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Newsletter : 9fax1109.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Nov. 9, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 208
Fake Earthquake Scheduled for Dead Sea
By IsraelWire
An artificial earthquake will occur in the Dead Sea. The Geo-Physical Institute will detonate five tons of TNT in order to check the performance of its seismological instruments. Environmental groups fear that the fake quake may cause a real one.
Nation's Legal System Set for Reform
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel's Justice Minister, Yossi Beilin, plans to introduce sweeping reforms of the country's legal system. Among the changes he is proposing are the modification of Israel's much-criticized system of administrative detention and the abolition of the country's 51-year-old state-of-emergency decree.
Beilin says that Israel's use of administrative detention is what he calls a "stain" on the nation's reputation. Under this system, some Palestinian activists and Lebanese prisoners-of-war have been held for years without being put on trial or even charged with a crime.
Beilin says he would like to do away with the administrative detention system entirely, but adds that his more security-minded colleagues in the Israeli Cabinet would never accept such a move. Instead, the justice minister proposes to limit administrative detention to a maximum of six months. After this period, prisoners would have to be either charged or released.
Beilin also says he wants an end to the practice of keeping Israel under a State-of-Emergency, a legal status that has been in force since the birth of the country in 1948. He says that while Israel still is trying to negotiate a peace settlement with the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors, it is no longer acceptable to behave as if the country is in a perpetual state of war.
The task is complicated, he says, by the fact that the state of emergency system has been used instead of the normal legislative processes to back up many of the rules governing Israeli society. Everything - from the price of eggs to fees for school children - has regulated under the authority of the State-of-Emergency.
"Almost the whole system is based on this law of emergency. We are speaking about legislation which is totally triggered by this state, and if there is no State-of-Emergency, all these laws will just abolish."
Beilin says he will have to find a way to preserve the laws that are necessary when repealing the State-of-Emergency decree. There is also the problem, he says, of ending what he calls Israel's psychological dependency on the system. It is not easy, he says, for a country that has faced many terrorist attacks and at least four major wars with its Arab neighbors.
"I believe that Israel is afraid of normality. And it's very understandable. There is some warmth in this abnormal situation. Maybe the feeling, that we are one, that we are a small country, a small group which has to defend itself."
Beilin told VOA that he wants to persuade his fellow citizens that Israel can have a better future by achieving peace.
Construction of Nazareth Mosque Defended
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Nazareth)
Israel's Public Security Minister, Shlomo Ben-Ami, has strongly defended his decision to allow a mosque to be built next to a major Christian holy site in Nazareth. Ben Ami told VOA the project will go ahead despite protests from Christian groups and threats that the pope may cancel a planned visit to the Holy Land next year.
Ben Ami has appealed to the Vatican to accept the reasons for the Israeli Government's decision to allow Muslims to build a mosque near the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. The Church is the site where tradition holds that the Angel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary she would give birth to Jesus.
Ben Ami said that despite protests from Christians, he is duty bound to uphold a promise given to Muslims by the previous Israeli Government to allow a new mosque to be built near the church.
Ben-Ami says that even though Muslims do not own the area, they should have the right to worship there. The land includes the grave of Shehab el-Din, a nephew of Saladin, the Muslim hero who conquered the Holy Land during the time of the Christian Crusaders, eight-centuries ago.
Despite assurances that the square will be open, churches in the Holy Land have vowed to close for two-days this month in protest against the Israeli decision. Church leaders say that decision is clear discrimination against the Christian community in Galilee.
But Ben Ami says the Government made its decision in order to strike a balance between the competing demands of the various parties in the dispute.
Israelis Help Discover a New Planet;
Are There Jewish Extra-Terrestrials?
By IsraelWire
An international team of astronomers, including several Israeli scientists, announced the discovery of a new planet, which orbits two suns, Haaretz reported. The discovery marks the first detected instance of a planet that orbits more than one sun.
The planet is some 2,000 light years from earth (one light year is approximately 6 trillion miles) and is three times larger than Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. According to Israeli scientists, the massive planet orbits its suns only once every 20-30 years.
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