A magistrate court judge today rejected a request by police authorities that Rabbi Meir Kahane be detained for three days and instead ordered that the leader of the ultranationalist Kach be released on 25,000 Shekel bail. The judge also ordered Kahane to surrender his passport to police authorities to prevent his fleeing the country.
Kahane was arrested last Thursday when he held a demonstration with a small group of his followers to express solidarity with an extremist Jewish group calling itself ‘Terror Against Terror” which has claimed responsibility for a recent series of attack against Moslem and Christian sites.
However, Kahane managed to escape from the “police and spent the weekend in hiding. He turned himself in to the authorities after having written a letter to Jerusalem’s police chief, saying that under the circumstances he first had to contact the media.
While publicly claiming that he did not know who was responsible for the attacks on the religious sites, Kahane has supported the actions of “Terror Against Terror.” He said today that just as anti-war groups had the right to demonstrate against the Lebanon war, he had the right to demonstrate for his beliefs.
CHRISTIAN CHAPEL TORCHED
Shortly after Kahane escaped from police custody Thursday, a Christian chapel in Jerusalem was torched by unidentified arsonists. But police maintain that it was unlikely that Kahane or any Jewish terrorist group were involved. It is believed to have been carried out by some anti-missionary group which opposes the efforts of the organization which owns the chapel and which believes in attracting Jews to the church but without asking them to convert.
Mayor Teddy Kollek condemned the arson and expressed astonishment that rabbinical leaders did not see fit to joint his condemnation. In Europe, he said, bishops would have condemned a similar attack on a synagogue. Kollek, who has publicly objected to missionary activity, said that even if the chapel did house a congregation of missionaries, that was no excuse for violence.
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.
