their arrival. According to the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) about 329 American and Canadian Jews disembarked at Ben-Gurion airport Tuesday, July 9, to "a rousing welcome" from a crowd that included former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Funding for this first group of immigrants comes mostly from a $2 million grant collected from Christian donors, the ICEJ said. The trip was organized by Nefesh b’Nefesh, a new foundation promoting what it calls the North American "Aliyah", the Biblical Hebrew word for "going up" or "ascension" into Israel.
Several Christian organizations, including the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, as well as the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Absorption also supported the trip, the ICEJ reported.
MONEY FOR FAMILIES
Under the deal, each new arrival or family will reportedly receive a one-time grant of $5,000 to $25,000 financed by private donors. But their first 48 hours in what they see as "the Holy Land" were already overshadowed by reports of renewed fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian gunmen, in which one Israeli lieutenant and a Palestinian teenager were killed.
The Israeli officer died Wednesday, July 10, when Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a group of Israeli soldiers patrolling an area near the Egyptian border, the Voice of America said.
Meanwhile in the West bank town of Nablus, Palestinians said a 19-year-old Palestinian was killed and two wounded when Israeli troops fired machine-guns at a group of youths throwing stones at Israeli tanks passing the Askar refugee camp.
DIFFICULT TIME
Several of the hundreds of North American immigrants however told reporters they are motivated "to stand with Israel at this difficult time." But Tommy Lapid, head of the secular Shinui party, was was quoted as saying that most of the new-comers "were ultra-Orthodox Jews" and Israel "could do without" more "ultra-religious immigrants."
His comments drew "sharp criticism" from other Israeli officials, who called them "sad," "outrageous" and despicable," the ICEJ news service explained. Lapid’s "anti-religious comments" came as the Israeli Parliament known as the Knesset considered several bills that cut along Israel’s tender secular-religious divide.
One proposal would cut short daylight savings time by three weeks at the end of this summer, just in time to shorten the annual Yom Kippur fast by one hour. Another Knesset measure has now banned most forms of pornography on cable and satellite TV stations in Israel, the ICEJ said.
LIBERAL WOMEN
Even several liberal women have reportedly voted in favor of the measures after a reported link between pornography and the troubling number of rapes and other sex crimes in Israel.
A third bill that just passed its first reading in the Knesset would make Sunday a second official non-working day for the nation, to reduce the tendency of many citizens to take family outings on the Jewish Shabbat, the ICEJ added.
