Shorts: Mideast

Jerusalem ordered to compensate gay and lesbian center

jerusalem (jta) | The Jerusalem municipality was ordered to pay out $70,000 to the city's gay and lesbian center.

Jerusalem District Court this week found in favor of a petition filed against City Hall by the Jerusalem Open House, which had been deprived of funding from the municipal cultural chest since 2003.

The petitioners were also awarded $5,200 in court costs.

Gay and lesbian activists have been at odds with the Jerusalem Municipality before, given Mayor Uri Lupolianski's misgivings over the annual Gay Pride Parade in the city. This year's parade is scheduled for Aug. 11.




Hamas Jerusalemites given ultimatum

jerusalem (jta) | Israel threatened to revoke the residency rights of four Hamas officials living in eastern Jerusalem.

Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On said this week he gave the three Palestinian Authority lawmakers and a Cabinet minister a month in which to renounce their radical Islamic group.

Otherwise, Bar-On said, the four would no longer be considered Israeli residents and could be expelled from Jerusalem.




Yad Vashem: Let Darfur refugees stay

jerusalem (jta) | Yad Vashem's chairman reportedly called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to let refugees from Darfur remain in Israel.

There are fewer than 100 refugees in Israel who fled Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by government-sponsored militias. Most of the refugees are being held in prisons or army bases because Sudan is considered an enemy country.

Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said security reasons should not be used as an excuse, noting that countries such as Australia, Canada and Britain cited security concerns when they sent Jewish refugees to detention camps during the Holocaust.




Israel has world's tallest elephant

ramat gan (jta) | An Israeli zoo is reportedly home to the world's tallest elephant in captivity.

Yediot Achronot reported last week that Yossi, a 31-year-old African elephant at Ramat Gan Safari, was found to be 12 feet, 2 inches tall, a world record.

The six-ton Yossi was born and raised at the zoo, and has sired 19 offspring.