Police Chief Yohanan Danino told the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee that 540 Israeli Arabs have been arrested during rioting following the kidnap/murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

In addition, Assistant Commander Moshe Barkat noted the police  emergency hotline’s “failure” to deal with the SOS call from Gil-Ad Sha’ar on June 12. He said officers manning the hotline should have dealt with the call as an emergency.

Barkat also said that officers that failed to act appropriately had been summoned to the police disciplinary committee. Nanino added that officers are scheduled to be fired, but added that like all employees in the State of Israel they have rights and that those rights must be respected.

The Knesset passed the first reading of a bill that will formally allow Israel to recognize foreign certifications of physical and speech & language therapists.

Introduced by Likud Beytenu Knesset member Shimon Ohayon, the law is intended to smooth the way for professionals in the field who come to Israel as new immigrants making aliyah with years of experience, but difficulty finding jobs.

The employment situation in Israel is complicated by a language barrier for professionals from abroad.

The issue is further exacerbated by the difficulties encountered in transferring one’s credentials; and the problem sometimes proves insurmountable, depending on the nation of origin, the school, level of education and year of graduation.

On Monday, June 23, 2014, a law written by MK Dr. Shimon Ohayon (Yisrael Beytenu) was passed which will for the first time designate November 30th as a national day of commemoration for the Jewish refugees from Arab lands.

“Today, we have finally corrected an historic injustice and placed the issue of Jews who were expelled or pushed out of the Arab world in the last century on the national and international agenda,” MK Ohayon said. “In Israel, the history of the Jews who originally came from the Middle East or North Africa, who make up around half of the population, was ignored for too long.”

“Form this year, every child in Israel will learn about the history of the Jews of the region, who arrived long before the Islamic conquest and Arab occupation of the region. This is a vital part of our fight against those internally and externally who delegitimize our presence here in the region and claim we are somehow foreign to the region.”

The law states that the Ministry of Pensioners Affairs will be in charge of organizing the official commemorations, the Ministry of Education will be responsible for including the issue in the educational curriculum and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be responsible for ensuring that the issue is raised in all appropriate diplomatic channels.

“Finally, our stories and our history will be heard. Too few people know about this issue in Israel which is a national disgrace, and even fewer people around the world are even aware that Jews were ethnically cleansed from what is now known as the Arab world, who were there before the Arabs even arrived,” MK Ohayon said. “I hope that the return of this issue to the national agenda will ensure that eventually there is redress for the hundreds of thousands of Jews and their descendants who were expelled from their homes and communities.

“I know Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has for a long time brought this issue onto the international agenda and the Foreign Ministry organizes an annual event at the United Nations devoted to this issue. We will continue to work with many organizations and communities around the world who have expressed interest in ensuring that this day is recognized and commemorated globally.”

How embarrassing.

Shas’s incoming member of Knesset, Yoav Ben-Tzur, who replaced outgoing MK Ariel Attias, wasn’t allowed into the Knesset Plenum for his first official vote.

The security guard wasn’t informed that there was a new Knesset member in attendance, so he wouldn’t let freshman MK Ben-Tzur in, no matter how much Ben-Tzur argued that he indeed was a new MK and he had to go in to vote.

Eventually, Shas’s party boss, MK Aryeh Deri walked by and confirmed to the Knesset guard that Ben-Tzur was, in fact, a new member of Knesset.

The vote was a first reading (of three) on whether there should only be one Chief Rabbi of Israel, instead of two like we have now.

22 voted for one chief Rabbi, while 14 voted against.

Will the State of Israel at last investigate the actions of MK Hanin Zoabi? The decision is up to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan.

But if they give a green light, police have recommended the government take a look into whether MK Hanin Zoabi has crossed the line into criminal incitement with her constant barbs against the State of Israel.

The straw that may have broken the camel’s back, finally, was an interview Zoabi gave – and a follow-up – in the wake of the terrorist kidnapping of three yeshiva boys who were hitchhiking home from Gush Etzion on June 12. Zoabi declared on TLV1 Radio that the kidnappers – discovered by Israeli intelligence to irrefutably to have been members of the Hamas terrorist organization – were “not terrorists.”

Instead, Zoabi declared, “They are not terrorists. I do not agree with you. They see no other way to change their reality and have to restort to these measures until Israel sobers up and feels the suffering of the others.”

In fact, she later added that perhaps it was Israel’s Defense Forces who were the terrorists, and maybe the boys weren’t kidnapped at all. She then accused the Palestinian Authority security forces of “treason” for cooperating with Israel to search for the kidnapped boys.

Knesset members from one end of the political spectrum to the other condemned her remarks with many calling for her dismissal – but Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein pointed out that he has no recourse to do so under Israeli law.

Zoabi has often made remarks — and acted — in ways that are more in line with representing the interests of the Palestinian Authority than those of the State of Israel, in whose parliament she participates.

In 2010 she supported and even participated in an illegal flotilla intended to violate Israel’s legal boundaries and break Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza. That blockade is a defense against terrorist imports of weapons and ammunition that are used in attacks on civilians and IDF soldiers.

She has also been photographed in past years at unauthorized meetings with Hamas officials from Gaza.

The participation of an Israeli parliamentarian whose loyalty is questionable is deeply troubling because as a member of the government, she automatically has access to highly sensitive security information.

Several years ago, her predecessor in the Balad party, former MK Azmi Bishara, fled the country just prior to being charged with treason. Bishara was suspected of receiving large sums of money in exchange for handing over information on sensitive military sites and other security information to the enemy during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. He has since traveled from one enemy Arab nation to the next, broadcasting poisonous lectures against the State of Israel and recruiting terrorists for attacks against the country. For a long time he also managed to also draw a Knesset member’s pension for his time served as a legislator, since he succeeded in fleeing abroad before ever being charged with a crime.

Opposition leader and Labor party chairman Isaac Herzog expressed strong support for unity in the nation against terrorists Wednesday and condemned public support by Israeli Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) for those who last week kidnapped three Israeli teens.

Zoabi said in an interview Tuesday morning on Radio Tel Aviv the kidnappers “don’t see any way to change their reality and are forced to use these means until Israel will wake up a little, until Israeli citizens and society will wake up and feel the suffering of the other.”

Herzog sent a letter to Zoabi, writing, “As the search for the boys reached a climax you chose to make obscene statements which showed support for the act of kidnapping. As leader of the opposition and chairman of the Labor party I regard your comments as gravely unacceptable – and wholly condemn them.”

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appears to be retracting his condemnation on Saturday of last week’s kidnapping of three Israeli teens by Arab terrorists.

In his statement at the time, Ban had spoken of his “deep concern over the trend towards violence on the ground and its attendant loss of life, including today of a child in Gaza as a result of a recent Israeli air strike.” The reference to an IAF bombing that following four missiles fired from Gaza at Israeli civilian population centers, ended with Ban’s plea that Israel and Gaza terrorists both “exercise restraint and lend urgent support for the release and safe return of the three youths.”

Thus it makes no sense that Ban’s spokesperson would follow such a statement on Tuesday night by telling journalists the U.N. has “no concrete evidence” that 19 year old Eyal Yifrach, and 16 year old Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’ar were “actually” kidnapped by terrorists last Thursday as they hitchhiked home for the Sabbath from Gush Etzion.

Israeli public radio quoted Farhan Haq, the spokesperson, as saying the United Nations also does not have an independent investigative unit that could even confirm the incident.

Perhaps, however, Haq’s statement had something to do with a letter sent to the United Nations by Yisrael Beytenu MK Orly Levi-Abekasis.

“Last Thursday evening, June 12, 2014, three Israeli youths were abducted, two of them only 16 years old,” the MK wrote. “The kidnapping highlights, among other things, the breaking of all humanitarian boundaries and is a blatant violation of the rights of Israeli children to live their lives safely and without fearing for their lives.”

Since the Palestinian Authority unity government is now a member of the U.N. International Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), which states “member states shall take all appropriate measures at the national level … in order to prevent the abduction, sale or trafficking of children for any purpose or in any form,” – and since the PUG has been celebrating the kidnapping on its television programs and its population has been passing out sweets in the street to encourage children to perpetrate similar acts in the future – this places the U.N. in an awkward position.

“The CRC provides that ‘member states must undertake to respect and to ensure respect for rules of international humanitarian law relating to the child, applying them in situations of armed conflict,” the MK pointed out in the letter.

Since Ban had already acknowledged his awareness of the teens’ abduction last Saturday, his spokesperson appears to now be doing his best to help his boss climb down from the tree. They may even be trying to pretend the incident may never have happened – because if it did, what action will have to be taken against the United Nation’s newest non-sovereign member?