Shorts: Mideast

Olympics terrorist assails Spielberg

jerusalem (jta) | A Palestinian terrorist assailed Steven Spielberg for not consulting him for a film on the Munich Olympics massacre.

Mohammad Daoud, who masterminded the abduction and killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Games, said this week that the Hollywood director had not contacted him about the upcoming film.

"If someone really wanted to tell the truth about what happened he should talk to the people involved, people who know the truth," Daoud told Reuters in an interview from his Middle East hideout.

Spielberg has said his film, which chronicles the massacre and Israel's hunt for the terrorists responsible, will be fair to all parties. Veterans of Israel's Mossad spy agency also have said they were not consulted on the project, which appears to draw mainly on a controversial 1984 expose titled "Vengeance."




Second self-immolated protester dies

jerusalem (jta) | A U.S.-born Israeli who set himself on fire to protest the Gaza Strip withdrawal died.

Baruch Ben-Menachem, a recent American immigrant, doused himself in lighter fluid and then lit himself at his Hebrew-language learning center in Jerusalem last week.

At the time of the self-immolation, medics who arrived to treat Ben-Menachem quoted him as saying that he had acted "in memory of Gush Katif," a reference to the main Gaza settlement bloc that had just been evacuated. Last month, as the withdrawal got under way, a West Bank settler set herself on fire at a police checkpoint outside Gaza. The woman, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, also died within days.




Mofaz looks to West Bank

jerusalem (jta) | Palestinian terrorism will intensify in the West Bank, Israel's defense minister predicted.

"The situation in Judea and Samaria will be complex and difficult after the disengagement," Shaul Mofaz said this week during talks with Israeli top brass, referring to the soon-to-be-completed Gaza Strip withdrawal.

"The region will become our main theater of operations for fighting terror." Mofaz said West Bank terrorists will step up efforts to penetrate Israel through its security fence, and urged the army to stop such infiltrations at all costs. He also said there will be "zero tolerance" given to West Bank settlers who try to stir up trouble by attacking Palestinians.




Conductor defends anti-army action

jerusalem (jta) | Conductor Daniel Barenboim defended his refusal to answer a question from an Israeli Army Radio reporter.

Barenboim said he refused to answer the question from the reporter at the Sept. 1 event in Jerusalem because the reporter showed insensitivity by wearing an army uniform at an event attended by Palestinians.

The event celebrated the publication of a book on music that Barenboim wrote with the late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said. Some Cabinet ministers have called for a boycott of music conducted by Barenboim because of his actions.




Court asks Sharon to protect Gaza synagogues

jerusalem (ap) | Israel's Supreme Court asked Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this week to seek a commitment from the Palestinians and the international community to protect empty synagogues in the Gaza Strip after Israel's withdrawal from the area is completed.

The ruling added a new complication to the Gaza pullout, which Israel hopes to complete on Sept. 15. The Palestinians say they are not responsible for protecting the houses of worship.

The court ruling by a special, seven-judge panel came after Israel's chief rabbis ruled that it is forbidden to demolish synagogues. The country's two chief rabbis are the country's top authorities on religious issues.




Arafat's nephew assassinated in Gaza

jerusalem (jta) | Palestinians assassinated Yasser Arafat's nephew, a Gaza strongman.

The Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of Palestinian terrorist splinter groups, claimed responsibility for the killing of Moussa Arafat in his Gaza City home.

Arafat, a nephew of the late Palestinian leader, recently was deposed as Gaza security chief after several armed factions accused him of corruption, but he continued to wield influence on the street. His son also was abducted in the predawn attack and allegedly killed later.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is under pressure to demonstrate that he can rein in chaos in Gaza as Israel completes its withdrawal from the territory, vowed to bring the assassins to justice.




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