Man Charged in Grunzweig Murder

Yona Avrushmi, a 28-year-old resident of Jerusalem and the West Bank, was formally charged Friday with willful murder in the grenade slaying a year ago of Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig.

The charge sheet, presented in Jerusalem District Court exactly one year after the killing, alleges that Avrushmi purchased an Israel army issue hand grenade in January, 1983 and, on the night of February 10, 1983, positioned himse If on a hill overlooking the Prime Minister’s Office and there awaited the arrival of a procession of Peace Now marchers who were scheduled to demonstrate outside the office.

At 8:50 p.m., as the demonstrators were about to disperse after singing the national anthem, Avrushmi allegedly threw the grenade into the crowd, according to the charge sheet. The grenade exploded, inflicting fatal wounds on Grunzweig, a 33-year-old teacher, who died within minutes. Ten other persons were wounded, one of them seriously. The charges state that the accused threw the grenade with intent to kill and fully understood the implications of his act.

Avrushmi was detained for questioning in the middle of last month. He was identified as a former resident of the Neve Yaacov quarter of Jerusalem, currently employed as a metal worker in Ofra on the West Bank. At the same time, police arrested a 20-year-old soldier, David Shem-Tov of Jerusalem on suspicion of having sold the fatal grenade to Avrushmi. The police said that Shem-Tov was not otherwise involved in the grenade attack. They described Avrushmi as the “prime suspect.”

The filing of charges against Avrushmi ended a year-long investigation of the crime which shocked the country. Grunzweig was murdered at a demonstration demanding that the government implement in full the recommendations of the Kahan commission which investigated Israel’s role in the September, 1982 massacre of Palestinian civilians by Christian Phalangists in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in west Beirut.