A Labor MK has called for replacement of the special police team, investigating the murder of Peace Now activist Emi Grunzweig because it has produced no substantial clues to date. According to Yair Tzaban, the police have neglected possibly vital evidence and “the atmosphere surrounding the investigation is poor.”
Grunzweig, a 33-year-old teacher, was killed last February 10 by a hand grenade thrown at a group of Peace Now demonstrators outside the Prime Ministers Office.
The Cabinet, at the time, was debating the recommendations of the Kahan Commission which had found several ranking military officers and top government officials, notably then Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, indirectly responsible for the massacre of Palestinian civilians by Christian Phalangists in the Sabra and Shatila camps in west Beirut in September, 1982.
In a letter to Interior Minister Yosef Burg, who is in charge of the police, Tzaban urged that the Knesset committee which supervises the secret service be allowed to review the evidence compiled so far by the investigating team. He noted that in previous cases where investigations have led nowhere, the team was replaced. He suggested that a different group of investigators might come up with fresh ideas in pursuit of the facts.
Tzaban pointed out in his letter that an eyewitness, Peace Now activist Gad Sternbach, had reported that he saw a suspiciously-acting person near the demonstration when he left the scene shortly before the grenade attack. But he was never invited by the police investigators to identify suspects or to give further testimony, Tzaban said. Furthermore, the initial evidence given by Sternbach subsequently disappeared from the police files.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
