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Comments (0)Israel began returning gas masks to its citizens.
Gas masks collected from citizens nearly two years ago to replace outdated components were returned Sunday in Or Yehuda.
Under a new pilot program in which the Israeli army’s Home Front Command and the Israel Postal Service return the masks to the civilian population, the gas masks also will be returned this week to residents of Kiryat Ono and Yehud, areas considered at higher risk of attacks.
Once the program is under way, it will take three to five years for masks to be redistributed to the civilian population, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
PA Moves Meeting to Hebron
The Palestinian Authority Cabinet held its weekly meeting in Hebron to protest Israel’s decision to include the Cave of the Patriarchs on its national heritage site plan.
The meeting Monday had been scheduled for Ramallah. The move also was aimed at strengthening the Palestinian connection to Hebron, Cabinet Secretary Dr. Naim Abu al-Humus told Ynet.
Gaza’s Palestinian legislative council also planned to have a special meeting to protest Israel’s decision, with Parliament members in Gaza and Ramallah meeting by video link, according to Ynet. But the meeting reportedly will not take place since the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority will not allow Hamas council members to enter the Parliament compound in Ramallah.
On Sunday, during a meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan’s King Abdullah II called on the international community to protect holy sites in eastern Jerusalem, which he said were threatened by “unilateral Israeli measures.”
“Jordan also rejects and condemns the Israeli decision to add Haram al-Ibrahimi and the Belal Mosque to the list of Jewish heritage sites,” the king said, referring to the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb.
David Bankier, Holocaust Scholar, Dies
David Bankier, whose Holocaust research studies dealt with persecutors and bystanders, has died.
Bankier, the head of the International Institute for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, died over the weekend following a long illness, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem announced. He was 63.
Among Bankier’s major topics of interest was how anti-Semitism became the most central and efficient tool used by the Nazi regime to spread its ideology, both in its internal regime struggles and its efforts to recruit the masses.
“Professor Bankier was one of the most important and most cited scholars in the research of Nazi Germany, ” Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said. “His publications in this field constitute a cornerstone of modern academic research.”
In 2000, he was appointed head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, and incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies.
Bankier, a native of Germany, was the Solomon and Victoria Cohen Professor at the Hebrew University and headed the section for Studies in Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust at the university’s Institute for Contemporary Jewry. He served as visiting professor at universities in London, the United States, South Africa and South America.
Bankier was involved in developing centers of Jewish studies in Latin America, and promoted academic publications in Spanish.