National

they were illegally occupying in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik (Sheikh Jarrah).

Police bulldozed the family’s plant nursery, but the Salihiya family barricaded themselves in their home, and one family member took a gas balloon with him up to the roof.

Five Arabs were detained during the day-long standoff. As night fell, the police withdrew, without having accomplished their goal of evacuating the squatters.

Most of the Arabs who stand to be evicted from Shimon Hatzadik are being evicted in private cases. However, the Salihiya family’s home stands on land belonging to the Jerusalem municipality, which wants to construct a school for special needs children, as well as several preschools.

Last year, a Jerusalem court ruled in favor of the municipality, but the Arab family has refused to accept the ruling.

In a statement, the Jerusalem municipality said, “Since the ruling, the family has been given countless opportunities to hand over the land by consent, but they have refused to do so, even after repeated extensions, meetings and attempts at dialogue.”

In a video circulating on social media, Mahmoud Salihiya said, “We won’t leave. We’ll either live or die. I’ll burn myself with fuel.”

Meanwhile, European diplomats protested the evacuation, arriving to show solidarity for the Arab family.

In a statement, the European Union’s mission to the Palestinian Territories said it is “imperative to deescalate the situation and seek a peaceful resolution. Evictions/demolitions are illegal under international law and significantly undermine the prospects for peace as well as fuel tensions on the ground.”

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev (Labor) tweeted, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too — to demand that the municipality act for the welfare of Arab residents and oppose the construction of institutions for their welfare.”

SCOTUS Stymies Vaccine Requirement

The U.S. Supreme Court has stopped a push by the Biden administration to require employees at large businesses to either get a COVID-19 vaccine or submit to regular testing and masking.

Despite the ruling last week, SCOTUS is still allowing a vaccine mandate for most U.S. healthcare workers.

According to the Court, the administration’s imposition of Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) demand that employees either be vaccinated or test regularly was overstepping its authority, the Court said.

SCOTUS conservatives wrote, “OSHA has never before imposed such a mandate. Nor has Congress. Indeed, although Congress has enacted significant legislation addressing the COVID–19 pandemic, it has declined to enact any measure similar to what OSHA has promulgated here.”

The court’s liberals wrote, “Acting outside of its competence and without legal basis, the Court displaces the judgments of the Government officials given the responsibility to respond to workplace health emergencies.”

U.S. President Joe Biden said he was “disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block com-

Did you know? One windshield or window frame of a Boeing 747-400’s cockpit costs as much as a BMW

mon-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law.”

Meanwhile, the National Retail Federation praised the decision as “a significant victory for employers.”

A vaccine mandate for federal contractors has not been considered by the Supreme Court.

Neo-Nazi Sentenced to Prison

Kaleb Cole, leader of a Washington state neo-Nazi group, has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for threatening journalists and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) employees.

Cole, 25, was found guilty of five federal charges, including three counts of mailing threatening letters and conspiracy.

Commenting on the case, U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said, “The work that we are seeing manifested today would not have occurred but for the bravery of the men and women that were impacted by this.”

Cole, leader of the neo-Nazi group “Atomwaffen Division,” had been convicted in September by a federal jury in Seattle.

In 2020, he was charged together with four other group members after they were accused of online and mail harassment of journalists and of the Washington state ADL chapter.

Fatal Subway Attack in NYC

A woman in New York City was pushed on Saturday morning into the tracks in front of an oncoming train and died.

According to New York City police, the attack occurred in a Times Square subway station at approximately 9:30a.m., when the woman, Michelle Go, 40, was pushed onto the tracks in front of a southbound R train by a homeless man.

The man who pushed her initially fled the scene but turned himself in to transit police a short while later.

At a news conference, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said, “This incident was unprovoked, and the victim does not appear to have had any interaction with the subject.”

The attacker has been identified as Simon Martial, 61.

Assistant Chief Jason Wilcox said that Martial has a criminal history and has been on parole. He had been arrested 10 times since 1998. Wilcox also said that the victim was the second woman who the suspect had approached and that the first also feared he would push her onto the tracks.

“He does have in the past three emotionally disturbed encounters with us that we have documented,” Wilcox admitted.

Martial has been charged with second-degree murder in the attack, which is not currently being treated as a hate crime.

“This latest attack causing the death of an Asian American woman in the Times Square subway station is particularly horrifying for our community,” said Margaret Fung, executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “These attacks have left Asian Americans across the city and across the country feeling vulnerable and they must stop.”

Michelle, an MBA graduate at NYU’s Stern School of Business, was a senior manager at Deloitte. Ironically, she volunteered with New York Junior League, where she helped support the homeless.

Florida: 7,000 Without Power

Two tornadoes on Sunday morning struck southwest Florida, destroying at least 28 Lee County homes and damaging many others.

The tornadoes also left some 7,000 homes without power, officials said.

Speaking at a Sunday news conference, Lee County Board of Commissioners Co-chairman Cecil Pendergrass said that at least 62 homes are currently “unlivable.”

According to officials, four injuries were reported but none required hospitalization.

In a bulletin, National Weather Service said, “A waterspout moved across Gasparilla sound near Boca Grande Causeway before then moved ashore as a short-lived tornado near Placida damaging at least 35 homes and a marina storage facility.”

Meanwhile, in a tweet, the Charlotte County government added that no one was injured, but some have been displaced.

UK Citizen Took Hostages

The FBI on Sunday named Malik Faisal Akram as the man who held four people hostage at Congregation Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

Akram, 44 years old and a British national, was killed by an FBI Hostage Rescue Team following the hostages’ release at approximately 9:00p.m. on Saturday, the agency said. Investigators recovered one firearm believed to have belonged to Akram, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesperson shared.

The hostages were freed nearly 11 hours after Akram entered the synagogue as it livestreamed Saturday morning services. The livestream, which captured some of the incident, was removed from Facebook at around 2:00p.m. local time.

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker said the incident had been a “traumatic experience.”

He added, “Without the instruc-

tion we received” in security courses throughout the years, “we would not have been prepared to act and flee when the situation presented itself. I encourage all Jewish congregations, religious groups, schools, and others to participate in active-shooter and security courses.”

On Saturday, two law enforcement officials said that Akram may have been attempting to secure the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who is serving an 86-year sentence for seven charges, including attempted

IF THE WALL COULD TALK

YAELIVOGEL.COM | 513 CENTRAL AVE CEDARHURST

murder and armed assault on U.S. officers in Afghanistan. Siddiqui’s family has insisted that she is not a terrorist.

In the livestream, Akram can be heard saying, “I just want a bullet in me, and I want to go – that’s it.”

“I’m gunned up. I’m ammo-ed up. Guess what, I will die,” he told someone he called a “nephew.” He later told a second person, “I am going to die, so don’t cry for me.”

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday told reporters, “I don’t – we don’t have – I don’t think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue, why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged, why he was using an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli comments.”

Akram was the subject of a short, low-level investigation by the U.K.’s MI5 domestic intelligence agency in the second half of 2020. It lasted over a month and was based on information that he may have been involved in Islamist terrorism.

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that the attack was “a terrible and anti-Semitic act of terrorism.”

Freight Trains Looted

Shipping companies have seen a sharp spike in railroad theft over the past few months.

Some of the boxes looted off the trains in Los Angeles County, California, are from companies such as UPS, FedEx, and Amazon.

The thefts occur despite the containers’ locks.

Meanwhile, Union Pacific, one of the largest railroad companies in the U.S., has announced that it may avoid operating in Los Angeles County and blamed the rise in thefts on lax prosecution of crimes.

In a letter last month to the Los Angeles District Attorney, Union Pacific noted a 160% year-over-year increase in theft in LA County, and said that in the last quarter of the year, it made over 100 arrests of “active criminals vandalizing our trains” in cooperation with the LA police department and LA Sheriff Department. However, it noted, those arrested are released from custody within 24 hours.

Alex Bastian, Special Advisor to District Attorney Gascón, said in defense, “Our office is committed to working with law enforcement to ensure collective safety across Los Angeles County’s sprawling infrastructure, whether it’s at our ports or on railroad tracks.

“Some cases presented to our office by Union Pacific have been filed, such as burglary and grand theft, while others have been declined due to insufficient evidence. We make charging decisions based on the evidence. Our office takes Union Pacific’s concerns seriously and hopes to discuss this issue more in the coming weeks.”