Hezbollah bunkers in Lebanon

Israel declassified a map of what it says are 950 underground Hezbollah bunkers and weapons storage sites in south Lebanon. The map, appearing last week in the Washington Post, underpins Israeli frustration with the failure of the United Nations-mandated force in southern Lebanon to stop weapons smuggling since the end of the 2006 war. Instead, Israeli leaders have said, Hezbollah’s missile strength is far greater than what it was before the war. Israeli leaders fear what they believe is the recent consolidation of Hezbollah’s dominance of Lebanon’s government, as well as the likelihood that the group will strike against Israel should a UN tribunal recommend the prosecution of the group’s leadership for the 2005 assassination of moderate political leader Rafik Hariri.

Rockets among civilians

A Palestinian human rights group in the Gaza Strip condemned the storage of rockets used against Israel in civilian populated areas. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in a statement posted on its website last week called on the Hamas-controlled government in Gaza to investigate three incidents of homemade rockets exploding in densely populated civilian neighbourhoods, causing heavy property damage and injuring six Palestinians, including a baby. The centre also noted that “members of the Palestinian resistance continue to store explosives or to treat such explosives in locations close to populated areas. This poses a major threat to the lives of the Palestinian civilians and constitutes a violation of both international human rights law and the international humanitarian law.” The statement did not condemn the firing of the rockets on Israeli citizens, however.  

Japan fallout detected

Traces of radioactive waste from a damaged nuclear reactor in Japan have been detected in the air in Israel.
 The Soreq Nuclear Research Center  on March 29 detected traces of Iodine-131 in an air sample. The concentration of 0.00005 becquerel per square metre is very low and presents no danger to humans or the environment, according to Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission. The radioactive iodine was detected more than two weeks after a devastating earthquake and strong tsunami hit Japan, damaging the Fukushima nuclear facility.
Trace readings of radioactive waste also have been detected in the United States and Europe. By comparison to what was found last week in Israel, a radioactive particle concentration of 20 becquerel per square metre was detected there following the 1986 Ukrainian Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Tunisia criticizes Israel

Tunisia’s government condemned an Israeli government decision to offer extra financial assistance to Tunisian Jews wishing to immigrate to Israel. The approval of the new program amounts to interference in Tunisia’s domestic affairs and is “an attempt by Israel to tarnish the post-revolutionary image of Tunisia,” Tunisia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement last week. Under the plan approved by Israel, Tunisian immigrants will receive special financial assistance of more than $9,000 in addition to the usual aid provided to new immigrants. “We know that there is real distress among the Jews of Tunisia, many of whom would like to immigrate to Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “Israel is the state of the Jews. It worries about Jews wherever they are – those who are here and those who would like to come here.” Minister Sofa Landver said, “The government of Israel must see to the needs of new immigrants who arrive here hastily from Tunisia, without sufficient advance preparation like other immigrants. This proposal, which was formulated along with the Jewish Agency, is designed to ease, and answer, the difficulties for the families that, given the sensitive situation, decided to come here.” About 1,500 Jews are living in Tunisia. Some 1,100 live in Djerba, with the rest in the capital city of Tunis. Ten Tunisian Jews made aliyah to Israel with the help of the Jewish Agency in late January amid political upheaval and violence that led to the overthrow of Tunisian President Zein el-Abbadin Bin Ali.
With files from JTA