Shorts: Mideast

Boycott vote overturned

tel aviv (jta) | A recommendation by a British teachers union to boycott Israeli academics was overturned.

The National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education overturned the original vote Sunday, June 11, after it merged with another teachers union, the Association of University Teachers, whose leaders had opposed the boycott.

The latter union had voted to boycott Israeli academics last year because of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians, but rescinded the decision in the face of international criticism.




Minister denies Pollard's accusations

jerusalem (jps) | Rafi Eitan, the minister in charge of pensioners' affairs, on Sunday, June 11 denied allegations by Jonathan Pollard that he had done nothing to help him after he was arrested by U.S. authorities for spying.

The allegations came in a petition by Pollard asking the High Court of Justice to rule that Eitan was unsuitable to serve in the cabinet. In a written response, Eitan and his lawyer, Yoram Alroi, wrote that he and the two other Israeli officials involved in the intelligence affair, Aviam Sela and Yosef Yagur, were in Israel when Pollard was arrested.

After the arrest, Eitan wrote, he was summoned by then-Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin and told to keep away from the affair and allow those authorized to handle the matter. Eitan also strenuously denied Pollard's claim that he was in possession of a document that could save Pollard, who is serving a life sentence for espionage.




U.S., Israeli rabbis look into conversion

tel aviv (jta) | An association of Orthodox rabbis and Israel's chief rabbinate agreed to form a joint commission to investigate matters of conversion.

The Thursday, June 8 decision follows word last month that the rabbinate, an Orthodox establishment that decides on matters of conversion, would recognize only diaspora conversions by individuals on its short list of approved rabbis.

While the joint commission deliberates, conversions already completed and certified by the council or the Beth Din of America, as well as those now under way, will be accepted by the chief rabbinate, according to Rabbi Basil Herring, the executive vice president of the rabbinate.




Study slams Saudi texts

riyadh (jta) | Saudi textbooks still promote hatred of Christians and Jews, a new study says.

The textbooks, used in schools in Saudi Arabia and in Muslim schools around the world, promote hatred of "unbelievers," including Christians, Jews, Hindus and atheists, as well as Muslims who don't share the Wahhabi brand of Islam that the Saudi government backs, according to the study conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Religious Freedom.

In one textbook, teachers are instructed to tell students to "give examples of false religions like Judaism, Christianity, paganism, etc."

Saudi Arabia is also funding teaching materials for American public schools that contain anti-Israel and anti-Western views.