Barak meets Iraqi president

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak met the president of Iraq on the sidelines of a conference in Greece last week. Barak and Jalal Talabani shook hands and briefly exchanged pleasantries during the Socialist International outside Athens. They were introduced by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who also spoke separately with Barak, a former Israeli prime minister. Since U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Israeli leaders have called on the new Iraqi regime to recognize the Jewish state. But Baghdad has been cool to the overtures pending a resolution to Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Several members of the Iraqi parliament called on Talabani on July 4 to apologize for the handshake with Barak.

MK visits banned

Israel broadened a ban on visiting enemy states to include Knesset members, who previously enjoyed exemption. A bill preventing any Israeli who visits hostile Arab countries or Iran from being elected to parliament was ratified Monday in second and third readings. The law would allow for serving Knesset members who violate it to be disqualified as lawmakers. The legislation targeted Israeli-Arab lawmakers who have long raised hackles in the Jewish state by travelling to countries such as Lebanon and Syria, often in shows of solidarity.

Report on MIA Ron Arad

Israel is waiting for a report from Hezbollah regarding the group’s efforts to locate missing Israeli Air Force navigator Ron Arad, defence officials said July 4. In the report, Hezbollah is expected to say that it did not manage to locate Arad, who was shot down near Sidon in 1986, but concludes that the navigator died in Lebanon more than a decade ago. The report will be given to Ofer Dekel, the Israeli official charged with negotiating the release of Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah and Hamas, as part of the United Nations-brokered deal for the release of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev who were abducted in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah on July 12, 2006.

New attack, no swap talks

Hamas is suspending negotiations over the release of abducted soldier Gilad Schalit due to Israel’s closure of Gaza Strip crossings, the London-based Al-Hayyat quoted a senior group official as saying July 4. Israel closed its commercial crossings to Gaza on July 4, a day after a Qassam rocket fired from the coastal territory struck near the western Negev town of Sderot. It was the sixth incident of rocket fire since a fragile Egyptian-brokered ceasefire went into effect June 19. Since then, the army says 11 rockets and mortars have been fired toward Israel.

WUJS to leave Arad

The WUJS Institute adult study program is moving from its longtime home in Arad to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The institute, a study-internship program that since 2006 has been under the auspices of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization, will open in the new locations on Sept. 1. The 50 students registered for the fall semester have agreed to participate at the new sites. The move was precipitated by a Jewish Agency announcement that it would close the absorption center in Arad, a southern Israeli city 18 miles from Beer Sheva. The centre has provided housing and classroom space for the program for 50 years.

Libel lawsuit denied

An Israeli court rejected a libel suit against a pro-Palestinian documentary about the battle of Jenin. Petach Tikvah District Court turned down the suit filed by five Israeli veterans of the 2002 fighting in the West Bank town against Mohammed Bakri, the director of the film Jenin, Jenin. The court found that while the film was defamatory, the plaintiffs could not sue Bakri, because they had not been singled out in the film. Palestinian propagandists alleged that Jenin was the site of deliberate massacres, turning the town into a symbol abroad of Israeli depredation.
Files from JTA and Ha’aretz