Friday, April 13, 2001

*PALESTINIANS HURL ROCKS FOLLOWING MUSLIM TEMPLE MOUNT
PRAYERS
*INTIFADA TO COST ISRAEL $1-1.5 BILLION
*ISRAELI ARAB JOURNALIST BELIEVED TO BE IN PA HANDS
*ISRAELI COMPUTER MOUSE "SEES" FOR BLIND THROUGH TOUCH
*ECONOMIC BRIEFS

PALESTINIANS HURL ROCKS FOLLOWING MUSLIM TEMPLE MOUNT PRAYERS
  Following prayers on the Temple Mount today, attended by 27,000 Muslims,
Palestinian youths hurled stones at police officers near the Lion's Gate,
Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported. Palestinians also threw stones and
waved a Palestinian flag atop the police outpost on the Temple Mount, which
was not manned during the prayers. The police did not respond to the stone
throwing, and eventually Palestinians left the area. Police removed the
Palestinian flag from their outpost. No injuries were reported.
  Meanwhile, three Border Policemen were wounded south of Bethlehem by a
roadside bomb, one of them severely. According to HA'ARETZ, an Israel
Defense Forces soldier was lightly injured near the city of Hebron by
Palestinian stone throwers. He received treatment at the site of the
stoning. A resident of Nisanit in the Gaza Strip was injured this morning by
Palestinian snipers while waiting at a bus stop. THE JERUSALEM POST reported
that a pipe bomb was discovered adjacent to the Jewish community of Itamar
near Nablus earlier this morning. The device did not explode and IDF sappers
were able to neutralize the bomb safely.
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INTIFADA TO COST ISRAEL $1-1.5 BILLION
  If the Palestinian uprising continues until the end of the current year,
damage to the Israeli economy could reach $1 billion - $1.5 billion
according to Deputy Director for Economics of the Ministry of Finance, Vered
Dar, YEDIOT AHARONOT reported. She noted that the construction, agriculture
and tourism industries have been hit particularly hard.
  In addition, Dar said that if the Nasdaq Composite Index, on which close
to 100 Israeli companies are listed, continues to fall, damage caused by
both the security situation and the slowdown affecting U.S. and European
capital markets may amount to $3 billion in 2001. These figures do not
include excess expenditures for the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel
Police. Dar reiterated her belief that Israel's economy is influenced more
by the U.S. slowdown than the renewed Palestinian violence.
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ISRAELI ARAB JOURNALIST BELIEVED TO BE IN PA HANDS
  According to intelligence reports that have reached the Israel Defense
Forces, Yusuf Samir, the Israeli Arab journalist who disappeared in
Bethlehem last week, is being held by the Palestinian Authority's General
Intelligence Agency for the West Bank, headed by Tawfiq Tirawi, HA'ARETZ
reported. Samir is being held in one of the agency's facilities in
Bethlehem.
  Officially, the PA denies that it is holding Samir, an Egyptian who
defected to Israel more than 30 years ago. Senior security sources say,
however, that the PA is embarrassed by the incident and is trying to reduce
the damage caused by his arrest.
  Samir works for the Israel Broadcasting Authority and was arrested last
week by PA Force 17 troops during a visit to Bethlehem where he was
photographing damage to buildings near Rachel's Tomb. Samir was transferred
to Tirawi's organization the same day and since then there has been no
information about his condition or whereabouts. The PA claims that he was
released the same night, but he has yet to return home. His daughter, Chaya,
a well-known singer and one of the first Arab women to enlist in the Israeli
army is worried that Samir's life is in danger.
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ISRAELI COMPUTER MOUSE "SEES" FOR BLIND THROUGH TOUCH
  Israeli hi-tech company VirTouch Ltd. has produced a computer mouse that
enables the blind and partially sighted to view computer graphics through
touch, HA'ARETZ ON-LINE reported. Growing dependence on graphics and mice to
navigate screens in increasingly computer-based societies have limited the
ability of the partially sighted to use new technology.
  VirTouch has integrated existing computer products for the blind and
partially sighted that are based on text-to-speech software and the Braille
alphabet, with a device that acts both as a mouse and a tactile display. The
system, VTS, allows the blind to recognize graphic shapes and pictures, play
tactile computer games and read text in normal letters or Braille by placing
fingers on three pads that respond when a cursor on the computer screen
touches a graphic or letter.
  Art Braunstein, corporate relations director at VirTouch, said,
"Manufacturers say VTS is a "quantum leap" toward integration of the blind
into the world of the sighted. "It breaks with the past by adding graphics
to the universe of the blind person."
    The system is comprised of thirty-two pins on the three pads move up in
a black area, down in a white area and somewhere in the middle for gray
zones. The different heights enable blind people feel the curvature of lines
and shading of computer graphics, Braille symbols or standard alphabet
letters when reading text. VTS hit the markets in September 2000 and retails
for just under $5,000, and has found a receptive audience with institutions
in Israel and abroad.

The Palestinian Authority is deducting two new taxes from civil servant
paychecks, HATZOFEH reported. Civil servants discovered a five percent
reduction from their latest paychecks for an "Intidada tax" and a two
percent reduction for a "Tanzim tax." Within the PA, there are 140,000
employees, including members of security forces.
Religious pilgrims chanting hymns and carrying wooden crosses walked along
the cobblestone streets of Jerusalem's Old City, retracing Jesus' steps
toward crucifixion in a Good Friday procession, HA'ARETZ ON-LINE reported.
Setting out from the Lion's Gate, groups of French, Italian, American and
Japanese pilgrims carrying golden prayer books, crosses and candles made
their way along the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where
tradition says Jesus was crucified and buried. Services at the Holy
Sepulcher will commemorate the resurrection on Easter Sunday.
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