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THIS WEEK IN ISRAEL Out of sympathy with the many bereaved families as well as because of the difficulty in providing adequate security, many local authorities including Netanya, Ra'anana, Kfar Saba, Tiberias, and Nehariya decided to cancel Independence Day celebrations. Others, such as Herzliyah, Rishon Lezion, Rehovot, and Petach Tivka limited the festivities, which were held in closed areas. Other cities, such asTel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramat Gan, and Givatayim and other major cities, as well as the settlements held most of the events as planned. And in accordance with tradition, IDF bases were open to the public, as were as the national parks and nature hiking trails, for which the police provided security. At the end of the week the European Parliament called upon the Council of Ministers and the European Commission to freeze the trade agreement with Israel in order to pressure Israel and to advance European interests in the Midle-East conflict (out of support for the Palestinians). Various European countries demanded that Israeli exporters expunge "Made in Israel" from exported products. The first sanctions have already been initiated: Germany is delaying the supply of spare parts for Israel's Merkava tank, Italy has stopped selling rifles for police robots, and Spain has halted the shipment of fireworks that was en route to Israel for Independence Day celebrations. Israeli industrialists also reported that they were experiencing difficulties in marketing their products in Scandinavia. The Chairman of the Israeli Manufacturers Association, Oded Tira, said that counter sanctions would be imposed. "Europe is also likely to lose from freezing the trade agreements," he said. "The Europeans sell Israel billions of dollars worth of products each month, while Israel exports goods totaling half a million dollars a month." Indeed, the first counter-measure has already been taken: the transportation cooperative Dan has decided to suspend its annual order of approximately 100 buses from the German company Mann, in the amount of some $20 million. In contrast to European countries, a glimmer of light came, surprisingly enough, from Egypt. Egypt's national air carrier, Egypt Air, renewed its flights to Israel this week, two days after announcing their suspension. The company's spokesman maintained that cancellation of the flight last week was due to "commercial, not political, considerations." A couple of days ago an Air Sinai Boeing airplane flew to Tel Aviv carrying 23 passengers. The feeling in Israel is that instructions to resume the flights came from the Egyptian government ranks. IDF soldiers were amazed to discover in the heart of Shechem, a Boeing 707 plane, which was in the Israeli Air Force for many years. The airplane is located in the middle of a tourist site, that serves as a . . . restaurant. Further investigation revealed that the aircraft was one of the first ten Boeing planes that arrived in Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The airplane was flown on various missions until it was removed from combat due to aircraft fatigue the late 1980s. In 1993 the plane was purchased by businessmen from a moshav in the Galilee, who wanted to turn it into a tourist attraction. When the plan failed, it was sold to businessmen from Shechem. Israel's national theatre, Habima, will appear at Moscow's Vakhtangov Theatre next month, as part of a cultural exchange between Israel and Russia sponsored by the Ministries of Culture of the two countries. The Russian theatre company will appear on Habima's stage next year. Habima will present The Diary of Anne Frank, Kaddish for Naomi, and Aviah's Summer. At the same actress Gila Almagor will participate in a retrospect on Israeli films. There will also be and an exhibition of political cartoons and theatre sets by illustrator Ze'ev Angel. Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics has released the latest statistics on the country's population, its today numbers some 6.5 million. 81% - 5.3 million - are Jews and 19% - 1.2 million - are Arabs. 37% of the Jewish population - some 2 million - are immigrants. The percentage of Jews has remained constant since 1948, when the population numbered some 800,000, and the Jews constituted 81%. Both the Jewish and the Arab populations have grown at an annual rate of 4%.
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