Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli Finance Minister Avraham Shochat has authorized $70 million in Israeli government funding over five years for the Birthright Israel program.

The project, sponsored by Jewish philanthropists, plans to eventually bring all North American Jews between the ages of 15 and 26 to Israel on free tours.

The funding is expected to receive final approval by the Knesset's Finance Committee next week.

Israelis agree to free 150 jailed Palestinians

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Israeli and Palestinian negotiators reached an understanding in principle Tuesday night over a list of 150 prisoners slated to be freed under last month's Sharm el-Sheik agreement.

A high-ranking official in the prime minister's office said the agreement did not violate the security cabinet decision on which prisoners are eligible for release.

The release may happen as soon as the weekend.

Opening is delayed for 'safe passage' route

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The Israeli government has said it will take another week before it can open a safe-passage route for Palestinians traveling between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

More time is needed to set up computers and distribute the magnetic cards for Palestinian travelers, an Israeli official said this week.

Israel will not try cruise ship hijacker

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's Supreme Court has ruled against a trial for the mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in which a wheelchair-using Jewish American was killed.

Tuesday's ruling in the case of Abu Abbas cited an Israeli-Palestinian agreement that exempts from prosecution Palestinians accused of crimes committed prior to the 1993 Oslo accord who had entered the self-ruled areas after September 1995.

The hijackers shot dead Leon Klinghoffer, 69, and threw his body overboard.

"In one stroke of a peace agreement, Israel has erased from its books dastardly crimes against the Jewish people," said the lawyer for those seeking a trial, including New York state legislator Dov Hikind and activist Rabbi Avi Weiss, also of New York.

Israelis, Americans to fight 'cyber-terror'

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel and the United States are joining forces to fight "cyber-terror" on essential computer networks and databases, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported Tuesday.

The paper said the matter would come up when the first working meeting of the committee on counterterrorism takes place in November. The Israeli-American committee will also address the threat of biological and chemical warfare, the paper said.

Yeshiva head pleads guilty to molestation

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The former head of a Jerusalem yeshiva has pleaded guilty to charges he sexually molested 19 students between 1991 and 1997.

Prosecutors in the case of Rabbi Ze'ev Kapelovich, who led the Netivei Meir Yeshiva, have asked that he be sent to jail for 3-1/2 years.

The court is expected to announce its sentence next month.

Belly dancer's appeal dismissed in rape case

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An Israeli court has rejected the appeal of a belly dancer in a case in which Egypt's ambassador to Israel was granted diplomatic immunity from charges that he raped her.

But the court said this week that the dancer could refile the lawsuit after Mohammed Basiouny leaves his diplomatic post.