Sheffy Gabai, the eminent Arab affairs correspondent of Maariv, reported Thursday that the number of young Arabs in the administered territories who are adopting Khomeini’s doctrine is growing year to year.
They are organized in cells throughout the territories and occasionally try to intimidate other Moslem believers, Gabai says, quoting a Moslem cleric in East Jerusalem following the recent capture of a terrorist squad that planned to plant a car-bomb in Jerusalem.
According to the cleric, the young Khomeini followers in the territories are heavily financed by the Iranian leadership, which wants to set up a Khomeinist core in both Jordan and the territories.
It is known that Hizbullah leaders in Lebanon have received permission from Iran to cooperate with Fatah in perpetrating terrorist attacks in Israel and in kidnapping foreigners under the rubric of “Al-Jihad Al-Islami for the Liberation of Palestine.”
It was under this name that two recently apprehended terrorist squads operated in Israel: the car-bomb squad and the squad that carried out the Dung Gate attack late last year, the Maariv reporter said.
The newly-recruited Khomeinists are often past members of Islamic movements which operate freely in the territories and do not rule out the use of firearms in the belief that only in this way can the Islamic revolution in the region be fomented.
The majority of the Moslems in Israel and the territories belong to moderate trends and reject the attempts of the Khomeinists to impose their will.
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.
