Police Arrested

CARACAS — Seven police officers were among 11 people arrested for involvement in an attack on a Venezuelan synagogue. One of the arrested men is said to be a guard at the shul. In last month’s attack on the Tiferet Israel Sephardi synagogue in Caracas, vandals damaged Torah scrolls and painted epithets such as “death to the Jews” on the shul’s walls. A roster of member families was also stolen. Critics say the attack was fuelled by anti-Semitic rhetoric from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that grew increasingly strident during Israel’s Gaza operation. Chavez  broke diplomatic ties with Israel on Jan. 6, during the war, expelling its ambassador and embassy staff.

Church Divests

LONDON — The Church of England divested from the U.S. firm Caterpillar. The move, announced last week, took place in December, the Church said. The announcement said the $3.3-million move was made for purely economic, not political or ethical, reasons, though the Church has long been urged to divest due to the firm’s involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It came just before the Guardian newspaper published a letter from some clergy condemning the Church’s “unethical” investment policy. Caterpillar sells bulldozers to Israel that are used in house demolitions in the West Bank and Gaza.

Shul Bomber Jailed

LONDON — A former Al Qaeda member was sentenced to 18 years in jail for his part in the 2002 bombing of a Tunisian shul. A Paris court ruled Feb. 5 that Christian Ganczerski, a German convert to Islam, helped kill 21 people when he gave the signal to bomb an ancient monument and synagogue in Djerba. Most of the dead were European tourists. Prosecutors had asked for a 30-year sentence and tried to show he had ties to senior Al Qaeda terrorists. The brother of the man who rammed himself and a fuel tanker packed with explosives into the Djerba shul also got 12 years in jail for helping carry out the attack.

Reports Denounced

MOSCOW — The head Chabad rabbi of Azerbaijan denounced reports of orchestrated attacks on Jews. Rabbi Meir Bruk said reports by the PanArmenian news agency were an effort to drive a wedge between Israel and Azerbaijan. On Feb. 11, the agency reported that several apartments where Jewish families live in the coastal town of Sumgait had been robbed and their residents attacked.

Jews Rally

JOHANNESBURG — Israel supporters rallied in Johannesburg in response to an illegal anti-Israel protest. The Feb. 6 anti-Israel rally was held by the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Palestinian Solidarity Committee outside a Jewish community centre in a densely populated Jewish residential area. Johannesburg City Council had denied the groups permission to hold the rally protesting the South African Jewish community’s pro-Israel stance. Some 100 protesters gathered by the centre, where they were countered by 300 members of Jewish groups in an organized counter rally behind the centre’s security gate. Police were present to prevent violence. “We draw the line at such demonstrations in our schools and neighbourhoods,” said Avrom Krengel, head of the South African Zionist Federation. Several schools closed for safety.