Rabbi Moshe Levinger, who was released from prison in August after serving three months for negligent manslaughter, drew a four-month prison sentence Monday for attacking an Arab family in their home in Hebron two years ago and insulting an Israel Defense Force soldier.
The leader of the militant Gush Emunim settlers movement in the West Bank got an extra week in jail for contempt of court after he assailed the judge, the state attorney and Israel’s legal system.
His outburst apparently was prompted by the fact that the magistrate who passed sentence, Yoel Tzur, was the same judge who originally acquitted him of the charges.
The prosecution appealed the acquittal. Levinger was retried and convicted on Sept. 23 by Jerusalem District Court, which referred him back to the magistrate for sentencing.
He was found guilty of breaking into the home of the Samuh family in Hebron in May 1988, beating the mother and her son and attempting to attack her 7-year-old daughter.
An IDF reservist who heard the commotion ordered Levinger off the premises. Levinger cursed the soldier and called him a Palestine Liberation Organization sympathizer.
Levinger was released from prison last Aug. 14 after serving 13 weeks for fatally shooting Hassan Salah, an Arab shopkeeper in Hebron, during a stoning incident in September 1988.
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.
