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Newsletter : 9fax1115.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Nov. 15, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 212
High Court: Hebron Shrine May be Demolished
By Ross Dunn (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israel's Supreme Court says the army can demolish a shrine at the grave of a Jewish settler who massacred 29 Muslims. Israeli security forces fear the site has become an inspiration for other Jewish extremists plotting acts of violence against Palestinians.
The Supreme Court upheld a decision by the army to raze the shrine at the tomb of Baruch Goldstein. He is the Jewish settler that in 1994 gunned down 29 Muslims praying at a mosque in the West Bank town of Hebron. Goldstein, who was killed by a Palestinian mob following the shooting spree, is buried in the Jewish settlement known as Kiryat Arba that overlooks Hebron.
Supporters of the New-York born Goldstein transformed a plaza around his grave into a memorial with cases for prayer books and candles.
The presiding judges in the case rejected a petition from his father against demolishing the site. The elder Goldstein had argued that such an act would insult the memory of his son. But the judges said keeping the shrine intact would send a message of praise for the massacre.
The judges ruled Israel should be concerned about the dignity of those innocent people whose lives were lost in the attack. They said it is not right that Israel should dishonor the victims by preserving a monument dedicated to the man who had murdered them.
The lawyer representing the elder Goldstein said the decision would in no way prevent supporters from visiting the grave. The court ruling came as thousands of Palestinians marched in the West Bank Sunday to mark the 11th anniversary of their declaration of independence.
Marchers waved flags and posters of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, who declared independence for his people at a parliament-in-exile meeting in Algiers Nov. 15, 1988.
Nazi Slave Labor Talks Tuesday
By Jonathan Braude (VOA-Berlin)
German industry is preparing for its next round of talks Tuesday with lawyers representing the victims of the Nazis' Second World War slave-labor program. A leading government official in Berlin has told companies to dip into their strike funds.
German industry has been under increasing pressure to come up with more money for its share of the $3.3 billion offer to former slaves of the Nazis. The victims' lawyers rejected the offer as insulting last month in Washington.
The German government representative at the talks, Count Otto Lambsdorff, has made it clear he wants the offer raised. The government has said that if private firms increase their two-thirds share, the government will raise its own offer proportionately.
But the 36-companies involved have not only refused to budge, they have also claimed it would be hard to find the sum they have offered so far.
Now federal Economics Minister Werner Mueller has told the weekly news magazine "Der Spiegel" that labor unions should close the funds set aside for helping members operate during strikes. He said they should use the money to raise their offer to the slave labor fund. His comments have been welcomed by the victims' lawyers as a real improvement in the tone of the discussion, but industry spokesmen have rejected it.
Victims' lawyer Michael Witti, who is asking for compensation amounting to at least three-times the offer on the table, said he thought Mueller was deliberately stepping up the pressure. He did not think the minister's proposal was workable in itself, but he told the "Berliner Morgenpost" newspaper it showed the government recognized industry's stance is damaging Germany's image.
He said he believed German companies could find plenty of money elsewhere -- if they wanted to.
Israel Sends Rescue Team to Assist in Turkish Quake
By Amos Harel and Daniel Sobelman, Ha'aretz
A new earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale ripped through northwestern Turkey Friday night, flattening hundreds of buildings and leaving at least 362 people dead and hundreds missing.
International rescue teams rushed to Turkey from Israel, Greece, the United States, France, Germany and Italy. Israel's rescue mission, led by IDF Homefront Commander Major-General Gabi Ophir, includes 255 rescue workers and 100 doctors and nurses.
In consultation with the Turkish authorities it was decided that the Israeli team would concentrate on rescue works at Duzce, a farming town at the epicenter of the quake. The team was assigned three sites, including collapsed buildings, where survivors might be buried. Some 1,000 of the town's residents are reported missing.
The Israeli rescue team will also set up a field hospital in Duzce, near the city stadium, side by side with medical teams from other countries. The local hospital is barely managing to function, after being itself badly hurt in the quake.
The quake struck Bolu province is just 75 km east of the region worst hit by a massive August quake that left more than 17,000 people dead. That 7.4-magnitude quake was centered on the more populated coastal areas of western Turkey and not mountainous areas like Bolu.
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