CAPE TOWN (JTA) — An interfaith ceremony was held to condemn the desecration of graves at two Jewish cemeteries in the Cape Town area last week.
Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders were among those attending Sunday’s event.
Father John Oliver, an Anglican priest who was the event’s chairperson, condemned the desecrations. “In Cape Town, we have a proud history of interreligious tolerance, and we will not allow external forces or pressure to create antagonism and hostility between religious groups.”
Canada urged to ban al-Aksa terror group
TORONTO (JTA) — B’nai B’rith Canada called on the Canadian government to add the al-Aksa Brigade to its list of terrorist groups.
B’nai B’rith issued the call after the Palestinian group, a militia of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s deadly terror bombing in Tel Aviv.
Canada recently added all of Hezbollah’s operations to its list of terror organizations.
The Canadian government’s list of banned terrorist groups, created under legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, now includes 16 organizations.
University of Paris stops boycott threat
PARIS (JTA) — The University of Paris backed down from a campaign to cut ties with Israeli universities.
The university issued a statement Monday saying school officials hoped the European Union would expand its educational accord to include Palestinian universities.
The statement was issued after hundreds of protesters gathered for an evening protest outside the University of Paris’ Pierre and Marie Curie campus, where administrators recently voted to discontinue research and educational exchanges with Israel to protest Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.
Time puts Hamas among newsmakers
LONDON (JTA) — Time Magazine’s European edition listed a Hamas official along with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on its list of newsmakers of 2002.
Sharon and Abdel Aziz Rantissi were chosen, the magazine said, because “they are the hard men at the forefront of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict each a symbol of resistance to his community, each an object of hate to the other side.”
Rantissi is described in the article as the “most hard-nosed leader” of Hamas, “a straight-talking symbol of resistance to Sharon.”