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With Journalists Watching, Kach Leader Gives Himself Up

April 6, 1995
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The leader of the illegal Jewish extremist Kach movement surrendered this week to police in the West Bank town of Hebron after inviting journalists to watch the event.

Baruch Marzel, who arranged the surrender, met police Wednesday outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Police had been searching for Marzel for several days for questioning, Israel Radio said.

Marzel was in violation of an Israel Defense Force order that confined him to his home in the Jewish enclave in Hebron.

Marzel has previously led police on similar searches, only giving himself up after alerting the media.

The Israeli government declared the Kach movement illegal after the February 1994 massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish settler who carried out the attack, once belonged to Kach.

After the massacre, in which 29 Muslims were killed, Israel invoked emergency defense regulations, enabling it to hold Marzel and other Jewish militants without trial for several months.

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