■ FINDINGS IN a Health Ministry study that point to pollution being the cause of the high incidence of cancer, especially in children, in comparison to the rest of the population, have raised the question as to whether the government or the local municipality is responsible for fighting pollution. Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav has received a lot of flak for encouraging and approving the establishment of additional petrochemical and other pollution emitting industries, but Yahav for his part says the ministry is so busy chasing headlines that it presents its reports to the media before any approach is made to the municipalities concerned. Ever since the former health minister Yael German's resignation from the previous government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held the position of acting health minister, but he is too busy putting together a coalition to pay attention to health issues, and the matter will remain in abeyance at least until a new government is created and a new minister appointed. Meanwhile, people close to Yahav say that on his watch, pollution has been considerably reduced. ■ FOLLOWING AN impressive military and civil service career in which he was elected mayor of Ramat Gan four consecutive times, Zvi Bar, who was convicted of bribery and money laundering, now faces a nine-year sentence, which the prosecution is demanding despite his advanced age. Bar will turn 80 in October. Character witnesses who appeared on his behalf in the Tel Aviv District Court included former chief of staff and defense minister Shaul Mofaz, who described Bar's leadership abilities in the army as a commander of a paratroopers battalion, commander of the IDF officers training school and commander of the Border Police. Bar was charged with taking bribes amounting to NIS 2 million from real estate developers. In addition to the jail time the prosecution is demanding, he is being fined more than three times the total sum of the bribes. His legal representatives have requested that he be sentenced to community service rather than incarceration. ■ ICHILOV Hospital in Tel Aviv will have a lot of publicity in the near future, but not necessarily for reasons it would desire. Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, a kabbalist and the Ashdod-based leader of the global Shuva Israel movement, who has been charged with bribery and obstruction of justice, in a plea bargain deal became a state's witness against senior police officers to whom he offered bribes in return for information about police and FBI investigations into his activities. One of the police officers, Ephraim Bracha, reported to his superiors that he had been offered $200,000, which led the police to look into Pinto's affairs. Pinto, who is in very poor health, and allegedly suffers from cancer and heart problems, spends a great deal of time in the United States, where he has a huge following. Said to be one of the wealthiest rabbis in Israel, he also owns a great deal of real estate in New York. Several attempts were made by his followers to prevent his return to Israel, where it was known that he would be sentenced. Pinto took ill on the flight from New York to Israel and was hospitalized soon after his arrival. He came to court from Ichilov and returned there. To ensure that he would not attempt to leave the country in the interim, he was forced to surrender his passport. In all likelihood, Pinto will be sentenced to a year in prison, but his lawyers are fighting this on grounds that in view of his health situation, he would not be able to survive a year in prison. ■ IN ADVANCE of the Israel Prize awards ceremony, which is always the closing event of Independence Day, Israel Prize laureates Prof. Shimon Ullman of the Weizmann Institute's Department of Computer Science and Prof. Zelig Eshhar of the Weizmann Institute's Department of Immunology were feted by their colleagues on Sunday, April 19. Ullman was honored with the Israel Prize in Mathematics and Computer Science and Eshhar in Life Sciences. ■ NOT ONLY Arab municipalities in Israel are complaining about discrimination in the Interior Ministry's distribution of funds. The Druse community, whose men serve with distinction in the IDF and who in many cases have paid the supreme sacrifice, also suffers discrimination. Rafik Halabi, mayor of Daliat al-Carmel, is up in arms over the lack of funding. But unlike Arab mayors, he has great access to the media to air his complaints. Halabi is a former prize-winning radio and television journalist.
