Court-Martial Ruled Out for Israeli General

An Israeli army general, under fire in the beating deaths of two Arabs who hijacked a bus, will not be court-martialed but will face charges before a milder disciplinary court, the Israeli army announced Wednesday.

The word came after Israel’s chief rabbi said the army would violate Jewish law if it took action against Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai.

“Let not a hair on the head of a savior of Israel be harmed,” Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu declared.

A state inquiry said last week that Mordechai, commander of the Infantry and Paratroop Corps, and eight security agents beat the hijackers to death in the April, 1984, incident.

The bus, with about 30 passengers aboard, was on a regular evening run from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon when it was hijacked by four armed Arabs. Some passengers escaped to alert security forces, which stopped the bus near the Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

After several hours of unsuccessful negotiations with the hijackers, Israeli army commandos stormed the bus just before dawn, freeing 24 hostages. Two of the hijackers and an Israeli woman soldier, a passenger on the bus, were killed in the fighting.

The two other hijackers were beaten while being interrogated about the presence of explosives on the bus. Military engineers reported finding three explosive devices, an armor-piercing grenade and two pipe bombs on the bus.

The army prosecutor, deciding to bring Mordechai before a disciplinary court on charges of violence, ruled out a military tribunal with its stiffer punishments because of the incident’s “special circumstances,” an army spokesman said.

The state inquiry said that it could not determine who struck the fatal blows but that Mordechai was not responsible for the deaths.

Israeli Atty. Gen. Yitzhak Zamir recommended Tuesday that the army try Mordechai on charges of causing grievous bodily harm and of behavior unbecoming an officer.

In a speech, Rabbi Eliahu said, “According to Jewish ritual law . . . one cannot try a person who misjudged or even committed a criminal act in the course of performing a good deed or a rescue.”