June 28, 2001
World Briefs
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Israel Buries Bomb Victims
Israeli soldiers cry during the burial of Sgt. Ophir Kit, 19, at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on Sunday. Kit and Sgt. Aviv Izak, 19, were killed last Friday when they responded to a call to help a jeep with Israeli license plates that supposedly was stuck but turned out to be a Palestinian suicide bomber who detonated his explosives as they approached the vehicle.
Israel Tightens Hebron Blockade
Israel tightened its blockade of the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday after a fierce gun battle pitted Palestinian gunmen against Israeli settlers and troops. The battle erupted Monday after Palestinian snipers opened fire on a settler enclave in Hebron, wounding five Israelis, one of them a 7-year-old boy. Twelve Palestinians were wounded in the ensuing battle. The head of Palestinian security in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, later called the sniper attack a "mistake."
ADL: Editorials Are Pro-Israel
An overwhelming number of the largest daily newspapers in the United States support Israel and criticize the Palestinian Authority on their editorial pages, according to a survey carried out by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
As a follow-up to a December 2000 survey, the ADL based its latest findings on more than 50 editorials from major U.S. newspapers between May 22 and June 18.
Slave Labor Lawyers Pressed
The leader of Germany's Jewish community called on lawyers to forgo part of their payment for handling Nazi-era slave labor cases.
Paul Spiegel urged the lawyers on Sunday to give up some of the estimated $51 million due them, as a gesture of respect for the former slave laborers.
"Earning money should not come before moralistic intentions," Spiegel said.
In another development, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli officials are criticizing Spiegel for saying that some 30,000 people who entered Germany as Jews in the past several years were not Jews according to Jewish religious law.
"It's strange that the leader of German Jewry is advising the German government on who is a Jew," said Israel's deputy absorption minister, Yuli Edelstein, himself an immigrant from the Soviet Union.
Maccabiah Move Hurts Hotels
A decision by the organizers of the Maccabiah Games to house the athletes along the coast and not in Jerusalem will result in a loss of $1 million for Jerusalem hotels, the chairman of the Jerusalem Hotel Union said Tuesday. A Maccabiah spokesperson said that due to the smaller than expected number of participants in the Games, organizers had decided to let the athletes choose for themselves where they wanted to stay, and the athletes had chosen to be close to the sports facilities in Haifa and Caesarea.
Swiss March for Slain Rabbi
About 500 people marched in Zurich to call on Swiss officials to find those responsible for the June 7 shooting death of a 71-year-old rabbi visiting from Israel. During the June 20 march, a rabbi said "Kaddish" at the spot where Rabbi Abraham Greenbaum was killed.
Briefs courtesy of Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
