Three youths arrested Friday for distributing anti-government leaflets were released on bail today. Police said they would, be charged with criminal libel. The three, including an Israeli Arab and a Jewish girl, were identified by police as members of Matzpen, a small far-left organization which is stridently anti-Zionist and anti-Israel and espouses the views of the extremist Arab terrorist group, the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine which is headed by Nayef Hawatmeh. The third youth was not immediately identified. The leaflets were signed, “Israel Socialist Organization,” the official name of Matzpen.
The leaflets, a copy of which was found in the JTA mailbox, contained cartoons of Premier Golda Meir, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir and said they were “Wanted for violence, robbery, murder and swindling.” The leaflets accused the government leaders of committing violence against the Black Panthers, Israel’s organization of Afro-Asian slum youths, of robbing “large poor families” and of maligning striking workers. The leaflets were printed expertly but did not bear the printer’s trade mark, a legal offense in Israel.
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.
