Jews in London on alert; two Palestinians sentenced

London Jewish Chronicle
LONDON, Dec. 17 (JTA) — A British judge sentenced this week two Palestinians to 20 years each for conspiring to bomb Israeli and Jewish targets in London in 1994. The judge also recommended that Samar Alami, 30, a chemical engineer, and Jawad Botmeh, 28, a businessman, be deported after serving their terms. The two were found guilty last week of planning the July 1994 bombings of the Israeli Embassy and the Joint Israel Appeal. A third defendant, Mahmoud Abu-Wardeh, 25, was acquitted. Charges against a Palestinian woman in connection with the embassy bombing were dismissed last month. Fourteen people were injured in the July 26, 1994, embassy bombing; five people were injured in the next day’s bombing of the Joint Israel Appeal. Scotland Yard warned the London Jewish community last week that it could face retaliation after two Palestinians were convicted of conspiring to bomb Israeli and Jewish targets in London. Scotland Yard issued the warning to the Jewish community during a series of meetings with officials of the Community Security Trust, which oversees the safety of Jewish communal sites. A spokesman for the trust called for vigilance in the wake of the trial. “We know without doubt that the defendants and other hostile forces were attempting to infiltrate the Jewish community,” he said. “The picture which we are getting from various well-placed sources is that the situation is getting worse as far as communal security is concerned.” The trust spokesman said high-profile Jewish institutions were being closely guarded by police and by the trust’s own security volunteers. Scotland Yard sources said it was still searching for other terrorists.