Media Summary
03/08/2015
The Times, Independent, Daily Mirror and the online edition of the Telegraph all report that one of the six victims who was stabbed by an ultra-Orthodox man at the Jerusalem gay pride march on Thursday, died yesterday from her wounds. The 16-year-old youth was accompanying her gay friend to the march when the attacker struck. Over the weekend, several protests and solidarity events took place to demonstrate condemnation of both the attack in Jerusalem and a separate attack overnight Friday in which a Palestinian baby died after a family home was set ablaze in an apparent hate crime likely perpetrated by Jewish extremists.
The Guardian reports that in response to last week’s shocking events, Israel’s cabinet approved holding Jewish terrorists without trial for an indefinite period, in order to help security services apprehend and convict those responsible for such crimes. The policy of administrative detention has been applied previously to Palestinian terrorists. However, Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum have unequivocally termed last week’s attacks as terrorism and called for appropriate measures to be applied.
The Telegraph online covers reports in Israel which say that a so-called “VIP wing” is being built at Maasiyahu Prison in central Israel to accommodate convicted high profile public figures such as former-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is soon expected to begin a prison term. The new wing is reported to have en suite accommodation for between two to three inmates and a separate yard.
The Telegraph print edition says that the National Union of Teachers has come under fire for producing materials which promote an “extremist agenda” by teaching not only about the difficulties facing some Palestinian children, but also the importance of Palestinian “resistance.”
In the Financial Times, Edward Luce analyses the race between US President Barack Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Congressional support over the Iran nuclear deal agreed last month. In the Telegraph, David Blair reports directly from Tehran, where he says Iranians believe that although persecutions by the regime remain widespread, that the worst abuses may be over.
The Guardian online covers US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Egypt yesterday, where the two countries resumed their “strategic dialogue” following a hiatus of several years owing to instability in Egypt. Kerry will continue his regional tour and visit Gulf states to reassure them over the Iran nuclear accord.
In the Israeli media, the death yesterday of 16-year-old Shira Banki, who was stabbed at the Jerusalem gay pride march last week leads Maariv, Israel Hayom and Yediot Ahronot, which highlights comment from her parents who said that Shira was murdered because she was at the march in support of her friend and indeed everyone’s choice to live as they wish. Israel Radio says that Education Minister Naftali Bennett yesterday visited Banki’s school in Jerusalem.
The lead story in Haaretz, which is also covered by Alex Fishman in Yediot Ahronot is a profile of the suspected fanatics thought to have been responsible for the fire which killed an 18-month-old Palestinian baby and seriously injured his family. Fishman says that the group is viewed by the Shin Bet internal security agency as “a terror organisation in every sense.” Meanwhile, Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Israel Radio news prominently report that the security cabinet yesterday approved the application of administrative detention towards Jewish extremists.
There is plenty of commentary on last week’s attacks and the subsequent response. In Yediot Ahronot, Etgar Keret laments that not more people attended demonstrations against the attacks on Saturday night, while Maariv’s Ben Caspit takes aim at politicians “heaping abuse and filth on anyone who does not think as they do, so that the registered members will see and reward them on the day of the party primary.”