While mainstream Jewish groups expressed their satisfaction with the maximum sentence imposed Wednesday on the man acquitted of killing Rabbi Meir Kahane, the extremist followers of the late Jewish Defense League founder are as furious as ever.
El Sayyid Nosair was convicted Dec. 21 of shooting two men and commandeering a taxi on Nov. 5, 1990, following Kahane’s assassination.
But the jury acquitted him of firing the shots that killed the rabbi, a verdict that left legal experts puzzled and that presiding Judge Alvin Schlesinger described as “against the weight of what I consider the overwhelming evidence.”
Saying that Nosair “brought to our streets a wave of terror,” the judge sentenced the Egyptian-born American citizen to 71/3 to 22 years in prison. Including time already served, this would make him eligible for parole in early 1998.
While mainstream Jewish organizations could not fault the sentencing court, they were clearly not ready to accept as final Nosair’s acquittal on the charge of murdering Kahane.
The Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York plan to press their determination to have the U.S. Justice Department investigate the possibility of filing civil rights charges against Nosair.
Meanwhile, the fractious followers of Kahane say they will mete out what they described, in a noisy protest in front of Manhattan’s Supreme Court, as the “Torah justice” of an eye for an eye.
Rabbi Binyamin Ze’ev Kahane, son of the former Knesset member and head of one of the groups competing for his father’s mantle, has made explicit death threats to Nosair, while representatives of other groups have been only slightly more coy.
KAHANE SUPPORTER REMOVED FROM COURT
Supporters of Nosair say he was the victim of an injustice. An active Moslem who, according to his attorneys, has converted 30 fellow inmates at Rikers Island prison to the faith, Nosair maintained his innocence in a presentencing statement.
Nosair, who did not take the stand in his own defense, enraged Kahane followers in the gallery when he expressed condolences to those wounded that night and to their families, including the family of the slain rabbi.
“Death to Nosair! Death to Arab dogs!” shouted one Kahane follower before being removed from the court.
Comparing his prosecution to that faced by “all prophets found in history,” Nosair further invited Kahane’s family to visit him and discuss religion.
In the courtroom, as throughout the trial, spectators were divided: On one side of the aisle followers of the rabbi; on the other, supporters of Nosair.
Following the sentencing, both Kahane followers and the Islamic Leadership Council, a group organized by the Islamic religious authorities of the New York metropolitan region, staged loud but well-separated demonstrations amid 200 policeman.
Placards declaring “Death to Nosair” were matched by those saying “Zionism is Racism” and “Fear Allah, Fear Nosair.”
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.
