Sunday, May 19, 2002

Israel Arrests Settlers it Says Tried to Bomb Palestinians
Israel's internal security agency, which usually searches for Palestinians deemed to be terrorists, now says it has uncovered a suspected Jewish network that apparently planned to bomb two or more Palestinian schools.

The tale, which has emerged this week as courts lifted publication bans, began late in April when police officers on routine patrol here witnessed the startling sight of two Jewish settlers in an Arab neighborhood on the Mount of Olives at 3 a.m.

So far, six people have been taken into custody, including two of the best-known voices of the religious far right: Noam Federman, a leader of the outlawed Kach movement of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, and Menashe Levenger, son of Rabbi Moshe Levenger, a founder of the Jewish settlement in Hebron. Two of the six arrested have already admitted involvement in a plot to bomb the girls' school, according to their lawyer.

"It was a miracle a terror attack was prevented next to the school," Judge Reuven Shmiya of Jerusalem Magistrate's Court said in lifting the publication ban on news of the arrests of Mr. Federman and Mr. Levinger as suspects. "There is no doubt that had the bombing taken place it would have caused great damage to the security of the state."

The police also suspect — because of the similar methods and the use of army-issue explosives — that the same group might have been involved in an attempted bomb attack on an Arab boys' school in East Jerusalem six weeks ago. A teacher noticed the bomb, hidden near a tree, and the students were evacuated before it went off.

The Shin Bet chief, Avi Dichter, has been warning of the potential danger of a Jewish underground movement similar to a group whose members were arrested in the mid-1980's and were said by the police to have been planning to bomb buses and blow up the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites in Islam.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/19/international/middleeast/19BOMB.html

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