Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Hundreds of Palestinians rioted in the streets of Bethlehem on Tuesday protesting the death of Mussa Abu Hilail, who was shot to death by an Israeli soldier that he attempted to stab on Monday afternoon near Rachel's Tomb.

During Tuesday's violent clashes, one Israeli soldier, an Israeli civilian and about 15 Palestinians were wounded. Israel Defense Force soldiers used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the rioters.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was forced to cancel a planned trip to Bethlehem because of the unrest.

During this second day of unrest, the Palestinian Police again failed to intervene.

Human rights group blasts appointment

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An Israeli human rights group has criticized the naming of a former head of the nation's domestic security service to run a peace center founded by Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres.

Carmi Gillon approved the "use of torture during the interrogation of thousands of Palestinians" when he was the head of Shin Bet, the B'Tselem group said Tuesday.

Gillon, appointed Sunday as director of the Peres Center for Peace, resigned from the Shin Bet following the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

6 settlement outposts have been dismantled

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Six of the settlement outposts slated for dismantling -- the ones that were not regularly inhabited -- were taken down last week, according to the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

The council hopes to complete the dismantling of the other designated settlement encampments within one week.

Israel to send home doomsday Christians

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli officials plan to deport 21 people who belong to apocalyptic Christian groups.

Israel rounded up the 21, most of them Americans, during a midnight sweep over the weekend -- the third time since January that Israel has detained Christian groups.

"We are fearful that their presence in the country could lead to the endangerment of public safety," a police spokesman said Monday.

Haifa art museum ends nude exhibit

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An art museum in Haifa has canceled an exhibit in which a naked woman was to be tied to a cross after some members of the Christian community in the Israeli city protested.

Over the weekend, Christian youths got the cross from museum officials and burned it. The exhibit was to have included three men firing paint pellets at the nude female model.

Mandela: Violence remains an option

GAZA STRIP (JTA) -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela said he wants to play a mediating role in the Mideast, but has not abandoned the idea of violence if negotiations fail.

"If the only alternative is violence, we will use violence," he told an enthusiastic Palestinian legislative assembly in the Gaza Strip last week.

Following two days of meetings last week with Israeli officials, Mandela received a hero's welcome in Gaza, where he talked of the "long-standing bonds between our two liberation movements" and met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.