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Thursday November 15, 2007

Shorts: Mideast

Two Annapolis dates given

Israel and U.S. sources are offering conflicting dates for the peace summit in Annapolis.

Jerusalem sources said the U.S.-hosted Israeli-Palestinian peace conference will take place Nov. 27 and be held over one day. U.S. sources are saying the conference in the Maryland capital will be Nov. 26. Expectations had been that the conference would last two or three days.

The shorter scheduling provided by the Jerusalem sources suggests that there will not be extensive talks on the prospects for Palestinian statehood. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, however, pledged to release 400 Palestinian prisoners ahead of the conference. — jta

Israel, P.A. to form industrial zone

Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed this week to set up a new joint industrial zone.

Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas signed an agreement under which a joint industrial zone will be created in Tarkumiya, on the West Bank’s boundary with the Jewish state.

Peres has long championed economic cooperation as the best way to bring together Israelis and Palestinians. — jta

U.N. to probe Hamas attack

The United Nations is investigating Hamas’ use of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip to attack Israel.

U.N. Secretary of State Ban Ki-moon ordered the probe after Israel broadcast footage of Palestinian terrorists firing mortars from the courtyard of an UNRWA school in the northern Gaza border town of Beit Hanoun.

UNRWA, the U.N. agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, said there were no children or staff in the school at the time. — jta

Report: Israeli settlements grow

West Bank settlements are growing despite the government’s pledge to freeze them, a watchdog group said.

The left-wing Peace Now said in a report published last week that 88 settlements are being expanded with government approval and in violation of the U.S.-led road map.

Peace Now cited government data showing that the population of West Bank settlers grew by 5.8 percent in the first half of this year, more than three times the growth rate of the population in the rest of the country. — jta

Survey: Olmert most corrupt pol

For the second straight year, Israelis named Ehud Olmert their most corrupt politician.

In the annual survey commissioned by the Sderot Conference, 56 percent of respondents named Olmert as Israel’s most corrupt politician. He has been dogged by several corruption scandals but denies any wrongdoing. — jta

Google punts on hate speech

Google’s Israel director, Meir Brand, said the company will not curb hate speech found on the search engine.

“At Google, we have a bias in favor of people’s right to free expression,” Brand said this week at an Internet conference in Israel.

Recognizing the problem, however, Google has instituted an alert system for hate entries, taking viewers to a page warning that some of the search results may be offensive. — ap

Soccer team punished for jeers

An Israeli soccer team will play two matches without fans after supporters jeered during a Yitzhak Rabin memorial.

The Israel Football Association found the Betar Jerusalem team guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct after hundreds of fans disrupted a moment of silence in memory of assassinated Prime Minister Rabin before a match this month. Several members of the Knesset condemned the punishment as too lenient. — jta

Bishops crossed-up at Western Wall

Thirteen Austrian bishops were barred from praying at Jerusalem’s Western Wall last week by Jewish religious authorities when they refused to take off their crosses, according to Austrian officials.

On a historic visit to the holy land in 2000, Pope John Paul II prayed at the Western Wall, stuffing a prayer between the cracks. Pictures show the pope wearing a cross while praying. — ap

70 percent of haredi men don’t work

A new study conducted by the Van Leer Institute ahead of a conference on the advancement of the ultra-Orthodox sector in Israel shows that only 30 percent of men are regularly employed, compared to 40 percent of women.

The poll, conducted regularly since 2002, indicated both male and female ultra-Orthodox employees were putting in more hours than previous years. — ynetnews.com

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