JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel approved a plan on Sunday to hold and deport thousands of illegal migrant workers whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “threat to the character of the country.”

In remarks to the cabinet, Netanyahu said thousands of migrants who have entered Israel mainly through Egypt in past years would be housed at a special holding facility, due to built in Israel’s southern Negev desert.

“We must stop the mass entry of illegal migrant workers because of the very serious threat to the character and future to the state of Israel,” he said, adding Israelis who gave them work would face severe fines to make their employment unviable.

Established as a Jewish state in 1948, Israel welcomes Jewish newcomers, most of whom receive automatic citizenship, but policies toward non-Jewish migrants are more restrictive.

The cabinet approved the plan under which the state would control the migrants’ movement until they are deported.

Netanyahu said however that migrants fleeing persecution would be allowed to stay.

“We do not intend to stop refugees fleeing for their lives, we allow them in and will continue to do so,” he said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A senior Israeli law enforcement officer has been accused of sexual harassment on the eve of the naming of a new national chief of police — a post for which he was one of the leading candidates.

Social worker Orly Ines has accused Uri Bar Lev, the Israeli police representative in the United States, of using force in an attempt to have an intimate encounter, according to local media.

Bar Lev has denied any wrongdoing. “I have not been summoned for an inquiry,” he told reporters on arriving home from the United States. “I have come of my own accord and you will see that I did not do anything wrong.”

A close friend of Bar Lev, himself a former police chief, said the incident occurred two years ago and had only surfaced now because of the imminent appointment.

“I was not surprised by attempts to block the appointment of Bar Lev. It is clear that it has all come in the run-up to the appointment and he is one of the candidates,” Assaf Hefetz told reporters.

Bar Lev was later confronted with further allegations of sexual misconduct involving drugs with other women. Media reports said he failed a lie-detector test.

Ines has separately levelled sexual harassment accusations against a senior official of the Internal Security ministry that oversees the police, who recently resigned.

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Benfica’s hopes of qualifying for the last 16 were ended by Hapoel Tel Aviv who secured their first ever Champions League win with a 3-0 victory over the Portuguese side on Wednesday.

Schalke 04′s 3-0 win over Olympique Lyon in the other Group B tie means Benfica cannot reach the knockout stage.

Hapoel coach Eli Guttman said it was an “evening of pride” for his club after they secured victory with two goals by Eran Zahavi and another from Douglas da Silva.

The hosts had far less possession but maintained their resolve and found the finishing touches which Benfica clearly lacked.

In answer to a question if before the match he thought Hapoel could beat Benfica 3-0, Guttman said: “Never … if you had told me this before the match I would say you are drunk, but football is football, everything is possible and we showed it today.”

He added that it was the players’ way to give their “wonderful crowd what they deserved to see.”

Zahavi made the breakthrough after 24 minutes when he headed in a free kick from playmaker Gil Vermouth.

TEL AVIV, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Benfica’s hopes of qualifying for the last 16 were ended by Hapoel Tel Aviv who secured their first ever Champions League win with a 3-0 victory over the Portuguese side on Wednesday.

Schalke’s 3-0 win over Olympique Lyon in the other Group B tie means Benfica cannot reach the knockout stage.

Goals by Eran Zahavi in the first half and Douglas da Silva and Zahavi in the second did the damage for the hosts who had far less possession but maintained their resolve and found the finishing touches which Benfica clearly lacked. Benfica dominated the second half but had nothing to show for their efforts.

Zahavi made the breakthrough after 24 minutes when he headed in a free kick from playmaker Gil Vermouth.

Da Silva doubled the lead in the 74th minute with a shot from close range following a Hapoel corner, their first of the match. Benfica, by contrast, had 20 corners.

Zahavi secured Hapoel’s first win in their debut season in the competition when he added his second goal in injury time after a swift counter attack.

Schalke top the group on 10 points with Lyon on nine. Benfica have six points with one match to play while Hapoel, on four points, retain a slim chance of finishing in third place if they beat Lyon next week in France and Benfica lose to Schalke.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – An influential Israeli opposition lawmaker lost his seat in parliament after an eight-year trial on Tuesday but he said he was determined to pursue efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.

Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior member of the centrist Kadima party but also a confidant of Likud prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was convicted of perjury in July.

An additional court ruling on Tuesday said this verdict amounted to “moral turpitude.” Under Israeli law, this meant that he automatically had to step down from public office.

Hanegbi was often seen as the man most likely to help Netanyahu create a broad government of national unity — a step that many political analysts believe is needed if Israel is going to strike a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Rumors about the creation of such a coalition often bubble up in the Israeli media and Hanegbi made clear on Tuesday that he would work to this effect, regardless of the court verdict.

“The court ruling does not change my belief that a supreme effort must be made to form a unity government,” he said.

“I am certain that it is not only vital, it is possible. The differences … can be bridged … The call of the hour is to form broad national consensus,” he told reporters after the court ruling was released.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Shin Bet undercover agents have abused Palestinians during questioning at a detention center, some detainees have alleged in a report published on Tuesday by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

The report was based on the testimonies of 121 Palestinians held in 2009 at the Petah Tikva holding facility near Tel Aviv, with 9 percent of those interviewed accusing interrogators of using physical violence against them.

“The violations include cruel detention conditions in sealed cells, in isolation and disgraceful hygienic conditions, continuous cuffing … sleep deprivation, and other methods that harm the detainees physically and mentally,” the report said.

Shin Bet is Israel’s domestic intelligence agency tasked with safeguarding state security, protecting key Israeli installations and spearheading counter-terrorism operations.

The Israeli Justice Ministry said the B’Tselem report had made “generalized assumptions … without basis except for anonymous general statements that are not backed up with detailed data that can be confirmed or ruled out.”

B’Tselem, that looks out for abuses against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied West Bank, also said Palestinians had lodged hundreds of complaints against undercover interrogators, but that none had culminated in a criminal investigation.

“Since 2001, Palestinians interrogated by (Israeli security) agents have filed 645 complaints to the Ministry of Justice regarding the manner in which they were interrogated. Not one of the complaints led to a criminal investigation against the interrogator,” the report summary said.

By Ori Lewis and Naama Shilony

TEL AVIV (Reuters Life!) – An Israeli orchestra will strike an emotional chord in Germany next year when it plays a work by Richard Wagner, Hitler’s favorite composer, further challenging a long-standing taboo in Israel on his music.

Israeli ensembles hardly ever play Wagner, citing the feelings of Holocaust survivors.

But with the passage of time and the dwindling numbers of elderly survivors, vehement opposition in the Jewish state to the works of the anti-Semitic 19th-century composer is fading, Israel Chamber Orchestra (ICO) chairwoman Erela Talmi said.

“I think that the atmosphere has changed and that those people who were at the concentration camps are either weaker or no longer with us, and those who voiced their opinion are only a few and it is hard for them to (be heard now),” she said.

The ICO is to perform in July on the fringes of the annual Beyreuth festival in Germany that celebrates Wagner’s operas.

It will play Wagner’s Siegfrid Idyll, an orchestral piece, as well as a work by Israeli composer Zvi Avni and music by German-born Felix Mendelssohn and Austrian-born Gustav Mahler, two of the most prominent among Jewish-born composers.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A planned Israeli-Palestinian summit due to be held in Paris by the end of the month has been rescheduled, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Saturday, a sign of increased strain over stalled peace talks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to meet before the end of October, although an exact date for the summit had not been set.

“Following joint consultations it has been agreed to set a new date for the preparatory meeting,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said, adding there was no chance of holding it on Oct 21, which was previously thought to be possible.

“We are looking for a new date that works for everybody, although there is nothing firm scheduled yet,” an Israeli government official told Reuters.

The talks were intended to prepare for a summit in late November of leaders from European and Mediterranean countries including Middle East players, Sarkozy said when he announced his invitation at the end of September.

It would have been a first face-to-face meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas since the two restarted direct peace talks backed by the United States in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on Sept 2 — talks that have since reached a standstill.

The Palestinians called off the direct talks when a 10-month Israeli freeze on new home building in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank expired at the end of September.

TEL AVIV, Oct 9 (Reuters) – Two first-half goals by Niko Kranjcar fired Croatia to a 2-1 win over Israel and put them top of Group F in Euro 2012 qualifying on Saturday.

Kranjcar scored from the penalty spot in the 36th minute and added his second four minutes before the break with an excellent low shot.

Etay Shechter pulled a goal back for the hosts nine minutes from time to set up a tense finale but Croatia held firm despite late pressure.

Croatia have seven points from three games with Georgia and Greece on five. Israel have four followed by Latvia (3) and Malta (0).

The Croatians had to contend with a new-look Israel side that included a number of young players and missing captain and mainstay Yossi Benayoun, who has was ruled out through injury.

Shechter tested Croatia goalkeeper Vedran Runje with an early strike but the hosts had a let off when Ivan Rakatic struck the post with a powerful strike from 25 metres.

Croatia looked the more dangerous side as the teams began to settle down but the Israelis recovered their composure and found a way through the visitors’ defences a number of times, although they could not find a way past Runje in goal.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) – Olympics chief Jacques Rogge on Wednesday called for Israel to give more help to Palestinian athletes in his “message of peace” during a major tour of the region.

“Please make the life of the Palestinian athletes easier… that is definitely the main message that I will convey later this afternoon and tomorrow,” the International Olympics Committee (IOC) President told Reuters in an interview.

Rogge told his Palestinian hosts he would ask Israel to ease travel restrictions for Palestinian athletes and to facilitate a greater flow of sporting goods and equipment into the Palestinian territories.

Rogge said he planned to invite the heads of the Israeli and Palestinian committees to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland shortly to discuss co-operation between the two bodies.

“The message will be peace, make it more easy,” he said.

In the last few years, Palestinian soccer players were denied freedom to travel by the Israeli authorities — mainly out of the Gaza Strip — to join the national team for World Cup qualifiers and international friendlies.

Additionally, Palestinian athletes had difficulties with travel for training prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.