THE BALTIMORE JEWISH HOME
JANUARY 31, 2019
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The Week In News had no effect on healthy mice cells, according to the paper. The company will soon begin clinical trials that could be completed within “a few years” and would make the treatment available in specific cases. Morad said researchers “made sure that the treatment will not be affected by mutations; cancer cells can mutate in such a way that targeted receptors are dropped by the cancer.” The treatment will eventually be personalized, and patients would receive a specific molecule cocktail needed for an effective treatment. In 2018, the International Agency for Research on Cancer estimated there were 17 million new cancer cases and 9.5 million cancer deaths worldwide. That global burden is supposed to grow significantly by 2040, according to the American Cancer Society.
Outrage Over Mosque in the Jewish Quarter
B A LT I M O R E J E W I S H H O M E . C O M
Israelis living in Jerusalem’s Old
City are outraged after discovering that a new mosque is slated to be opened in the Jewish Quarter. The mosque had fallen into disrepair and had not been operational for over 30 years. Bordering the Old City’s Jewish and Armenian Quarters, residents said that it would be a provocation to build a new Muslim house of worship with the Muslim Quarter so close by.
Locals say that they are also concerned that the refurbishment of the old mosque may be the start of a new trend in which many other old and non-functional mosques in the Jewish Quarter will be bought and restored, leading to an Arab takeover of the area. “I’ve lived here in the neighborhood for 31 years. We don’t have any problem with the mosque itself; it’s
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been here forever. The building itself borders on the entrance to the Jewish Quarter on one side and an Armenian apartment building on the other,” community leader Shoshana Selevan told Yediot Aharonot. “If they start operating the mosque now, it would just be a provocation,” Selevan continued. “There are no Arabs living around here. It would be like if tomorrow we were to open up a synagogue in the middle of the Muslim Quarter.” Selevan added that none of the area residents had been consulted prior to the mosque’s opening and that it is unclear who is funding it. “Yesterday they hooked up the lighting system. No one notified us ahead of time about the renovations,” she said. In addition, Selevan said that locals are afraid of suffering from the noise pollution caused by the Islamic call to prayer. Jews living near predominantly-Arab neighborhoods have long been rankled by the earsplitting Muslim call to prayer, which wakes them up at the early hours of the morning. “We’ve been living here quietly with the people, not looking for trouble, but the green light which they hooked up this week lights up our homes and if they start holding the calls to prayer there that would cause a major disruption of our daily lives,” said Selevan. Currently, residents of the Jewish Quarter have been petitioning City Hall to prevent the mosque from opening but legal officials say that there is not much that can be done. However, the Jerusalem municipality said that it had demolished an illegal addition the mosque had constructed without a permit and vowed that the city would preserve the “status quo.” “Following a complaint which was received several days ago regarding the construction of a room on the roof, the complaint was dealt with and the room dismantled,” said the municipality. “The City of Jerusalem will continue to maintain the status quo in the city and prevent any violation of it.”
Israel Summons Irish Ambassador Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned Ireland’s ambassador last week after the Irish parliament advanced a
bill criminalizing purchasing goods from Judea and Samaria. The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had summoned Ambassador Alison Kelly to stress its unwavering opposition to the legislation. “It is disturbing and disappointing that the initiators of the law are focusing on a hypocritical attack on Israel, rather than on dictatorships that slaughter their citizens,” said the Foreign Ministry. “This is a clear expression of obsessive discrimination that should be rejected with disgust.”
The summons came after Ireland’s lower house of parliament approved the bill by a 78-45 margin. The bill bans any and all commerce with entities located over Israel’s pre-1967 border, including the Golan Heights and Jerusalem. Sponsored by the Fianna Fáil-The Republican Party, the bill’s wording criminalizes “the import and sales of goods, services and natural resources originating in illegal settlements in occupied territories.” It also bans any attempt to “assist another person to import or attempt to import settlement goods.” Should the bill pass, it would be the first time that a European nation outlawed attempts to purchase goods from territory Israel captured in 1967’s Six Day War. The European Union has labeled the aforementioned goods but has not taken steps to ban them altogether. The legislation needs to pass with another three steps before it can take effect. Israeli officials reacted harshly following the vote in Ireland’s parliament and said that it would harm Israeli-Irish relations irreparably should it become law. “Israel is outraged over the legislation against it in the Dail which is indicative of hypocrisy and anti-Semitism,” said a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday after the bill passed its first hurdle. The Foreign Ministry added in a statement calling the legislation “a