Israel

20 May 2019; MEMO: Israel’s chief Rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, has stoked controversy by describing Afro-Americans as “monkeys” during one of his weekly religious lessons.

The remark, which will prompt further discussion about entrenched racism within the country, was reported by Israeli newspaper Ynet News.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Palestinian prime minister said Monday that any American peace plan that ignores the Palestinian people’s political aspirations for an independent state is doomed to fail.

Mohammad Shtayyeh’s comments immediately cast a cloud over the American-led Mideast peace conference expected to take place in late June in the tiny Gulf Arab state of Bahrain.

20 May 2019; MEMO: The Israeli organisers of this year’s Eurovision feared that some of the competitors, under pressure from the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, might inject politics into their performances.

In the end, however, it was Eurovision’s special guest star, Madonna, who used her performance to make a political statement.

TEL AVIV, May 18. /TASS/: Russia’s Sergey Lazarev performed his technically sophisticated show without a hitch at the Eurovision Song Contest’s final on Saturday, TASS reported from the scene.

The singer sang his ‘Scream’ surrounded by eight digital screens as each projected an image of the singer creating an effect of doubles amid images of lighting and rain.

Russian celebrated pop singer Philip Kirkorov produced Lazarev’s Eurovision entry. Kirkorov co-authored the song with Dimitris Kontopoulos (Greece) and Sharon Vaughn (US).

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Netherlands won the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv Saturday, with Duncan Laurence’s doleful piano ballad “Arcade” crowned champion of Europe’s annual music extravaganza.

17 May 2019; MEMO: Prominent Likud parliamentarian Gideon Sa’ar has publicly criticised plans to pass a special law that would grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immunity from prosecution while in office.

As reported by the Times of Israel, Sa’ar told Channel 12 news that “this legislation offers zero benefit and causes maximum damage”.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Facebook said Thursday it banned an Israeli company that ran an influence campaign aimed at disrupting elections in various countries and has canceled dozens of accounts engaged in spreading disinformation.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, told reporters that the tech giant had purged 65 Israeli accounts, 161 pages, dozens of groups and four Instagram accounts.

13 May 2019; MEMO: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to advance a bill which will curtail the power of the country’s Supreme Court, a move which could guarantee his immunity from prosecution for corruption.

13 May 2019; MEMO: Israeli NGO “Breaking the Silence” has called on Eurovision goers to experience “the full picture” of Israel’s occupation by taking a tour to the West Bank city of Hebron.

The group yesterday erected a giant billboard on a highway between Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv – where this year’s Eurovision Song Contest is being held – in a bid to highlight Israel’s now 52-year-old occupation of the Palestinian territories.

JERUSALEM, May 12 (Xinhua): Israeli researchers have found a method to stop the division of cells in the body, which may lead to the prevention of cancerous tumors development, said a report of the Ben-Gurion University on Sunday.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is based on the chemical methylation process, an enzymatic reaction during which a methyl group CH3 is added onto DNA or proteins.