Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The actor and kickboxer known as the "muscles from Brussels" donned the black garb of an Orthodox Jew for a scene from a film now being shot in Jerusalem.

In "The Order," Jean Claude Van Damme plays an art thief searching for his archaeologist father, who is missing in Israel.

The film's release date has not been announced by the studio.

Likud head's itinerary infuriates Palestinians

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Palestinians are reacting angrily to reports that Ariel Sharon, leader of Israel's opposition Likud Party, intends to visit the Temple Mount later this week.

The Palestinians described the planned visit as a provocation.

Meanwhile, a Knesset committee approved a bill that bans any Israeli territorial concessions in Jerusalem.

In another development, Sharon appealed to American Jews to take a stand on Jerusalem and help it remain the "undivided" capital of Israel.

"Jerusalem is yours not any less than it is ours," he told a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York last week.

Arab 'minority' status becoming a misnomer

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Arab population in the Holy City is increasing at three times the pace of the Jewish population, according to a study released Tuesday.

Researchers at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies predicted that at this rate, Arabs will make up 40 percent of the population in 20 years, up from about 31 percent now.

The study also predicted that fervently religious Jews, who in 1995 made up 29 percent of Jerusalem's population, would make up 32 percent by 2020.

Economic point gain predicted for Israel

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- Israel's economy should grow at a rate of 5 to 6 percent this year, according to the nation's Central Bureau of Statistics.

Tuesday's announcement is higher than a previously forecast 4.5 percent growth rate.

According to a bureau official, much of the growth was the result of the rapid expansion of Israel's high-tech sector and the end of a slowdown in more traditional industries.