Israeli Labor Party Campaigner Shot

With nerves still raw from the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin six months ago, Israeli leaders reacted sharply after a Labor Party campaign worker was shot Wednesday, allegedly by an employee of the opposition Likud Party.

The head of the Central Elections Committee, who oversees campaign conduct, appealed to Israelis to refrain from political violence following the shooting in the coastal town of Herzliya.

Labor and Likud leaders quickly condemned the incident.

“That it is still possible in Israel to use a gun to obtain political objectives is very serious,” said Shimon Sheves, one of the leaders of Labor’s campaign.

Likud spokesmen quickly tried to distance the party from the attack, saying the suspected gunman, who is under arrest, is not a party regular but simply had been hired to put up posters.

Nonetheless, Likud leaders said they fear the shooting, coming two weeks before national elections, could harm them at the polls. Prime Minister Shimon Peres of the Labor Party currently leads Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud by about 5 percentage points in the race for prime minister.

The shooting occurred before dawn Wednesday. Labor Party workers were hanging posters when Likud workers reportedly drove up and told them to stop infringing on their territory. When the Labor activists refused, one of the Likud workers allegedly pulled out a gun and fired.

The victim, Russian immigrant Artur Yarusky, was shot twice in the leg. Police said the alleged gunman drove a car rented by the Likud election headquarters.

“It was very sudden,” Alezander Borzanski, who was with Yarusky, said on Israeli radio. “It is horrible that a Jew should shoot another Jew just for having a different perspective.”

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Intentionally or not, his words recalled the reaction of most Israelis when Jewish law student Yigal Amir murdered Rabin on Nov. 4 over the prime minister’s peace accord with Palestinians.

After the assassination, Rabin’s widow, Leah, accused Netanyahu of having fostered a climate of hatred that led to the murder--a charge he vehemently denied.

There have been plenty of clashes and turf battles between teenage campaigners. Even adults have been seen defacing and ripping down the posters of rival candidates. But in general, the assassination has cast a long shadow over the race, subduing the rhetoric and tone. In addition, Peres and Netanyahu have had security unprecedented by Israeli standards.

After Wednesday’s shooting, the Central Elections Committee was called into special session at the request of the Labor Party.

“Just the suspicion that an individual was shot due to his party activity during an election campaign is enough to send a warning signal,” the committee’s chairman, Supreme Court Judge Theodore Orr, said in a statement. “We are witnesses to a serious deterioration which all of us must disavow and act to stop.”