enough to enable Israel to accept the Mitchell plan.
Rightist members of the coalition have threatened
to quit if a settlement freeze goes into effect.
More Violence
Even as preparations went ahead for Tuesday's securi-
ty meeting, however, the Palestinian assault on Israel
intensified.
An Israeli family of seven ran into a roadside
ambush in the heart of the Etzion Bloc, just south of
Bethlehem in the West Bank. A resident of the set-
tlement of Efrat — Sarah Blaustein, 53, an immi-
grant from the United States — was killed when
shots were fired at her car near the Israeli settlement
of Neveh Daniel. Her husband, Norman, was slight-
ly wounded, and a son, Sammy, was seriously
wounded with three bullets in his back.
Another Efrat resident, Esther Alva, 20, died sever-
al hours after the attack.
The attack occurred as the minivan was driving to
the funeral of a previous terror victim: Gilead Zar,
gunned down in an ambush in the northern West
Bank earlier on Tuesday. Zar had been a security
coordinator for the settlement of Itamar, near Nablus.
According to reports, when Zar's car stopped after
the first round of gunfire, the gunmen approached
and shot him at close range.
The militia of Palestinian Authority President Yasser
Arafat's Fatah Party claimed responsibility for the attack.
Palestinian terrorists also fired shots at the funeral
procession for Zar, but no one was hurt.
In the Gaza Strip, two Israeli soldiers were wound-
ed by a Palestinian who exploded a bomb strapped
to his body. In addition, Arafat's Fatah militia briefly
kidnapped two Newsweek journalists, ostensibly to
send a message to the British and American govern-
ments over their alleged pro-Israel bias.
A car bomb exploded outside a high school in the
Israeli coastal city of Netanya on Wednesday, slightly
injuring six people.
Hospital officials said four of those injured were teen-
PROGRESS on page 32
last month as they hiked in the West Bank.
There is no chance of peace, Rimon said, if
" another generation grows up on hatred, anti-
Semitism and Holocaust denial."
The mood in Israel now, Rimon said, is for separa-
tion from the Palestinians, rather than coexistence.
"The ultimate aim and goal is to go back to nego-
tiations," she said.
The bottom line is that while "we're facing a terri-
ble period today," the uprising is not a threat to the
existence of Israel. The real threat to its existence,
she said, is the development of weapons of mass
destruction by Iran and Iraq.
Eventually, after a cooling-off period, she believes
Israel and the Palestinians will find themselves where
they left off in negotiations: dealing with the core
issues of refugees, settlements, boundaries and the
status of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Rimon said, Israelis try not to let the
violence influence their daily lives. "We are strong in
Israel," she said. ❑
1 Wedding 23 Deaths
Israeli building methods face probe after
23 die in wedding hall collapse.
A video of the collapse showed
well-dressed partygoers dancing
under colored lights when the
floor gave way beneath them.
Arrests And Questions
• --
NAOMI SEGAL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
I
Jerusalem
srael has set up a state
commission of inquiry into
building safety after 23
people were killed and
hundreds injured when a wedding
hall collapsed last week.
The May 24 collapse at the
Versailles wedding hall in
Jerusalem's Talpiot neighborhood
spurred a public outcry over what
are considered widespread prob-
lems of corner-cutting by contrac-
tors and lax enforcement of build-
ing codes by local authorities.
The collapse also heightened
fears that poor construction prac-
tices could make many buildings
disaster prone — all the more so
since Israel is located in an earth-
quake zone.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
said those guilty of negligence
must be brought to justice.
Israelis "pay a heavy and needless
price as a result of a disregard for
law and order," he said at a joint
news conference with Jerusalem
Mayor Ehud Olmert.
The commission will address
construction problems in general,
not the Versailles hall collapse
specifically. A government state-
ment issued Tuesday said the corn-
mission will examine the "full range
Related editorial.• page 37
Top: Batsheva Tal, left, and
Imbal Katz sit at the bedside of
their injured son and boyfriend
Moti Tal, 21, at Jerusalem's Beit
Hadassa hospital on May 26
Above: Bride Keren Sror is kissed
by her husband Assi moments
before the wedding hall floor
collapsed May 24
of professional and legal questions
related to the safety of buildings
and places designed for public use."
In what was considered Israel's
worst civilian disaster, 23 people
were killed and more than 200
injured when the dance floor col-
lapsed beneath wedding guests,
plunging them three stories in a
cloud of broken concrete and
twisted steel.
One of the dead was a 3-year-
old boy. Rescuers said they found
the bodies of an entire family sit-
ting around a party table smashed
in the wreckage.
The bride and groom, Keren
and Assaf Dror, were injured and
received adjoining hospital beds.
Police detained at least nine peo-
ple for questioning — including
the owners of the hall, engineers
and building contractors — fol-
lowing the disaster.
Among those held by police
was the inventor of a lightweight
construction method used in the
wedding hall and in many other
buildings built in Israel during
the 1980s.
According to reports, more than
6,500 structures in Israel were
built using the cheaper Pal-Kal
method, which uses thinner sec-
tions of concrete during construc-
tion. The building method was
banned in 1996 because of safety
concerns.
An initial inquiry indicated that
recent renovations at the wedding
hall — including the removal of
supporting walls and beams, as well
as the use of the Pal-Kal construc-
tion method — could have con-
tributed to the building's collapse.
Police also are investigating alle-
gations of lax enforcement of
building codes by municipal offi-
cials, including possible corruption.
Some of those detained were sus-
pected of trying to remove munici-
pal files regarding the wedding hall
before police nabbed them.
Citing the sensitivity and com-
plexity of the case, Israel's police
commissioner transferred the
investigation from the Jerusalem
police to the national fraud squad.
In the wake of the collapse, a
special hotline set up by the Israel
Building Association was flooded
with calls from worried Israelis.
Meanwhile, local officials have
ordered inspections of buildings
designated for public use.
Haifa's mayor, Amram Mitzna,
on Tuesday ordered a banquet
hall closed after city inspectors
concluded that renovation work
on the building had raised the
risk of collapse.
a a.
❑
6/1
2001
al