Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The 18-year-old Israeli Linor Abargil who is the reigning Miss World testified for four hours Sunday in Tel Aviv against the man who allegedly raped her last October.

During her testimony, the defendant, the Egyptian-born Israeli Shlomo Noor, complained that he would not receive a fair trial.

700 Har Homa units have been purchased

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Some 700 of 840 housing units planned for the first phase of construction at a controversial Jewish neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem have been sold. Another 800 were released for sale last Friday.

Israel's Housing Ministry has so far approved construction of 2,000 of 6,500 housing units at Har Homa. The start of groundbreaking at Har Homa in March 1997 led to nearly two years of paralysis in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

Palestinian refugees to leave Egypt camp

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Thousands of Palestinians who have lived in a refugee camp in Egypt for the past 26 years will be allowed to move back to Palestinian territory by the end of 2001, Palestinian and Israeli officials said Tuesday.

Under a previous agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the refugees were slated to return to the Palestinian areas by 2005. But funding provided by the Canadian government sped up the move.

Weizman nixes award to Lubavitch school

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli President Ezer Weizman canceled the award of an education prize to a Lubavitch school that allegedly refused to admit Ethiopians.

Weizman's decision came after Ethiopian-born Knesset member Adisu Massala urged him to make the move. A spokesman for the school said no member of the Ethiopian community in Israel had ever asked to attend the school in Kiryat Malachi.

Pentagon wants U.S. out of Sinai Desert

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Senior Pentagon officials want to end U.S. participation in the peacekeeping force in the Sinai Desert because U.S. forces are stretched too thin in other missions, USA Today has reported.

State Department officials oppose ending U.S. involvement in the force, which began in 1982 to enforce the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt.