Daily Briefing Oct. 23: UN releases 2nd damning report on Israel; real estate soars

Welcome to The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, your 15-minute audio update on what’s happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, from Sunday through Thursday.

Diplomatic correspondent Lazar Berman and real estate reporter Danielle Nagler join host Amanda Borschel-Dan.

Berman discusses a 28-page report that was released on Thursday by the United Nations’ ongoing Commission of Inquiry investigating rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip following last year’s 11-day fight between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. What crimes does it accuse Israel of — and does the report have teeth?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak held a virtual meeting with leaders of Jewish organizations and prominent Russian-speaking Israelis, asking them to push Jerusalem to provide Kyiv with air defense systems. However, according to a Channel 13 news report over the weekend, Israel has indeed proposed to supply Ukraine with an alert system for aerial threats. We hear why Kyiv is perhaps unhappy with the offer.

Israeli housing prices soared a record 19% over the last year, according to a report by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the largest year-on-year jump since price tracking began. Nagler digs in.

The former Dan Pearl hotel, which sits just next to Mamilla, has sat empty for some 15 years. Nagler describes how things may soon change.