Ira Rappoport was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison and bound over for an additional 18 months by a Jerusalem District Court. The Gush Emunim emissary, who returned to Israel from the U.S. this month to face charges stemming from his membership in a Jewish terrorist underground, told the court, “Prison in Israel is better than life abroad. Living abroad is the real prison.”
The American-born Rappoport was convicted of belonging to a terrorist group and participating in the car bomb attack that crippled former Nablus Mayor Bassam Shaka in June 1980. The prosecution had demanded a three-year jail sentence plus a two-year suspended sentence. But the court decided otherwise because Rappoport had returned to Israel voluntarily.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
