Holocaust Survivor Arrested After Alleged Threats

In the first action of its kind since eruption of the Persian Gulf War, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office filed a two-count felony complaint Tuesday against a Jewish Holocaust survivor, charging him with making terrorist threats against the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

The charges against Kurt Haber, 60, a Beverly Hills construction engineer, carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison. Haber, free on $10,000 bond, is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 15 in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner had vowed to crack down on any threats related to the Gulf War.

The complaint alleges that in the first of two closely timed telephone calls Jan. 17, the night Iraqi missiles first struck Tel Aviv, Haber told Nazih Bayda, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee:

“You . . . , you just bombed my city with chemical weapons. We are going to bomb your place tonight. My brother is there and might be dead.”

In fact, chemical weapons were not used in the attack and Haber’s brother was unhurt.

Haber has said that he was beaten by Nazi youths while growing up in Germany and had relatives who perished in concentration camps.

Police traced the calls and Haber was arrested that same night at his home.

Haber has admitted in telephone interviews with The Times that he made a threatening call, but maintained that he had been overcome at the time by an emotional reaction to the Iraqi attack. “All I wanted to do was scare him (Bayda),” he said.

Bayda has said that he reported the threats to police. He said that his predecessor with the American-Arab committee, Alex Odeh, was murdered in 1985 and that no one has been apprehended in the crime.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Reiner, likened Haber’s call to someone who steps on an airliner and says he has a bomb in his briefcase. “It’s a crime, and it’s not to be taken lightly,” she said.

Gibbons noted that shortly before the war began, Reiner met with leaders from the Arab and Jewish communities and said he would vigorously enforce state laws on hate crimes.

“It is important to understand that the war is in the Middle East, not with our neighbors,” Reiner said at a news conference following the meeting. He said local authorities had little hope about stopping terrorists with such a warning, but hoped to stop “ordinary citizens (who) may get out of (emotional) control.”

Reiner was unavailable for comment on the Haber charges, but Gibbons said they fit the kind of threat that he hopes to discourage.