' 011)* . -4011.100‘6111161101 01114410011011.41101 UP FRONT Measures Continued from preceding page Thanks to you, your kids grew up in a nice Jewish home. So why shouldn't their be one, too? No, we re not suggesting you tell your kids how to live. Heaven forbid. But there is one small thing you can do. Give them a sub- scription to The Jewish News. You'll be giving them a publication that offers far more than when they were kids. Because like your kids, The Jewish News has grown .and matured. Today it's the fastest growing Jewish weekly in the nation with award-winning journalists who write with care about local, national and international events that affect us all. And for articles on Jewish life and tradition, we re still the best source around. You spent years providing a nice Jewish home for- your kids. So why stop now? Order them their own subscription to The Jewish News. After all, we grew up in lots of nice Jewish homes .. . like yours. THE JEWISH NEWS A Publication You Can Put Your Faith In r 1 Save 40% over the newsstand price. Receive 52 award winning weekly issues plus five Style magazine supplements for only $31.00 (out-of-state $41.00). ❑ Yes! I want to be a faithful reader of The Jewish ❑ Why should I be the only one to enjoy? I'd like to News, I'd like to order my own subscription. send a gift subscription. El Payment enclosed ❑ Bill me • Send my thoughtful girt to. – My Name Name , My Address City State Zip Address City Phone Phone Please send all payments along with this coupon to: The Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Road, Southfield, MI 48034. Or call (313) 354-6060 and charge your order to Mastercard or Visa. Gift card to read L 12 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1991 State Zip the property of the Jewish Colonization Association (which rented it to the famed archaeologist Kathleen Ke- nyon when she was ex- cavating nearby) and since the Six-Day War has belong- ed to the Israel Lands Ad- ministration. It is evidently this pedigree that made the ruin, which has been stan- ding empty for a number of years, irresistible to the set- tlers of El Ad. But it is not only houses with a Jewish connection, or uninhabited ones for that matter, that are being "redeemed" by the settlers' society. The nearby Abassi house is a case in point. Long after the media extravaganza had ended, Jamal Ahm.ad Abassi continued to sit outside his locked house, cradling in his arms a week-old infant, the youngest of his five children, and waiting for the au- thorities to let his family back in. On the night of the settler's operation to seize five compounds in Silwan, the Abassis happened to be away. They returned the next morning to find that their home had been invaded by Israelis. - Now the settlers are out of the building, as part of a deal cut with the police, but so are the Abassis. According to Jamal, the three-room house belongs to his uncle, who has been _residing in Amman since 1967, and he himself has been living in the building for the past 25 years. "Now," he explains in a tone that bespeaks exhaustion above all else, "we reside in the street." The settlers of El Ad are insisting that their claim to the 30 buildings in Silwan be judged on its legal merits alone — with no thought for security considerations (how many policemen will be re- quired to protect them), not to mention humanitarian ones. Ironically, perhaps, that demand has focused atten- tion on one of the more ticklish property laws on the Israeli 'books. Promulgated in 1950, it defines anyone who was a citizen of an enemy state or moved to an enemy state after November 1947 as an "absentee" and places his assets under the jurisdiction of the Custodian of Absentee Property, mean- ing the state. This is the law that enabled the govern- ment to dispose of the prop- erty of the 700,000 Arabs who fled the country during the fighting in 1947-48, much of it given over to the destitute Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel during the state's first decade. After the Six-Day War, the annexation of east Jerusalem created some- thing of a legal nightmare since all the inhabitants of the annexed area were "absentees," which automatically stripped them of their property. The law was amended at that time, but only to accommodate the residents of east Jerusalem. Its original terms still apply to West Bank Palestinians who own property in Jerusalem, to say nothing of Palestinians living across the Jordan. And that is how the circle closes on the Abassi house. As a resident of Amman, its owner is an "absentee," and his house automatically comes under the jurisdiction of the Custodian of Absentee Property, who can dispose of it at his discretion. Of course, there is nothing to prevent him from permit- ting the Abassi family to continue living there. But since the custodian happens to be an official in Israel's Housing Ministry, which has become the chief in- strument of the Likud policy to settle Jews throughout the Greater Land of Israel, that is an unlikely prospect. Which brings us back to the jitters on the right. Events like the "settlement operation" in Silwan are meant to be taken as an • ex- pression of ideological fervor and political resolve. But to the degree that it is meant to daunt Messrs. Bush and Baker, it seems to have had the opposite effect, stiffening their resolve to bring the Israelis to the conference table. Meanwhile, the headlines have moved on to other matters, and a tenuous quiet has returned to Silwan. The police are out in numbers, the TV crews are gone, winter's first rains have swept through Jerusalem — and the Abassi family is still living in the street. ❑ '111 LOCAL NEWS Reception Aids Chernobyl Children Dr. and Mrs. Harvey Sab- bota and Dr. and Mrs. Arnold Zuroff will host a dessert reception to benefit Chabad's Children of Chernobyl. The event will be held at the Zuroff home; 31455 Franklin Fairway Drive, Farmington Hills, at 8 p.m. Oct. 21. The public is invited. For in- formation, call Mrs. Zuroff, 626-8957 or 626-1985.