Survey: Americans not paying attention to BDS movement
A Pew Research Center survey released on May 26 found that American adults are just not paying attention to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, JTA reported.
A whopping 84% of adults surveyed said they have heard “not much” or “nothing at all” about the movement, which seeks to pressure Israel into changing its policy toward the Palestinians by promoting boycotts and economic sanctions.
Only 5% of the surveyed adults — who were of diverse religious backgrounds — knew “some” about it, and only 2% strongly support it.
Pew used an online panel to survey 10,441 U.S. adults from March 7 to 13, with the stated goal of better understanding Americans’ views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The margin of error for the full sample was 1.5 percentage points.
EV sales rise sharply in Israel
In the first five months of 2022, 5.2% of all cars sold in Israel, or 6,900 cars, were electric vehicles, compared to just 1.2% in the same period on 2021, Globes reported.
Globes said the EV market would have grown faster if there weren’t delivery delays of Tesla cars because of COVID lockdowns in China.
Car industry sources said there is a backlog of more than 12,000 orders for EV, which should comprise about 8% of new car sales.
Israel will increase by 10% its purchase tax on electric vehicles starting in January. Those increases will apply to 2022 orders delayed beyond the end of 2022.
Aliyah from Ethiopia resumes
After more than a year of delays, aliyah resumed from Ethiopia on June 1 with 181 immigrants arriving at Ben Gurion Airport, The Times of Israel reported.
Some of the immigrants had waited for decades to reunite with their families. The flight was the first since March 2021.
Another 160 immigrants arrived the next day, with additional flights expected in the coming months. The Israeli government approved last year bringing 3,000 new immigrants from war-torn Ethiopia. The Jewish Agency said they will all arrive by November.
Since the covert Operation Solomon ended in 1991, with the vast majority of the Beta Israel community being brought to Israel, the government has sporadically decided to bring over those left behind. They often are referred to as Falash Mura — converts to Christianity because of coercion or fears of persecution — and not considered eligible foraliyah under the Law of Return.
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
