A Jerusalem District Court ordered yesterday a ten-fold increase in the fines it originally imposed on three Israeli youths arrested for defacing walls with New Left-type slogans. The young men, aged 21 to 28, daubed such slogans as “down with the Jewish hero” and “Che Guevara lives.” The court increased the fines from $43 to $430 after the prosecution entered a plea against leniency.
The three defendants all are from well-to-do homes and one is a college graduate. The “Jewish hero” to whom they objected are the Israeli soldiers in the occupied Arab areas. The late Che Guevara, the revolutionary associated with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, is a here of the New Left-type slogans. The youths belong to a small organization with pro-Communist leanings which also has artists and writers as members. It opposes continued Israeli occupation of the Arab territories.
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