more than lip service to a commonly held belief, says Tsvi Misinai, who knows perhaps more about the origins of the modern Palestinians than anyone. “Faisal’s paternal line was Hashemite,” he says, “meaning he was directly descended from Muhammad.
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May. 10, 2021
The police on Monday arrested the safety engineer who gave the green light for the traditional Lag Ba’omer celebration at Mount Meron that ended in 45 people being fatally suffocated and 150 people injured. His assistant, a retired police superintendent, was also arrested.
Investigators are also saying that the police Northern District commander and other officers should be questioned as suspects for their alleged involvement in causing the casualties.
From the investigation to date, it appears that the main reason for the crowding and pressure at the Toldot Aharon bonfire compound, outside which the disaster occurred, was that police gave the Hasidic court permission to hold its bonfire at a different time than the other bonfires at the compound. This meant that the crowd was not dispersed among several bonfires, as usually happens, but that additional thousands crowded in to see the Toldot Aharon blaze. Moreover, no policemen were stationed at the compoun
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May. 3, 2021
The Arabs in the north of Israel expressed shock and enlisted to assist the injured and the rescue services at Mount Meron. That was the essence of the radio report, I believe on Kan’s Reshet Bet channel, that I happened to hear.
The reporter sounded emotional, and it seemed as if he wanted to prove something. Arab drivers offered their help, Arabs were called on to donate blood, and Arab MKs Ahmad Tibi, Mansour Abbas and Ayman Odeh used social media to ask for help. Perhaps this was out of solidarity with a religious community harmed during a religious ritual, the reporter said, in an effort to explain the phenomenon. But during other disasters, too, he continued, Arabs enlisted to help. It happened during the Carmel Forest fire, and I think he mentioned another disaster in the north in which Palestinians who are Israeli citizens turned out to assist.
MONTREAL At least two Montrealers are among the 45 killed in a stampede at a religious festival on Israel’s Mount Meron Friday. Members of the local Jewish community confirmed that the two victims were singer Shraga Gestetner and 21-year-old Dovi Steinmetz. Shraga Gestetner was a great family man, a great community man, a very talented singer, said Mayer Feig, from Montreal s Orthodox Jewish community. Feig said his community has lost a talented and dedicated man in Gestetner.
Montrealer Shraga Gestetner was among the victims in the stampede in Israel. (Photo: ArutzShevaTV) Gestetner composed a number of albums before stopping at the height of his career to help the vulnerable in the Orthodox community, Feig added.