מאמרים/farmers use birds of prey instead of pesticides 12.1.2015
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Haaretz | Monday, January 12, 2015
French Jews in Israel say ‘non’ to mass emigration after wave of Paris attacks Ariel David Rebecca could easily have been among the victims of Friday’s attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris: She used to live in front of the Hyper Cacher and often shopped before the Sabbath at the grocery which was turned into the scene of a lethal hostage situation. But the 31-year-old French woman had moved to Israel less than a month ago, and on Sunday joined some 100 people at a ceremony on Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv to remember the 17 victims of three days of terror attacks in France. “It’s surreal, I can’t believe it, it could have been me,” said Rebecca, who declined to give her last name. Despite being potentially saved from a close call by her move to Israel, she had harsh words for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders who have been encouraging French Jews to immigrate to Israel following the wave of attacks that began with Wednesday’s massacre at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper. “I came to Israel because I am a Zionist, I didn’t leave France out of fear,” she told Haaretz. “I always refused to be afraid and I refuse to say that we should leave out of fear,” she said. “Bibi has
MARCH Continued from page 1
kosher supermarket. Netanyahu said radical Islam, not Islam, is the enemy of the world, naming ISIS, Hamas, Boko Haram, Al-Qaida, the Nusra Front, Al Shabab and Hezbollah. Israel and Europe must support one another in the struggle against radical
no right to say that French Jews should leave France, we still need a strong Diaspora.” That message was echoed by most leaders and members of the French Jewish community gathered for the small event timed to coincide with the much larger rally in Paris led by several world leaders, including Netanyahu. Participants in the Tel Aviv event gathered under banners that read in French “Je suis Charlie – casher aussi” (I am Charlie and kosher too), in reference to last week’s two main attacks. While joining in solidarity with the victims of the massacres and calling on Muslims to isolate the extremists amongst them, speakers also criticized as dangerous the appeals for increased emigration from France. “It is dangerous because it lets the enemy understand that with violence they can push the Jews out, with violence they can reach their goal,” said Gerard Benhamou, head of Darkenou Israel Europe, one of the French expat groups that organized the event. Benhamou, who immigrated to Israel some 30 years ago, said he would welcome those who immigrate, but added that Jews should immigrate out of their own will and not give up their right to live freely and in Islam, Netanyahu said, adding that Israel already stood by Europe and France in the fight against terror – and it was now up to Europe to do the same. Both sides are fighting the same terror, Netanyahu said. The imam of Drancy, Hassen Chalghoumi, also attended the memorial, and when he entered, the crowd stood up in respect. Chalghoumi held a prayer service in front of the Hyper Cacher store af-
Haaretz
Demonstrators rallying in Tel Aviv yesterday in solidarity with the victims of the Paris attacks. security in France or other Western countries. “We are completely opposed to the message of panic urging the French Jewish community to immigrate to Israel,” Benhamou told the small crowd, gathering loud applause. ter the attack there, a gesture that was widely appreciated by the Jewish community. Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in other French cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, and Rennes. There were also rallies in Berlin, London, Valencia, Barcelona, Moscow, Tokyo, Sydney, Beirut and Ramallah. In Tel Aviv around 100 people assembled outside the French Embassy on Rothschild Boulevard.
SHORT Continued from page 1
mere foot soldiers, but their time in prison, usually with many other young Muslims, has turned the jails into radicalization centers. The French government has sent moderate imams there in an attempt to deradicalize these young men, but without much success. After the main organizers are detained they are kept in a form of house arrest, but this doesn’t prevent them from staying in contact with their followers. Gaps in legislation. Despite the law allowing the jailing of suspects, the
Paris shooting victim, back from Birthright, dreamed of being Israeli Allison Kaplan Sommer Most friends who meet on Birthright Israel trips get to look forward to lifelong connections with their fellow participants. Yoav Hattab never got that chance. The son of the Chief Rabbi of Tunis, who traveled to Israel on Birthright last month, had only been back in Paris for a few weeks when he was gunned down by the terrorist who laid siege to the Hyper Casher supermarket on Friday. The 21-year-old, Hattab was a student when he signed up for one of the free Birthright tours to Israel offered to young Diaspora Jews around the world. Hattab grew up in La Goulette, a coastal town in the suburbs
Yoav Hattab
AFP
of Tunis, the Daily Mail reported, but had moved to Paris to study marketing and international trade. But one of his Birthright companions said his ultimate aim was to move to Israel, even though the Birthright trip was his first time
in the country. Nathan Levi wrote on Facebook that Hattab was “a handsome guy: successful, funny – a proud Jew who speaks fluent Hebrew, with one dream: to come with his family to Israel. For him, Birthright was only the introduction.” “When I spoke to him for the first time and he said his name was Yoav, and I said that my brother’s name was Yoav, too, he smiled and said ‘we’re all brothers anyway.’” Levi said the two young men chatted on Facebook shortly after their trip ended. “I asked him if he returned safely and if he enjoyed Israel. I have never heard someone so in love with Israel … he couldn’t wait to finish college so he
could come to Israel already and join the army, and become an Israeli. It was an honor to meet you, dear brother. I promise I’ll never forget you.” Gidi Mark, CEO of the Taglit-Birthright program that Hattab participated in expressed sadness at his death and that of the other victims, “My thoughts are with the families and with the Jewish community of France at these difficult times.” He added: “In the past year, Taglit-Birthright Israel took a strategic position to invest and significantly increase its actions to bring more young Jewish adults to Israel from France and will continue to do so under any circumstances.”
Farmers using birds of prey instead of pesticides to control vermin Zafrir Rinat The use of birds of prey to tackle pest control has led to a marked reduction in the use of highly toxic chemical pesticides by farmers, according to Israeli scientists. In its conclusions for 2014, the national project for the use of raptors for biological pest control, which has been underway for eight years, shows that permit applications for chemical pesticides have declined significantly. The project, headed by Dr. Yossi Leshem of Tel Aviv University, involves placing nesting boxes in farming areas to encourage the presence of barn owls and kestrels. Until a few years ago, the barn owl was an avian creature whose expressive face was of interest only to bird enthusiasts. But recently, its stock has risen among farmers due to its effectiveness against rodents. A number of government ministries are involved in the project, along with the Society for the Protection of
A barn owl in the project for biological pest control. Nature in Israel and Tel Aviv University’s International Center for the Study of Bird Migration. In recent years, Palestinian and Jordanian farmers have also joined the project. Some 3,000 nesting boxes have been installed so far, in which kestrels and barn owls nest, preying on large numbers of crop-decimating rodents – among them voles, gerbils and mice. One of the project’s experts, Dr. Yoav Motro, com-
Haaretz death threats appear on rightist politician’s Facebook
Nir Kafri
pared the rate of pesticide permit applications by farmers to the presence of the nesting boxes of the barn owls, whose density in Israel is among the highest in the world. In comparing permit applications for Rosh-80 – a highly toxic pesticide that is the only type permitted for use in Israel against rodents in fields and orchards – to the presence of nesting boxes, Motro found that the number of applications had fallen by
50 percent to 90 percent over the past four years. During that same period, the number of nesting boxes had risen considerably. There was a rise in permit applications for Rosh-80 in 2013 because of an unusually high rodent infestation, but the figure was still lower than before the nesting boxes came into use. “If we take into account that the main goal of the national barn owl project was to present an environmentally friendly alternative against rodents, we can say that, so far, this goal has been impressively achieved,” Motro wrote. However, he added that efforts must continue so that toxins are used only when all other choices have been exhausted. As part of the project, one study surveyed 1,400 nesting boxes and found barn owls in 22 percent of them. Half the boxes were empty and the others were occupied by kestrel and jackdaw nests. Almost 80 percent of the barn owls had managed to raise at least one chick that fledged.
intelligence services still believe they lack the necessary powers to search electronic communications and the Internet. After last week’s attacks there will be calls in France for new lawenforcement powers — a form of the U.S. Patriot Act passed following 9/11. Cooperation between agencies. As in any country, intelligence sharing among agencies and the police under different ministries leaves something to be desired. On Friday, for the first time, special anti-terror units — the gendarmerie’s GIGN force and the police’s RAID unit — coordinated operations when GIGN stormed the print works where the Kouachis were barricaded while RAID
Tomer Appelbaum
burst into the Paris kosher grocery where Coulibaly had taken hostages. Such cooperation will have to improve if French law enforcement is to make good use of its resources for fighting terror. Cooperation between the jihadists. One of the surprising developments in the attacks is the Kouachis’ affiliation with Al-Qaida in Yemen, while Coulibaly claimed to be working for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. The two groups are bitter rivals in the Middle East, but their European members are often from the same neighborhood, as it were. Security services back home have to be ready for them to be working in coordination.
Facebook users have called for the murder of members of Haaretz’s editorial board, responding to a call by a right-leaning politician who wants an investigation into Haaretz’s editors on suspicion of “defeatist propaganda” under Statute 103 of Israel’s penal code. Ronen Shoval, who is running in right-wing party Habayit Hayehudi’s primary, called for the investigation on Facebook over the weekend. This came after Haaretz had run a cartoon in which its graphic designers paid tribute to the cartoonists killed in the terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in France. Shoval, who is one of the founders of the Im Tirtzu movement that an Israeli court has described as having fascist “similarities,” wrote: “If we have learned anything, it is that terror attacks are the result of an atmosphere of incitement.” According to Shoval, “Unfortunately, the attorney general will not do a thing, as usual. But determined lawmakers can change this situation.” A raft of death threats came in. “We must do what the terrorists did to them in France, but at Haaretz,” wrote Facebook user Chai Aloni. “Why is there no terror attack at Haaretz?” wrote Moni Ponte. “Let the terrorists eliminate them,” wrote Daniella Peretz. “With God’s help, the journalists at Haaretz will be murdered just like in France,” wrote Miki Dahan. As Danit Hajaj put it, “They should die.” “Haaretz is where the terrorists should have gone,” wrote Riki Michael. “Death to traitors,” added
Moshe Mehager. “I hope that terrorism reaches Haaretz as well,” wrote T uva l Sh a lom. “ Wit h God’s help, [there will be] a Hamas operation that kills all of you, like the journalists in France,” wrote Ruti Hevroni. Haaretz’s editorial staff said the cartoons published in the project were a personal gesture by the newspaper’s designers, not the editorial board, and this is how they were presented. “It is astonishing that in the framework of the global debate over freedom of expression and freedom of the press, and at a time when journalists have been killed over the existence of this right, Internet users are demanding that Haaretz completely censor a cartoon whose content they do not like,” a spokesman for Haaretz’s editorial staff said. “[The cartoon represents] the personal view of the cartoonist, just as the cartoons in Charlie Hebdo expressed the opinions of the cartoonists who worked there and were published in the name of freedom of expression, even though they were provocative and angered many people. The role of caricature, or of any other visual message, is to arouse thought and debate.” Shoval responded to the wave of Facebook comments yesterday afternoon, promising to remove the offending remarks. “Thank you for drawing my attention to the severe comments posted on my page,” Shoval said. “I will make sure to erase them quickly; as you said, I understand that incitement leads to murder. In the same breath, I ask you to remove the caricature immediately.”
Haaretz | Monday, January 12, 2015
French Jews in Israel say ‘non’ to mass emigration after wave of Paris attacks Ariel David Rebecca could easily have been among the victims of Friday’s attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris: She used to live in front of the Hyper Cacher and often shopped before the Sabbath at the grocery which was turned into the scene of a lethal hostage situation. But the 31-year-old French woman had moved to Israel less than a month ago, and on Sunday joined some 100 people at a ceremony on Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv to remember the 17 victims of three days of terror attacks in France. “It’s surreal, I can’t believe it, it could have been me,” said Rebecca, who declined to give her last name. Despite being potentially saved from a close call by her move to Israel, she had harsh words for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders who have been encouraging French Jews to immigrate to Israel following the wave of attacks that began with Wednesday’s massacre at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper. “I came to Israel because I am a Zionist, I didn’t leave France out of fear,” she told Haaretz. “I always refused to be afraid and I refuse to say that we should leave out of fear,” she said. “Bibi has
MARCH Continued from page 1
kosher supermarket. Netanyahu said radical Islam, not Islam, is the enemy of the world, naming ISIS, Hamas, Boko Haram, Al-Qaida, the Nusra Front, Al Shabab and Hezbollah. Israel and Europe must support one another in the struggle against radical
no right to say that French Jews should leave France, we still need a strong Diaspora.” That message was echoed by most leaders and members of the French Jewish community gathered for the small event timed to coincide with the much larger rally in Paris led by several world leaders, including Netanyahu. Participants in the Tel Aviv event gathered under banners that read in French “Je suis Charlie – casher aussi” (I am Charlie and kosher too), in reference to last week’s two main attacks. While joining in solidarity with the victims of the massacres and calling on Muslims to isolate the extremists amongst them, speakers also criticized as dangerous the appeals for increased emigration from France. “It is dangerous because it lets the enemy understand that with violence they can push the Jews out, with violence they can reach their goal,” said Gerard Benhamou, head of Darkenou Israel Europe, one of the French expat groups that organized the event. Benhamou, who immigrated to Israel some 30 years ago, said he would welcome those who immigrate, but added that Jews should immigrate out of their own will and not give up their right to live freely and in Islam, Netanyahu said, adding that Israel already stood by Europe and France in the fight against terror – and it was now up to Europe to do the same. Both sides are fighting the same terror, Netanyahu said. The imam of Drancy, Hassen Chalghoumi, also attended the memorial, and when he entered, the crowd stood up in respect. Chalghoumi held a prayer service in front of the Hyper Cacher store af-
Haaretz
Demonstrators rallying in Tel Aviv yesterday in solidarity with the victims of the Paris attacks. security in France or other Western countries. “We are completely opposed to the message of panic urging the French Jewish community to immigrate to Israel,” Benhamou told the small crowd, gathering loud applause. ter the attack there, a gesture that was widely appreciated by the Jewish community. Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in other French cities, including Lyon, Grenoble, and Rennes. There were also rallies in Berlin, London, Valencia, Barcelona, Moscow, Tokyo, Sydney, Beirut and Ramallah. In Tel Aviv around 100 people assembled outside the French Embassy on Rothschild Boulevard.
SHORT Continued from page 1
mere foot soldiers, but their time in prison, usually with many other young Muslims, has turned the jails into radicalization centers. The French government has sent moderate imams there in an attempt to deradicalize these young men, but without much success. After the main organizers are detained they are kept in a form of house arrest, but this doesn’t prevent them from staying in contact with their followers. Gaps in legislation. Despite the law allowing the jailing of suspects, the
Paris shooting victim, back from Birthright, dreamed of being Israeli Allison Kaplan Sommer Most friends who meet on Birthright Israel trips get to look forward to lifelong connections with their fellow participants. Yoav Hattab never got that chance. The son of the Chief Rabbi of Tunis, who traveled to Israel on Birthright last month, had only been back in Paris for a few weeks when he was gunned down by the terrorist who laid siege to the Hyper Casher supermarket on Friday. The 21-year-old, Hattab was a student when he signed up for one of the free Birthright tours to Israel offered to young Diaspora Jews around the world. Hattab grew up in La Goulette, a coastal town in the suburbs
Yoav Hattab
AFP
of Tunis, the Daily Mail reported, but had moved to Paris to study marketing and international trade. But one of his Birthright companions said his ultimate aim was to move to Israel, even though the Birthright trip was his first time
in the country. Nathan Levi wrote on Facebook that Hattab was “a handsome guy: successful, funny – a proud Jew who speaks fluent Hebrew, with one dream: to come with his family to Israel. For him, Birthright was only the introduction.” “When I spoke to him for the first time and he said his name was Yoav, and I said that my brother’s name was Yoav, too, he smiled and said ‘we’re all brothers anyway.’” Levi said the two young men chatted on Facebook shortly after their trip ended. “I asked him if he returned safely and if he enjoyed Israel. I have never heard someone so in love with Israel … he couldn’t wait to finish college so he
could come to Israel already and join the army, and become an Israeli. It was an honor to meet you, dear brother. I promise I’ll never forget you.” Gidi Mark, CEO of the Taglit-Birthright program that Hattab participated in expressed sadness at his death and that of the other victims, “My thoughts are with the families and with the Jewish community of France at these difficult times.” He added: “In the past year, Taglit-Birthright Israel took a strategic position to invest and significantly increase its actions to bring more young Jewish adults to Israel from France and will continue to do so under any circumstances.”
Farmers using birds of prey instead of pesticides to control vermin Zafrir Rinat The use of birds of prey to tackle pest control has led to a marked reduction in the use of highly toxic chemical pesticides by farmers, according to Israeli scientists. In its conclusions for 2014, the national project for the use of raptors for biological pest control, which has been underway for eight years, shows that permit applications for chemical pesticides have declined significantly. The project, headed by Dr. Yossi Leshem of Tel Aviv University, involves placing nesting boxes in farming areas to encourage the presence of barn owls and kestrels. Until a few years ago, the barn owl was an avian creature whose expressive face was of interest only to bird enthusiasts. But recently, its stock has risen among farmers due to its effectiveness against rodents. A number of government ministries are involved in the project, along with the Society for the Protection of
A barn owl in the project for biological pest control. Nature in Israel and Tel Aviv University’s International Center for the Study of Bird Migration. In recent years, Palestinian and Jordanian farmers have also joined the project. Some 3,000 nesting boxes have been installed so far, in which kestrels and barn owls nest, preying on large numbers of crop-decimating rodents – among them voles, gerbils and mice. One of the project’s experts, Dr. Yoav Motro, com-
Haaretz death threats appear on rightist politician’s Facebook
Nir Kafri
pared the rate of pesticide permit applications by farmers to the presence of the nesting boxes of the barn owls, whose density in Israel is among the highest in the world. In comparing permit applications for Rosh-80 – a highly toxic pesticide that is the only type permitted for use in Israel against rodents in fields and orchards – to the presence of nesting boxes, Motro found that the number of applications had fallen by
50 percent to 90 percent over the past four years. During that same period, the number of nesting boxes had risen considerably. There was a rise in permit applications for Rosh-80 in 2013 because of an unusually high rodent infestation, but the figure was still lower than before the nesting boxes came into use. “If we take into account that the main goal of the national barn owl project was to present an environmentally friendly alternative against rodents, we can say that, so far, this goal has been impressively achieved,” Motro wrote. However, he added that efforts must continue so that toxins are used only when all other choices have been exhausted. As part of the project, one study surveyed 1,400 nesting boxes and found barn owls in 22 percent of them. Half the boxes were empty and the others were occupied by kestrel and jackdaw nests. Almost 80 percent of the barn owls had managed to raise at least one chick that fledged.
intelligence services still believe they lack the necessary powers to search electronic communications and the Internet. After last week’s attacks there will be calls in France for new lawenforcement powers — a form of the U.S. Patriot Act passed following 9/11. Cooperation between agencies. As in any country, intelligence sharing among agencies and the police under different ministries leaves something to be desired. On Friday, for the first time, special anti-terror units — the gendarmerie’s GIGN force and the police’s RAID unit — coordinated operations when GIGN stormed the print works where the Kouachis were barricaded while RAID
Tomer Appelbaum
burst into the Paris kosher grocery where Coulibaly had taken hostages. Such cooperation will have to improve if French law enforcement is to make good use of its resources for fighting terror. Cooperation between the jihadists. One of the surprising developments in the attacks is the Kouachis’ affiliation with Al-Qaida in Yemen, while Coulibaly claimed to be working for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. The two groups are bitter rivals in the Middle East, but their European members are often from the same neighborhood, as it were. Security services back home have to be ready for them to be working in coordination.
Facebook users have called for the murder of members of Haaretz’s editorial board, responding to a call by a right-leaning politician who wants an investigation into Haaretz’s editors on suspicion of “defeatist propaganda” under Statute 103 of Israel’s penal code. Ronen Shoval, who is running in right-wing party Habayit Hayehudi’s primary, called for the investigation on Facebook over the weekend. This came after Haaretz had run a cartoon in which its graphic designers paid tribute to the cartoonists killed in the terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in France. Shoval, who is one of the founders of the Im Tirtzu movement that an Israeli court has described as having fascist “similarities,” wrote: “If we have learned anything, it is that terror attacks are the result of an atmosphere of incitement.” According to Shoval, “Unfortunately, the attorney general will not do a thing, as usual. But determined lawmakers can change this situation.” A raft of death threats came in. “We must do what the terrorists did to them in France, but at Haaretz,” wrote Facebook user Chai Aloni. “Why is there no terror attack at Haaretz?” wrote Moni Ponte. “Let the terrorists eliminate them,” wrote Daniella Peretz. “With God’s help, the journalists at Haaretz will be murdered just like in France,” wrote Miki Dahan. As Danit Hajaj put it, “They should die.” “Haaretz is where the terrorists should have gone,” wrote Riki Michael. “Death to traitors,” added
Moshe Mehager. “I hope that terrorism reaches Haaretz as well,” wrote T uva l Sh a lom. “ Wit h God’s help, [there will be] a Hamas operation that kills all of you, like the journalists in France,” wrote Ruti Hevroni. Haaretz’s editorial staff said the cartoons published in the project were a personal gesture by the newspaper’s designers, not the editorial board, and this is how they were presented. “It is astonishing that in the framework of the global debate over freedom of expression and freedom of the press, and at a time when journalists have been killed over the existence of this right, Internet users are demanding that Haaretz completely censor a cartoon whose content they do not like,” a spokesman for Haaretz’s editorial staff said. “[The cartoon represents] the personal view of the cartoonist, just as the cartoons in Charlie Hebdo expressed the opinions of the cartoonists who worked there and were published in the name of freedom of expression, even though they were provocative and angered many people. The role of caricature, or of any other visual message, is to arouse thought and debate.” Shoval responded to the wave of Facebook comments yesterday afternoon, promising to remove the offending remarks. “Thank you for drawing my attention to the severe comments posted on my page,” Shoval said. “I will make sure to erase them quickly; as you said, I understand that incitement leads to murder. In the same breath, I ask you to remove the caricature immediately.”
