Israel

[Shahab3]

Israeli troops raze Bethlehem homes, electricity pylons
April 03, 2012 02:18 PM

BETHLEHEM: Israeli forces on Tuesday razed four homes and dozens of electricity pylons near the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, Palestinian witnesses and an AFP correspondent said.

"At 4:00 am (0100 GMT) army tractors demolished four homes and 52 electricity pylons in the al-Makhrureh area of Beit Jalla," Mazen al-Azzeh, coordinator of the Popular Campaign to Fight Settlements in Bethlehem, told AFP.
...
The demolition left residents in the area without electricity, the AFP correspondent said.

"This is a mostly a Christian area," Azzeh said.

"As the world celebrates Easter, this is the Israeli government's gift to the Palestinian Christian community," he charged.
...
Read more: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Apr-03/169061-israeli-troops-raze-bethlehem-homes-electricity-pylons.ashx#ixzz1r18II0Mj">http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle ... z1r18II0Mj</a><!-- m -->
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb">http://www.dailystar.com.lb</a><!-- m -->)

Jewish leader blasts Austria’s UN record on Israel
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL04/01/2012 03:21

Austria’s vote to support a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) investigation into Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem sparked criticism last week from the new head of the central European country’s small Jewish community, Israel’s government and a leading UN expert on human rights.

Austria and Belgium were the only two EU countries to join majority Muslim countries and their allies at the UN body in Geneva to call for the investigation on March, 22 in Geneva.

Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, Italy and Romania abstained from the vote.
...
Israel summoned the Ambassadors of Belgium and Austria to file formal complaints to their governments about their countries’ votes.
...
“Austrian & Belgian anti-Semites prevail as states break ranks with EU over UNHR Council settlements resolution.”
...
Writing a commentary article in Tuesday’s Die Presse, the journalist Christian Ultsch observed that Austria’s diplomats largely limit their diplomacy to the Balkans. He added – with biting sarcasm – that Austria suddenly becomes “gutsy” on the world stage when Israel is involved. He writes that the UNHRC has an “anti-Israel” quality and it unfairly singles out the Jewish state for criticism.

He continued that “Israel expects, correctly, solidarity from a people that carries the co-responsibility for the Holocaust.”

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=264270">http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/Jewish ... ?id=264270</a><!-- m -->