Angry Jewish settlers from the West Bank are challenging assertions by the government and the Israel Defense Force that the territories are relatively calm.
The settlers, including two reserve brigadier generals, claimed at a news conference here Wednesday that the security situation is worsening.
They demanded that the government take severe measures to crush the Palestinian uprising. They would forbid agitators from working in Israel and deport rock-throwers.
The settlers also demanded the death penalty for extreme acts of terrorism, and permission for soldiers to open fire on stone-throwers.
Meanwhile, the legal system moved in different directions in the cases of two West Bank settlers accused of killing Arabs.
A Jerusalem district court found Yisrael Zeev of Shiloh guilty of manslaughter Wednesday in the shooting death of shepherd Jawdat Abdullah Awad, during an argument over grazing rights.
But the State Attorney’s Office on Tuesday rejected a police recommendation to prosecute Gush Emunim activist Rabbi Moshe Levinger of Hebron for causing the death of a local shopkeeper and wounding another Arab, after his car was stoned Sept. 30.
The State Attorney’s Office said there was insufficient evidence to try Levinger.
In addition to manslaughter, Zeev was convicted of causing bodily harm to second Arab shepherd who was wounded during the altercation earlier this year.
The court found him “criminally negligent,” but rejected charges that he killed intentionally when he opened fire in the direction of the shepherds while trying to disperse their flocks.
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