Ministry to probe Mokassed hospital
The Health Ministry said Wednesday that it would look into reports in the media that Mokassed Hospital, Jerusalem was refusing to discharge a Palestinian mother and her babies because the family has not paid its bill. The ministry is responsible for overall supervision of the hospital but is not directly involved in its management.
In any case, ministry sources said, this is not a case of any death in a hospital. In principle, the spokeswoman said, a hospital may not hold patients "ransom" for unpaid debts. • Judy Siegel
Former South African on Shinui list
Shinui is fielding a South African-born candidate who gained fame when, as an El Al flight attendant, he won a lawsuit that granted homosexual couples the same benefits as married couples. Jonathan Danilovitch, who has lived with his partner for 26 years, currently works as a translator in Tel Aviv and is seventh on the Shinui list. Danilovitch, 61, moved from South Africa in 1971.
The party's English-speakers forum will host Danilovitch and Shinui MKs Ehud Rassabi and Ilan Leibowitz on Friday in an event at the ZOA House in Tel Aviv from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. • Gil Hoffman
Shinui runs banned ad in cinemas
The head of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Justice Dorit Beinisch, blasted the Shinui Party for airing an election commercial in movie theatres which included footage that she had banned on television. The commercial showed haredim latching on to the legs of a secular person and disappearing in a puff of smoke when he casts his ballot for Shinui. Beinisch said the commercial "was extremely hurtful and uses images that look like they have been taken from anti-Semitic propaganda."
A party which presumes to champion government, law and respect for the court finds ways of bypassing the decision of the head of the CEC and, even worse, a decision of the Supreme Court," wrote Beinisch.
• Dan Izenberg
91 Embassies voting today
Voting for the 17th Knesset begins today for officials in 91 Israeli embassies and other official offices abroad. As usual, the members of the Israeli embassy in Canberra, Australia, will be the first to have a say in the shaping of the next Knesset. Altogether, some 4,500 Israelis have the right to vote abroad, including nine members of the smallest Israeli legation (Chad) and 1,000 in New York, the largest representation. The ballots will be sent by diplomatic mail directly to the Knesset for counting.
• Dan Izenberg
Taba Hilton sued by victims of terror
WASHINGTON - Three families who visited the Taba Hilton hotel in Sinai at the time of the terror bombing of October 7, 2004, are suing the Hilton hotel chain for damages in a Florida court. The families - two American and one Israeli - claim in the suit that they suffered physical and psychological damage due to the attack and that the hotel did not take adequate measures to ensure the security of its guests.
"There is no amount of compensation that can replace long-term joy, or make you feel safe, or ensure your kid's mental health", said one of the plaintiffs, Yuri Faizakov, an Israeli. The attack claimed the lives of 35 people and wounded more than 100. "Hilton Hotels was specifically warned by its security consultants that the greatest threat to the hotel was from terrorist car bombing attacks, yet they failed to enact the most basic security measures to prevent such a tragedy," said Michael Elsner, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
• Nathan Guttman.
