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Friday April 16, 1999

Mideast Report Shas leader Deri faces more charges

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A key political ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on new corruption charges last
Aryeh Deri, leader of the Shas Party, was charged with fraud and breach of public trust.

Shas spiritual leader suffers heart attack

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The spiritual leader of Israel's fervently Orthodox Shas Party was hospitalized Tuesday after suffering a heart attack.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, 78, was listed in stable condition at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

Hezbollah bomb kills Israeli in Lebanon

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's security cabinet met Monday night in Jerusalem to discuss the nation's options in the face of mounting military casualties in southern Lebanon.

The meeting came after Sgt. Noam Barnea, 21, was killed by a Hezbollah roadside bomb. Barnea was buried Tuesday at a military cemetery.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens pledged this week to reduce the number of soldiers serving in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu promises settlements will grow

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue settlement expansion during a campaign address Tuesday before some 100 settler leaders.

His vow came two days after the visiting U.S. assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs, Martin Indyk, criticized Israeli settlement construction, saying it could hamper peace efforts with the Palestinian Authority.

Peace Now condemns settlement expansion

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- A Peace Now report released Tuesday claims there has been an increase of 105 percent in the number of housing units in the territories begun in 1998 compared to 1997.

Peace Now leaders say this disproves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of supporting natural growth in the settlements.

The report cites the Central Bureau of Statistics, which reported 3,900 housing starts in 1998 compared with 1,900 in 1997.

4 Palestinians arrested in land-dealer's death

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli police said Tuesday they had arrested four Palestinians in connection with the May 1997 kidnapping and killing of an Arab man who sold land in Jerusalem to Jews.

Police said the four told interrogators that senior Palestinian officials had ordered the shooting death of Ali Mohammad Jumhour in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Memorial dedicated to survivor soldiers

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The Jewish National Fund Wednesday dedicated a memorial for Holocaust survivors killed in Israel's War of Independence near the battle site where many of them died.

The memorial near Latrun listed the names of 466 individuals identified from the estimated 700 casualties who were believed to be killed after being sent into battle in 1948 soon after disembarking from boats from Europe.

Greenpeace celebrates end of sludge dumping

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Activists from Greenpeace Mediterranean and other environmental groups joined a naval parade in Haifa Bay last week to celebrate the end of large-scale dumping industrial waste at sea.

Greenpeace Mediterranean, which represents the international environmental organization in Israel, has campaigned for several years against the dumping of toxic sludge off the Israeli coast.

The permit allowing Haifa Chemicals to dump its sludge into the Mediterranean expired, after 13 years, at the end of March and has not been renewed. It joins the Israel Electric Company whose permit for dumping coal ash expired at the end of 1998.

Drought forces cuts in water allocations

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- The cabinet decided Sunday to issue emergency directives to cut down the amount of water allocated for agricultural use by 40 percent due to the drought conditions. This was the first time such a decision has been taken since 1990.

Following the cabinet meeting, Agriculture Minister Rafael Eitan announced that the cut will not be equal across the board, and some regions will receive more water than others. Eitan also said that there will be no price increase for the rest of the water supplied to the farmers, as some Finance Ministry officials have previously suggested.

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