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Israel Convicts 15 in Terrorism Against Arabs

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Times Staff Writer

Three Jewish settlers on the West Bank were convicted of murder by an Israeli court Wednesday, and 12 others were found guilty of lesser terrorist offenses against Arabs, after a 13-month trial that was one of the most politically divisive in the modern state’s 37-year history.

The case was seen here as a major test of the Israeli legal system, since it involved defendants with powerful political backing and whose actions were met with widespread understanding, if not support, from a large segment of the Jewish population.

‘Equality Before the Law’

“This trial, first of all, is a demonstration of equality before the law,” retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Chaim Cohen said. “It shows that the prosecution recognizes no difference between Jewish and Arab terrorism as far as the process of law is concerned.”

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However, he added, “the impact may get deprecated if there will be, for example, wholesale pardons or remissions.”

Supporters of the defendants are expected to press for their early release, after having previously tried to have charges against them dropped.

Support for dropping the charges increased in May after Israel freed 1,150 terrorists, most of them Arabs, in exchange for three Israeli prisoners from the Lebanon war.

Among those defending the now-convicted terrorists was Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, leader of the rightist Likud bloc and partner in Israel’s coalition government.

“There’s no connection, heaven forbid, between boys who erred but who are basically excellent boys who’ve done much for the nation and, on the other hand, terrorists, enemies, murderers,” Shamir said at the time. A few days later he called release of the defendants “a national imperative.”

Neither Shamir nor Prime Minister Shimon Peres had any immediate comment on Wednesday’s verdicts.

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The 15 defendants were charged as part of a “Jewish Underground” responsible for a series of terrorist acts--beginning with the June, 1980, planting of bombs in cars that maimed two West Bank Arab mayors and blinded an Israeli policeman, and ending with the foiled April, 1984, plot to blow up five Arab buses in East Jerusalem during rush hour.

A three-judge Jerusalem tribunal Wednesday convicted nine of the Jewish defendants for conspiring to blow up the Dome of the Rock on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount--an act against one of the most sacred shrines of Islam.

The murder charges stemmed from a July, 1983, automatic-rifle and hand-grenade attack at the Islamic College in Hebron, in which three Arab students were killed and 33 wounded.

The other defendants were found guilty of assorted charges, ranging from membership in a terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, to causing grievous bodily harm, which is punishable by terms as long as 20 years.

Sentencing Delayed

The court postponed sentencing of the 15 until at least next week, although in the case of the three men convicted of murder, a life term is mandatory under Israeli law.

Prisoners are typically paroled here after serving two-thirds of their terms. According to retired Justice Cohen, who served 10 years as attorney general and 21 on the Supreme Court, no murderer has ever served out a life sentence in Israel.

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The accepted practice, Cohen continued, is that a person sentenced to life imprisonment applies to have his sentenced reviewed by Israel’s president after seven years. Typically, the president replaces the life term with a fixed sentence, from which the prisoner is eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of the assigned time.

In the case of the Jewish Underground, however, “I can promise you it won’t go according to normal practice,” Cohen said. “The pressure will start at once. There’s no doubt about it. The only question is whether the president will succeed in withstanding the pressure.”

Ten other members of the Jewish Underground had previously been sentenced under plea-bargaining arrangements to terms ranging from 15 months to 10 years. Two of those have already been released after serving part of their time, and a third is due to be freed later this month.

Two Israeli army officers are still to be tried separately, and two suspects remain at large, including one who fled to the United States.

Controversial Case

The Jewish Underground case has been controversial since police uncovered the group while foiling the plot to bomb Arab buses 15 months ago.

The conspirators were highly educated family men, most of them religious. Four served in the national leadership of Gush Emunim (Faith Bloc) West Bank nationalist movement, and others were veterans of elite Israeli army units. One is the son-in-law of a member of Parliament, another the son-in-law of a popular and influential rabbi.

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The 25 civilian underground members have 125 children among them--many of whom were present in the crowded but quiet East Jerusalem courtroom Wednesday when Judge Yaakov Bazak began reading the verdicts.

The reputed leader of the group, Menachem Livni, 35, is a lieutenant colonel in the army reserves and the father of seven. “He’s a real patriot,” his lawyer, David Rotem, said.

Livni was one of the three men convicted of murder. The two others were Shaul Nir, 31, and Uzi Sharbaf, 25.

Among those testifying as character witnesses on their behalf were a former adviser on terrorism to the prime minister and a former head of the Israeli military administration on the West Bank.

Self-Defense Claimed

The defendants argued that they had acted in self-defense after the Israeli government had failed to respond forcefully enough against Arab terrorist attacks against Jews. The bomb attacks against West Bank mayors and the commando-style raid on the Islamic College, for example, both followed the murders of Jewish students.

The court, however, refused to consider that as a line of defense.

Few of the Jewish Underground defendants expressed remorse for their actions. One said in court that he was “privileged” to have participated in the attack on the Arab mayors.

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“They believe in what they did,” prosecuting attorney Uzi Hasson said in an interview. “They are very fanatic, and this is the danger.”

After hearing himself convicted of membership in a terrorist organization, illegal possession of arms and causing grevious bodily harm in the car-bomb attacks on the West Bank Arab mayors, Yitzhak Novik, 37, said: “Personally, I’m disappointed about the decision categorizing me as a terrorist, especially since what I did, I felt I did in order to protect my family and my neighbors.

“Looking back, it’s proven that what I set out to do was successful, in that for two years after what I did, there were almost no terrorist incidents--at least, no grave terrorist incidents--on the West Bank.”

‘No Alternative’

Aviva Segal’s son, Hagai, 28, was convicted on the same charges as Novik. “I’m sure in the end that the whole country and the whole world will realize that they had no alternative but to do what they did,” he said. “Actually, I’m very proud of my son because he wanted to help our people.”

Soon after the Jewish Underground members were indicted last year, 60 rabbis signed a petition for their release. And last fall, a group of members of Parliament lobbied on their behalf.

Their treatment in captivity became an issue earlier this year when it was disclosed that a police guard escorting them between the Jerusalem courthouse and their coastal jail had stopped so they could swim in the sea. The incident only came to light because one of the defendants almost drowned. The police guard was fired, but he was quickly offered another job by a sympathetic Israeli mayor.

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According to a poll published in the independent newspaper Haaretz late last month, 52.6% of Israelis favor granting a pardon to the Jewish Underground and 4% favor clemency; 35.5% oppose pardons and 7.9% have no opinion.

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