An Israeli minister lashed out at world media on Wednesday, accusing them of bias against Israel and defended Israel's handling of the case of an American graduate student held in detention at the country's international airport for the past week over allegations that she supports a boycott against the Jewish state.

Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport last week with a valid student visa and was registered to study human rights at Israel's Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

But she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported, based on suspicions that she supports the Palestinian-led boycott movement.

An Israeli court has ordered that she remain in custody while she appeals, although Israel says she can leave the country.

The weeklong detention is the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case.

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that Israel had the right to protect itself and decide who enters its borders despite growing international criticism.

His remarks come after the Times published an opinion piece by columnist Bret Stephens and editor Bari Weiss critical of Israel's handling of Alqasem's case.

More than 300 academics penned a letter in the British Guardian Wednesday calling the case "an attack on academic freedom."

While waiting for her appeal to be heard, Alqasem has been spending her days in a closed area with little access to a telephone, no internet and a bed that was infested with bedbugs, according to people who have spoken to her.

Erdan insisted Alqasem was not detained and was free to return to the US, but chose to remain at Ben Gurion airport in a move he suggested was part of an anti-Israel campaign.

Leora Baruch, a member of Alqasem's defence team said the case is a crucial one as it goes to the very heart of the debate about Israel's identity.

Alqasem, from the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Southwest Ranches, Florida, is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

The group is a branch of the BDS movement, whose name comes from its calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

BDS supporters say that in urging businesses, artists and universities to sever ties with Israel, they are using nonviolent means to resist unjust policies toward Palestinians.

Israel says the movement masks its motives to delegitimise or destroy the Jewish state.

Alqasem's case is set to be heard at a Tel Aviv court on Thursday.

Jerusalem - 10 October 2018

1. Set up of Gilad Erdan, Israel's Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information

2. Cutaway of hands

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Israel's Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information:

"Lara was the head of one of the most extremist BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) organisations known as SJP - Students for Justice in Palestine. And this is a BDS organisation, an anti-Semitic BDS organisation that is acting against pro-Israel speakers, that is bullying and trying to harm Jewish students in many campuses around the United States of America, and this is exactly one of the most extremist BDS organisations that we don't want to see their activists coming to Israel and trying to use our infrastructure to harm us and to destroy us."

4. Cutaway of Erdan

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Israel's Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information:

"World media most of the time is against the state of Israel. We know it. We will try always to expose the truth and to tell the truth about what is really happening in Israel. But, unfortunately it is not always working because the world media many time are against the state of Israel and that is not something that has to tell us to change our ideology or to change our mind. We are doing whatever we believe that is right for the security of the state of Israel and that is more important than whatever The New York Times or other newspapers around the world will say about our policy."

6. Cutaway of Erdan

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Israel's Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information:

"Even though she, under our criteria, under the law criteria, she should be banned from entering Israel, if she would say the she regrets all her activities against the state of Israel and she would commit not to be part of those anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli activities, so we will think again about allowing her to enter Israel. But until now I didn't get this kind of commitment."

8. Photograph of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Israel's Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information:

"It's also important to understand and to emphasise that Ms. Alqasem is not being detained. She can leave Israel whenever she wants but she decided, and it looks like a campaign, she decided to stay at the airport as long as her appeal to our court is continuing. We told her - we will pay for your flight and you can come back, fly back, home to the United States whenever you want. But she decided to stay at the airport."

10. Wide of Erdan

11. Photo of Netanyahu on wall

12. Set up of Leora Baruch, lawyer representing Lara Alqasem

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Leora Baruch, a lawyer representing Lara Alqasem:

"Lara's case is critical because we learned from it how the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Strategic Affairs has been implementing the Boycott Amendment to the Law on Entering into Israel and how they intend to implement it in the future. The law itself is actually quite ambiguous. It says that a person who, acting on their own behalf or on behalf of an organisation or a body for a public call to boycott, or who has made a commitment to boycott. I don't know what a commitment to boycott is. That's something that is very unclear."

14. Cutaway

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Leora Baruch, a lawyer representing Lara Alqasem:

"Lara Alqasem's case is being followed throughout Israel, all over the news and throughout the world. And what might happen tomorrow is we might learn whether this amendment should be used at all and how it should be used and how broad or how narrow it should be used. And whether there has been an abuse of power here and whether the Ministry of Interior has used the amendment for a case that clearly doesn't fall within the parameters of the amendment itself. And so there really is a lot at stake here and it's again part of a larger conversation about academic freedom, about freedom of speech, about being able to visit Israel even if you don't share the opinions of the consensus, of the majority of the party, the administration."

16. Cutaway of degree certificate

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Leora Baruch, a lawyer representing Lara Alqasem:

"With respect to Minister Erdan's statement, he's asked that Lara claim that BDS is an illegitimate movement, that it is an illegitimate form of protest. Lara is not willing to claim that BDS is illegitimate, even if she isn't a supporter of BDS. And we're currently in negotiations to see if there's a way of bridging the gap between the two parties."

18. Baruch at her computer

LEADIN

Israel's first whisky (also spelt whiskey) distillery is preparing to release the country's first Single Malt whisky.

100 bottles are set to be released by auction from The Milk and Honey distillery later this month.

STORYLINE

Smooth, honey-brown whisky (also spelt whiskey) is not the first thing that pops to mind when you think of Israel. But at The Milk and Honey Distillery, rows of casks proudly stamped "Tel Aviv" hold litres of the stuff.

The country's first whisky distillery is preparing to release Israel's first Single Malt whisky.

Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO, describes it as a young whisky with a lot of woodiness and fruitiness:

"It's complex for its age, as I told you the taste feels like more than three years, more like seven or eight and again the story is much more important in this case. This is the first ever single malt whisky that any distillery released from Israel."

While wine has been produced in the Holy Land for centuries with modern day Israeli wines recently gaining international renown, whisky production is new to the country.

Milk and Honey was created in 2012 and began distilling whisky in 2015. One hundred bottles of the Single Malt are set to be released at an online auction starting 11 August 2017, while the remaining 291 will be sold at a later date.

The drink is also "ultra-kosher" according to Attir.

"Kosher is one thing that we do here differently. We are like the ultra-kosher distillery you can find I guess in the world. Because whisky by definition is kosher but here it is much more. We don't work on Saturdays, we don't work on Yom Kippur or Passover and we want to symbolise our being Jewish or Israeli and then we called it the Milk and Honey Distillery," he says.

The Single Malt was made in Israel from start to finish, according to the company's website. The climate in Israel allows for a speedier aging process than for whisky made in colder climes, according to Ran Latowicz, an Israeli whisky connoisseur and bar owner.

"This whisky is unique because of where it comes from. It comes from a warm climate country which is a place that's a lot harder to make whisky. In colder climates like Scotland or Ireland, whisky usually ages for about seven to ten to twelve years before it's even bottled because this is just the way, you know, it gets to its full potential, at least to the beginning of its full potential. The warm climate thing in Israel speeds up the process and actually makes a three year old whisky feel a lot older," he says.

The distillery believes it is well positioned to ride a wave of international interest in new world whiskies and hopes this initial offering whets the appetites of aficionados everywhere.

"There's a huge demand nowadays for whisky from other places around the world, a new world whisky. There's more than 70 countries now with a minimum of one distillery and one of them is Israel. So the demand now is for new things, new stories, new markets, new tastes and I think we're going to be a part of this amazing wave," says Attir.

Israel may have long been known as the land of milk and honey, but now the company which uses that phrase as its name hopes to make it the land of Single Malt whisky.

Tel Aviv - 10 August 2017

1. Whisky (whiskey) being removed from cask and poured into glasses

2. Tilt up of whisky casks

3. More of casks

4. The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO Eitan Attir walking through warehouse

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO

"It's a young whisky, let's be honest, it's only three years of 3.2 actually but it's a very unique combination between two and a half years in a new American virgin oak, and seven months in an ex-bourbon one so it has a lot of woodiness and a lot of fruitiness inside as well. It's complex for its age, as I told you the taste feels like more than three years, more like seven or eight and again the story is much more important in this case. This is the first ever single malt whisky that any distillery released from Israel."

6. Pan left of casks

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO

"The Milk and Honey is the first whisky distillery here in Israel and we already set the first ever whisky single malt whisky and we're going to sell it in an auction, numbers 1 up to 100 out of 391 bottles from the single cask series are going for auction in whiskyauctioneer.com."

8. Various of barley and malt on production line

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO

"Milk and Honey is the name of the distillery actually and also of the whisky that was released because Israel is well known as the milk and honey land. So we are very, very proud of being Israeli. We are very proud of being Jewish. We want to shout it to the world about the Milk and Honey Distillery. Kosher is one thing that we do here differently. We are like the ultra-kosher distillery you can find I guess in the world. Because whisky by definition is kosher but here it is much more. We don't work on Saturdays, we don't work on Yom Kippur or Passover and we want to symbolise our being Jewish or Israeli and then we called it the Milk and Honey Distillery."

10. Various of signs showing production details in English and Hebrew

11. Pan left of warehouse

12. Establishing shot of Ran Latovicz, whisky expert

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ran Latovicz, whisky expert

"This spirit is very complex, very…I call it an intelligent whisky. It's a whisky that develops. A whisky that you can keep it in the glass for 25 minutes and it develops again and I'm very excited, a lot of people all around the world are very excited to see where this spirit and where this whisky is going to be in about three or four, five years from now."

14. Close of whisky in glass

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Ran Latovicz, whiskey expert

"This whisky is unique because of where it comes from. It comes from a warm climate country which is a place that's a lot harder to make whisky. In colder climates like Scotland or Ireland, whisky usually ages for about seven to ten to twelve years before it's even bottled because this is just the way, you know, it gets to its full potential, at least to the beginning of its full potential. The warm climate thing in Israel speeds up the process and actually makes a three year old whisky feel a lot older."

16. Various of whisky production facility

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO

"There's a huge demand nowadays for whisky from other places around the world, a new world whisky. There's more than 70 countries now with a minimum of one distillery and one of them is Israel. So the demand now is for new things, new stories, new markets, new tastes and I think we're going to be a part of this amazing wave."

18. Whisky being poured from cask to glass

LEADIN

Israel's first whisky (also spelt whiskey) distillery is preparing to release the country's first Single Malt whisky.

100 bottles are set to be released by auction from The Milk and Honey distillery later this month.

STORYLINE

Smooth, honey-brown whisky (also spelt whiskey) is not the first thing that pops to mind when you think of Israel. But at The Milk and Honey Distillery, rows of casks proudly stamped "Tel Aviv" hold litres of the stuff.

The country's first whisky distillery is preparing to release Israel's first Single Malt whisky.

Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO, describes it as a young whisky with a lot of woodiness and fruitiness:

"It's complex for its age, as I told you the taste feels like more than three years, more like seven or eight and again the story is much more important in this case. This is the first ever single malt whisky that any distillery released from Israel."

While wine has been produced in the Holy Land for centuries with modern day Israeli wines recently gaining international renown, whisky production is new to the country.

Milk and Honey was created in 2012 and began distilling whisky in 2015. One hundred bottles of the Single Malt are set to be released at an online auction starting 11 August 2017, while the remaining 291 will be sold at a later date.

The drink is also "ultra-kosher" according to Attir.

"Kosher is one thing that we do here differently. We are like the ultra-kosher distillery you can find I guess in the world. Because whisky by definition is kosher but here it is much more. We don't work on Saturdays, we don't work on Yom Kippur or Passover and we want to symbolise our being Jewish or Israeli and then we called it the Milk and Honey Distillery," he says.

The Single Malt was made in Israel from start to finish, according to the company's website. The climate in Israel allows for a speedier aging process than for whisky made in colder climes, according to Ran Latowicz, an Israeli whisky connoisseur and bar owner.

"This whisky is unique because of where it comes from. It comes from a warm climate country which is a place that's a lot harder to make whisky. In colder climates like Scotland or Ireland, whisky usually ages for about seven to ten to twelve years before it's even bottled because this is just the way, you know, it gets to its full potential, at least to the beginning of its full potential. The warm climate thing in Israel speeds up the process and actually makes a three year old whisky feel a lot older," he says.

The distillery believes it is well positioned to ride a wave of international interest in new world whiskies and hopes this initial offering whets the appetites of aficionados everywhere.

"There's a huge demand nowadays for whisky from other places around the world, a new world whisky. There's more than 70 countries now with a minimum of one distillery and one of them is Israel. So the demand now is for new things, new stories, new markets, new tastes and I think we're going to be a part of this amazing wave," says Attir.

Israel may have long been known as the land of milk and honey, but now the company which uses that phrase as its name hopes to make it the land of Single Malt whisky.

Tel Aviv - 10 August 2017

1. Whisky (whiskey) being removed from cask and poured into glasses

2. Tilt up of whisky casks

3. More of casks

4. The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO Eitan Attir walking through warehouse

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO

"It's a young whisky, let's be honest, it's only three years of 3.2 actually but it's a very unique combination between two and a half years in a new American virgin oak, and seven months in an ex-bourbon one so it has a lot of woodiness and a lot of fruitiness inside as well. It's complex for its age, as I told you the taste feels like more than three years, more like seven or eight and again the story is much more important in this case. This is the first ever single malt whisky that any distillery released from Israel."

6. Pan left of casks

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO

"The Milk and Honey is the first whisky distillery here in Israel and we already set the first ever whisky single malt whisky and we're going to sell it in an auction, numbers 1 up to 100 out of 391 bottles from the single cask series are going for auction in whiskyauctioneer.com."

8. Various of barley and malt on production line

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO

"Milk and Honey is the name of the distillery actually and also of the whisky that was released because Israel is well known as the milk and honey land. So we are very, very proud of being Israeli. We are very proud of being Jewish. We want to shout it to the world about the Milk and Honey Distillery. Kosher is one thing that we do here differently. We are like the ultra-kosher distillery you can find I guess in the world. Because whisky by definition is kosher but here it is much more. We don't work on Saturdays, we don't work on Yom Kippur or Passover and we want to symbolise our being Jewish or Israeli and then we called it the Milk and Honey Distillery."

10. Various of signs showing production details in English and Hebrew

11. Pan left of warehouse

12. Establishing shot of Ran Latovicz, whisky expert

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ran Latovicz, whisky expert

"This spirit is very complex, very…I call it an intelligent whisky. It's a whisky that develops. A whisky that you can keep it in the glass for 25 minutes and it develops again and I'm very excited, a lot of people all around the world are very excited to see where this spirit and where this whisky is going to be in about three or four, five years from now."

14. Close of whisky in glass

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Ran Latovicz, whiskey expert

"This whisky is unique because of where it comes from. It comes from a warm climate country which is a place that's a lot harder to make whisky. In colder climates like Scotland or Ireland, whisky usually ages for about seven to ten to twelve years before it's even bottled because this is just the way, you know, it gets to its full potential, at least to the beginning of its full potential. The warm climate thing in Israel speeds up the process and actually makes a three year old whisky feel a lot older."

16. Various of whisky production facility

17. SOUNDBITE (English) Eitan Attir, The Milk and Honey Distillery CEO

"There's a huge demand nowadays for whisky from other places around the world, a new world whisky. There's more than 70 countries now with a minimum of one distillery and one of them is Israel. So the demand now is for new things, new stories, new markets, new tastes and I think we're going to be a part of this amazing wave."

18. Whisky being poured from cask to glass

The top official of an international human rights watchdog, that has found itself at odds with the Israeli government, welcomed a delay in a court hearing on Wednesday about whether to deport its local director from the country.

Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), said he hoped the Israeli government would use the period to reflect and "reassess" its position.

For over a year, Israel has been working to expel the local director of the international group Human Rights Watch, Omar Shakir, accusing him of promoting boycotts.

The deportation issue had been scheduled to go before Israel's Supreme Court this week, but was postponed on Wednesday until September.

Roth had travelled to Israel to demonstrate the stakes at hand by attending the court hearing himself, adding there was mounting international pressure against the move.

Roth said the possible deportation would list Israel among a handful of governments that bar HRW researchers such as North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Cuba and Venezuela.

He accounted Israel's change in attitude towards the rights group to internal Israeli politics as well as the closeness of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to US President Donald Trump.

The BDS (Boycott Divest and Sanction) movement promotes boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli institutions and businesses in what it says is a non-violent campaign against Israeli abuses against Palestinians.

Israel says the campaign masks a deeper goal of delegitimising and even destroying the Jewish state.

Roth noted that neither the group nor Shakir, in his position at Human Rights Watch, has called for a boycott of Israel.

It says Shakir, who is a US citizen, is being targeted for the group's opposition to Israel's West Bank settlements and its calls for companies to stop working with the settlements.

The boycott movement's economic impact on Israel has been minimal, but it has enjoyed stronger success in the entertainment and academic worlds, gaining significant support on US college campuses.

Israel and its allies, however, have succeeded in promoting legislation in US states and elsewhere against BDS.

Jerusalem – 24 July 2019

1. Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch Executive Director seated

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch Executive Director:

"It's not every day that a government tries to deport one of Human Rights Watch's researchers and given that that's what the (Benjamin) Netanyahu government is trying to do, I thought it was very important to demonstrate the stakes at issue and come here myself for what we thought would be the Supreme Court hearing. Now, the hearing has been postponed which we take as welcome news because that comes at a moment when there really has been rapidly mounting global outrage at what almost everybody sees as an effort to censor legitimate human rights advocacy. And so I hope that the Israeli government uses this hiatus as a moment of reflection. To recognise that its effort to sort of pretend that this is only about one researcher and his past that everybody sees through that excuse, that everybody recognises that what's really at stake here is the ability to engage in human rights advocacy which may be uncomfortable for the Israeli government, but is completely legitimate and mainstream even within the Israeli public generally."

3. Cutaway

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch Executive Director:

"There currently is a court order enabling Omar Shakir to stay in Israel until there is a final decision on his case, which ultimately we hope will be a positive decision. So, the plan for now is that Omar Shakir continues to be Human Rights Watch's representative in Israel Palestine. And I hope that that continues for a long, long time because we anticipate a positive ruling in the end. But frankly, even if the Supreme Court were to go the other way, ultimately the decision to enforce a deportation order is the government's. So, while for the moment we're looking at the court in the end it's the government that has to act or not act. And we hope that either the Netanyahu government, or any successor government, will recognise that the world sees through the excuses that it's making with respect to Omar Shakir, recognises that what's really at stake is free speech and legitimate human rights advocacy. And so Israel does not want to join the narrow set of abusive governments that bar Human Rights Watch representatives"

5. Cutaway

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch Executive Director:

"Well the irony is that the Israeli government's position is driven by its fear of the so-called BDS movement - the Boycott Divest and Sanction movement. Now why they chose Human Rights Watch to make this case I don't know because Human Rights Watch actually has never advocated boycotting Israel and we don't endorse the BDS (Boycott Divest and Sanction) movement. But what they did is they looked back into kind of the ancient college history of the Human Rights Watch researcher and say well back then he did so we're going to penalise him. But the point is that even this Israeli war is not supposed to be punitive for the past, it's supposed to be preventative for the future. And the government was unable to come up with any evidence that Omar Shakir had ever deviated from Human Rights Watch's positions during the entire ten-year of his employment with Human Rights Watch. So this is really a misguided effort to strike back against BDS (Boycott Divest and Sanction) which everybody sees is in fact becoming just an effort to censor a widely respected, broadly viewed as legitimate organisation that is simply reporting what it is with respect to Israeli conduct in the occupied territories"

7. Cutaway

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch Executive Director:

"I mean many people have wondered why did the Netanyahu government try to pull this off this time? And you know frankly I think part of the explanation is just domestic Israeli politics. Things are moving to the right and so something that Netanyahu actually chose not to do just two years ago, he now feels he can get away with or maybe has to do in order to placate the far right within Israel. I think (US President Donald) Trump's embrace of Netanyahu as if Netanyahu can never do anything wrong may have emboldened him as well. But you know fortunately most of the world is not in the same place as Netanyahu and Trump. Most of the world still believes in the Geneva Conventions. Most of the world still believes in the legitimacy of human rights advocacy. And those are the things that are at stake here. And I think that given the global outrage at his effort to deport the Human Rights Watch researcher, this is an opportunity for the Netanyahu government to reassess and to recognise that, you know, it doesn't want to join the ranks of North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Cuba and Venezuela in being one of those handful of governments that bars Human Rights Watch researchers."

9. Cutaway

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch Executive Director:

"Actually what people don't recognise is that Human Rights Watch's programme on the United States is our largest country programme in the world. And indeed Human Rights Watch has been doing intensive work, most recently on the child separations on the border; the efforts to undermine the right to seek asylum; on the various Trump efforts to demonise immigrants, to promote racist views to really, you know, undermine human rights enforcement at home. And this of course presents a problem globally as well because traditionally, while the US government has never been a, you know, a regular promoter of human rights, it at least has been a government that we could look to from time to time. And that is not terribly productive under Trump. You know, Trump is so busy embracing autocrats. He's not the most credible articulator of human rights principles. So we've had to look elsewhere. But the good news is that there are other governments who've been willing to step up to the plate and whether it's you know Saudi abuses in Yemen or Russian indiscriminate bombardment in Syria or Myanmar crimes against humanity against Rohingya or even China's persecution of the Uighur Muslims. There are governments willing to stand up. And typically it's not the United States, but there are other coalitions of governments that continue to be a powerful voice for human rights and have caused all of those governments to react and to be less abusive than they might have been."

11. Cutaway

12. Omar Shakir, HRW director in Israel, Palestine

Israel's Prime Minister has said his country is "in the midst of a campaign against terror in Gaza."

During his cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday, Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the deadly violence that has taken place near the Israeli-Palestine border during the past months.

"It won't end with a single strike" Netanyahu said Sunday morning, adding, "our approach is clear, a complete ceasefire. We won't be satisfied with less than that."

He also stated that the Israeli military so far has destroyed "hundreds of Hamas military targets."

Three Palestinians were killed on Friday by Israeli fire during a Hamas-led protest along the Gaza border.

The incident came as Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel honoured a cease-fire Friday that ended two days of an intense flare-up in violence.

During Sunday's meeting, Netanyahu also spoke about mass protests taking place in Tell Aviv on Saturday evening against the new Nation-State law, which critics say marginalises Israel's non-Jewish citizens.

"We received conclusive evidence of opposition against the existence of the state of Israel, and the necessity of the nation-state law. We saw PLO flags yesterday flying in the heart of Tel Aviv," Netanyahu told cabinet ministers.

Saturday's rally marked further fallout from the explosive Nation-State law and came a week after thousands of Druze, also members of the Arab minority, packed the same city square last week.

Israel's 1948 declaration of independence defined the country as a Jewish and democratic state and the government says the recently passed bill merely enshrines the country's existing character.

But critics say it undercuts Israel's democratic values and sidelines the country's non-Jewish population, namely the Arab community that makes up 20 percent of the country.

Jerusalem - 12 August 2018

1. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arriving for cabinet meeting

2. Pan left from Netanyahu over cabinet ministers during meeting

3. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister:

"We are in the midst of a campaign against terror in Gaza. There is an exchange of blows, and it won't end with a single strike. Our approach is clear: a complete ceasefire. We won't be satisfied with less than that. Until now we have destroyed hundreds of Hamas military targets, in every round of attacks, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has inflicted another heavy toll on Hamas. I won't disclose our operational plans here; they're ready."

4. Cutaway of cabinet meeting

5. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (speaking about mass protests in Tel Aviv on Saturday against a contentious new law that critics say marginalises Israel's non-Jewish citizens):

"Yesterday we received conclusive evidence of opposition against the existence of the state of Israel, and the necessity of the Nation-state Law. We saw PLO flags yesterday flying in the heart of Tel Aviv, in the heart of Tel Aviv. We heard the chants 'With blood and fire we will redeem Palestine.' Many of the protesters want to cancel the Law of Return (a law which gives Jews the right to come and live in and gain citizenship in Israel), they want to annul the anthem, they want to fold up our flag, they want to nullify Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and turn it - as some of them say - into an Israeli-Palestinian state, others say a state of all its citizens. Precisely for this reason we passed the Nation-state Law. We are proud of our country, we are proud of our flag, we are proud of our anthem. Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. Individual rights of its citizens are well anchored in the basic laws and other laws, and now it's clearer than ever that the nation-state Law is needed to ensure the future of the state of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. We passed this law and we will keep this law."

6. Mid of meeting

Tens of thousands of members of Israel's Druze minority and their Jewish supporters packed a square in central Tel Aviv Saturday night to rally against a contentious new law that critics say sidelines Israel's non-Jewish citizens.

It marked the first time in recent memory that the Druze - who are considered fiercely loyal to the state of Israel - staged a large public protest.

Hundreds of brightly colored Druze flags, rarely seen outside the community, fluttered in the square along Israel's national banners.

Nearby City Hall was also lit up in the Druze colours.

The rally marked the biggest backlash yet against a recently passed law that enshrines Israel's Jewish character and downgrades the standing of Arabic from an official to a "special" language.

The law has outraged Israel's Arabic-speaking community, which includes the Druze and makes up about 20 percent of the population.

Critics say the law undermines the country's democratic values.

The Druze serve in the military, unlike most of the country's Arab citizens, who overwhelmingly follow Sunni Islam and have close family ties with Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories.

Over the years, members of the Druze community have risen to prominence in the military and in politics.

On Saturday, Tel Aviv's Rabin Square was packed with Druze protesters bused in from all over Israel, and their Jewish backers, including former senior members of the defenfe establishment.

The crowd chanted "equality, equality."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Cabinet ministers have met with Druze leaders to try and pacify their concerns.

But recent meetings did not go well.

According to Israeli media, Netanyahu abruptly ended a meeting with retired brigadier general Amal Assad and other Druze officials this week after Assad warned the new law would "lead to apartheid."

Israel's 130,000 Druze live mostly in the north of the country.

Tel Aviv - August 4 2018

++NIGHT SHOTS++

1. Various of Druze demonstration with Druze as well as Israeli flags being waved

++DAY SHOTS++

2. Demonstrators

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Amal Assad, retired brigadier general:

"We gathered here all of the Israeli citizens to change the bad law for the Israeli country, for the state of Israel, for the Jewish people, and for all the minorities. It's a bad law and we are all equal, Jews, Arabs, Druze, everybody. We are brothers, we defend this country and we'll build it and we will continue to live here together"

4. Mid of demonstration

5. Mid of front of demonstration, with Nadia Halabi, from Northern Israeli town of Daliyat al-Carmel standing with other protesters

6. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Nadia Halabi, protester:

"We are loyal to the state of Israel, we the Druze have been loyal to the state of Israel for 70 years, and we will continue to live here and serve in the army for another 700 years, but we won't accept that Benjamin Netanyahu split us, and will divide the Israeli society. I am a proud Israeli and I am also a proud Druze. When we're looking at the national law that he (Netanyahu) made, he created this problem, if not, we wouldn't be here, all the Druze from all over Israel. Long live Israel."

7. Mid of demonstration

Thousands of African asylum seekers on Wednesday protested outside the Rwandan Embassy in Israel, calling on the African country not to cooperate with an Israeli plan to deport them.

Israel has given thousands of migrants in the country until April 1 to accept an offer to leave for an unnamed African destination - widely known to be Rwanda, based on testimonies of people who have already left - in exchange for 3,500 US dollars and a plane ticket. Those who don't leave face indefinite incarceration.

The protesters said the plan would put them in danger and said the deportations were racist. They urged Rwanda and its president, Paul Kagame, not to cooperate. Rwanda is one of Israel's closest African allies.

"Deported to death because I'm black," said one banner. "Black or white I'm human," said another, held by protesters with faces painted white.

Israel has 40,000 migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, who say they fled from danger at home. Both countries have poor human rights records.

Israel claims that most of the migrants are job seekers and cites complaints that they have transformed working class neighbourhoods of south Tel Aviv into unrecognizable slums.

But the migrants and their supporters say those who have left have run into danger in Rwanda and Uganda, another destination country. They claim they have no rights in those countries, and quickly are forced to flee through war-torn countries like Sudan and Libya in hopes of making their way to Europe.

In a 2015 incident, a migrant who had left Israel was captured by Islamic State militants in Libya and decapitated.

The migrants say they do not want to settle in Israel, but want to remain as refugees until it is safe for them to return to their homelands.

"Saving a refugee is a moral obligation," the crowd chanted.

Thousands of migrants entered Israel from neighboring Egypt until Israel completed a massive border fence to stop the flow. Since then, Israel has struggled to find a solution for those who entered the country.

The deportation plan has sparked outrage in Israel, where critics have called it unethical and a stain on Israel's image as a refuge for Jewish migrants.

The government says it has no obligation to take in migrants, and that it has taken steps to make sure they are not harmed. Women, children and families, for example, are exempt from the deportation order.

Herzliya, central Israel - 7 February 2018

1. African asylum seekers raising hands in handcuff gesture, faces painted white, holding signs reading (English, from left to right) "Deported to death because I'm black," "Black or white I'm human"

2. Close up of handcuff gesture

3. African asylum seekers raising hands in handcuff gesture, faces painted white

4. Protester speaking on megaphone

5. Close up of woman protester

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Halofom Sultan, asylum seeker from Eritrea:

"I'm glad to see all the people, all the African asylum seekers as well as Israelis and other people here, and I can say why the people are here, because they are very worried about their future."

7. Wide of protest

8. Banner showing Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reading (English) "Stop racism"

9. SOUNDBITE (Hebrew) Tasfou Takle, asylum seeker from Eritrea:

"I was told 'go to your country,' I am asking for asylum, and I am not leaving (Israel) if I am to be sold, so here, I am standing here, I will stand here, I don't want to be deported from Israel, I'm a refugee also now."

10. Sign reading (English) "Black or white I'm a human"

11. Close up of baby in stroller

12. Crowd chanting (Hebrew) "Saving a refugee is a moral obligation"

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Sigal Rozen, Head of Public Department at the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants in Israel:

"It looks as if we managed to recruit such a large Israeli public, because suddenly the Israeli public realizes that Israel is about to actually deport genuine refugees, but our demands remain the same for the last 12 years, we keep on asking the Israeli government to grant refugee status to the people who deserve this status and to stop abusing them and trying to force them to leave."

14. Protesters chanting (Hebrew) "We will not fall into despair, we will stop the deportation"

LEADIN:

Two prominent rock singers from Israel and Iran are collaborating - despite major hostility between their countries.

They'll perform an iconic peace anthem called 'The Hope Song' at a concert in Tel Aviv this week, in a call for unity.

STORYLINE:

Aviv Geffen breaks into the opening lyrics of 'The Hope Song', one of the signature hits he wrote after the the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

It became something of a peace anthem and has been referred to as the Israeli version of John Lennon's 'Imagine'.

However the call for peace and hope is taken to a new level as the artist to his left joins the song.

Shahin Najafi meshes its Hebrew lyrics with Farsi - the language of Israel's long term enemy Iran.

Najafi is an Iranian dissident musician who had to flee the Islamic Republic because of his activism and was later issued a death sentence for a song about a Shiite cleric that was deemed to be blasphemous.

Now based in Germany, he still has a strong following among those opposed to the regime in Iran.

He's rehearsing with Geffen for a concert later this week in Tel Aviv - believed to be the first joint Israeli-Iranian collaboration.

The two artists hope to prove that despite the bitter enmity between their countries, the people could unite in the name of a better future.

"We can talk, we can hug and touch each other and sing, it's okay you know. So for us it's a great message to the people around the world", says Geffen.

"Naturally I have a very good feeling about it", adds Najafi. "I am very happy that I have this opportunity to come to Israel in the name of art and besides Aviv. We are going to sing together for democracy, freedom and against war."

In its early years, Israel actually had close ties to Iran and the country featured a thriving Jewish community. But following the Islamic revolution in 1979 they quickly devolved into bitter enemies, with the new Iranian leadership often referring to Israel as the "little Satan" and threatening to annihilate it.

In recent years, Israel has regarded Iran as its most dangerous adversary because of its nuclear program, its development of long-range missiles and continued support for militant groups along its border. Meeting with Israelis, let alone visiting the country, is considered an offence that could have severe repercussions.

In Israel, Geffen is cloaked in a rebellious image that earned him a title as the voice of a younger generation in the early 1990s when he would appear on stage in makeup, often without a shirt, and challenge his fans by screaming "do you want a change?"

His songs dealt with charged issues like suicide, religion, drugs and military service, which is compulsory in Israel but he himself skipped.

He performed at a peace rally in 1995 shortly before Rabin was assassinated by a religious extremist Jew opposed to his peace efforts, and Geffen's songs came to symbolise that era.

In recent years, he has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he has called a 'tyrant' who needs to step down.

But Geffen acknowledged that his political activism paled in comparison to Najafi's ordeal.

"I think Shahin is one of the bravest artists I ever met who is fighting on his own ideas and he's got loads, loads of people from Iran who are supporting him and some of his fans were thrown into jail because of his ideas and vision. So for me it was like a miracle to bring him here to Tel Aviv, to Israel just now, you know, because of all the history between us and Iran. To show the people that the people in Iran and Tel Aviv and Israel are getting together along really, really well", he says.

Born in Bandar-e Anzali, in the Gilan province in northern Iran, Najafi made a name for himself as an underground musician who took on controversial issues such as sexuality, politics and God. Under threat of persecution, he fled in 2004.

The "fatwa" death sentence against him was issued after his most controversial song, Naghi, in which he exhorts a Shiite Imam to solve some of the problems plaguing Iran.

The religious edict still stands, as does a 100,000 US dollar bounty on his head. He's often described as "the Salman Rushdie of music".

"I think that life is dangerous and my situation is such that I believe in what I do and I am fighting for what I believe in in general. For democracy, for freedom and for peace and I'm ready to die for it. I am very happy that there is this opportunity for two artists to come together and work together and bring the message of friendship to both the people of Iran and Israel."

Najafi, who learned to sing the chorus of 'The Hope Song' in Hebrew, worked off a translation of the lyrics to create the Farsi segments of the collaborative version.

The duo will also perform 'Good Morning Iran', a song Geffen wrote about Israeli politics.

Tel Aviv, Israel - 27 February 2017

1. Various of Israeli singer Aviv Geffen (left) and Iranian singer Shahin Najafi performing 'The Hope Song' in Hebrew and Farsi

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Aviv Geffen, Israeli singer:

"We can talk, we can hug and touch each other and sing, it's okay you know. So for us it's a great message to the people around the world, if it's let's say (Roger) Waters with the BDS supporting or to the people or to Bibi Netanyahu and Trump with his ridiculous vision. People can talk, people can make music together and it's all fine. We got no problem at all."

3. Cutaway USB stick with Peace sign attached to it

4. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Shahin Najafi, Iranian singer

"Naturally I have a very good feeling about it. I am very happy that I have this opportunity to come to Israel in the name of art and beside Aviv. We are going to sing together for democracy, freedom and against war."

5. Geffen and Najafi performing 'Good Morning Iran'

6. Pull out of drummer

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Aviv Geffen, Israeli singer

"I think Shahin is one of the bravest artists I ever met who is fighting on his own ideas and he's got loads, loads of people from Iran who are supporting him and some of his fans were thrown into jail because of his ideas and vision. So for me it was like a miracle to bring him here to Tel Aviv, to Israel just now, you know, because of all the history between us and Iran. To show the people that the people in Iran and Tel Aviv and Israel are getting together along really, really well."

8. Geffen and Najafi performing 'Good Morning Iran'

9. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Shahin Najafi, Iranian singer

"I think that life is dangerous and my situation is such that I believe in what I do and I am fighting for what I believe in, in general. For democracy, for freedom and for peace and I'm ready to die for it. I am very happy that there is this opportunity for two artists to come together and work together and bring the message of friendship to both the people of Iran and Israel."

10. Close of tattoo on hand of Najafi

11. Aviv Geffen singing 'The Hope Song'

12. Aviv Geffen and Shahin Najafi performing 'The Hope Song' and hugging at the end

LEADIN

An interfaith group from the Gulf state of Bahrain has paid an unprecedented public visit to Israel.

The group says the visit is not political but it has still angered many in the Arab world.

STORYLINE

"We are so proud and so grateful that the group came despite all the hullabaloo of the last few days". Those are the words of Rabbi Abraham Cooper from the US-based Jewish human rights group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as he welcomes an interfaith group from the Gulf state of Bahrain to an event in Jerusalem.

The hullabaloo he refers to is last week's announcement by Donald Trump that the US will recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel - and the violence that followed that seismic shift in policy.

The group from the Gulf flew to Israel on Sunday as guests of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in an unprecedented public visit which has generated uproar across the Arab world.

The trip comes at a time that Israel is boasting of warming, albeit covert, ties with moderate Arab countries in a shared front against archrival Iran. But the heavy criticism toward the group unleashed on Arab social media, along with the low profile they have taken, shows the limits on how far that goodwill can go.

The 25 participants include Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and both Sunni and Shiite Muslims. While organisers and participants say the trip is non-political and unconnected to the government, it nonetheless is a possible test case for other Gulf Arab nations in seeing what could happen if they recognise Israel.

"People have been asking us, 'Oh why are you here now after there was an announcement that was made by the White House?' says Betsy Mathieson, President of This is Bahrain.

"We have nothing to do with politics," Matheison insists. "And if every time somewhere in the world a politician or a leader made a political announcement, or there was a new governmental issue, we would never get any of our work done."

But the early results seem decidedly mixed.

Shortly after the group arrived, it was forced to issue a statement on the state-run Bahrain News Agency that it "does not represent any official entity" in Bahrain after uproar on social media. People were especially angry that the visit came so close to President Donald Trump's comments.

The US President's statement has enraged Palestinians, who seek the city's eastern half as capital of a future state.

Throughout their time in Israel, the group has avoided the spotlight. Several Bahraini citizens in the group chose not to attend a dinner alongside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City to light candles for the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Tuesday. The few Bahrainis who did attend either refused to speak to The Associated Press or did so only if they were not identified.

Roughly half of the members of This is Bahrain that took part in the trip were Bahraini citizens. Israel and Bahrain do not have diplomatic relations, although the two are rumoured to be nurturing close covert ties. Israel's Interior Ministry said the participants entered the country legally after their arrival was coordinated in advance with Israeli authorities with the assistance of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, says the fact that the group arrived, defying expectations they would cancel because of Trump's statement, "speaks volumes."

"We're looking for the normalisation. We're not waiting for politicians, and we're going to try to stick to that narrative," he says.

Bahrain and other Sunni Arab states see themselves as sharing regional interests with Israel when confronting Shiite power Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly touted Israel's warming ties with Gulf Arab states in recent months. On Sunday, Netanyahu asserted that "many of the Arab countries now recognise that Israel is not their enemy but their indispensable ally." This shift, he said, "could help pave the way to an ultimate peace between us and our Palestinian neighbours and between us and the rest of the Arab world."

Netanyahu acknowledged last week that Israel won't be able to sign peace treaties with Arab countries without a deal with the Palestinians, but also implied that ties have already been established and have plenty of room to grow. "Peace treaties, no. Everything else below that, yes, and it's happening," he said just hours before Trump's declaration on Jerusalem.

The island nation of Bahrain, east of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf, has long been seen as more liberal than its larger neighbour, but has faced major criticism in recent years for how it put down its 2011 Arab Spring protests with the help of the Saudi kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

The tiny state is ruled by a Sunni king but has a majority Shiite population. According to the Bahraini government, 70 per cent of the population is Muslim and the remainder adheres to various faiths.

Shiites and others demonstrated in 2011 seeking more political freedoms. An official investigation found the government demolished 30 Shiite religious structures following the demonstrations, ranging from mosques to meeting halls and shrines, as part of a broader crackdown on dissent.

Bahrain is home to a small Jewish community, but no members of the community took part in the trip.

Jerusalem - 12 December 2017

1. Pan from Rabbi Abraham Cooper holding candle to group of visitors from Bahrain (English) UPSOUND "We are so proud and so grateful that the group came despite all the hullabaloo of the last few days."

2. Cooper speaking to group at candle lighting ceremony

3. Close of candle

4. Pull out of Cooper lighting candle

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Betsy Mathieson, president, "This is Bahrain"

"We're thrilled to be here in this beautiful city of Jerusalem. We've been so warmly received and we've been visiting the holy sites and making new friends and sharing our message of peaceful coexistence."

6. Group member lighting candle

7. Close of candle

8. Another group member lighting candle

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Betsy Mathieson, president, "This is Bahrain"

"People have been asking us, 'Oh why are you here now after there was an announcement that was made by the White House?' The thing is, as I said, we have nothing to do with politics. And if every time somewhere in the world a politician or a leader made a political announcement, or there was a new governmental issue, we would never get any of our work done. So you know, political things can change in a heartbeat, but what will not change is the message of This is Bahrain, and our message is one of peaceful coexistence. So we can't allow world leaders or politics to derail our mission."

10. Group members lighting candles

11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associated dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center:

"I think that most observers here, in the days leading up to their arrival, assumed that there would be a postponement or a cancellation. That they came speaks volumes."

12. Pan left of group members watching Rabbi Abraham Cooper sing

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associated dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center:

"We're looking for the normalisation. We're not waiting for politicians, and we're going to try to stick to that narrative and we give them tremendous credit."

14. Various of group members around dining table at ceremony

++NIGHT SHOT++

15. Jerusalem's Old City walls

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thanked Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban for standing up for Israel during his official visit to Israel.

Netanyahu's warm embrace came despite outcry over the visiting populist, right-wing leader's past anti-Semitic remarks.

Orban arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a two-day visit.

The four-time Hungarian premier drew criticism last year for praising Miklos Horthy, the World War II-era Hungarian leader who introduced anti-Semitic laws and collaborated with the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Orban was also criticised for employing anti-Semitic tropes against billionaire financier and philanthropist George Soros during his re-election campaign.

Despite global Jewish condemnation of those remarks, Netanyahu praised Orban for combating anti-Semitism and thanked him for Hungary's pro-Israel stance.

Protesters are expected to demonstrate at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, during Orban's visit there on Thursday afternoon.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jerusalem - 19 July 2018

1. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Prime Minister:

"We both understand that the threat of radical Islam is a real one, it could endanger Europe, it could endanger the world, it certainly endangers us and our Arab neighbours. We believe that, of all the sources of militant Islam, Iran is the greatest threat to our common civilisation. And by being here, in this country here, at the front line of the battle against radical Islam, in many ways Israel is defending Europe and I want to thank you for defending Israel. You have stood up for Israel time and time again in international forums, it is deeply appreciated."

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Prime Minister: ++CAMERA REPOSITIONS DURING SOUNDBITE++

"Anti-Semitism has been the scourge of the Jewish people for thousands of years, it claimed horrible tragedies, culminating in the greatest tragedy of all, the holocaust in the 20th century. It must be fought continuously, relentlessly, unambiguously. In July, Hungary sponsored a statement in the UNHCR condemning anti-Semitism. In March you inaugurated the renovated synagogue, Subotica. You said it was, I quote, 'a moral duty that Jews live without fear and practice religion freely.'"

4. Netanyahu and Orban standing at lecterns

5. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: ++TRANSLATOR'S VOICE CUTS THROUGH SOUNDBITES++

"I think the excellent ties between Israel and Hungary is in large part because of our excellent personal ties and I explain that it is that way because the two countries have patriots as leaders and I see proof in that, in our relationship, that a Hungarian patriot and a Jewish-Israeli patriot will always find common ground."

6. Netanyahu and Orban standing at lecterns with translator in shot

7.  SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban: ++TRANSLATOR'S VOICE CUTS THROUGH SOUNDBITES++

"Prime minister, the place we live in, in Europe, we are experiencing a crisis of migration and terrorism. Terrorists exploit the routes of the migrants in order to come to Europe and we must take steps against this phenomenon."

8. Pan from Netanyahu to Orban, leaders shake hands

LEAD IN:

The woolly mammoth has been extinct for thousands of years, but now Israel is calling for the species to be recognised as being  "endangered" at this week's CITES meeting.

Why? Because the trade in legal woolly mammoth ivory is growing, which wildlife experts claim has led to elephant tusks often being passed off as from their ancient cousins, which in turn is threatening species such as the "vulnerable" African elephant.

STORY-LINE:

They roamed Earth several thousand years ago.

Now, wildlife experts in Israel are calling for the extinct woolly mammoth to be internationally recognised as an "endangered" species.

For years, conservationists have claimed the booming trade in mammoth tusk is hurting their modern-day cousins - the African elephant.

It's claimed traffickers often try to circumvent the ban by passing off illegal elephant tusk as "ice ivory" - the ivory that comes from mammoth tusks.

Elephant and mammoth tusks are almost indistinguishable to the untrained eye. The only real difference? One is legal to trade, the other isn't.

Now, Israel is proposing tougher regulations on the trade of mammoth ivory, hoping it will help put the brakes on the sale of elephant ivory, falsely labelled as coming from its ancient cousins.

They're proposing "Mammuthusprimigenius" should be listed as "endangered" under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

They're due to present their case at the 18th meeting of CITES in Geneva, which begins Saturday (17 August).

"By putting the mammoth ivory outside the system, it allows the opening for laundering of elephant ivory," says Dr. Simon Nemtzov, a wildlife ecologist.

"The convention is the best method of getting all the countries together to work to protect a species that's endangered.

"And if the way of doing it is by listing an extinct species, which may seem a little unusual, then the countries should approve this because this is going to increase the protection of an endangered species, the elephants in Africa."

Nemtov claims there's a legal basis to classifying a non-endangered species under CITES protection.

"An example of this was the lynx, where the American lynx is not endangered, but the European lynx is endangered, and both lynx were listed on the convention because it's almost impossible to tell the difference between their furs," he says.

The international trade in elephant ivory was banned in 1990. China introduced its own ivory ban in 2017.

Despite that, elephants still face a risk of poaching.

"We know that there are hundreds of tons of mammoth ivory coming out of Siberia, we know that there are people going into the tundra in Siberia searching for these giant mammoth tusks that are frozen there," says Nemtzov.

"We know that it's going on, we know that there's a certain amount of it, we don't know the amount that's actually being traded of ivory being labelled as mammoth ivory, the laundering that we're trying to prevent."

Konstantin Mamontov has been carving mammoth bones for two decades.

Using small electronic tools, he carves these delicate creations. Depending on the size, a souvenir can take anything between three weeks to six months.

He sells his hand-carved souvenirs mainly in Russia's Yakutsk, but does receive some orders from China, Europe and the US.

It's not clear how the CITES proposal, if actioned, would affect the legal trade and livelihoods of mammoth bone carvers.

Not everyone thinks the proposal is a good idea.

Valery Plotnikov, chief researcher of the Mammoth Fauna Study Department at the Academy of Sciences of Yakutia, says the mammoth trade helps protect elephants.

"I have to say that I am against this initiative (to list the Woolly Mammoth as an endangered species) because the mammoth tusk has probably completely replaced the elephant tusk on the international market and it will help to save elephants from extinction," he says.

Africa's elephant population has plummeted from more than three million in 1900, to an estimated 415,000 today.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the African elephant is listed as "vulnerable".

A recent assessment by CITES confirmed that poaching remains a threat to the survival of the species.

Israel's proposal will be considered at the 18th meeting of CITES, which is due to run 17-28 August in Geneva, Switzerland.

FILE: Yakutsk, Russia - 23 August 2018

1. Various of mammoth and skeletons on display at museum

FILE: Bangkok, Thailand - 12 January 2018

2. Various of Thai forensic police collecting data from seized ivory

3. Mid of ivory being placed on table

Ramat Gan, Israel - 9 July 2019

4. Various of Asian elephants at Safari Ramat Gan zoological center

5. Setup shot of Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, walking by

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:

"By putting the mammoth ivory outside the system, it allows the opening for laundering of elephant ivory. The convention is the best method of getting all the countries together to work to protect a species that's endangered. And if the way of doing it is by listing an extinct species, which may seem a little unusual, then the countries should approve this because this is going to increase the protection of an endangered species, the elephants in Africa."

7. Various of Asian elephants

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:

"We've checked with legal experts, and within the convention there is a prevision for what's called lookalike species, where non-endangered species could be listed under the convention and under its protection to help prevent trade illegally in an endangered species. An example of this was the lynx, where the American lynx is not endangered, but the European lynx is endangered, and both lynx were listed on the convention because it's almost impossible to tell the difference between their furs."

9. Zoom in of Asian elephants

10. Mid of Dr. Nemtzov looking at Asian elephants

11. Close of Asian elephant eating

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:

"If we go into the stores in China, where they're selling ivory and you actually do an analysis of the figurines, you can determine that there is a large percentage of the ivory is actually from mammoth. But to determine how much of that ends up in international trade is very difficult because it's totally unregulated. So, we don't know. We know that there are hundreds of tons of mammoth ivory coming out of Siberia, we know that there are people going into the tundra in Siberia searching for these giant mammoth tusks that are frozen there - they're not fossilized, they're only a few thousand years old and they're frozen there - and they can be worked just like regular ivory into figurines and other kinds of things. So, we know that it's going on, we know that there's a certain amount of it, we don't know the amount that's actually being traded of ivory being labelled as mammoth ivory, the laundering that we're trying to prevent."

13. Pan left of sign, showing African elephant

14. Close of sign, reading (English): "Vulnerable"

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:

"In some parts of Africa, there are good populations of elephants, but in many parts of Africa the poaching has reduced the population by huge numbers to the extent that the populations are actually endangered."

16. Pan right of Asian elephants

FILE: Yakutsk, Russia - 6 May 2019

17. Various of Konstantin Mamontov, Bone Carver, at work

18. Close of souvenir made from mammoth tusk

19. Various of Mamontov showing souvenirs

FILE: Yakutsk, Russia - 6 May 2019

20. Various of mammoth tusks

21. SOUNDBITE (English) Valery Plotnikov, Chief Researcher of the Mammoth Fauna Study Department of the Academy of Sciences of Yakutia:

"I have to say that I am against this initiative (to list the Woolly Mammoth as an endangered species) because the mammoth tusk has probably completely replaced the elephant tusk on the international market and it will help to save elephants from extinction."

FILE: Nairobi, Kenya - 10 August 2018

22. Various of baby African elephants being fed by keepers

23. Wide of baby African elephants and keepers walking

LEAD IN:

The woolly mammoth has been extinct for thousands of years, but now Israel is calling for the species to be recognised as being  "endangered" at this week's CITES meeting.

Why? Because the trade in legal woolly mammoth ivory is growing, which wildlife experts claim has led to elephant tusks often being passed off as from their ancient cousins, which in turn is threatening species such as the "vulnerable" African elephant.

STORY-LINE:

They roamed Earth several thousand years ago.

Now, wildlife experts in Israel are calling for the extinct woolly mammoth to be internationally recognised as an "endangered" species.

For years, conservationists have claimed the booming trade in mammoth tusk is hurting their modern-day cousins - the African elephant.

It's claimed traffickers often try to circumvent the ban by passing off illegal elephant tusk as "ice ivory" - the ivory that comes from mammoth tusks.

Elephant and mammoth tusks are almost indistinguishable to the untrained eye. The only real difference? One is legal to trade, the other isn't.

Now, Israel is proposing tougher regulations on the trade of mammoth ivory, hoping it will help put the brakes on the sale of elephant ivory, falsely labelled as coming from its ancient cousins.

They're proposing "Mammuthusprimigenius" should be listed as "endangered" under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

They're due to present their case at the 18th meeting of CITES in Geneva, which begins Saturday (17 August).

"By putting the mammoth ivory outside the system, it allows the opening for laundering of elephant ivory," says Dr. Simon Nemtzov, a wildlife ecologist.

"The convention is the best method of getting all the countries together to work to protect a species that's endangered.

"And if the way of doing it is by listing an extinct species, which may seem a little unusual, then the countries should approve this because this is going to increase the protection of an endangered species, the elephants in Africa."

Nemtov claims there's a legal basis to classifying a non-endangered species under CITES protection.

"An example of this was the lynx, where the American lynx is not endangered, but the European lynx is endangered, and both lynx were listed on the convention because it's almost impossible to tell the difference between their furs," he says.

The international trade in elephant ivory was banned in 1990. China introduced its own ivory ban in 2017.

Despite that, elephants still face a risk of poaching.

"We know that there are hundreds of tons of mammoth ivory coming out of Siberia, we know that there are people going into the tundra in Siberia searching for these giant mammoth tusks that are frozen there," says Nemtzov.

"We know that it's going on, we know that there's a certain amount of it, we don't know the amount that's actually being traded of ivory being labelled as mammoth ivory, the laundering that we're trying to prevent."

Konstantin Mamontov has been carving mammoth bones for two decades.

Using small electronic tools, he carves these delicate creations. Depending on the size, a souvenir can take anything between three weeks to six months.

He sells his hand-carved souvenirs mainly in Russia's Yakutsk, but does receive some orders from China, Europe and the US.

It's not clear how the CITES proposal, if actioned, would affect the legal trade and livelihoods of mammoth bone carvers.

Not everyone thinks the proposal is a good idea.

Valery Plotnikov, chief researcher of the Mammoth Fauna Study Department at the Academy of Sciences of Yakutia, says the mammoth trade helps protect elephants.

"I have to say that I am against this initiative (to list the Woolly Mammoth as an endangered species) because the mammoth tusk has probably completely replaced the elephant tusk on the international market and it will help to save elephants from extinction," he says.

Africa's elephant population has plummeted from more than three million in 1900, to an estimated 415,000 today.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the African elephant is listed as "vulnerable".

A recent assessment by CITES confirmed that poaching remains a threat to the survival of the species.

Israel's proposal will be considered at the 18th meeting of CITES, which is due to run 17-28 August in Geneva, Switzerland.

FILE: Yakutsk, Russia - 23 August 2018

1. Various of mammoth and skeletons on display at museum

FILE: Bangkok, Thailand - 12 January 2018

2. Various of Thai forensic police collecting data from seized ivory

3. Mid of ivory being placed on table

Ramat Gan, Israel - 9 July 2019

4. Various of Asian elephants at Safari Ramat Gan zoological center

5. Setup shot of Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, walking by

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:

"By putting the mammoth ivory outside the system, it allows the opening for laundering of elephant ivory. The convention is the best method of getting all the countries together to work to protect a species that's endangered. And if the way of doing it is by listing an extinct species, which may seem a little unusual, then the countries should approve this because this is going to increase the protection of an endangered species, the elephants in Africa."

7. Various of Asian elephants

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:

"We've checked with legal experts, and within the convention there is a prevision for what's called lookalike species, where non-endangered species could be listed under the convention and under its protection to help prevent trade illegally in an endangered species. An example of this was the lynx, where the American lynx is not endangered, but the European lynx is endangered, and both lynx were listed on the convention because it's almost impossible to tell the difference between their furs."

9. Zoom in of Asian elephants

10. Mid of Dr. Nemtzov looking at Asian elephants

11. Close of Asian elephant eating

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:

"If we go into the stores in China, where they're selling ivory and you actually do an analysis of the figurines, you can determine that there is a large percentage of the ivory is actually from mammoth. But to determine how much of that ends up in international trade is very difficult because it's totally unregulated. So, we don't know. We know that there are hundreds of tons of mammoth ivory coming out of Siberia, we know that there are people going into the tundra in Siberia searching for these giant mammoth tusks that are frozen there - they're not fossilized, they're only a few thousand years old and they're frozen there - and they can be worked just like regular ivory into figurines and other kinds of things. So, we know that it's going on, we know that there's a certain amount of it, we don't know the amount that's actually being traded of ivory being labelled as mammoth ivory, the laundering that we're trying to prevent."

13. Pan left of sign, showing African elephant

14. Close of sign, reading (English): "Vulnerable"

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Simon Nemtzov, Wildlife Ecologist and Head of International Relations at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority:

"In some parts of Africa, there are good populations of elephants, but in many parts of Africa the poaching has reduced the population by huge numbers to the extent that the populations are actually endangered."

16. Pan right of Asian elephants

FILE: Yakutsk, Russia - 6 May 2019

17. Various of Konstantin Mamontov, Bone Carver, at work

18. Close of souvenir made from mammoth tusk

19. Various of Mamontov showing souvenirs

FILE: Yakutsk, Russia - 6 May 2019

20. Various of mammoth tusks

21. SOUNDBITE (English) Valery Plotnikov, Chief Researcher of the Mammoth Fauna Study Department of the Academy of Sciences of Yakutia:

"I have to say that I am against this initiative (to list the Woolly Mammoth as an endangered species) because the mammoth tusk has probably completely replaced the elephant tusk on the international market and it will help to save elephants from extinction."

FILE: Nairobi, Kenya - 10 August 2018

22. Various of baby African elephants being fed by keepers

23. Wide of baby African elephants and keepers walking

An Israeli activist who works with a progressive Jewish advocacy group said on Sunday that she was "outraged" after an Israeli official stated the government had frozen a long-overdue plan to open a mixed-gender prayer area at Jerusalem's Western Wall.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered top aides to formulate a new plan.

Anat Hoffman, the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center activist group, called the reported freeze "cowardice".

Sunday's decision dealt a blow to efforts to promote religious pluralism in Israel and is likely to upset liberal streams of Judaism that represent most Jews in the United States.

Israel approved a plan in January 2016 to officially recognise a special mixed-gender prayer area at the Western Wall - the holiest site where Jews can pray.

But the programme was never implemented due to opposition by powerful ultra-Orthodox political parties.

Under ultra-Orthodox management, the wall is currently separated between men's and women's prayer sections.

FILE: Jerusalem - 13 April 2017

1. Various of Jewish worshippers attending priestly blessing at Western Wall

Jerusalem - 25 June 2017

2. Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) speaking on phone

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of Israel Religious Action Center:

"I'm outraged by this government decision, I think it shows cowardice. For two years we negotiated in good faith with the government of Israel, we reached a compromise, this wasn't easy, I have a parking spot at the prime minister's office because we negotiated for two years. They've made a decision, overwhelming majority voted 15 to 5 to implement the compromise, and then today they decide that it is null and void, that they're not going to implement it, that equality is out the window, and the women ministers in our government, sat there and voted for it."

4. Hoffman talking on the phone

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of Israel Religious Action Center:

"We will continue to pray there, and we will do it fearlessly, despite the incitement against us, but if there's going to be bloodshed at the Wall, and if one of us is going to be injured, this is on (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's hands, and if there's a rift between Israel and North American Jews, and Jews of the diaspora, it's on his conscience, because this compromise would have brought peace and harmony to the Jewish people. We have our faith in the supreme court of Israel. The supreme court of Israel may force Netanyahu's hand, to bring equality to the Wall as well."

FILE: Jerusalem - 13 April 2017

6. Various of women attending priestly blessing at Western Wall

7. Men praying at Western Wall

8. Wide of Jewish worshippers attending priestly blessing at Western Wall

NEIL PATRICK HARRIS VISITS ISRAEL AS INTERNATIONAL AMBASSADOR TO TEL AVIV'S GAY PRIDE PARADE

This year's official international ambassador to Tel Aviv's Gay Pride Parade says he has no interest in being one.

Neil Patrick Harris arrived in Israel Wednesday (12 JUNE 2019) along with his husband, the chef and actor David Burtka, to headline Tel Aviv's annual celebration of its famous gay-friendly scene. But Harris, who has two children via surrogacy and is involved in various gay-affiliated advocacy groups, said he hardly considers himself an icon of the community.

"I'm just a guy who is married to another guy and we have kids and we live our lives I would say as 'normally' as one would, but I think normal is a very subjective term especially in the gay community," he told The Associated Press ahead of the parade. "I legitimately have no interest in being a representative or an ambassador for anything except my kids."

Harris, who rose to fame as a child actor playing the title character in the medical drama Doogie Howser M.D., came out publicly in 2006 while starring as the notorious womanizer Barney Stinson in the popular comedy TV show "How I Met Your Mother."

Tel Aviv's Gay Pride Parade is the biggest event of its kind in the region, typically drawing some 250,000 people from Israel and around the world annually to the colorful beachside march and party.

Israel has emerged as one of the world's most gay-friendly travel destinations in recent years, with Tel Aviv in particular noted for its gay-friendly lifestyle, in sharp contrast to the rest of the Middle East where gay culture is often not tolerated or persecuted.

In Israel, homosexuals serve openly in the military and in parliament and many popular artists and entertainers are openly gay. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed his ally Amir Ohana as justice minister, making him the country's first openly gay Cabinet minister.

Yet while support for gay rights is increasingly widespread among the country's secular majority, Israel's LGBTQ community hasn't attained full equality. Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties, which wield significant influence in Netanyahu's right-wing government, have long resisted legislation granting gay couples equal marriage and parental rights.

Among the Palestinian community, most homosexuals tend to be secretive about their social lives and some have crossed into Israel to live safely. Some critics have accused Israel of "pinkwashing," or using its tolerance for gay culture to deflect criticism of harsh policies toward the Palestinians.

Harris, in his first visit to the region, refused to wade into those murky waters, saying he knew very little of the local scene. In fact, he said the parade would be the first one in which he's ever taken part.

He noted the significance of his visit coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City, widely regarding as the opening salvo in the fight for LGBT rights in the United States.

"It's nice to appreciate where we've come from," he said. "I'm very grateful that I live in a time and in a world where the needle has moved a lot because of others and I'm happy to promote the positivity of it all."

Tel Aviv, Israel - 12 June 2019

1. Medium, Neil Patrick Harris

2. Close of Harris's eyes

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Neil Patrick Harris, Actor:

"I'm just a guy who is married to another guy and we have kids and we live our lives I would say as 'normally' as one would, but I think normal is a very subjective term especially in the gay community, so we just are very grateful to be living our lives without a lot of oppression, without a lot of stigma, in fact none. We want to live in a world where our kids are given every opportunity that they want and without any concern about their personal individual upbringing."

4. Close of Harris's eyes

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Neil Patrick Harris, Actor:

"I think what's nice about pride is it's pretty apolitical. You come here to celebrate who you love, you come here to be proud of who you are among people who have their own individual stories and those stories don't have to bleed into what you think politically because love is not political."

6. Medium, Harris on balcony looking at ocean and skyline

7. SOUNDBITE (English) Neil Patrick Harris, Actor:

"I legitimately have no interest in being a representative or an ambassador for anything except my kids. I'm happy to come and say hello and like give quotes and be in a parade and things, but there are people who feel in their bones that what they are best at doing is being an advocate, being an outspoken advocate, a pundit on shows, someone who has a very strong point of view and wants to get, wants to move the needle. I'm very grateful that I live in a time and in a world where the needle has moved a lot because of others and I'm happy to promote the positivity of it all."

8. Various, Harris taking selfies with people

LEADIN:

Ahead of Easter, Israel's antiquities authority is opening up its vast storeroom for a peek at unearthed artefacts from the time of Jesus.

Experts say they're yet to find direct archaeological evidence of Jesus Christ, but in recent years they have found a wealth of material that helps fill out historians' understanding of how Jesus may have lived and died.

STORYLINE:

In a cavernous warehouse where Israel stores its archaeological treasures, an ancient burial box is inscribed with the name of Jesus.

Not that Jesus... Archaeologists in Israel say Jesus was a common name in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago, and that they have found about 30 ancient burial boxes inscribed with it.

Ahead of Easter, Israel's antiquities authority opened up its vast storeroom to reporters for a peek at unearthed artefacts from the time of Jesus.

Experts say they're yet to find direct archaeological evidence of Jesus Christ, but in recent years have found a wealth of material that helps fill out historians' understanding of how Jesus may have lived and died.

"There's good news which say that today we can reconstruct very accurately many, many aspect of the daily life of the time of Christ," says Gideon Avni, head of the archaeological division of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

"We could follow the steps of Christ by archaeological finds. The bad news, or not so good news, are that so far we don't have evidence for the real Christ, the physical Christ."

Israel is one of the most excavated places on the planet.

Some 300 digs take place every year, including about 50 foreign expeditions from as far away as the United States and Japan, according to the Antiquities Authority.

About 40,000 artefacts are dug up in Israel each year.

A third of all the antiquities found attest to the ancient Christian presence in the Holy Land, says Avni.

Historians now know how long it took to travel between cities and villages where Jesus preached and what those places looked like at the time.

Avni says knowledge of the period has advanced over the past 20 years.

"We know much more details about the daily life during the time of Christ and we can reconstruct today very accurately, actually following the steps of Christ from his birth till crucifixion," he says.

"From Bethlehem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and we are doing this with hundreds of excavations which relate to sites, cities, villages, installations from the time of Christ, we can show precisely the shape of the villages around the Sea of Galilee, in the Jerusalem area, along the River Jordan."

In this brightly-lit, 5,000-square metre (54,000-sq. feet) warehouse crammed with stacks of ancient jugs and pottery shards - what the Antiquities Authority calls its "Ali Baba cave" of ancient treasures - officials set up a simple white table with finds from the time of Jesus.

There are well-preserved limestone drinking cups and dishes, widely used by Jews in the Holy Land at the time as part of their strict practice to ensure the ritual purity of their food.

There's an intricately decorated limestone burial box belonging to a scion of the high priest Caiaphas, known in the New Testament for his involvement in delivering Jesus to the Roman authorities who crucified him.

In ancient times, families would gather the bones of the deceased and place them into boxes known as ossuaries.

They're also showing off a replica of a major artefact located in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem - this heel bone pierced by an iron nail with wood fragments on each end, discovered in a Jewish burial box in northern Jerusalem dating to the 1st century AD.

To date, it's the only evidence found of a victim of Roman crucifixion buried according to Jewish custom.

It has helped archaeologists reconstruct how the man was crucified - with his feet nailed to the sides of the cross.

Avni says Jesus may have been crucified in the same manner, unlike the way the crucifixion is depicted in traditional Christian art.

Avni says there is no reason to believe Jesus did not exist just because archaeologists haven't found physical evidence of him.

"You have to remember, there's one person among about a million people living in the Holy Land during this time," he says.

Beit Shemesh, Israel - 19 March 2017

1. Close of clay crosses from Byzantine era

2. Mid of photographer taking pictures of sarcophagi, oil lamps and clay crosses

3. Mid of sarcophagi on display

4. Close of ancient writing on stone casket

5. Close of ancient writing on another stone casket

6. Mid of stone casket

7. Close of ancient writing on stone casket

8. Close of replica of heel of man crucified 2,000 years ago

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division at Israel's Antiquities Authority:

"Speaking today, 2017, we have two aspects. There's good news which say that today we can reconstruct very accurately many, many aspects of the daily life of the time of Christ. We could follow the steps of Christ by archaeological finds. The bad news, or not so good news, are that so far we don't have evidence for the real Christ, the physical Christ. You have to remember, there's one person among about a million people living in the Holy Land during this time."

10. Mid of ancient bowls, cup and jug on display

11. Close of bowl

12. Close of jug

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division at Israel's Antiquities Authority:

"The fame of Jesus developed by his followers after his death. During his life there was nothing special in him, except for the fact that he was a kind of a trigger of a much wide and large movement, but he was a young Jew from the Galilee with very interesting ideas for his time, he was traveling along the country. So it's very difficult to follow archaeologically the traces of one person traveling from the Galilee to the River Jordan and to Jerusalem, although he is mentioned briefly by Joesphus Flavius, for example. But if you go to archaeology, when you open the land to find evidence of a single person who was not a king, an emperor, a priest or somebody with, which were much known by people this is very, very difficult."

14. Various tracking shots of national treasures storerooms

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division at Israel's Antiquities Authority:

"We know much more details about the daily life during the time of Christ and we can reconstruct today very accurately, actually following the steps of Christ from his birth til crucifixion, from Bethlehem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and we are doing this with hundreds of excavations which relate to sites, cities, villages, installations from the time of Christ, we can show precisely the shape of the villages around the Sea of Galilee, in the Jerusalem area, along the River Jordan."

16. Pan left of ancient bowls

17. Close of ancient oil lamps

18. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division at Israel's Antiquities Authority:

"If you take it from the prospective of world history, it goes to one person, the Emperor Constantine and then his mother Helena who came to the Holy Land as the first pilgrim, but that was a long process, which started with the death of Christ, very few followers, but it was developed along the 2nd and 3rd century and from the 4th century onward you have Christianity as part of the imperial policy, which means building churches in the Holy Land, it's not only a religious venture, it's much more political imperial policy. If you add to this the large number of pilgrims that started coming to the Holy Land from the 4th century, particularly in the 5th, 6th and early 7th century, then it goes also into a very large scale economic boom because pilgrims, like tourists of today, they bring money."

19. Various of coins revealed at ruins of building that was part of a complex, apparently served Christian pilgrims on route to Jerusalem 1,400 years ago

20. Various of ancient pillars and archaeological finds stacked outside at national treasures warehouse

LEADIN:

Ahead of Easter, Israel's antiquities authority is opening up its vast storeroom for a peek at unearthed artefacts from the time of Jesus.

Experts say they're yet to find direct archaeological evidence of Jesus Christ, but in recent years they have found a wealth of material that helps fill out historians' understanding of how Jesus may have lived and died.

STORYLINE:

In a cavernous warehouse where Israel stores its archaeological treasures, an ancient burial box is inscribed with the name of Jesus.

Not that Jesus... Archaeologists in Israel say Jesus was a common name in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago, and that they have found about 30 ancient burial boxes inscribed with it.

Ahead of Easter, Israel's antiquities authority opened up its vast storeroom to reporters for a peek at unearthed artefacts from the time of Jesus.

Experts say they're yet to find direct archaeological evidence of Jesus Christ, but in recent years have found a wealth of material that helps fill out historians' understanding of how Jesus may have lived and died.

"There's good news which say that today we can reconstruct very accurately many, many aspect of the daily life of the time of Christ," says Gideon Avni, head of the archaeological division of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

"We could follow the steps of Christ by archaeological finds. The bad news, or not so good news, are that so far we don't have evidence for the real Christ, the physical Christ."

Israel is one of the most excavated places on the planet.

Some 300 digs take place every year, including about 50 foreign expeditions from as far away as the United States and Japan, according to the Antiquities Authority.

About 40,000 artefacts are dug up in Israel each year.

A third of all the antiquities found attest to the ancient Christian presence in the Holy Land, says Avni.

Historians now know how long it took to travel between cities and villages where Jesus preached and what those places looked like at the time.

Avni says knowledge of the period has advanced over the past 20 years.

"We know much more details about the daily life during the time of Christ and we can reconstruct today very accurately, actually following the steps of Christ from his birth till crucifixion," he says.

"From Bethlehem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and we are doing this with hundreds of excavations which relate to sites, cities, villages, installations from the time of Christ, we can show precisely the shape of the villages around the Sea of Galilee, in the Jerusalem area, along the River Jordan."

In this brightly-lit, 5,000-square metre (54,000-sq. feet) warehouse crammed with stacks of ancient jugs and pottery shards - what the Antiquities Authority calls its "Ali Baba cave" of ancient treasures - officials set up a simple white table with finds from the time of Jesus.

There are well-preserved limestone drinking cups and dishes, widely used by Jews in the Holy Land at the time as part of their strict practice to ensure the ritual purity of their food.

There's an intricately decorated limestone burial box belonging to a scion of the high priest Caiaphas, known in the New Testament for his involvement in delivering Jesus to the Roman authorities who crucified him.

In ancient times, families would gather the bones of the deceased and place them into boxes known as ossuaries.

They're also showing off a replica of a major artefact located in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem - this heel bone pierced by an iron nail with wood fragments on each end, discovered in a Jewish burial box in northern Jerusalem dating to the 1st century AD.

To date, it's the only evidence found of a victim of Roman crucifixion buried according to Jewish custom.

It has helped archaeologists reconstruct how the man was crucified - with his feet nailed to the sides of the cross.

Avni says Jesus may have been crucified in the same manner, unlike the way the crucifixion is depicted in traditional Christian art.

Avni says there is no reason to believe Jesus did not exist just because archaeologists haven't found physical evidence of him.

"You have to remember, there's one person among about a million people living in the Holy Land during this time," he says.

Beit Shemesh, Israel - 19 March 2017

1. Close of clay crosses from Byzantine era

2. Mid of photographer taking pictures of sarcophagi, oil lamps and clay crosses

3. Mid of sarcophagi on display

4. Close of ancient writing on stone casket

5. Close of ancient writing on another stone casket

6. Mid of stone casket

7. Close of ancient writing on stone casket

8. Close of replica of heel of man crucified 2,000 years ago

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division at Israel's Antiquities Authority:

"Speaking today, 2017, we have two aspects. There's good news which say that today we can reconstruct very accurately many, many aspects of the daily life of the time of Christ. We could follow the steps of Christ by archaeological finds. The bad news, or not so good news, are that so far we don't have evidence for the real Christ, the physical Christ. You have to remember, there's one person among about a million people living in the Holy Land during this time."

10. Mid of ancient bowls, cup and jug on display

11. Close of bowl

12. Close of jug

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division at Israel's Antiquities Authority:

"The fame of Jesus developed by his followers after his death. During his life there was nothing special in him, except for the fact that he was a kind of a trigger of a much wide and large movement, but he was a young Jew from the Galilee with very interesting ideas for his time, he was traveling along the country. So it's very difficult to follow archaeologically the traces of one person traveling from the Galilee to the River Jordan and to Jerusalem, although he is mentioned briefly by Joesphus Flavius, for example. But if you go to archaeology, when you open the land to find evidence of a single person who was not a king, an emperor, a priest or somebody with, which were much known by people this is very, very difficult."

14. Various tracking shots of national treasures storerooms

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division at Israel's Antiquities Authority:

"We know much more details about the daily life during the time of Christ and we can reconstruct today very accurately, actually following the steps of Christ from his birth til crucifixion, from Bethlehem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and we are doing this with hundreds of excavations which relate to sites, cities, villages, installations from the time of Christ, we can show precisely the shape of the villages around the Sea of Galilee, in the Jerusalem area, along the River Jordan."

16. Pan left of ancient bowls

17. Close of ancient oil lamps

18. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Gideon Avni, Head of the Archaeological Division at Israel's Antiquities Authority:

"If you take it from the prospective of world history, it goes to one person, the Emperor Constantine and then his mother Helena who came to the Holy Land as the first pilgrim, but that was a long process, which started with the death of Christ, very few followers, but it was developed along the 2nd and 3rd century and from the 4th century onward you have Christianity as part of the imperial policy, which means building churches in the Holy Land, it's not only a religious venture, it's much more political imperial policy. If you add to this the large number of pilgrims that started coming to the Holy Land from the 4th century, particularly in the 5th, 6th and early 7th century, then it goes also into a very large scale economic boom because pilgrims, like tourists of today, they bring money."

19. Various of coins revealed at ruins of building that was part of a complex, apparently served Christian pilgrims on route to Jerusalem 1,400 years ago

20. Various of ancient pillars and archaeological finds stacked outside at national treasures warehouse

Amnesty International Israel said Tuesday it had petitioned an Israeli court to remove the export license of cyber security company NSO Group.

The Financial Times has identified NSO-developed malware as being used to exploit a vulnerability in the popular messaging app WhatsApp to remotely hijack dozens of phones.

Amnesty International Israel campaigner Chen Brill-Egri warned the allegations of the security breach "tells us that one-and-a-half billion people were in danger of their phones being controlled, spied on, and surveillanced (surveilled)."

WhatsApp has all but confirmed the identification, describing the attack as having hallmarks of "a private company that has been known to work with governments to deliver spyware".

Chen Brill-Egri said they had demanded NSO's export license was withdrawn because of evidence their Pegasus software as "being used around the world to attack human rights defenders" among other targets.

Brill-Egri accused the Israeli Ministry of Defence of endangering activists by allowing NSO to continue to work with foreign governments.

The malware was able to penetrate phones through missed calls alone via the app's voice calling function, a WhatsApp spokesman said.

An unknown number of people - an amount in the dozens at least would not be inaccurate - were infected with the malware, which the company discovered in early May, said the spokesman, who was not authorized to be quoted by name.

Tel Aviv, Israel - 14 May 2019

1. Amnesty International Israel campaigner Chen Brill-Egri working at computer

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Chen Brill-Egri, Amnesty International Israel campaigner:

"We petitioned to the Israeli court in a demand that the Israeli Ministry of Defence will revoke NSO (Israeli cyber security company) export license, on the grounds of the mounting evidence we have of the NSO software Pegasus being used around the world to attack human rights defenders, lawyers, doctors, whoever, anyone who opposes regime. Besides this petition, we are doing whatever we can in advocacy and campaigning in order to maintain, to bring more supervision and more surveillance on the Israeli security export in total, not only software exported by NSO. Sadly, from what we know today, it seems that the Ministry of Defence in Israel is dangering human rights activist around the world as long as it continues to let NSO export its products to these governments.”

3. Brill-Egri talking

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Chen Brill-Egri, Amnesty International Israel campaigner:

“The allegations made today about NSO's exploit of the WhatsApp security breach basically tells us that one-and-a-half billion people were in danger of their phones being controlled, spied on, and surveillanced (surveilled) on by, actually we don't know who was the factor that operated this attack. What we do know, or at least what we've heard, (is) that this attack whoever made it, used the NSO Pegasus software again. Again the NSO Pegasus software is being used in violation of privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, and it can be, and it can lead to, chilling attacks on human rights defenders, it can lead to even imprisoning of people like already happened in the United Arab Emirates or in Mexico before.”

5. Close of Brill-Egri

LEADIN:

As the Israeli elections approach, Benjamin Netanyahu has zoned in on a prominent Arab lawmaker, portraying him as a threat to national security.

Ahmad Tibi has told the Associated Press that Netanyahu's campaign against him is aimed at "de legitimising the Arab voters and the Arab public".

STORYLINE

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has run into political trouble in the past, he has lashed out at the media, the political opposition and Israel's Arab minority with incendiary and divisive language to galvanize his nationalist base.

Ahead of April 9 elections, Netanyahu has zoned in one prominent Arab lawmaker Ahmad Tibi.

The Israeli leader, slumping in the polls after the dramatic announcement of his pending corruption indictment, is portraying Tibi as a threat to national security in a charged campaign that critics say questions the loyalty of the country's Arab citizens.

Using his own nickname, Netanyahu has been repeating a campaign mantra: "Bibi or Tibi."

The snappy slogan, eagerly parroted by his hard-line allies, highlights Netanyahu's efforts to paint his challengers as weak "leftists" conspiring with Arab Israelis and a hostile media to oust him.

It also shines a spotlight on Tibi - an affable, media-savvy political veteran who speaks fluent Hebrew. Tibi is known for his harsh criticism of government policies toward the country's Arab citizens and toward Palestinians who live under Israeli control in territories Israel captured in 1967.

"The slogan of "Either Bibi or Tibi" is a continuation of the 2015 slogan that Arabs are heading in droves to ballot boxes. It aims at de legitimising the Arab voters and the Arab public," says Tibi.

Fearing a possible loss on election day in 2015, Netanyahu mobilised his supporters by releasing a frantic midday video in which he warned that Arab voters were heading "in droves" to the polls. The move, for which he later apologised, appeared to help turn the tide and secure another term for him.

Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel's 9 million residents. They hold full citizenship rights but have faced decades of discrimination.

And Tibi says Arabs should vote if they want to challenge the status quo.

"We must join together to respond, and for our response to be strong against Benjamin Netanyahu, to go to the ballot boxes and to take advantage of our right to bring him down, but not only to bring him down but also to strengthen the Arab representation to raise our issues in the most important forums: the parliament," he says.

Tibi says if Netanyahu wins the upcoming elections, his government will be more extreme.

Recently Netanyahu faced heavy criticism for his decision to form an alliance with a small extremist faction that is inspired by the banned Kahanist movement, which dreamed of turning Israel into a Jewish theocracy and promoted a racist agenda that called for the forced removal of Palestinians.

60-year-old Tibi illustrates many of the contradictions faced by Israel's Arabs. He's worked as a gynaecologist in Israeli hospitals and served for years as a member of parliament, but also advised Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.

For the past two decades, Tibi has advocated for Arab rights in Israel and for a Palestinian state. Hard-line lawmakers frequently brand him a fifth-column in the Israeli legislature.

But he is also considered the most popular Arab lawmaker, even among Israeli Jews. He is a regular on their television screens, known for his witty quips.

In parliament, he's earned praise for his environmental and consumer legislation and for his promotion of Holocaust commemoration that touched many Jews.

"The Arab representation in the Knesset is important," Tibi says. It is true that there are racist laws that we could not resist (stop)."

However he adds: "There were other successes."

The outgoing Netanyahu-led government further stoked tensions by passing a controversial law that defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. But on the other hand, it has earmarked unprecedented budgets to Arab communities to try to close the wide economic gaps between Arabs and Jews.

"The most precious thing that a man has on election day is his vote, this is the only day in which there's equality between Jews and Arabs, a voice for every citizen. The greater our number and ability to influence is, the more we can raise our issues and achieve," Tibi says.

Jerusalem - 18 March 2019

1. Wide of Ahmad Tibi, Arab lawmaker, speaking to reporter

2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmad Tibi, Arab lawmaker:

"The slogan of "Either Bibi or Tibi" is a continuation of the 2015 slogan that Arabs are heading in droves to ballot boxes. It aims at de legitimising the Arab voters and the Arab public. In the face of this we must stand together to respond, and for our response to be strong against Benjamin Netanyahu, to go to the ballot boxes and to take advantage of our right not only to bring him down, but also to strengthen the Arab representation and raise our issues in the most important forum: the parliament."

ARCHIVE: Jerusalem - 14 May 2018

3. Scuffles between Arab citizens of Israel and police - Tibi seen amongst them

4. Tibi behind barriers with other parliament members

5. SOUNDBITE (English) Ahmad Tibi, Arab lawmaker

"We are here to say pure and clear - Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine. (answering question) Yes, I am a member of parliament, and I am saying as a member of parliament , and as a Palestinian that occupation should be ended, not supported by the American administration. This is a bullet in the head of the vision of two-state solution, and Trump is responsible for the massacre with Netanyahu."

ARCHIVE: Jerusalem - 3 November 2014

6. Mid of Tibi sitting in parliament chamber

7. Wide of Knesset chamber

8. SOUNDBITE: (Hebrew) Ahmad Tibi, Arab lawmaker:

"Jerusalem is a united capital? How can you say its united? United? Nonsense. The east of Jerusalem is a town under occupation, a territory that was occupied in 1967."

9. UPSOUND (Hebrew) Alex Miller, Israeli Knesset member of right-wing party, Yisrael Beiteinu (interrupting):

"If you suffer so much, if the situation is so bad, why do you stay here?"

Tibi: "I stay here, I stay in this homeland, because this is our country. I stay here because I did not arrive here in a ship or in a plane, Knesset Member Miller."

Miller: "Except for ruining the country you didn't do anything here, we see how much you have built in the country."

Jerusalem - 18 March 2019

10 . SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmad Tibi, Arab lawmaker:

"It seems that Netanyahu feels free to unleash his racism, while in the White House there are those who support him and make the same statements against the other in America. Look what happened in New Zealand because of the incitement against Islam, Muslims and Islamophobia. Netanyahu and Trump are among those who have incited the most against Islam in the recent years."

11. Mid of reporter and Tibi

12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmad Tibi, Arab lawmaker:

"We used to say that Netanyahu was the head of the worst governments, the most extreme and the most right-wing. It seems that if he wins the next time, his government will be more extreme than the previous one, because he will add to it the supporters of Kahana such as Itamar Ben Gvir and others and it seems that the Nation State law won't be the worst if Netanyahu succeeds. Therefore we must stop and think and put the reservations, anger and frustration aside: vote and influence."

FILE: Jerusalem - 6 July 2014

13. Various of Tibi with Tariq Abu Khdeir, the 15-year-old Palestinian American who was injured during clashes with Israeli security forces, and his parents coming out of courthouse

Jerusalem - 18 March 2019

14 . SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmad Tibi, Arab lawmaker:

"The Arab representation in the Knesset is important. It is true that there are racist laws that we could not resist (stop) because we are a minority, we are opposition. We are not in the coalition. Usually in the coalition, because it is bigger in numbers, they are able to pass what they want. But there have been successes such as the law of "prevention of Muezzin", this law has disturbed the Arab and Islamic world and upset the Palestinian society inside Israel, we succeeded in freezing it and burying it through the dialogue that we have conducted with the religious parties with Yhadut Hatorat. There were other successes: the budgets that we contributed, helped and pushed toward transforming them to the local Arab authorities."

15. Wide of interview

16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ahmad Tibi, Arab lawmaker:

"The most precious thing that a man has on election day is his vote, this is the only day in which there's equality between Jews and Arabs, a voice for every citizen. The greater our number and ability to influence is, the more we can raise our issues and achieve."

17. Various of Tibi outside his house

Tens of thousands o