JERUSALEM: Israel’s national Holocaust museum opened a new conservation facility in Jerusalem on Monday that will preserve, restore and store its more than 45,000 artifacts and works of art in a vast new building, including five floors of underground storage.
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, serves as both a museum and a research institution. It welcomes nearly a million visitors each year, leads the country’s annual Holocaust memorial day and hosts nearly all foreign dignitaries visiting Israel.
“Before we opened this building, it was very difficult to exhibit our treasures that were kept in our vaults. They were kind of secret,” said Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan. “Now there’s a state-of-the-art installation (that) will help us to exhibit them.”
The David and Fela Shapell Family Collections Center, located at the Yad Vashem museum in Jerusalem, will also provide organization and storage for the museum’s 225 million pages of documents and half a million photographs.
Dayan said the materials will now be kept in a facility that preserves them in optimal temperatures and conditions.
“Yad Vashem has the largest collections in the world of materials related to the Holocaust,” Dayan said. “We will make sure that these treasures are kept for eternity.”
The new facility includes advanced, high-tech labs for conservation, enabling experts to revisit some of the museum’s trickier items, such as a film canister that a family who fled Austria in 1939 brought with them. It was donated to the museum but arrived in an advanced state of decay.
“The film arrived in the worst state it could. It smelled really bad,” said Reut Ilan-Shafik, a photography conservator at Yad Vashem. Over the years, the film had congealed into a solid piece of plastic, making it impossible to be scanned.
Using organic solvents, conservators were able to restore some of the film’s flexibility, allowing them to carefully unravel pieces of it. Using a microscope, Ilan-Shafik was able to see a few frames in their entirety, including one showing a couple kissing on a bench in a park and other snapshots of Europe before World War II.
“It is unbelievable to know that the images of the film that we otherwise thought lost to time” have been recovered, said Orit Feldberg, granddaughter of Hans and Klara Lebel, the couple featured in the film reel.
Feldberg’s mother donated the film canister, one of the few things the Lebels were able to take with them when they fled Austria.
“These photographs not only tell their unique story but also keep their memory vibrantly alive,” Feldberg said.
Conservation of items from the Holocaust is an expensive, painstaking process that has taken on greater importance as the number of survivors dwindles.
Last month, the Auschwitz Memorial announced it had finished a half-million-dollar project to conserve 3,000 of the 8,000 pairs of children’s shoes that are on display at the Nazi concentration camp in Poland.
Israel’s Holocaust memorial opens a conservation facility to store artifacts, photos and more
https://arab.news/9y942
Israel’s Holocaust memorial opens a conservation facility to store artifacts, photos and more
- Conservation of items from the Holocaust is an expensive, painstaking process that has taken on greater importance as the number of survivors dwindles
A settler accused of killing a Palestinian activist is to be freed, as Israel still holds the body
- Witnesses said one of the shots killed Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher and father of three
- The Israeli military is still holding Hathaleen’s body and says it will only be returned if the family agrees to bury him in a nearby city
TEL AVIV: An Israeli settler accused of killing a prominent Palestinian activist during a confrontation captured on video in the occupied West Bank will be released from house arrest, an Israeli court ruled Friday.
The video shot by a Palestinian witness shows Yinon Levi brandishing a pistol and tussling with a group of unarmed Palestinians. He can be seen firing two shots, but the video does not show where the bullets hit.
Witnesses said one of the shots killed Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher and father of three, who was uninvolved and was standing nearby.
The Israeli military is still holding Hathaleen’s body and says it will only be returned if the family agrees to bury him in a nearby city. It said the measure was being taken to “prevent public disorder.”
The confrontation occurred on Monday in the village of Umm Al-Khair, in an area of the West Bank featured in “No Other Land,” an Oscar-winning documentary about settler violence and life under Israeli military rule.
In a court decision obtained by The Associated Press, Judge Havi Toker wrote that there was “no dispute” that Levi shot his gun in the village that day, but she said he may have been acting in self-defense and that the court could not establish that the shots killed Hathaleen.
Israel’s military and police did not respond to a request for comment on whether anyone else may have fired shots that day. Multiple calls placed to Levi and his lawyer have not been answered.
The judge said Levi did not pose such a danger as to justify his continued house arrest but barred him from contact with the villagers for a month.
Levi has been sanctioned by the United States and other Western countries over allegations of past violence toward Palestinians. President Donald Trump lifted the US sanctions on Levi and other radical settlers shortly after returning to office.
A total of 18 Palestinians from the village were arrested after the incident. Six remain in detention.
Eitay Mack, an Israeli lawyer who has lobbied for sanctions against radical settlers, including Levi, said the court ruling did not come as a surprise.
“Automatically, Palestinian victims are considered suspects, while Jewish suspects are considered victims,” he said.
Levi helped establish an settler outpost near Umm Al-Khair that anti-settlement activists say is a bastion for violent settlers who have displaced hundreds since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Palestinians and rights groups have long accused Israeli authorities of turning a blind eye to settler violence, which has surged since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, along with attacks by Palestinians.
In a 2024 interview, Levi said he was protecting his own land and denied using violence.
Some 70 women in Umm Al-Khair said they were beginning a hunger strike on Friday to call for Hathaleen’s body to be returned and for the right of his family to bury him in the village.
Israel’s military said in a statement to the AP that it would return the body if the family agrees to bury him in the “nearest authorized cemetery.”
Hathaleen, 31, had written and spoke out against settler violence, and had helped produce the Oscar-winning film. Supporters have erected murals in his honor in Rome, held vigils in New York and have held signs bearing his name at anti-war protests in Tel Aviv.
Family of Palestinian-American boy held by Israel ask US govt for help securing his release
- Muhammad Zaher Ibrahim, 16, was detained 5 months ago on charges of rock-throwing
- He has yet to see a courtroom, has lost significant weight and developed scabies in jail
LONDON: A Palestinian-American family is trying to secure the release of a 16-year-old detained by Israel for more than five months, The Guardian reported.
Muhammad Zaher Ibrahim was detained at the family’s home in the occupied West Bank in February when he was 15, accused by Israel of throwing rocks at soldiers.
He was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to Megiddo Prison in Israel where, his family say, he has lost a significant amount of weight while awaiting trial.
The family splits its time between their home in the West Bank town of Silwad and the city of Palm Bay, Florida.
His father Zaher Ibrahim wrote to his local Congressman Mike Haridopolos asking for help in securing his son’s release.
“The Megiddo Prison is notorious for brutality and suffering,” Zaher Ibrahim wrote to Haridopolos on a form seen by The Guardian. “We are kindly asking for some support in this matter. We have exhausted all efforts locally here in Israel and have no other option than to ask our local Florida office officials to reach out on our behalf.”
Haridopolos’s office said it had been informed by the State Department that the US Embassy in Israel is “following standard procedures” on the matter.
A spokesperson for the department said it has “no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens.”
Muhammad Ibrahim’s detention first came to prominence after his cousin Sayfollah Musallet was allegedly killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank in July.
Musallet, 20, who was also a US citizen, had been visiting relatives when he was beaten to death.
There are hundreds of Palestinian children in detention in Israeli jails, many without charge or contact with their families.
According to Defense for Children International-Palestine, as of March this year that figure was 323 aged 12-17 years.
Between 2005 and 2010, 835 Palestinian children in that age bracket were tried for stone-throwing by Israeli military courts. Only one was acquitted.
Ayed Abu Eqtaish, the West Bank-based accountability program director at Defense for Children International-Palestine, told The Guardian: “Palestinian children in Israeli prisons are totally disconnected from the outside world. They (Israel) will not recognize whether you are American, Somalian or whatever your citizenship.”
Abu Eqtaish said since Oct. 7, 2023, conditions in Israeli jails for Palestinians have worsened, adding: “Now they are stricter in punishment and sentences. We encounter problems knowing about living conditions inside prisons. There’s no family presence. Lawyer visits are very restricted.”
A State Department official told the Ibrahim family via email that embassy staff had visited him in prison but faced contact restrictions put in place by Israel.
During one welfare check, he was found to have lost 12 kg in weight. In another, staff reported that he was receiving treatment for scabies contracted in jail.
In a statement, a State Department spokesperson told The Guardian that it “works to provide consular assistance which may include visiting detained US citizens to ensure they have access to necessary medication or medical attention and facilitating authorized communications with their family or others.”
Hamas armed wing publishes video of Gaza hostage
- The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades video showed an emaciated and bearded man
- Israeli media identified as Evyatar David, seized on Oct.7, 2023
JERUSALEM: The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas released a minute-long video Friday of an Israeli hostage held in Gaza looking weak and malnourished, inside a narrow concrete tunnel.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades video showed an emaciated and bearded man that AFP and Israeli media identified as Evyatar David, seized on October 7, 2023.
AFP could not independently verify the video’s authenticity.
David, who turned 24 in captivity, was abducted during the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war along with his friend Gal Gilboa-Dalal. Both had been attending the Nova music festival in southern Israel.
They were among 44 festival-goers seized. Palestinian militants killed 370.
In late February, Hamas released a video showing David and Gilboa-Dalal inside a vehicle, watching a hostage release ceremony a few meters (yards) away.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza have led to severe shortages of food and other essential goods, triggering international demands for a ceasefire.
Israeli writer Grossman denounces Gaza ‘genocide’
- “For many years, I refused to use that term: ‘genocide’,” Grossman told La Repubblica
- He told the paper he was using the word “with immense pain and with a broken heart“
ROME: : Award-winning Israeli author David Grossman called his country’s campaign in Gaza “genocide” and said he was using the term with a “broken heart.”
This came days after a major Israeli rights group also used the same term, amid growing global alarm over starvation in the besieged territory.
“For many years, I refused to use that term: ‘genocide’,” the prominent writer and peace activist told Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview published on Friday.
“But now, after the images I have seen and after talking to people who were there, I can’t help using it.”
Grossman told the paper he was using the word “with immense pain and with a broken heart.”
“This word is an avalanche: once you say it, it just gets bigger, like an avalanche. And it adds even more destruction and suffering,” he said.
Grossman’s works, which have been translated into dozens of languages, have won many international prizes.
He also won Israel’s top literary prize in 2018, the Israel Prize for Literature, for his work spanning more than three decades.
He said it was “devastating” to “put the words ‘Israel’ and ‘famine’ together” because of the Holocaust and our “supposed sensitivity to the suffering of humanity.”
The celebrated author has long been a critic of the Israeli government.
US envoy visits distribution site in Gaza as humanitarian crisis worsens
- Witkoff and Huckabee toured one of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution sites in Rafah
- All four of the group’s sites are in zones controlled by the Israeli military and have become flashpoints of desperation
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff visited southern Gaza on Friday amid international outrage over starvation, shortages and deadly chaos near aid distribution sites.
With food scarce and parcels being airdropped, Witkoff and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee toured one of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s distribution sites in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Chapin Fay, the group’s spokesperson, said the visit reflected Trump’s understanding of the stakes and that “feeding civilians, not Hamas, must be the priority.”
All four of the group’s sites are in zones controlled by the Israeli military and have become flashpoints of desperation during their months of operation, with starving people scrambling for scarce aid. Hundreds have been killed by either gunfire or trampling.
The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots at people who approach its forces, and GHF says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired warning shots to prevent deadly crowding.
Witkoff’s visit comes a week after US officials walked away from ceasefire talks in Qatar, blaming Hamas and pledging to seek other ways to rescue Israeli hostages and make Gaza safe.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that Witkoff was sent to craft a plan to boost food and aid deliveries, while Trump wrote on social media that the fastest way to end the crisis would be for Hamas to surrender and release hostages.
Officials at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza said they have received the bodies of 25 people, including 13 who were killed while trying to get aid, including near the site that US officials visited. GHF denied anyone was killed at their sites on Friday and said most recent incidents had taken place near United Nations aid convoys.
The remaining 12 were killed in airstrikes, the officials said. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.
Human Rights Watch: ‘Near impossible’
International organizations have said Gaza has been on the brink of famine for the past two years. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the leading international authority on food crises, said recent developments, including a complete blockade on aid for 2 1/2 months, mean the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza.”
Though the flow of aid has resumed, including via airdrops, the amount getting into Gaza remains far lower than what aid organizations say is needed. A security breakdown in the territory has made it nearly impossible to safely deliver food to starving Palestinians, much of the limited aid entering is hoarded and later sold at exorbitant prices.
At a Friday press conference in Gaza City, representatives of the territory’s influential tribes accused Israel of empowering factions that loot aid sites and implored Witkoff to stay several hours in Gaza to witness life firsthand.
“We want the American envoy to come and live among us in these tents where there is no water, no food and no light,” they said. “Our children are hungry in the streets.”
In a report issued Friday, Human Rights Watch called the current setup “a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths.”
“It would be near impossible for Palestinians to follow the instructions issued by GHF, stay safe, and receive aid, particularly in the context of ongoing military operations, Israeli military sanctioned curfews, and frequent GHF messages saying that people should not travel to the sites before the distribution window opens,” the report said. It cited doctors, aid seekers and at least one security contractor.
Since the group’s operations began in late May, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in shootings by Israeli soldiers while on roads heading to the sites, according to witnesses and health officials. The Israeli military has said its troops have only fired warning shots to control crowds.
Responding to the report, Israel’s military blamed Hamas for sabotaging the aid distribution system but said it was working to make the routes under its control safer for those traveling to aid sites. GHF did not immediately respond to questions about the report.
The group has never allowed journalists to visit their sites and Israel’s military has barred reporters from independently entering Gaza throughout the war.
International condemnations have mounted as such reports trickle out of Gaza, including from aid organizations that previously oversaw distribution.
A July 30 video published Thursday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs showed an aid convoy driving past a border crossing as gunfire ricocheted off the ground near where crowds congregated.
“We were met on the road by tens of thousands of hungry and desperate people who directly offloaded everything from the backs of our trucks,” said Olga Cherevko, an OCHA staff member.
