FIRST OFF . . .

Fresh from being banned last weekend in Bombay--and everywhere else in India--”The Last Temptation of Christ” has now been outlawed in Israel. A government censorship board decided late Monday that the public showing of the controversial Martin Scorsese film would violate Israeli law against offending religious persons. But Israeli distributors and cineastes are vowing to fight the board’s decision--to the Israeli High Court of Justice if necessary. “In the whole world it was permitted,” groused Barak Levy, spokesman for the film’s Israeli distributors, Golan-Globus Studios. “Even in Italy where the Pope sits, it was allowed to be screened. But in Israel it was banned.” Countered board chairman Joshua Justman: “What is in the film deals with the very fundamental tenets of the Christian faith. This is no small matter.”