Tzvika Shapira, director of Israel Educational Television, has canceled a scheduled interview with Nobel Literature Prize laureate Jose Saramago. The Portugese prize-winner yesterday visited Ramallah and said there, \"The presence of the IDF in the territories is reminiscent of the work methods used in concentration camps like Auschwitz.\" Tzvika Shapira explained his decision: \"This was a vulgar, inhumane, and insensitive statement to a large public of Holocaust survivors. Every Jew carries with him the collective memory of the horrors of the Holocaust… It is not a question of opinions. This was a monstrous declaration that concerns every Israeli and Jew. Holocaust Remembrance Day is approaching, and he compares us to Auschwitz?!\"
Channel Two television neglected last night to even mention the murder and burial of Avi Sabag, 24, of Otniel. He was murdered in a drive-by terrorist shooting late Sunday night on his way home to his Southern Hevron Hills yishuv. The Yesha Council is up in arms at the event, saying that it proves Channel Two\'s lack of sensitivity and its \"apathy to the murder of residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.\" Council spokesman Yehoshua Mor-Yosef says that Channel Two found time to report extensively on the visit of pro-PA writers in Ramallah and the Oscar ceremonies, and he demands that it correct its mistake. Channel Two responded this morning that an item on the murder had been prepared, but was not broadcast because of the length of the Prime Minister\'s speech.