Tel-Aviv District Court Enters Judgment in Ampal's MIRS Litigation Against Former Senior

20 March 2005

Ampal-American Israel Corporation (Nasdaq:AMPL - News) announced today that the Tel-Aviv District Court, as part of Ampal's ongoing litigation with respect to Mirs Communications Ltd. ("Mirs"), has entered a judgment against Peter Broome, a former senior executive within Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT - News) and a former member of the Board of Directors of Mirs.
The District Court's ruling is part of a larger lawsuit filed on May 10, 2004 by Ampal Communications L.P., an affiliate of Ampal, against Motorola Communications Israel Ltd. and Motorola Israel Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola Inc, and individual directors of Mirs -- Elisha Yanai, Rami Guzman, Nathan Gidron and Shimon Tal, including, Mr. Broome, for injunctive and declaratory relief in connection with the alleged exploitation by the defendants of Ampal Communications L.P.'s minority rights in Mirs.

The judgment against Mr. Broome grants Ampal Communications L.P. part of the relief it was seeking in its litigation. Among other things, the relief includes an obligation to acquire and purchase from Ampal Communications L.P. the shares it holds in Mirs for a total company valuation of 765,998,000 USD which is the highest of the prices set forth in the complaint. The litigation with regard to the other defendants is ongoing.

Ampal Communications L.P. is a limited partnership which holds 33% in Mirs. Ampal American-Israel Corporation holds 75% of Ampal Communications L.P.

Mirs is a wireless communications service provider that operates fully integrated wireless voice and data communication services, digital and analog public-shared two-way radio systems. The wireless communication network is based on iDEN(TM); integrated wireless communication technology, a unique radio technology developed by Motorola, and provides an integrated service platform of cellular, two-way radio and wireless data services. These services are targeted primarily to commercial customers.

Ampal and its subsidiaries primarily acquire interests in businesses located in the State of Israel or that are Israel-related. Ampal has diversified interests in the following sectors: telecommunication, real estate, capital markets, leisure-time, high technology and other. For more information about Ampal please visit our web site at www.ampal.com.

Certain information in this press release includes forward-looking statements (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) and information relating to the Company that are based on the beliefs of management of the Company as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the management of the Company. When used in this press release, the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," and similar expressions as they relate to the Company or the management of the Company, identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events or future financial performance of the Company, the outcome of which is subject to certain risks and other factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements, including among others, the economic and political conditions in Israel, the Middle East, including the situation in Iraq, and the global business and economic conditions in the different sectors and markets where the Company's portfolio companies operate. Should any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or outcome may vary from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned. Subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements in this paragraph. Please refer to the Company's annual, quarterly and periodic reports on file with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of these and other risks that could cause results to differ materially.

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Contact:
Ampal-American Israel Corporation
Irit Eluz, 866-447-8636
CFO - SVP finance & Treasurer
irit@ampal.com
or
Kwan Communications
Zvi Rabin, 011 972 50 600140
zvi@kwan.co.il

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Source: Ampal-American Israel Corporation