Last update - 02:16 18/02/2008
News in Brief
A Knesset inquiry panel is considering a series of bills to amend the current legislation on wiretapping, that panel's chair MK Menahem Ben-Sasson (Kadima) said on Sunday. According to the proposed amendment, the police would be required to report back to court on a regular basis and show evidence of the effectiveness and relevance of the wiretapping. The panel also plans to change the makeup of that the board approving wiretaps, which almost never turns down a request. The Israeli police carry out some 1,200 investigations involving wiretapping annually, comparing to 1,800 in the entire U.S. (Shahar Ilan)
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation yesterday approved a bill which proposes to force the Israel Airports Authority to provide services for the airstrip at Kiryat Shmona, in a bid to restore regular flights to the North. The airstrip is under the nominal responsibility of a private contractor. However, the contractor is unable to service aircraft because of a dispute with the airline operating on the line. As a result, the airstrip has been out of commission since the Second Lebanon War. If the bill, which was submitted by MKs Gilad Erdan and Ronit Tirosh, passes into law, it will mean the IAA would replace the private contractor. "An operational airstrip in the North is an important factor in the region's ability to recover from the war," Erdan said. (Zvi Zrahiya)
The 2004 Beaches Law for the protection of Israel's Mediterranean and Red Sea coastlines will be expanded to include the beaches along Lake Kinneret, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation decided yesterday. The law, which was broadened following MK Ophir Paz-Pines' suggestion, guarantees free public access to all of Kinneret's beaches and imposes restrictions meant to deter polluters. In explaining the move, Pines cited the need to combat land confiscation by private businesses around Kinneret and illegal tolling and unapproved construction on public land. The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel called the move "the beginning of the end of the age of Wild West around the Kinneret." (Eli Ashkenazi)
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill yesterday expanding the authority of rabbinical courts in property cases, over the objection of Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann. According to the bill, a couple that signed a monetary agreement approved in a rabbinical divorce court have the right to agree to allow the rabbinical court to decide property issues after the divorce goes through. The bill also gives rabbinical courts jurisdiction in civil matters as long as the parties approve and at least one of the parties is Jewish. (Tomer Zarchin)
Rescue forces in Hadera yesterday resuscitated a 28-year-old woman who had had an acute asthma seizure, after her 6-year-old daughter ran to a local grocery shop to call for help. The grocer called Magen David Adom. The first response team found the woman unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing. They managed to revive her, and took her to hospital. Medical sources told Haaretz that the girl probably saved her mother's life. (Fadi Eyadat)