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Newsletter : 8fax1203.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Dec. 3, 1998, Vol. 6, No. 218
Beersheva Rabbinical Court Judge Issues an Apology
By IsraelWire
Rabbi Shlomo Tam, a member of the Beersheva Rabbinical Court, who earlier this week called 49-year-old Chemda Itach of Tel-Aviv a "whore," issued a formal apology. The woman, a grandmother, came to the court to begin the procedure to permit her to be remarried. After the incident was published in Yediot Achronot, the rabbi was compelled to issue a public apology.
West Bank Troop Withdrawals Suspended
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel says it is suspending further troop withdrawals in the West
Bank until the Palestinians -- among other things -- drop threats
to unilaterally declare an independent state in May. Tensions have
been building between the two sides in recent days.
Israel is supposed to make two more troop pullbacks in the West
Bank by the end of next month under the Wye River memorandum. But
an Israeli government statement late Tuesday said there will be
another withdrawal only if the Palestinian Authority abandons
threats to unilaterally declare statehood, and commits itself to
negotiations on that and other final-status issues of the peace
process.
The announcement reflected growing Israeli anger over statements by
Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat about statehood this week in
Washington, and what officials see as anti-Israeli incitement by
Palestinians on prisoner releases.
Palestinians charge that Israel violated the Wye agreement by
freeing mostly common criminals rather than political and military
detainees in last month's initial prisoner release. However,
Israeli government spokesman Moshe Fogel said the Wye agreement
left it to Israel to decide who would be freed, and that it will
not release murderers or unrepentant members of the radical Islamic
group Hamas:
"We said specifically that we're not going to release those who are going to join other terrorists in trying to undermine the peace process. So when we said that at Wye, when we have the liberty of deciding who to release within the context of the 750 prisoners who are to be released, that we believe that then for the Palestinians to turn and say that we're not honoring the agreement is not only unfair but it's a ploy to say that we're not living up to the agreement when we are."
The rise in tensions comes less than two weeks before President
Clinton is to visit Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as a follow-up
to his personal efforts to broker the peace process at the Wye
summit in late October.
Parents Ask Doctors to Save Dead Son's Sperm
By IsraelWire
The parents of a man in his 20s who was killed in a motor vehicle
accident donated their son's organs to others, and made an unusual
request of the doctors: to save their dead son's sperm for
artificial insemination of the son's fiance.
This was the first request of its kind in Israel, and raises many
ethical and moral questions. After consulting the Ministry of
Justice, the Ministry of Health agreed to the request to save
sperm, but said that the Ministry of Justice must decide if the
frozen sperm would be used.
Just one week after this first incidence of removal of sperm from
a dead man, the Health Ministry agreed to a similar request. In the
second case, the man died of heart disease after he and his wife
had spent two years in fertility treatments. In this case also the
Health Ministry stipulated that the sperm could only be used after
a decision of the courts.
One of the doctors involved in the incident stated that there is no
medical problem in retrieving viable sperm from a man dead less
than 24 hours, but that there are social questions that need to be
decided. The medical abilities always precede the legal and ethical
discussions. The major question is who will take responsibility for
deciding to bring a born orphan into the world.
Proposed Law - Russian to Become an "Official" Language
By IsraelWire
A proposed law presented to the Knesset Immigration and Absorption Committee created a storm when MK Sophia Landver called for Russian to be designated as an "official" language.
The committee members were in Beersheva, following last week's incident when a school instructed students that they may not speak Russian in the classroom or school building.
Landver in her carefully presented motion told committee members
that the acceptance of the Russian language would only serve to
raise the cultural level of the country. "Russian is a worldwide
language and it would not hurt more people to know it," she added.
Labor Party MK Adisu Massala, a member of the Ethiopian community,
insisted that Amharit should also be accepted if the committee
accepts Russian.
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