Israelis were shocked today by the attempted mass sabotage of Arab-owned buses in East Jerusalem by what apparently is a well organized gang of Jewish extremists based in the occupied territories.
The attempt was foiled early Friday morning when police sappers safely dismantled time bombs planted in six buses only hours before they were to begin operating on a route from the center of East Jerusalem to the Arab village of Kalandiya on the northern outskirts of the city.
As of noon today, at least 30 suspects had been rounded up and remanded in custody for 15 days by district court judges all over the country. Under the law, none could be immediately identified. But information filtering to the media indicated that most were residents of the West Bank and Golan Heights and the rest of Israel proper.
The Voice of Israel Radio said today that one of the suspects is a Gush Emunin leader arrested this morning in the West Bank settlement of Ofra.
CABINET CONDEMNS SABOTAGE ATTEMPT
The Cabinet, at its weekly meeting today, roundly condemned the sabotage attempt and had high praise for the security authorities. Premier Yitzhak Shamir denounced the perpetrators. He said the security forces had prevented a “disaster” that might have resulted in the murder of dozens of people and done immense damage to Israel.
Deputy Premier David Levy told reporters after the Cabinet session that “every expression of violence must be strongly condemned.”
Yediot Achronot reported today that the suspects included residents of about 10 settlements on the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as Jerusalem and settlements inside Israel. One of them is a resident of Kiryat Arab, the Gush Emunim stronghold overlooking Hebron.
According to the newspaper he is the father of five children and is expecting a sixth child. Another suspect, Yediot Achronot said, is a veteran settler of Kibbutz Ramat Magshimim on the Golan Heights, and a third is a career army officer.
The newspaper Davar reported today that several of the suspects are veteran members of Gush Emunim, religious activists who pursue mass Jewish settlement of the West Bank on grounds that the territory is part of Israel’s Biblical heritage. A number of the suspects were prominent in the resistance against Israel’s evacuation of Sinai in 1982, Davar said.
According to Davar, the suspects also include relatives of Rabbi Moshe Levinger, the Gush Emunim leader in Kiryat Arba and Hebron. Levinger himself condemned the sabotage attempt.
Jewish settlers on the West Bank generally seemed to have been taken by surprise when news of the sabotage attempt broke late Friday afternoon. Most were already observing the Sabbath and received the reports by word-of-mouth after it was broadcast on Jordanian television and news media abroad.
The initial reaction in the territories was shock. Yoel Bin-Nunn, a settlers’ leader, was quoted as saying, “Those who planted bombs in Arab buses also planted bombs underneath the entire Jewish settlement (movement) of Judaea and Samaria.”
But by the end of the Sabbath, the early expressions of shock turned to disbelief and later to charges of scopegoating. Kiryat Araba residents demanded today that the authorities lift the news blackout on the investigation. The community expressed anger over the “mass arrests” and claimed the authorities were “smearing” the settlement movement. Members of several West Bank settlements began arranging for legal counsel for the suspects.
The Labor Party issued a statement today demanding that the authorities undertake a major effort to root out Jewish vigilantism. The party commended the security services for their prompt action but wamed that they have not yet exposed “all the dimensions of this dangerous organization.”
TRAINED UNDERGROUND MOVEMENT INDICATED
The Israeli media was unanimous today in the belief that the large number of suspects from the territories indicated that the attempted sabotage was the work of a well trained underground movement centered in the settlements.
The security authorities were reported to be investigating a link between this group and the Jewish extremists, still not apprehended, who were responsible for the bombings that maimed two Arab mayors four years ago, the attack on students at the Islamic College in Hebron last year and other similar acts of violence against Arabs.
There was also virtually unanimous agreement that had the sabotage gone undetected, scores, maybe hundreds of people would have been killed or injured.
Details released by the authorities indicated that the security agencies may have acted on inside information, possibly from an informant within the underground gang. Haaretz reported that the security forces were alerted by an agent who was involved in the sabotage operation but there was no confirmation of this. Police said the arrests were the result of two years of intensive investigation.
EXPLOSIONS INTENDED TO COINCIDE WITH RUSH HOUR
The targeted buses are owned by the Joulani family of East Jerusalem. They were parked outside the homes of their drivers. Early Friday morning the drivers were awakened by police sappers who came to inspect the buses.
In six of the vehicles they found bombs, each weighing about four kilos, timed to explode Friday afternoon. The explosions were apparently timed to coincide with the rush hour when Arabs would be returning home to celebrate Isra Wal Meeraj, a Moslem holiday marking the ascent to heaven of the Prophet Mohammed.
Police noted that the buses carrying the bombs would have been passing through densely populated neighborhoods of Arab East Jerusalem and the explosions might have killed not only passengers but hundreds of people in the streets.
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.
