‘’Religious communities should be able to exercise the right to freedom of religion without impediment and without discrimination and to practise their faith publicly and freely in accordance with their own rites,’’ said the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg in a resolution that drops the idea of banning ritual male circumcision.
A cross-party group of Members of the European Parliament urged EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and European Parliament President Martin Schulz to make an ‘’unambiguous’’ statement in response to inflammatory language used by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in recent days and his silence and refusal to condemn the murders and stabbings of Israeli citizens.
The European Union said that the latest attacks in Jerusalem, in which two Israelis were killed and two others injured in the Old City, ‘’ were not only intended to cause human suffering, but also to undermine the prospects for peace.’’
The fact that many of the refugees seeking asylum in Germany come from countries hostile to Israel might strengthen anti-Semitic views among the Arab community, the leader of the Jewish community in Germany said.
Spain has granted citizenship to 4,302 people who identified themselves as descendants of Sephardic Jews, followin the adoption earlier this year by the Spanish parliament of a law granting citizenship to the descendants of Jews who fled or were expelled from Spain ahead of and during the Spanish Inquisition.
''Iran's stance towards Israel is unacceptable. We will say this again and again, loudly and clearly,’’ German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview with Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot.
22 foreign lawmakers who visited Israel this week stated that they oppose the EU’s decision – not yet announced- to label products from Israeli settlements, vowing to pursue measures to counter such a labeling.
