UN ADDRESS In his maiden speech to the UN General Assembly on September 27, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned of the dangers posed by a nuclear Iran and touted the Abraham Accords, his unity government and its successful booster campaign against corona, but did not mention the Palestinian issue. Bennett upset Israeli health officials by saying that “while doctors are an important input, they cannot be the ones running the national initiative. The only person who has a good vantage point of all considerations is the national leader of any given country.”
MEETING ABBAS Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in Ramallah on October 3 with Israeli cabinet ministers Nitzan Horowitz and Isawi Frej from the Meretz party in Ramallah. Horowitz, the health minister, later wrote on Twitter, “We have a common mission: to maintain the hope of a peace founded on the two-state solution.” According to Wafa, Abbas “stressed the importance of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving a just and comprehensive peace.”
JENIN CLASHES IDF soldiers and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire in at least four towns in the West Bank in the early hours of September 26 during raids to capture members of a Hamas cell planning a terrorist attack in Israel, the army said. The Palestinian Authority Health Ministry reported five Palestinian casualties from clashes in Biddu, outside Jenin, while the IDF said a platoon commander and a soldier from the Duvdevan unit were seriously wounded in the firefight.
BABYN YAR The presidents of Ukraine, Israel and Germany on October 6 inaugurated a memorial center for the victims of the Babyn Yar massacre in Ukraine eight decades after one of the most infamous Nazi mass slaughters. “Babi Yar is the biggest mass grave of the Holocaust,” said Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the supervisory board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial center.
TRAGIC CRASH A mother and her three children were among the five victims of a traffic accident on Route 89 in the Upper Galilee on September 29 that involved a bus taking children home from a Bnei Akiva group trip for Sukkot, a van and a private car with a family of five from Ma’alot-Tarshiha. Moran Ben-Eli (35) and her three children Dekel (15), Liam (11) and Annael (5) were killed, as was bus driver Asher Basson (76), a great-grandfather from Kiryat Yam. Moran’s husband, Reuven, who was released from hospital to attend his family’s funerals the next day, was one of some 50 people injured.
EMMY AWARD The Israeli film Advocate won best documentary at the 42nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards on September 29. Originally produced for Hot 8 and directed by Rachel Leah Jones and Phillippe Bellaiche for PBS, the film follows the groundbreaking work of human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel, who is now 76, as she represents Palestinian political prisoners. Meanwhile, Eran Kolirin’s controversial Palestinian-Israeli drama Let It Be Morning swept the 30th Ophir Awards in Haifa on October 5, winning seven awards – including Best Picture – and becoming Israel’s entry to the Oscars for Best International Feature.
