Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir said today that he would not press charges against two Jewish publications which carried articles described as incitement to insurrection. He said that in reaching his decision he took into account explanations by the authors of the articles and the editors and the fact that they were a first offense.
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the West Bank Jewish settlers’ weekly Aleph Yud closed down after it published an article last month titled “Judaea and Samaria Will Not Fall Again.” The writer advocated armed resistance should the government decide to give up any part of the West Bank in future peace negotiations. Rabin acted on Zamir’s advice.
A high school weekly, Hamitzan, responded to the Aleph Yud article with a piece of its own calling for “civil war for the sake of peace.” The Education Ministry banned distribution of the publication.
Both periodicals had been under police investigation. Zamir, in a letter to Police Commander Yehezkel Carthy said his decision not to prosecute does not mean that he treats the matter lightly. He said he feared the articles were taken literally by many readers, as an incitement to revolt, although the authors and editors denied that was the intention.
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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.
