Magistrate Eliezer Halevy, presiding here at the mass trial of 104 ultra-orthodox youths accused of “criminal trespass” during a demonstration they staged last month at St. Joseph Convent, a missionary school, affirmed his ruling today that the defense must not bring in the school’s “character and aims.”
Shmuel Tamir, the attorney for the defense, who objected to such a ruling yesterday, continued during the trial today to try to inject the schools’ missionary activities into the proceedings. Magistrate Halevy, however, told the defense counsel: “We are concerned here merely with the trespassing offense. The character of a convent or of missions is the business of the legislature.”
Mr. Tamir tried to elicit information about the school’s missionary activities from Jerusalem Julie Grasse, Mother Superior of the convent, when she testified, during cross-examination that her institution’s aim was to teach Catholicism. He charged that her testimony demonstrated that parents of Jewish children attending the school were in violation of Israel’s compulsory education law.
A photographer who took pictures of the demonstration, last September 10, and police officers who arrested the demonstrators, also testified today. The trial resulted from countrywide demonstrations by ultra-religious youths All 104 pleaded not guilty. The trial will resume tomorrow.
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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.
