LAX Shooter Had Terror Ties?
The man who killed two people in the July 4 attack at Los Angeles International Airport told U.S. officials in the mid-1990s that Egyptian officials had accused him of being affiliated with terrorists. As a result of the disclosure made this week by U.S. officials regarding Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the agency to investigate any ties between asylum seekers and terrorist groups. Meanwhile, Egyptian police and Hadayet’s wife denied that Hadayet had been investigated for terrorist links. After killing the two and injuring several more people at the airport’s El Al ticket counter, Hadayet was killed by an El Al security guard.
Choreographer Wins
A choreographer who has created dance prayer rituals for the Reconstructionist movement won a MacArthur “genius” award. Liz Lerman was one of 24 MacArthur Fellows named Tuesday for their excellence in intellectual, cultural and scientific endeavors. Like the other winners, Lerman, 54, who lives in suburban Washington, D.C., will receive $500,000 over five years.
House Passes Palestinian Sanctions
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill instructing the president to issue sanctions if the Palestinian Authority violates its peace commitments. The State Department Authorization Act, passed Wednesday by a voice vote, includes language originally contained in the Middle East Peace Commitments Act. The bill calls on the president to report every six months whether Palestinian leaders have complied with agreements they signed with the United States and Israel and, if not, to impose sanctions on them. However, the president can choose to waive the sanctions for national security reasons. The authorization act also would require the American Consulate in Jerusalem to be placed under the supervision of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and Jerusalem residents as Israelis. The bill awaits Senate approval.
Terror Victim Saves Palestinian
Girl
A Palestinian girl was recovering after she received a kidney from a Jewish victim of a Palestinian suicide bombing. Seven-year-old Yasmin Abu Ramila, a resident of Jerusalem, had been undergoing kidney dialysis for nearly two years while waiting for a transplant. The family of Jonathan Jesner, a 19-year-old yeshiva student from Scotland, volunteered to donate his organs after he died last Friday, a day after a suicide bombing aboard a Tel Aviv bus.
Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
