Friends fall out over ‘fake’ Facebook entry

A man whose personal details were “laid bare” for all to see in fake entries on the Facebook social-networking website has launched an unprecedented High Court damages action.

Mathew Firsht, managing director of Applause Store Productions Ltd, is suing an old schoolfriend for libel and misuse of private information.

He claims that freelance cameraman Grant Raphael created false personal and group profiles, called “Has Mathew Firsht lied to you?”.

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JFS admissions policy backed by judge

A challenge to the admissions policy of the JFS Comprehensive School in Kenton, North West London, appears to have ended today after Mr Justice Munby ruled the policy to be "entirely lawful and proportionate to the aims and objectives of the school." Sitting in Cardiff, the judge said that Jewish status could only be defined by Jewish law, and was not something to be determined by the secular courts.

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Chinn sets out plan to aid London’s poor

Sir Trevor Chinn, the newly appointed chair of the Mayor’s Fund for London, says he plans to use his experience working in deprived areas of Israel to help transform London.

A Labour supporter and philanthropist, Sir Trevor, 72, was approached by the new Conservative mayor Boris Johnson to head the fund, which will tap private wealth to help tackle London’s social problems.

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You can’t be Hizbollah now: UK to ban support for group

Support for the armed wing of the Lebanese Hizbollah militia is to be barred under Britain’s anti-terrorism laws, the Home Office announced on Wednesday.

The group’s external security organisation was already included in the government’s list of outlawed terror groups, drawn up under legislation passed eight years ago. Now Hizbollah’s entire military structure is to be banned. This reflects UK anger that the organisation, which faced Israel in the second Lebanon war, also supports terrorism against British troops in Iraq.

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Apprentice star Sugar quits Amstrad

Sir Alan Sugar has stepped down as chairman of Amstrad, the electronics company he founded 40 years ago.

The 61-year-old star of BBC Ones’s Apprentice said the departure was a "planned move" following the company's acquisition by BSkyB last year.

But the self-made multi-millionaire is not retiring. He will continue to be involved with his other business interests, including Amshold, Amsprop, Amsair and Viglen computers.

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Sunshine, speeches and a salute to solidarity

The streets of central London and Manchester were awash with blue and white on Sunday as the community turned out in force to mark Israel’s 60th birthday.

Police did not formally issue crowd figures, but organisers claimed that up to 40,000 people turned out in London for a parade and Trafalgar Square rally, with more than 6,000 at the Manchester parade and party.

In London, unofficial police sources estimated that there were around 8,000 people in Trafalgar Square at any one time, and that 6,000 people joined the carnival parade.

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Hague tells Friends of Israel: I’m a Zionist

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague declared on Wednesday that he considers himself a Zionist.

In a question-and-answer session for the Conservative Friends of Israel annual business lunch, Mr Hague was asked by JC columnist Times journalist Danny Finkelstein if he thought of himself as a Zionist. He said: “I believe in the existence of Israel and in its safety and democracy, so yes, I am.”

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Parents ‘won’t pay’ to support Jewish studies

Too many parents are refusing to contribute to the cost of their children’s religious education, say governors in some Jewish day schools.

Although state-aided Jewish schools are mainly government-funded, it is common for them to request around £1,000 per child from parents annually to cover Jewish studies and security.

But Lee Glassar, a governor at the Michael Sobell Sinai Primary School in Kenton, North-West London, said “a significant number” decline to pay.

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JC’s anthrax hoaxer escapes jail

A man who sent a letter containing white powder to the JC’s offices escaped jail last week.

Ashraf Ali, 31, pleaded guilty last month to seven offences, five of them religiously aggravated.

Ali was given a nine-month sentence at Portsmouth Crown Court last Friday, but this was suspended for two years. He was also given a two-year supervision order.

The charges related to two offences of blackmail, four counts of racial or religiously aggravated harassment and one count of religiously aggravated intentional harassment.

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Kinder refugee recalls ‘awful’ swastika letter

An 83-year-old refugee from Nazi Germany spoke this week of the “hurt” of being the victim of a campaign of antisemitic and threatening letters. The material came from a Portsmouth postman  who has just received a four-year jail sentence.

In February 2005, Julius Klein, who came to Britain on the Kindertransport aged 14 in 1939, received an envelope containing a swastika-daubed paper. There were references to Adolf Hitler and the number 18, often associated with Hitler, whose initials are the first and eighth numbers of the alphabet.

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