Pardon of Two Underground Members Raises Hopes Others Will Be Freed

President Chaim Herzog’s pardon of two Israelis serving prison terms for their role in attacks on Arab civilians in the West Bank has raised hopes in right-wing and religious circles that the five members of a Jewish terrorist underground still in prison also will be freed shortly.

Herzog, acting on recommendations of Justice Minister Avraham Sharir, a member of Likud’s Liberal wing, pardoned Yitzhak Ganiram and Ira Rappaport Friday, on the eve of Passover. Ganiram, sentenced in 1985 to seven years in prison, got the news at his home in Moshav Ramat Magshimim in the Golan Heights. He had been furloughed to attend the Passover seder.

Rappaport, a social worker and father of six, was serving a 30-month sentence for membership in a terrorist organization and his involvement in a car-bombing that crippled former Nablus Mayor Bassam Shaka. His sentence was relatively light, because he was in the United States at the time the underground members were put on trial and returned to Israel voluntarily to give himself up.

Altogether 28 Israelis, most of them Orthodox Jews residing in the West Bank, were convicted of terrorist acts from 1980 to 1984. All but five have either completed their sentences or were granted clemency.

The five remaining in prison are Menachem Levy, Chaim Nir and Uzi Sharraf, all convicted of murder and serving life sentences; Yehuda Etzion, sentenced to seven years; and Barak Nir, sentenced to six years.

Sharir has said he would recommend presidential pardons for them, possibly on the anniversary of the 40th year of Israel’s independence, to be celebrated later this month. The justice minister stressed, however, that the president has sole authority under law to grant pardons.

The President’s Office denied rumors of impending pardons for the five, which Israeli newspapers reported Sunday. “No decision has been made regarding any release. I assure you all the reports are groundless,” a presidential spokesman said Sunday.