^ — THE BULLETIN — Thursday. February 8,1990
Antl-SemnicJncidentsset US. record
NEW^^^WRK : — / Anti-Semitic incidents In the United States reached their high-' «st lever or the decade last yeari according to the annual audit compiled by the Ahti-Defamation League of B*nai B^rith.
-In 1989, anti-Semitic occurrences in the tJ.S. rose to 1,432,^the highest level since 1979; the yeiar ADL began conducting -the liationM^ide audit. The 1,432 figure represents a nearly 12 percent increase over i988v when the total was 1,281;atid has maintained the pattern of increase reflected over the past two ■years.".'-
' >'This increase is noteworthy, considering^ that the rise in numbers occurred despite the abseiice of two: major factors that iiifluenced the 1988 figures -r^theSOth anniversary of Krist^hiacht and the imme-diateimpact of thie Palestinian Arab uprising.' . * ' Dividing the incidents by. category;, the study reported 845'incidents vandalism; 587 epis(Kies -of harafismenti assaults arid' threats; a record 116 neo-Nazi • Skinhead-attributed incidents (a 180 percent increase); and 69 college i^nljiusinc^
Tlie figures, said Abraham Foxman, ADL*s hational tlircctorr "are disturbing but not surprising,'* in light of "the rise in hate-inspired violence generally around, the country." He added, however, that there were more serious types
Civil Rights Division; reflects incidents in 44 states and the District of Columbia, as reportied to ADL*s regional offices and to law enforcement officials.
New York state reported the highest level of anti-Semitic vandalism, and harassment, with New Jersey; Massachusetts, California and Florida following close behind. A number of incidents in these areas repeiyed considerable national attention in 1989/ New York was high in the harassment and assaiult category.
In Brooklyn, Max Kowal-sky, a; Holocaust Survivor, was murdered in July after protesting against swastikas scrawled acrbss his front door; and in October, on Uie^
Broddii^ College W«»«^liarassed and beaten on their way home from a fraternity party.
Incidents in Massachusetts, on. the other hand, involved vandalism. In Marblehead, *3um the Jews,** "Mengele** and "Belseii** were found spray-painted on a synagogue and community centre in July. On the eve of Yom Kippur, property in Wellesley was defaced by swastikasand neo-Nazi graffiti.
In California, numerous bombing incidents received national news coverage. The 'offices of th& San Diego Jewish Times were firebombed in April and August,; and in May, a firebomb was thrown into Beth Shalom Synagogue.
"The general nationwide increase in anti-Semitic acts demands an ever more forceful . response through those means available^** the audit said, suggesting several steps for combatting the rise in hate .crimes. These include increased law enforclement and community counteraction and information programs; expanded educational efforts in the nation*s schools; nibre effective security measures in Jewish religious and cultural centres; stricter enforcement Of existing an(i-bias crime statutes; and consolidated iobby-^ ing on behalf of a national anti-bias crime law.
The proposed Hate Crime Statistics Act, now pending before the U.S. Senate and already passed in the House of Representatives, would mandate the Justice Department to collect arid publishdata on hate crimes motivated by ethnicity, race, religion or sexual-orientation. Forty-eight states now have statutes dealing with hate crimes. jta
liesebrattons: -rlast - year: thah ever recorded in ADL audits.** The yfear 1989 saw the highest combined total of the most serious violent crimes^ including arson,4>:ombing and.ceme-tcry^/desecration. ■ (30 incidents); The high was attributed to increased activity\ on the part of racist neo-Nazi Skinheads; and a;30 percent rise in incidents.reported on college :campuses. ■
,:The-audit, compiled by the , research department of AbL*s
JERUSALEM — A leading seismologist predicts a devastating earthquake for Israetsometimein the next 50 years that will register a 7 on the Richter scale and will strike mainly in northern Gali-lieeaiid the Jordan Valley. • Thequake was forecast by iDr. Avi .Shapiro of the Seis-mologicai Department at the Haifa Institute for Oil and Geological Research. ■ Shapiro told a lecture audience in Haifa that the tremor could beforecast up to three months in advance. But ^ii itweire up to him, he would keefffig^ate from the public to avoid panic which might take more livesthan the earth-qmke itself, Shapiro said.
y., .. ■ jta
on set off Jewish genes
C B^HE^^^lET^ BOAS, AMSTERDAM^
lliieTe^te^ewisi^^ 14-member Dutch governnient, diluted l^y intermarriage and assimilation, but recognizable nonetheless.
Ernst Hirsch Ballin, the new minister of justice, is, at age 39, the son of a German-Jewish refuglee father and a Roman Catholic mother. He himself is a devout Catholic, and for the last eight years was a professor of administrative law at the Roman Catholic Academy of Tilburg.
His father was distantly related to Albert Ballin, German-Jewish shipping tycoon and a confidant of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who is credited with building the Hamburg-Amerika line into the worid*s-largest shipping company before the First World War and the foremost carrier of European emigrants to the United States.
Jacques >ya|lage, 43, the new undersecretary of ed uca-aion, belonged to Habonim, the Zionist Socialist youth Organization, when he was a teenager in Groningen. But his interest in Jewish affairs has since waned. Wallage is married to a granddaughter of the late Dutch Labor prime minister, Willem Drees.
Hedy D*Anc6nav^^ 52, the new minister of welfare and culture, is also partly Jewish. A feminist activist ahd a former undersecretary for the emancipatidn of women, her interest in Jewishaffairs has been con^ned lately to signing petitions urging Israel to change its policy toward Palestinian Arabs. jta
Pl-ices go up; up, up
TEL AVIV — Inflation bedeviled Israel last year and is expected to persist at double-digit rates. The cost-of-living index registered a I.l percent rise in December, bringing the annual inflation ratctor 1989 to 21.7 percent. That-is about | 25 percent higher than that of the previous year-and\iore than twice the single-digit rate forecast by flnance minister Shimon Peres at the begin-ningofi989.
Israel Sun
NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD SOLDIER Dalit Avnl of Tel Aviv rests In Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Centre after being stabbed while walking alone In Moslem'Quartei's perfume market In Old City of Jerusalem.
Soldier taking $tro^ inOidCity Icnifed by unidentified assailM
By GIL SEDAN
JERUSALEM — She had pikmned the visit for a long time, but had never gotten around to making it.
Nineteen-year-old Dalit Avni, dressed in her army uniform. Anally went for a stroll inthe Old City of Jerusalem. ■■■ Unarmed and unafraid, despite stories about violence there, Avni passed through the Old Cify walls and waded into the Oriental bazaar. She made it as far as the perfume market when she suddenly felt sharp pains in her back.
An unidentifled assailant had stabbed her seven times in the: back, stomach, <;hest and hip. It was the flrst such attack ill i^^ai^t Jeri«aleiii Ih^^mahy
Arab shopkeepers who witnessed the stabbing hurriedly locked up and rushed from the scene. None offered to help the young woman, who lay bleeding on the pavement. An army patrol that happened by summoned an ambulance, which took Avni to Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Centre in Ein Kerem.
She was fully conscious when she arrived. Her wounds were more than superflcial, yet not grave. Doctors said she- suffered moderate blood loss and would be released from the hospital after a few days of observation.
Avni could not tell the ^lice much. She had only a. fleeting glimpse of the assail^ ant: :
Police detained 80 people for questioning, By nightfall, 20 remained in custody.
In iter hospital bed, Avni said the assault had not changed her opinion of Arabs. **I can understand them,** she' said.
The Old City was popular with Israeli visitors until the intifada broke out more than two years ago. Since then, few Israelis venture into the narrow alleys of the Arab neighborhoods. Soldiers generally go there only on duty and only when armed.
In recent moiiths, violence linked to the intifada h&s been limited in Jerusalem to arsbin against Israeli cars and a few unsuccessful gasoline-bomb^ attacks. Israeli Vehicles are stoned as a matter of routine, i^;-police are^h^ investigate iiig^i mbi^^Serib^ that may have had nationalistic motivations. But they sayit also 0ould have been a purely criminial matter.
The case involves a Jewish drug addict, reportedly a prostitute, who was murdered Jan. 4 in the Shuafat refugee camp, near the French Hill neighborhood, where she apparently went to buy drugs.
Observers believe the wii/-fl^a will intensify iii^erusalem as the time approaches to decide whether East Jerusa-lemites can participate in proposed Palestinian Arab elections.
Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir is . adamantly opposed on the grounds that allowing them to take part might compromise Isarers' sovereignty over East Jerusalem, which it annexed after the Six-bay War in 1967. jta
A funny thing happen<ed ...
Sally was admiring Margerie*s new engagement ring. **It*s liiagnificent. . . It must be very valuable.'*
^*W-wcll, Walter told me he bought it from a millionaire.*'
^*Then it must havie cost a fortunel**
!'*W-wen, Walter didn't tell me the name of the tniUipnaire, tmifl yesterday..."
'*\yhat IS it?**
-'V(^oblworth.** .
IsraalSun
Terrorists on yacht
TEL AVIV ~ The Israeli navy spotted a yacht bearing the Cypriot flag on the high seas, and removed two passengers it claimed to be terrorists belonging to Yasir Arafat's Al Fatah faction of the PLO. The vessel and its four-member crew were allowed to proceed to' its destination, the south Lebanese port of Sidop.
Heart recipient dies
TEL AVIV — After a series of successful heart transplant operations at Had^ssah Hospital in Jerusalem, IsraePs lOth' heart-transplant recip-. lent died following nine-and-.a^half hours of surgery. Hirsh Wilblum, 57, of Netanya, was the father of two daughters; He emigrated from theSoviet Union 13 years ago.
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Bomb found at paper
TEL AVIV — A police bomb squad safely detonated an explosive device fbund outside the editorial offices of the daily Ma'ariv. An anonymous telephone caller said the bomb was placed by Sica-rii, an extreme- right-wing Jewish terrorist organization. Another caller claimed a bomb was planted near the rival afternoon daily Yediot /Ic/irowo/, biit art intensive search found nothing:
East Germans cracl( down on hatred
BONN
East German
authorities are cracking down on the dissemination of hate propaganda by West Ger-many*s extreme right-wing Republican Party.
The state prosecution announced that East German Republican activist Hans-Rudolf Gutbrodt, 40, is suspected of violating the law that prohibits preaching hatred of foreigners, incitement to racism and spreading "neo-fascist** propaganda. The prosecutor*s office disclosed that Gutbrodt has five convictions as a child molester.
MONTH OF TREATMENT at Beilinson Hospital In Petach Tikva awaits 51 children aged six to 16 and three aduiti aM inJirat direct flight from Kiev to Tel Aviv. They became III as result of 1986 Chernobyl nublear dMaster. Youngeters are second group of Chernobyl children flown In for medical care. ,, ,
'Positive gesture' to PLO proposed
BRUSSELS -b.Xhe Belgian Socialist Party has again called on the Belgian-government to make a **positive ges--ture toward the PLO'* by ^!:rupgradin^--the level of the PLO*s diplomatic representation in Belgium.
Since the 1970s, the PLO has had a liaison and information office in Brussels, which , enjoys a kind of diplomatic status. The SociaIis;t Party stressed that the prospect of a dialogue between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs **niakes it urgent for Belgium to take a concrete initiative in order to encourage within the Palestinian movement the most open and moderate tendency led by Yasir Arafat;*