A special report by the government's Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center shows that Great Britain continues to serve as a center for publications of Hamas incitement.  The report notes that despite the terrorism the British themselves have experienced of late, they are not preventing the use of their country as a center for the dissemination of publications that include incitement and hatred towards Israel and the west, and the encouragement of suicide terrorists.

The report's introduction states that the Hamas terrorist movement attributes great importance to the media, both written and electronic, as a major tool in its struggle against the West. 

From an article praising arch-terrorist Yichye Ayash and his attacks. Picture depicts performance of Al Aksa Hawks band with portrait of Ayash in background and blown-up Israeli bus
Appeared in Filastin Al-Muslimah, Jan. 200

"The media empire of Hamas includes a satellite television station, newspapers, a radio station, internet sites in eight languages, and book publishing," the report notes.  "With these tools, Hamas disseminates the message of extremist Islam and incites to violence and terrorism to a range of target audiences in the Palestinian Authority, the Islamic and western world, and to Arab/Moslem communities in the West."

Although the headquarters of the Hamas media empire is found in Gaza, with guidance and help from Damascus and other Arab countries, it has a large branch in Great Britain, "which continues to be a center for the publication and dissemination of Hamas literature."
Hamas sees children as a critical target audience... to imbue them with the values of extremist Islam, including violence and terrorism, from an early age.


The list of Hamas publications issued in England include:

• The monthly"Filastin Al-Muslimah" - Hamas's major publication since 1981 both in print and on the internet. The glossy publication is rife with hatred and incitement against Israel and the West, encourages terrorism, and glorifies terrorists and terrorism planners.
• The book publishing house "Filastin Al-Muslimah," associated with the above publication, whose books venerate leading terrorists who perpetrate and plan suicide and other terrorist attacks.
• The bi-weekly internet newspaper "Al-Fatah" for children, which Hamas sees as a most important target audience.  Its goal is to imbue children with the values of extremist Islam, including violence and terrorism. 

The Center's report explains why Hamas uses Great Britain to publish and disseminate its ideas, noting that it stems from a combination of reasons: "The British government's policy of enabling Hamas, and extremist Islamic elements in general, relatively free rein in its publications; the presence of a support base of Arab/Moslem supporters in Britain; and the technical abilities to produce high-standard publications and disseminate them internationally."

Page from Al-Fatah Children's Newspaper which praises Muhmad Abu Karash who commanded firing of Kassam rockets on Israeli civilians and was killed by IDF in April, 2007
Al-Fatah, April, 2007 edition

Concluding Note
"As a result of terrorist attacks in Britain in recent years, some of which were thwarted and some of which were not, the government's awareness of the dangers inherent in extremist Islam has grown.  However, the British authorities have not as yet taken significant steps to end the use of their country as a center for dissemination of literature of incitement.  This, despite the fact that the message being issued is liable to be welcomed not only among Palestinian or other Arab/Moslem communities, but even in the Moslem community in Britain itself."

Arab representatives who are negotiating an agreement with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office have made it clear that they will not accept any final peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish State forfeits the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site.

According to a report in the daily newspaper Yediot Acharonot, Olmert is willing to discuss joint Israeli-Arab control over the Temple Mount compound.

A chief Arab negotiator told WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein that "there can be no agreement with Israel unless we get complete sovereignty of the Mount. Once Palestinian control over the [Temple Mount] is fixed, then we will make assurances for Jewish visits to the site."

The chief negotiator said aides from Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization have been working out the details of a "final status" agreement, which they intend to present in November at a U.S.-sponsored international summit on the Middle East.
'Once Palestinian control over the [Temple Mount] is fixed, then we will make assurances for Jewish visits'

Besides the Temple Mount, other issues on the table reportedly include the division of united Jerusalem and permanent borders between Israel and the PA.

With a year and a half left in office, US President George Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been urging Abbas and Olmert to meet regularly in the hope of creating a dynamic that will lead to a breakthrough at November's conference.

Asked whether Olmert is willing to forfeit the Temple Mount in an agreement with the Palestinians, David Baker, a spokesman for the prime minister, had no comment.

'Secret' plan would give Judea and Samaria to Arabs

Last week saw the publication of reports that newly-installed President Shimon Peres has quietly drafted a plan for the Jewish State to evacuate and transfer to the PA nearly the entire area of Judea and Samaria, along with several Arab-Israeli cities located within pre-1967 Israel.

Peres presented his initiative to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and to top Abbas aides soon after he took office as President last month.

Olmert is said to be considering the plan and he "agrees with much of its contents," diplomatic sources said.

President Peres, Israel's most veteran politician, has a long history of covert deal-making. His arch-rival in the Labor party, former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, famously called Peres "an indefatigable subversive" in his autobiography. Peres received the Nobel Prize for a deal he and others worked out with arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat in 1993 – the Oslo Accords – which led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority and an ongoing terror war in which thousands of Israelis, including a high proportion of women and children, have been killed or maimed.

Even as the Cabinet extended the option of National Service to Arab Israelis and other citizens not qualified for military service, Education Minister Yuli Tamir (Labor) has limited the National Service options of religious Jewish girls.
The decision, the first of its kind, projects an additional 500 National Service volunteers every year.

On Sunday, the cabinet voted to establish a government body in the Prime Minister's Office assigned to facilitate National Service - volunteering through civilian organizations - for youths who do not serve in the IDF. The decision, the first of its kind, projects an additional 500 National Service volunteers every year.

The government decision specifically notes that Arab Israelis will be able to choose National Service options in their own, homogeneous communities. Government spokesmen said that this qualification for Arab citizens "will certainly increase their desire to integrate into the project." The current decision does not change the status quo, whereby Arab Israelis are automatically exempt from compulsory military service and from any other form of national service. About 300 Arab volunteers are currently involved in National Service projects.

Sunday's decision will give all National Service volunteers the status of IDF soldiers for the duration of what will be a commitment of at least one year. The volunteers will receive a grant at the end of their period of service, as well as job training in certain cases.

Currently, National Service includes volunteering in hospitals, old age homes, with handicapped Israelis, in schools, in courthouses and in other institutions. In addition, there are National Service opportunities with organizations dedicated to preventing traffic accidents and promoting nature preservation.

The vast majority of the approximately 10,000 young Israelis currently volunteering in the framework of National Service are religious Jewish women who refrain from enlisting to the IDF for reasons of modesty.

Budget Cuts Hit Religious Girls' National Service
As for existing National Service for religious Jewish women, Education Minister Tamir ordered budget cuts that will limit their options in the nation's schools.

Until now, the National Service girls were allowed to help teach Jewish history and culture in Israeli schools, but the latest Education Ministry decision will eliminate funding for those classes from school budgets. Tamir also determined that, in principle, the girls cannot work as assistant teachers because they do not have teaching degrees.

The budget that Education Minister Tamir intends to take away from female National Service volunteers who teach Zionism and Judaism in Israeli schools will be transferred to National Service programs in the Arab sector, according to Anat Rot, the Director of the Union of Centers for Deepening Jewish Identity.
Until now, the National Service girls were allowed to help teach Jewish history and culture.

Speaking on Arutz Sheva Radio, Rot said that the minister intends to make schools that are interested in classes taught by the National Servicewomen pay for the privilege.

Rot denied as baseless the accusations that the National Servicewomen are politically biased. She notes that the young women in the program teach in some 700 schools nationwide, including schools that have a markedly leftist bent and would have immediately sent the teachers packing if they had exhibited right-wing political partisanship.

The Likud faction will initiate a special debate in the Knesset plenum, during the summer recess, on Minister Tamir's planned budget cuts. Party spokesmen said that this step is a direct continuation of the Education Ministry's recent decision to include texts that refer to the War of Independence as "the Disaster" (Nakba) in Arab students' history books.

"The Education Minister's consistent and post-Zionist attempts to disconnect the education system from Judaism and Zionism threaten the value system of the next generation," said Likud Faction Chairman Gideon Sa'ar.

MK Zevulun Orlev of the National Union-National Religious Party bloc called for the sacking of the Education Minister: "A person who injects the Palestinian 'Nakba' narrative into the educational system and prevents National Service women from teaching Judaism and Zionism cannot remain Minister of Education in Israel for even one more day."

Fast and furious developments in the Disengagement-destroyed town of Homesh: continued Jewish presence, a new yeshiva, a Knesset lobby, and more.

Two years after the IDF destroyed four towns in the Shomron in Ariel Sharon's Disengagement, one of them - Homesh - is once again the site of a thriving Jewish presence.

There are no buildings, running water, electricity, or much of anything else, but there are Jews - a recent average of 30-40 Jews a day comprising an uninterrupted Jewish presence for the last five consecutive weeks.

The site really comes to life on Sabbath, with several families and many dozens of singles coming each week to mark the holy day at the site.  This past Sabbath, six families and 100 singles spent an inspiring weekend there - though their ascent on Friday afternoon was delayed until close to an hour before sundown by "police activity."  Participants said the police took action late Friday afternoon to destroy signs of the Jewish presence in Homesh, and that only afterwards were the Sabbath visitors able to ascend.  They spent their "waiting" time in the neighboring community of Shavei Shomron.

"To reach the site just an hour before the Sabbath," one participant said, "and then to start setting up tents and tables, and connecting Sabbath hot-plates to the generator, and a place for prayer, and the like - that was quite a memorable experience.  But the spirit overrides everything else, and there was plenty of that."

New Yeshiva
On Sunday, a new yeshiva started classes at the ruins of Homesh, atop a mountain overlooking much of central Israel.  Lectures were delivered by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel of Yitzhar and Rabbi Gadi Ben-Zimra of Maaleh Levonah.

New Knesset Lobby
Last week, the 10-member Homesh Knesset Lobby convened for the first time, headed by MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union).  The lobby's mandate is to work to promote the reestablishment of Homesh - as a first step towards the return to all the places from which Jews were expelled under Sharon's Disengagement of 2005.

The forum will coordinate all Knesset activity relating to Homesh, and will strive to enhance the legitimacy of the Homesh First group and the concept of resettling the northwestern Shomron.  In adition, the lobby's MKs plan to visit Homesh in the coming weeks. 

Homesh First leader Yossi Dagan expressed satisfaction at the formation of the lobby, saying it is a "significant milestone towards the return to Homesh."

"The lobby will supplement our ascents to Homesh," Dagan said.  "Until now, PM Olmert and the architects of the expulsion have been trying to silence our demand to return with all sorts of military and legal excuses, but now the MKs and Homesh First can clearly demand the rectification of this historic mistake."

Four towns in the Shomron - Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim and Kadim - were destroyed, and their Jews expelled, by then-Prime Minister Ariel Shomron in the summer of 2005.  Unlike Gush Katif in Gaza, whose 21 Jewish towns were similarly destroyed, the Shomron areas were not turned over to the Palestinian Authority, and the IDF is still in control there. 

Israel dispatched aid to Peru Sunday and granted citizenship to 500 African refugees fleeing slaughter by Islamists in Darfur, Sudan.

Israel sent $20,000 to Lima, Peru in order to purchase and distribute blankets and tents for those affected by the earthquake that struck last Wednesday, killing over 500 people. A 6.0 aftershock hit the region again Sunday morning.

No members of the 3,000-member Jewish community in Peru were reported injured and though Peru is a popular destination for Israeli post-army trekkers, no Israelis were reported injured in the quake either. One Israeli man was found dead in his hotel, however, though rescuers said his death appeared unconnected. The Israeli Embassy in Lima was damaged by the 8.0 quake.

500 Darfur Refugees Given Asylum
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Sunday that he has ordered 500 Darfur refugees be given Israeli citizenship and absorption assistance.

Olmert added, however, that other African refugees, who continue to attempt to enter Israel from Egypt, will be turned away. Fifty such Africans were transported back to Egypt Saturday night.

Israel estimates that 2,800 Africans, 1,160 of them Sudanese, have crossed the Egypt-Negev border region in recent years.

Representatives of Holocaust survivors in Israel hammered out a partial agreement with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday regarding the level of assistance the state will extend to survivors of the Nazi-led genocide. At a long-awaited meeting, the Prime Minister agreed that death camp survivors who do not currently receive a monthly stipend will be eligible for an average of NIS 1,200 (less than $300) a month. This amount will be added to their pension and welfare payments, ensuring that none of these pensioners will receive less than NIS 3,400 a month.

However, no agreement has yet been reached regarding survivors who were not liberated from the concentration camps themselves. These victims of the Nazi era have been referred to as the "second circle" of Holocaust survivors. 85,000 of the 150,000 people in the second circle immigrated to Israel in recent years.

Olmert and the survivors' representatives agreed to reach an agreement regarding the "second circle" before the start of the upcoming High Holidays in September.

The newly agreed-upon stipend for camp survivors will be paid out beginning in October 2007. If the government of Germany does not take responsibility for payments to this group within two years, then Israel will increase the monthly stipend to NIS 1,600.

The government also agreed to pass a law formally recognizing the Center for Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. The law's enactment will make the Center eligible for government funding and give it official standing. The Prime Minister also agreed to immediately allocate NIS 16 million to the Center and to other organizations offering support to Holocaust survivors. In addition to the financial concerns of the elderly Holocaust survivors, the government and survivors' representatives agreed on the establishment of a state-supported information and assistance center.

A joint committee, including survivors and government officials, will be established to oversee implementation of the agreements reached on Sunday.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Olmert boasted that his government was the first to remove the "stain" of ignoring needy Holocaust survivors. He originally proposed assisting survivors under the age of 70 with 83 shekels ($20) a month. A group representing survivors responded by staging what they called "a March of the Living," named after a trip taken by Jewish high
The Finance Ministry did not fund the principal department... for Holocaust survivors.
school students to the remains of Nazi death camps in Poland. The march fed into a demonstration outside the Prime Minister's Office, where they called the offer another blot on the government record.

A report by State Comptroller and Ombudsman Micha Lindenstrauss, submitted last Wednesday, charged that the government has mismanaged funds slated for Holocaust survivors. The report revealed that the Finance Ministry did not fund the principal department designated to coordinate activities for Holocaust survivors.

"The conduct of local authorities is characterized many times by unnecessary delays, procrastination and foot dragging," the Ombudsman's report stated. Despite reparation payments by Germany and financial support from the Israeli government, 143,000 survivors are not eligible for support and approximately 80,000 live in poverty, according to statistics singled out in the report.

Former Justice Lindenstrauss concluded, "Any delays and foot dragging in dealing with these elderly people will hover over the conscience of the state."

Responding to the growth of Shemittah-year initiatives that largely bypass the "sale dispensation" known as heter mechirah, leading religious-Zionist rabbis come to its defense.

With the seventh-year Shemittah "year of fallow" less than a month away, the commonly-practiced "sale dispensation" formulated to help farmers and consumers deal with Shemittah challenges seems to be in danger.  Possibly just in the nick of time, however, many leading religious-Zionist rabbis are making an effort to sway public opinion back in its favor.

According to Biblical law, Jews who own land in the the Land of Israel must let it lie fallow every seventh year, and may not work the fields.  In the Shemittah year of 1889, with Land of Israel agriculture making a significant comeback for the first time in 18 centuries, rabbis of the Land of Israel agreed to temporarily sell parts of the Land to non-Jews, so that certain agricultural activities could be carried out.  As the national economy grew and the potential losses - including the very destruction of the fledgling Jewish community - became more threatening, the dispensation became more widespread and institutionalized.

Despite its wide practice and the many rabbis supporting it, the dispensation, called the heter mechirah, was never universally accepted, and provided regular fodder for Halakhic [Jewish legal] debate among scholars.  Its main pillar of support was the fact that Shemittah applies nowadays only by Rabbinic dictum, and that farmers were instructed not to perform Biblically-prohibited work. The dispensation was almost totally accepted among the religious-Zionist public, and barely at all in the hareidi-religious sector.

The Chief Rabbinate announced last year its plan to reduce its reliance on the controversial "land sale dispensation" for the upcoming Shemittah "to a minimum."  At the same time, religious-Zionist circles began to implement a solution heretofore observed on a minor scale in some hareidi circles, known as the Otzar Beit Din; in its new format, it also involves minimum reliance on the heter dispensation.

With the heter mechirah appearing to lose validity, leading religious-Zionist rabbis have now begun to "fight back." They say the heter dispensation is not only still valid, but is as necessary as it was when it was first formulated.

The Declaration
The rabbis of the Religious Kibbutz Movement, for instance, turned recently to Rabbis Yaakov Ariel and Yehuda Amichai, leading Otzar Beit Din proponents, and formulated a joint public declaration in favor of the heter mechirah.  The declaration also received the support of many other rabbis, including former Chief Rabbis Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliyahu, and Rabbis Chaim Druckman, Dov Lior and many others.

The declaration reads, in part:

Ever since the hills of the Land of Israel began bringing forth their fruits as a clear sign of Israel's redemption, all the Torah leaders of Israel have been aware of the need to strengthen Jewish settlement in the Land, and especially that of the religious farmers... They felt that only a strong Israeli agricultural infrastructure could enable a total fulfillment of the commandments of Shemittah. 

Based on this assumption, the heter mechirah was also institutionalized by Torah leaders of Israel, beginning with Rabbi Mordechai Rubio (Shemen HaMor), Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan, Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, Rabbi Yehoshua of Kutna, Rabbi A.I. Kook, and many others, including leading Sephardic rabbis.  The heter is valid and cannot be challenged.  It is a necessity that comes to strengthen Jewish agriculture in the Land of Israel and prevent it from destruction and collapse.

Therefore, produce that was grown in accordance with Jewish Law according to the above principles is acceptable and preferable to produce grown by non-Jews or imported...

The declaration concluded by saying that Otzar Beit Din solutions have been established for those who wish to acquire Shemitta produce of an even higher Halakhic [Jewish legal] standard, and that some of these solutions will provide heter produce when other fruits and vegetables have been exhausted.

Rabbi Stern
Two articles on this topic also appear in this week's HaTzofeh newspaper.  In one of them, Rabbi Aryeh Stern, the head of the Halakhah Berurah Institute in Jerusalem, writes that Otzar Beit Din solutions are well-intentioned, but may "come at the expense of those whose living comes from agriculture.  We have neither the right nor the authority to demand of them not to rely on the heter, when we ourselves are not even willing to give up one monthly salary..."

"At present," Rabbi Stern writes, "the great danger is that those who are responsible for implementing the heter will find themselves with no backing, while on the other hand, those who are not accustomed to observing the commandments will simply give up on the whole thing and will market their produce regularly, as if it were not Shemittah, leading to a situation in which the whole country and its markets will be filled with forbidden foods, Heaven forbid.  We must therefore strengthen the heter, and those who are behind it... and call upon everyone to make sure only to buy Jewish-grown fruit, and not imported or Arab-grown fruit, in order to strengthen Jewish agriculture in Israel.  This has always been our path, and we must continue upon it..."

Rabbi Aviner
In response to those who ask, "Our agriculture is not really that important anyway. What would be so terrible if Jewish agriculture would take a year off?", Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of Yeshivat Ateret Cohanim in Jerusalem's Old City, writes:

To whom is our agriculture not that important - to the consumer, or to the farmer whose staff of support you would like to break?  And it's not only an issue for this coming year, but in general: If he stops for a full year, others from outside Israel will take his place in the world market.  We sell Biblically-forbidden chametz before Pesach in order to save a few boxes of food; we can certainly do so for the Shemittah year.  For we are not forcing anyone to use the heter, but just those who wish to.  And of course, no one can sell the land himself, but must do so only via the Chief Rabbinate... 

The fact that we can import food does not make our agriculture not important.  A country must never allow itself to be dependent on others for food, because then it can be liquidated from without.  Even the liberal-capitalistic US supports its agriculture in various ways...  And regarding the Torah's command to be 'heroic' in observing the Shemittah, this applies to the farmer, not to the consumer who buys foreign produce [and therefore there is no 'heroism' involved in not buying heter produce].

Rabbi Aviner then lists the various types of permitted Shemittah-year produce:
1. Jewish-grown fruits that were harvested in the sixth year and kept in cold storage
2. Jewish-grown fruits grown on detached platforms in greenhouses and the like.
3. Vegetables that were sown in the sixth year and picked in the seventh year via an Otzar Beit Din [public treasury]; eating these with the proper precautions is especially meritorious as they have the special status of "seventh year sanctity."
4. Heter Mechirah - and certainly in those areas that may be outside Shemittah jurisdiction, such as the southern Aravah near Eilat.
5. But certainly not produce of non-Jews from abroad, or Arabs here in Israel, and certainly not of terrorists, such as the murderers who now live or work in Gush Katif, who inherited our brothers' farms...

In summary, the much-maligned heter mechirah is down but not out - as long as the need to protect Israel's agricultural economy, the desire to protect non-religious Jews from their own ignorance, and the Rabbinic status of the Shemittah laws still abound. 

Related articles:
Chief Rabbinate Begins Phasing Out Controversial 7th-Year Sale
Upcoming Shemittah Year Generates Search for New Approaches

The World Bank has finished a series of public hearings on a project which will link the Red Sea in the Gulf of Eilat to the depleted and polluted Dead Sea, located between Israel and Jordan. The project, which calls for the digging of a canal between the two bodies of water, has been touted by President Shimon Peres as part of the "Peace Valley" scheme which he believes will bring Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and Israel closer together.

But environmental groups and geologists quoted in an Al-Jazeera feature say the plan could damage three unique local ecosystems: the Gulf of Eilat; the Arava Valley between Eilat and the Dead Sea; and the Dead Sea itself.

The opponents of the project say the political motivation of uniting Israel, Jordan and the PA behind one joint project has produced a climate in which the environmental effects of the endeavor are not being properly considered.

Proponents say it will save the Dead Sea. The water level of the Dead Sea is dropping by an average of 1 meter per year. As a result, the unique ecology and the economic development in the Dead Sea region are in serious danger. Environmentalists have distributed a bumper sticker seen on many Israeli cars that reads "Save the Dead Sea."

The World Bank says the $5 billion construction of a water conveyance system bringing salt wate
regenerating the flow of the Jordan River to bring water to the Dead Sea will cost just than $800 million
r from the Red Sea would stabilize the Dead Sea's level and thus preserve tourism, agriculture and mineral extraction in the region.

'The Bank is refusing to listen'
Clive Lipchin, director of research at the Arava institute for environmental studies, said, however, that the Gulf of Eilat "is already overdeveloped with 70 percent coral mortality on the Israeli side."

"For the Arava Valley," he said, "the threat emanates from possible earthquakes which could cause a break in the canal and flood the valley with seawater, destroying agriculture and polluting the groundwater used by Israel and Jordan."

"The most serious problem, about which very little is known," said Lipchin, "is the mixing of the waters - the Dead Sea with the Red Sea. This is what is unique to the project and has never before been attempted. We simply cannot predict what the outcome will be," he said.

Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME), said: "The Bank is simply refusing to listen to real alternatives that have been put on the table."

One alternative to the plan proposed by environmentalists and local geologists includes channeling the flow of water in the north back to the Jordan River which flows into the Dead Sea. Over the past 50 years, the amount of fresh water the Jordan River has carried into the Dead Sea has decreased from 1.3 billion cubic meters annually, to just 70 – 100 million cubic meters. This is because Israel, Jordan and Syria now divert 95% of the flow.

As a result, "the culturally and historically important Jordan River has been turned into little more than an open sewage channel," FoEME said.

FoEME's report on rerouting water back to the Jordan River predicts: "There would be a sizeable net environmental gain from rehabilitating the Jordan River and the Dead Sea with no negative environmental implications. This must be compared to the significant risks associated with the RDC [Red-Dead Canal] project.

Dan Zaslavski, a former Israeli water commissioner, estimated that regenerating the flow of the Jordan River from the north to bring water to the Dead Sea will cost no more than $800 million, less than one-sixth of the estimated financial outlay of the RDC project.

Earlier this year, Israel's President Shimon Peres said the "project of the canal, or the peace conduit ... is vital for the preservation of the Dead Sea, but just as much for peace and prosperity in the area."

The World Bank's feasibility study regarding the planned project is expected to begin in September.

In the 1980's and again in the 1990's, Israel considered a canal channeling water from the Mediterranean Sea to the Dead Sea, but eventually shelved the plans due to financial doubts. The Red Sea - Dead Sea alternative now being discussed is considered to be less worthwhile economically.

Israel will receive its sixth District Court this coming Sept. 2 when the Central District Court begins sessions.  Justice Hila Gerstel will preside.

The newly-created Central District Court is set to relieve the pressure of Israel's growing legislative load.  The court will be located in Petach Tikva, and will hear appeals on rulings handed down in the lower Magistrates Courts of Kfar Saba, Rishon LeTzion, Petach Tikva, Netanya, Rehovot and Ramle.

The new president will be Justice Hila Gerstel, who has served since last year as Deputy President of the Tel Aviv District Court.  Nine other justices will serve as well.

Appeals will be heard for the first few months only on civil cases, while beginning in January 2008, the court will hear appeals on criminal-case rulings as well.

Israel has five other District Courts - Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Haifa, Be'er Sheva, and Nazareth - on which serve some 90 District Court judges. Israel also has 30 lower-level Magistrates Courts, with 540 judges.