JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Updated 07/02/09 @ 01:18PM EDT

• A Palestinian mufti said Muslim law forbids hugging and kissing anyone who may have been exposed to swine flu, as West Bank cases continue to rise.
• The Israeli military and Palestinian gunmen traded fire on the Gaza border.
• Hillary Rodham Clinton met with the Palestinian Authority prime minister in an effort to advance peace talks with Israel.
• Stopping natural growth inside settlements would be prejudging final-status talks, said a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• A U.S. congressional delegation pressed the Lithuanian government to address the issue of restitution for property looted from Nazi and Communist eras.

• Holy books and Torah scrolls were defaced and burned at a yeshiva located at the site of the evacuated Homesh settlement.
• The Israeli army's top rabbi spurred calls for his dismissal after he said women should not serve in the military.
• Amnesty International was manipulated by Hamas in its report that accused Israel of committing war crimes during its Gaza military operation, the Israeli army said.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Israel to stop expanding settlements in the West Bank to pave the way for a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
• A group of youths in Moldova assaulted an elderly rabbi while screaming anti-Semitic abuse, according to a Russian Jewish news site.

• A Dresden politician was fined for playing loud klezmer music outside City Hall to disturb a neo-Nazi march.
• A "drought tax" scheduled to go into effect in Israel to force households to conserve water was postponed.
• A police chief who has fought against right-wing extremism in his former East German state was honored by the Jewish community.
• Kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was made an honorary citizen of the Italian capital.
• A new survey finds that a majority of immigrants from the former Soviet Union prefer life in Israel.

• Arson is suspected in most of some two dozen forest fires that broke out in northern Israeli forests, according to reports.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of Israel's great appreciation for the United States at an event marking the Fourth of July.
• Top officials from the United States and Israel established an emergency management work group.
• Israeli officials will meet with Falash Mura in Ethiopia to check their eligibility for aliyah.
• A Colorado newspaper editor apologized for an article featuring a description of a burglary suspect that some deemed anti-Semitic.

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