C’tee votes to raise electoral threshold
The Knesset Law Committee voted on Sunday to approve a proposal by committee chairman David Rotem ( Yisrael Beytenu) to raise the electoral threshold from two to four percent. The proposal will be brought to the Knesset plenum for approval along with other electoral reforms on Wednesday. But none of the reforms are expected to pass into law in final readings until the Knesset returns from its extended summer recess in October. Arab MKs protested that the vote was held during Ramadan on a Sunday when both Muslims and Christians in their parties were inconvenienced from coming. Other reforms that will pass include limiting the number of ministers to a team, the number of deputy ministers to four and no- confidence motions to once a month. Yesh Atid’s Ronen Hoffman said that the legislation will improve Israel’s democracy and stability. He said the legislation was the fulfillment of a campaign promise by his party.
• Gil Hoffman
Anti-Semitism in UK at lowest in decade
The number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in Britain during the first half of 2013 is the lowest it has been in a decade.
The Community Security Trust counted 219 anti-Semitic incidents across the UK in the first six months of 2013, compared to 311 incidents in the corresponding period last year.
It is “the lowest number of incidents recorded by CST in the first half of a year since 2003, when CST recorded 186 anti-Semitic incidents,” read a report released Thursday by the Jewish community’s security organ.
Of the 219 incidents recorded, 29 were classified as “violent anti-Semitic assaults,” compared to 36 such cases recorded in the first half of 2012. None of the assaults recorded were life-threatening, CST said.
So far in 2013, CST has recorded 19 incidents of damage and desecration of Jewish property, 18 direct anti-Semitic threats, and 151 incidents categorized as abusive behavior. Four out of every five incidents were recorded in the main Jewish centers of the greater London and greater Manchester areas. (JTA)