B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B'nai B'rith International strongly condemns Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas's reported unilateral application to some 20 international bodies, including the membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

Abbas, who has engaged in a governing partnership with Hamas—the radical Islamist terrorist movement that rejects Israel's existence and has repeatedly prompted regional bloodshed—has threatened to escalate a campaign to malign and harm Israel internationally by joining the court and targeting Israelis with war crimes charges there. 

The step follows the United Nations Security Council's decision Tuesday to reject a Palestinian ultimatum for forcing the unconditional fulfillment by Israel of Palestinians' political demands.

Abbas’ path of confrontation and unilateralism gravely violates his responsibility to end the conflict through meaningful direct negotiations and compromise with Israel.  His path also denies Israel basic guarantees of its security and recognition as a Jewish state.

The PA’s machinations—including the submission of a polarizing, unacceptable security council motion that had been poised to fail—have made patently clear its unpreparedness to make the hard decisions necessary to finally achieve peace and coexistence. 

In order to preserve the essential principle of conflict resolution through negotiation, and the fundamental right and duty of responsible states to combat terrorism, Palestinian exporting of political grievances to The Hague must be firmly rejected internationally. 

Otherwise, Middle Eastern tensions will only worsen, and Palestinians' own atrocities, in stark contrast with the singular restraint of the region's only pluralistic democracy, will surely come into sharper focus.

It is time for the PA to stop hijacking key international bodies and to begin contributing, as Israel long has, to a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International commends the United States and Australia for voting today against a Palestinian resolution submitted to the United Nations Security Council on Monday that would have imposed an arbitrary deadline and terms for settling the Palestinian-Israeli issue. By bringing its list of demands to the United Nations and attempting to force Israel to acquiesce through a third party, the Palestinian Authority (PA) sought to exploit the world body to advance its political agenda.

B’nai B’rith has vocally objected to any PA attempt to deliver an ultimatum for Israeli compliance with its objectives. This latest circumvention of negotiations with Israel is no different. In typical PA fashion, the resolution blatantly failed to ensure Israel’s security and identity as a Jewish state.

We applaud the United States and Australia for their commitment to push back against these efforts in defense of a genuine and constructive path to peace. The two votes against, combined with five abstentions from Lithuania, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Korea and the United Kingdom denied the Palestinians the minimum of nine votes needed to adopt the resolution. 

The countries that voted in favor of the one-sided resolution—in contravention of longtime international insistence upon direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations—were Argentina, Chad, Chile, China, France, Jordan, Luxembourg and Russia.

Peace can only be achieved through meaningful, bilateral negotiations. The PA’s continued internationalization of the conflict with Israel has only exacerbated the situation. Those countries that genuinely seek a peaceful resolution of this conflict must impress upon the Palestinians to cease exporting and enflaming the conflict by joining new multinational bodies, beginning with the International Criminal Court, in an effort to deploy them as political weapons against Israel. 

On Dec. 22, B’nai B’rith International sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to request a clear, public pledge of American opposition to Palestinian and other efforts to impose political demands on Israel through the United Nations. The Palestinian Authority has launched a new effort to deliver an ultimatum for Israeli compliance with its political objectives, this time at the U.N. Security Council. As B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin write to Kerry in the letter, this latest circumvention of negotiations with Israel is unacceptable and the United States must consistently push back against these efforts, employing its veto power in the Security Council when necessary, if peace is to be achieved.

Jacobs and Mariaschin write: “As you know, the Palestinian Authority has openly spoken of its strategy to ‘internationalize’ the conflict with Israel, and this further politicization of global institutions in the context of an already difficult regional reality is the last thing needed in the pursuit of calm, reconciliation and peace in the Middle East. Sadly, [last] week, a draft Security Council resolution was circulated that would unacceptably dictate demands of Israel outside the framework of direct negotiations and mutual compromise with the Palestinians. In the event that its inherent ultimatum is not met, the Palestinian Authority has even threatened to import tensions with Israel to the International Criminal Court, dangerously risking impediment to essential counterterrorism efforts. Reportedly, other actors in the international community have also considered advancing their own related proposals at the Security Council.

The UN – along, of course, with the U.S., the European Union and Russia – is a member of the Quartet on Middle East peace, which long ago established that Palestinian-Israeli disputes can be resolved only through serious, meaningful bilateral talks. As a critical element of foreign policy, and a reflection of broad-based bipartisan commitment, the U.S. has consistently stood against the exploitation of the UN as a political tool against our key ally, Israel. It is vitally in the American national interest, and in the interest of a genuine and lasting peace, that the U.S. make known publicly and unambiguously that it will oppose a Palestinian posture of unilateralism and confrontation in global bodies, let alone motions that fail to uphold Israel’s security needs and identity as a Jewish state.”

To read the full letter, click here.

B’nai B’rith International has been a leader in advocating for the United Nations to place Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the Jewish year, on the list of Christian, Muslim and other holidays officially recognized by the world body. In recent months B’nai B’rith has challenged members of the United Nations to quickly embrace a new initiative to add Yom Kippur, pushing the issue in a New York Times op-ed and bringing the conversation to the international forefront.

With the United Nations set to make a decision on Yom Kippur, B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs, Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin and Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs David J. Michaels wrote to U.N. missions urging them to support the Yom Kippur initiative.

In the letter, Jacobs, Mariaschin and Michaels write:

“The Jewish people have observed Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar, for thousands of years. It is a day when millions of Jews seek forgiveness and self-improvement in the hope of creating a better life and, ultimately, a better world. ‎

We believe that the time has come for the United Nations to add Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to its calendar. ‎‎The initiative to add Yom Kippur to the UN calendar would represent a modest but meaningful step in helping the UN to better live up to its Charter's embrace of diversity and respect for peoples large and smal‎l.‎

The UN is headquartered in New York City, the city with the largest Jewish population in the Diaspora. There is an active Jewish presence at UN Headquarters, among secretariat staff, diplomats, and NGO representatives alike. These contributors to the work of the UN, hailing from some of the roughly 120 UN member states where organized Jewish communities can be found, should not be forced to choose between violating their religious beliefs and neglecting professional demands.

We strongly urge you to support adding Yom Kippur to the UN calendar, alongside other religious and civil holidays.”

Click here to read the full letter.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International is outraged the European Court of Justice ruled that the terrorist group Hamas must be removed from the European Union terror list. The court instructed Hamas to be removed on “procedural grounds,” saying in a statement that the European body did not place Hamas on the list after examining the organization’s leadership decisions and actions, but because of “factual imputations derived from the press and the internet.”

Even though this ruling has been declared a technical matter by the European External Action Service (EEAS), it will unacceptably open the door to the questioning of Hamas’ existence as a terrorist group. There should be no question that Hamas is an organization that’s mandate is terror and which has a repeatedly-stated commitment to the destruction of Israel. The court's conclusion that Hamas was placed on the terror list simply due to media reports is absurd.

B’nai B’rith urges all parties affected by this ruling to act quickly in relisting Hamas as a terrorist organization. The court continued a freeze on Hamas’ assets in Europe, as well as other restrictions placed on the terror group for a three-month span to allow for an appeal or other action by the EU. B’nai B’rith encourages the EEAS to proceed accordingly, and with urgency, in order to help move the European Court of Justice toward resolving this matter. If there is no expeditious effort to relist, it would be another blatant example of the hypocritical and deeply unconstructive manner in which Israel is often treated in the EU.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International warmly welcomes, and is relieved by the news of, Alan Gross’ release from a Cuban prison after five years. The United States and Cuban governments announced this morning that Gross will be returned to America in exchange for three Cubans jailed in Florida.

Gross was arrested in 2009 while working to set up Internet access for the Cuban-Jewish community as a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

B’nai B’rith is grateful for the efforts of the Administration and all those who assisted in facilitating the high-level discussions leading to Gross’ release. We are thinking of Gross, his family and his friends on the occasion of his release, especially coming during the holiday of Chanukah. 

B’nai B’rith International sent a letter to Swiss Ambassador to the U.S. Martin Dahinden expressing serious concern over the upcoming meeting of the High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Switzerland summoned the parties last week in response to a Palestinian Authority request, and the meeting is expected to attack Israel for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank. 

In the letter, B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said, “As depositor of the Conventions, Switzerland is obliged to execute this function responsibly and impartially. However, over the course of over half a century, the state parties to the Conventions have exclusively been convened to focus on Israel, a small democracy struggling against violent extremists sworn to its very destruction and to the indiscriminate targeting of its citizens.”

Click here to read the full letter.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:

B’nai B’rith International condemns the latest anti-Israel terror attack, this time at the Israeli embassy in the Athens suburb of Psychiko where men on motorcycles opened fire with Kalashnikov automatic rifles on the front of the building early this morning. Fortunately, no one was injured.

B’nai B’rith commends Greek authorities for reacting swiftly, deploying police to the crime scene and vowing to bring the perpetrators of this terrorist attack to justice.

As we’ve seen in recent months and weeks, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise and they must be stopped. B’nai B’rith has repeatedly brought to light the troubling silence of the international community over these acts of terror, as well as  the need for European governmental and law enforcement officials to engage in proactive efforts to counter these attacks. 

We are pleased to announce that the submission process for the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism Recognizing Excellence in Diaspora Reportaǵe in Memory of Wolf and Hilda Matsdorf for 2015 is now open.

The B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem founded this Award for Journalism in 1992 in response to the need to help strengthen the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. The award recognizes excellence in Diaspora-related reportagé appearing in the Israeli print, broadcast and web-based media. It was established to spotlight the important contribution the media can make toward strengthening the relationship between Israel and world Jewry—so essential for the survival of both—and to encourage quality reporting on Diaspora communities and Israel-Diaspora relations.

The B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism is conferred yearly on the author of an outstanding newspaper or journal article, radio program or television program, or web story that, in the opinion of the jury following its rules and guidelines, contributed greatly to the Israeli understanding of the contemporary Jewish Diaspora and the state of Israel-Diaspora relations today.

Articles must be newly reported, thus stories solely of a historic nature are not eligible in this competition. Entries must appear in Israeli newspapers, magazines, journals or websites published at least bi-annually, or broadcast on legally-operated Israeli television or radio stations. An award winner will not be a candidate again for a period of three consecutive years after winning the award. The award includes a certificate and a 5,000 NIS cash prize. In consultation with the winner, the cash prize can be allocated toward a trip to a Jewish-Diaspora community.

Members of the award jury are: Chairman Asher Weill, publisher and editor of ARIEL - The Israel Review of Arts and Letters from 1981 to 2003; Yehudith Auerbach, professor in the School of Communication at Bar Ilan University; Eytan Bentsur, former Ministry of Foreign Affairs director general; Shalom Kital, former General Director, News Company, Channel 2; Tamar Liebes, professor and former head of the Department of Communication and Journalism at Hebrew University; Gabriela Shalev, professor and chair of the Higher Academic Council at Ono Academic College, as well as a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations; and Bambi Sheleg, founder and editor-in-chief of Eretz Acheret, and a 2011 award winner.

The deadline for receipt of entries is February 28, 2015.

Click here to for the application, rules and guidelines in English. 

Click here to for the application, rules and guidelines in Hebrew.