Gush Emunim Underground
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The Jewish Underground ( ''HaMakhteret HaYehudit''), or in abbreviated form, simply Makhteret,David S. New
''Holy War: The Rise of Militant Christian, Jewish and Islamic Fundamentalism,''
McFarland, 2001, p. 143.
was a radical right-wing
fundamentalist Fundamentalism is a tendency among certain groups and individuals that are characterized by the application of a strict literal interpretation to scriptures, dogmas, or ideologies, along with a strong belief in the importance of distinguishin ...
organization considered terrorist by
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, formed by prominent members of the
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
i political movement
Gush Emunim Gush Emunim (, lit. "Bloc of the Faithful") was an Israeli ultranationalist religious Zionist Orthodox Jewish right-wing fundamentalist activist movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Golan ...
that existed from 1979 to 1984. Two issues catalyzed the establishment of the underground: One was the signing of the
Camp David Accords The Camp David Accords were a pair of political agreements signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin on 17 September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retre ...
, which led to the
Egypt–Israel peace treaty The Egypt–Israel peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The Egypt–Israel treaty was signed by Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minist ...
in 1979, and which the movement, opposed to the
peace process A peace process is the set of political sociology, sociopolitical negotiations, agreements and actions that aim to solve a specific armed conflict. Definitions Prior to an armed conflict occurring, peace processes can include the prevention of ...
, wished to block, viewing it as the first step in the establishment of a
Palestinian state Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as th ...
in the
West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
. A second element was the settlement project, which, in bringing two distinct ethnic communities into closer proximity, led to an uptick in hostilities that brought about a growing emphasis on the existential threat in both communities.Shmuel Sandler, ‘Religious Zionism and the State:Political Accommodation and Religious Radicalism in Israel,’ in Bruce Maddy-Waitzman, Efraim Inbar, (eds.
''Religious Radicalism in the Greater Middle East,''
Besa Studies in International Security, Routledge 1997, pp. 133-153 p. 144.
The Jewish Underground developed two operational objectives: One consisted of a plot to blow up the
Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock () is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the List_of_the_ol ...
, while the other branch concentrated on both avenging acts of Palestinian violence against settlers and of establishing a punitive deterrence. Some understood the terrorist acts as a means of inducing
Palestinians Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...
to flee their homeland, based on the
1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...
and
1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...
experience,Nur Masalha
''Imperial Israel and the Palestinians: The Politics of Expansion,''
Pluto Press Pluto Press is a British independent book publisher based in London, founded in 1969. Pluto Press states that it publishes "radical, left‐wing non­‐fiction books", and is anti-capitalist and internationalist. It belongs to The Internat ...
, 2000, pp. 123-126. Haggai Segal, who was involved in car bombings of Palestinian mayors and served a prison sentence, stated some years after his release: "You can't make a big roundup and put them on buses, but you must make conditions bad for the Arabs - and if they continue the war (the intifada), you must make them leave. I drove by the American consulate in East Jerusalem yesterday and saw a long line of Arabs waiting to get visas. The situation is very hard for them now, and must get harder" (p. 124, also p. 125.
and parallels are drawn to the Terror Against Terror movement, which had a similar aim. Robert Friedman stated that the Makhteret was "the most violent anti-Arab terrorist organization since the birth of Israel". Members of the Jewish Underground were eventually rounded up and brought to trial on charges that included violating the 1948 Prevention of Terrorism Decree. The charge of membership in a terrorist organization was dropped against 10 out of the 27 in a
plea bargain A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include a ...
.Gal-Or, Noemi. "Tolerating terrorism in Israel", in Noemi Gal-Or, ed. (2015)
''Terrorism in the West: An International Survey''
Routledge, pp. 72ff.
Most served short terms, and the ringleaders were pardoned and released in 1990.


History

The Jewish Underground was an activist vigilante group formed in the early 1980s out of militants in the Gush Emunim movement, and consisted at its height of 25-27 militants, the majority holding key positions in Gush Emunim and settler organizations. Three men created the cell, Menachem Livni, Yehoshua Ben-Shoshan, and Yehuda Etzion,Motti Inbari
Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount: Who Will Build the Third Temple?
SUNY 2009, p. 51
and were soon joined by Yitzhak Ganiram ("Akale"), Shaul Nir, his brother Barak Nir, and Uzi(ahu) Shar(a)baf (Sharback), rabbi Moshe Levinger's son-in-law. Menachem Livni, an engineering graduate of the Haifa Technion and commander of a reserve battalion of combat engineers, had moved to the Jewish settlement in
Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...
in 1970, and in 1977, he had been elected chairman of the Kiryat Arba Council. Yehuda Etzion, a co-founder of the Ofra settlement, had been student of two rabbis, Zvi Yehuda Kook and
Yehuda Amital Yehuda Amital (; born Yehuda Klein; 31 October 1924 – 9 July 2010) was an Orthodox rabbi, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion, and a member of the Israeli cabinet, associated with the Israeli Left. The concept of a Hesder Yeshiva is att ...
, but was deeply influenced by the writings of Shabtai Ben-Dov, and was dedicated to organizing the destruction of the Dome of the Rock, whilst Livni, a student of Moshe Levinger from Kiryat Arba, was opposed to an attack on the Temple Mount and was primarily concerned with mounting actions against Arabs in the
Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...
. The group that crystallized around them as an activist vigilante group adopted the symbol of the Stern Gang as their emblem. The main function of their attacks on Arabs was revenge, and the attacks were designed to inspire fear in Arabs.Dror Moreh
''The Gatekeepers:Inside Israel’s Internal Security Agency,''
Skyhorse Publishing 2015, p. 171.
Nachman Ben-Yehuda
''Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice State,''
University Press of New York (1993) 2012, p. 294
American Jews spearheaded fund-raising for the group’s underground activities, justifying their backing of such terrorism in terms of personal friendships. The organization also had assistance from two senior figures in the Military Administration that oversees the occupied territories, together with help from several reserve officers, and one career officer. Their activities ranged from placing incendiary bombs in vehicles owned by members of the Palestinian National Guidance Committee, an assault on Palestinian students at a college in Hebron, and an operation that nearly succeeded in blowing up the
Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock () is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the List_of_the_ol ...
on the
Temple Mount The Temple Mount (), also known as the Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a ...
. An attempt to booby-trap a bus that transported Palestinian workers in
East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...
was discovered by the
Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; , (GSS); ), better known by the Hebrew acronyms, acronyms Shabak (; ; ) or Shin Bet (from the abbreviation of , "Security Service"), is Israel's internal Security agency, security service. Its motto is "''Magen ...
in 1984, and the exposure of the Jerusalem bus bombing operation led to a crackdown and trials which effectively ended the group's operations. The idea also circulated that acts of terror against Palestinians would hasten their exit from their homeland. The movement rejected the democratic foundations of Israel.Nachman Ben-Yehud
''Theocratic Democracy: The Social Construction of Religious and Secular Extremism ,''
Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 90ff.


Operations


Car-bombings of the mayors

Menachem Livni built many of the bombs used in the attacks. On June 2, 1980, the group carried out a series of terror attacks, including car bomb attacks against Palestinian officials. As a result of these attacks, two senior Palestinian figures were maimed for life:
Bassam Shakaa Bassam Shakaa () (1930 – 22 July 2019) was mayor of Nablus from 1976 to 1982. Biography Early life Bassam Shakaa was a member of a distinguished family in Nablus. He became a member of the Jordanian regional branch of the Ba'ath Party ...
, the mayor of
Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...
, lost both of his legs, and Karim Khalaf, the mayor of
Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...
, lost one of his legs.Associated Pres
"3 Israeli Terrorists Are Released In 4th Reduction of Their Terms,"
New York Times, 27 December 1990
A third victim targeted, El Bireh mayor Ibrahim Tawil, was saved when the device planted in his car was discovered. Spokesmen for Gush Emunim were variously reported as reacting with comments like, "Well organized, very good work", and, "I hope that the Jews did it". On hearing the news, co-founder of Gush Emunim rabbi Haim Drukman is said to have exclaimed, citing the
Song of Deborah According to the Book of Judges, Deborah (, ''Dəḇōrā'') was a Prophets in Judaism, prophetess of Judaism, the fourth Hebrew Bible judges, Judge of pre-monarchic Israel, and the only female shophet, judge mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Many ...
, "Thus, may all Israel's enemies perish!"


Attack on students at the Islamic College in Hebron

In retaliation for the murder of Aharon Gross, a student in a
Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...
satellite yeshivah of Mercaz HaRav Kook,Eliezar Don-Yehiya, ‘The Book and the Sword: The Nationalist Yeshivot and Political Radicalism in Israel’ in Martin E. Marty, R. Scott Appleby (eds.,
''Accounting for Fundamentalisms: The Dynamic Character of Movements,''
University of Chicago Press, 2004, pp. 264-301, pp. 278-279.
in an operation planned by Livni, three operatives of the group, Shaul Nir, Barak Nir, and Uzi Sharbaf, wearing ski masks,Zeev Maoz
''Defending the Holy Land,''
University of Michigan Press, 2009, p. 257.
launched an attack on the Islamic College in Hebron on July 26, 1983. On arriving at the target, off a crowded Hebron street, Nir fired two bursts from his Kalashnikov in the air to signal that the area was clear. Uzi Sharbaf drove up to join him in a Peugeot 504 which stopped in front of the college. Both then entered the courtyard and fired into the students. Barak Nir, Shaul's brother, stood by the car and sprayed shots at students on the second floor who had been drawn to the windows to find out what the tumult was about. His brother Shaul and Sharbaf then entered the college, and tossed a grenade into a corridor where a student council had been convened.Ami Pedazhur, Arie Perliger
''Jewish Terrorism in Israel,''
Columbia university Press 2011, p. 64
They then withdrew, burnt the evidence, and hid out at Gariam's home in the
Golan Heights The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a basaltic plateau at the southwest corner of Syria. It is bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon mountains with Mount Hermon in t ...
. Three people were killed—Saad Adin Hassan Sabri, Jamal Saad El Adin Nayal and Samir Fatih Daoud, each 30 years old—and 33 wounded.
Gershom Gorenberg Gershom Gorenberg () is an American-born Israeli journalist and historian specializing in Middle Eastern politics and the interaction of religion and politics.''The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount.''
Oxford University Press, 2000 128–137, p. 136
Israel's President and Deputy Foreign Minister condemned the attack. Israeli authorities immediately began a manhunt and also imposed a curfew to prevent Palestinian demonstrations in response. Soldiers fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse Hebron residents who had gathered at the hospital where the wounded were being treated. Israeli President Chaim Herzog commuted the sentences of the attackers in 1988 as part of the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Israel's founding. They were released in 1990.


Plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock

The purpose of obliterating the Muslim shrine on the Temple Mount, considered together with the Al-Aqsa Mosque to be an "abomination", was to "awaken" Jews, and lay the groundwork for the creation of the
Third Temple The "Third Temple" (, , ) refers to a hypothetical rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. It would succeed the First Temple and the Second Temple, the former having been destroyed during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in and the latter having bee ...
. The Jewish underground had two different ideas about how to destroy the Dome of the Rock. One proposal was to crash a plane packed with explosives into the building. One member of the group was an IDF expert in explosives who had access to sufficient ammunition and material stolen from the Israeli army to carry out the plan.


Jerusalem bus bombing plot

Early in the morning of 27 April 1984, following a plan devised by Livni, three operatives went into East Jerusalem and fixed five powerful explosive devices to the bottoms of five Arab buses. The bombs were timed to explode that afternoon, during Friday, one of the busiest days of the week, when the buses would have been packed with Palestinian worshippers returned home from celebrating
Isra and Mi'raj The Israʾ and Miʿraj (, ') are the names given to the narrations that the prophet Muhammad ascended to the sky during a night journey, saw Allah and the afterlife, and returned. It is believed that expressions without a subject in verses 1-18 of ...
. The Shin Bet arrested them at 4:30, just after they had completed the installation of the bombs.


Arrests and trial

It was only during the interrogations that followed that Israeli Security officers stumbled onto evidence that the cell intended to blow up the Dome of the Rock, a mission which, many observed, had it been achieved, would have risked, a catastrophe of major proportions, if not a world conflagration. A week later, security forces raided the settlement of Kiryat Arba, finding a cache of stolen regional defense program weapons and explosives linked to the bomb plot. On 27 April 1984,
Shin Bet The Israel Security Agency (ISA; , (GSS); ), better known by the Hebrew acronyms, acronyms Shabak (; ; ) or Shin Bet (from the abbreviation of , "Security Service"), is Israel's internal Security agency, security service. Its motto is "''Magen ...
agents arrested 25 people, predominantly settlers in the West Bank and the Golan Heights. Edward Alexander,
The Jewish Idea and Its Enemies: Personalities, Issues, Events
'' Transaction Publishers, 1988, p. 177.
The arrests followed an extensive two-year investigation led by the head of the Serious Crimes Division and employing ninety policemen. One reason given to explain why, as opposed to the rapid results in tracking down and arresting Palestinian militants, the Jewish suspects had managed to remain operative and undetected for 5 years, was that, with Palestinian cases, Israel applies the British Mandatory Emergency Defense Regulations code of 1945, whereas the Shin Bet is required to observe the Israeli criminal code procedures with Jewish suspects, procedures which do not foresee
administrative detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...
, placing arrested suspects in isolation for 2 weeks, demolishing homes and other forms of pressure to obtain breakthroughs. A string of arrests followed with police bringing in a number of settlement and political leaders, including future Knesset member Eliezer Waldman and Rabbi Moshe Levinger. Twenty-five of the arrested Gush Emunim members were tried on a host of charges relating to the plot to destroy the Dome of the Rock, the 1983 attack on the Islamic College, the attempted assassination of West Bank mayors, the aborted bus attacks, and a few other incidents. Three of the men, Menachem Livni, Shaul Nir, and Uzi Sharbav, were sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the Islamic College attack and attempted assassinations. Nur Masalha claims that several of the suspects were "pampered" during their trial. Politicians from the
Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...
, Morasha, and
Tehiya Tehiya (), originally known as Banai (, an abbreviation for ''Land of Israel Loyalists' Alliance''), then Tehiya-Bnai (), was an ultranationalist Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a co ...
parties visited the suspects in prison to express solidarity. An "impressive group of prominent rabbis" formed a group to lobby on their behalf. Yigal Cohen-Orgad and
Rehavam Ze'evi Rehavam Ze'evi ( ; 20 June 192617 October 2001) was an Israeli general and politician who founded the far-right nationalist Moledet party. He mainly advocated for complete cleansing of the Palestinian population through population transfer. ...
offered references testifying to the good character of the accused, while other MKs like Meir Cohen-Avidov and
Dov Shilansky Dov Shilansky (; 21 March 1924 – 9 December 2010) was an Israeli lawyer, politician and Speaker of the Knesset from 1988 to 1992. Biography Dov Shilansky (born Berelis Šilianskis) was born in Šiauliai, Lithuania. He survived The Holocaust a ...
were supportive from the very outset.
Yuval Ne'eman Yuval Ne'eman (; 14 May 1925 – 26 April 2006) was an Israeli theoretical physicist, military scientist, and politician. He was Minister of Science and Development in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was the President of Tel Aviv University ...
argued that they had acted purely out of self-defense. A bill to grant them an amnesty was presented to the Knesset by religious parties. In a public opinion poll conducted by Haaretz in mid-1985, according to Nur Masalha's reading, 52.6% of Israelis polled were in favour of the prisoners' immediate release without trial. Edward Alexander, however, reports that a Haaretz poll in June found that 60% of Israelis condemned the Underground's activities, and the culprits deserved severe punishment. 14% of interviewees are said to have approved of the group, while 17.5% said some specific acts were justified. The presiding judge at their trial, Shmuel Finkelstein, cited extenuating circumstances by contrasted what he regarded as premeditated Palestinian terrorism to the retaliatory acts of the Underground activists:
This group of men ... is unique. Most, if not all of them, have both yeshiva training and academic education. Most have served in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and have taken part in Israel’s wars ... Most are men of Torah and labor, who left behind an easy of life and went with their families to establish, develop, and protect Jewish settlements... The crimes of some of the defendants lay in the fervour of their religious faith; like the rebels under Korach, each picked up his pan of incense and loaded it with idolatrous fire against God’s command. The transgressions of people like these are not like the crimes committed by others who aimed to destroy, kill, annihilate.Jerold S. Auerbach
''Hebron Jews: Memory and Conflict in the Land of Israel,''
Rowman & Littlefield 2009, pp. 114-116.
Judge Yaakov Bazak, whose office displayed a portrait of Zvi Yehuda Kook, sympathized with the despair of Hebron settlers at government inaction to clamp down on terrorism, and said that the target of the terror, the Islamic College, taught, "with great fanaticism, hatred of Jews". During a trial recess, as a result of a successful negotiation to exchange prisoners, finalized in the Jibril Agreement, among the 1,100 Arab prisoners released were the killers convicted of the Beit Hadassah murders, and the murderer of Aharon Gross. This affected the sentencing: Major Rehavam Ze'evi placed blame on the government, and stated that despair had led the terrorists, "pioneers, men of vision and faith", to take the law into their own hands. Ben-Zion was released in 1989. Shaul Nir, Menachem Livni, and Uzi Sharbaf received life sentences (24 years), while the others received terms of imprisonment ranging from 3 to 9 years. 20 members were released after less than 2 years, in September 1986. The three life sentences were controversially commuted three times by then-President
Chaim Herzog Chaim Herzog (; 17 September 1918 – 17 April 1997) was an Israeli politician, military officer, lawyer and author who served as the president of Israel between 1983 and 1993. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Dublin, the son of Ireland' ...
, finally to 10 years, and with time off for good behavior, they were released on December 27, 1990, and hailed as "heroes" by leaders of the Gush Emunim movement. Major Rehavam Ze'evi was killed by a Palestinian terrorist in 2001, while Shaul Nir was shot and critically wounded in a drive-by attack on 9 December 2015. The Jewish Underground caused a rift in Gush Emunim.Ehud Sprinzak
''Brother Against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination,''
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...
, 1999, p. 214.
The existence of a violent underground had, until the mass arrests, been dismissed by most Gush Emunim members as falsehood circulated by Peace Now to discredit the movement. Reports from the terrorists' release suggest tremendous support for them by their fellow settlers. However, the majority of Israelis condemned the Underground's unprovoked killing of innocent civilians and contempt for secular law.


Aftermath

Yehuda Etzion has since been active in pressing for the construction of the
Third Temple The "Third Temple" (, , ) refers to a hypothetical rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. It would succeed the First Temple and the Second Temple, the former having been destroyed during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in and the latter having bee ...
in place of the
Dome of the Rock The Dome of the Rock () is an Islamic shrine at the center of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the Temple Mount in the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City of Jerusalem. It is the world's oldest surviving work of Islamic architecture, the List_of_the_ol ...
on the
Temple Mount The Temple Mount (), also known as the Noble Sanctuary (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, 'Haram al-Sharif'), and sometimes as Jerusalem's holy esplanade, is a hill in the Old City of Jerusalem, Old City of Jerusalem that has been venerated as a ...
. Though said to be not exactly repentant for his own past, he did make a public protest over the Duma arson attack, in which all but one member of a Palestinian family died when their home was fire-bombed by settlers. At the same time, he expressed sympathy for the motives governing the arsonists.Jodi Rudoren, Isabel Kershner
'Aging Extremist Laments Violence Now Used Against Palestinians,'
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
21 August 2015.
Livni was convicted on a charge of reckless endangerment for shooting at a Palestinian truckdriver in 2003, and sued by the victim. An out-of-court settlement awarded the Palestinian 15,000 shekels in 2014. In the same year, 2003, he founded the Livni Winery and produces
Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebano ...
in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba.Ira Glunts
journalist lauds wine from Jewish terrorist/vintner Menachem Livni,'
Mondoweiss March 25, 2016.
It was revealed in 2015 by Israeli investigative reporter Uri Blau that Menachem Livni has since received a monthly salary from the Brooklyn-based Hebron Fund, a practice of using U.S. tax deductible donations to support Jewish terrorists that is, according to Blau, verified in several other cases. Uri Blau
'Haaretz Investigation: U.S. Donors Gave Settlements More Than $220 Million in Tax-exempt Funds Over Five Years,'
Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...
7 December 2015.


See also

* Moshe Zar


References

{{Reflist


External links


List of underground members
with comparison of their sentences and the time they spent in prison. Haaretz, February 11, 2016. Anti-Arabism in Israel Anti-Palestinian sentiment in Israel Far-right politics in Israel Jewish terrorism Jewish nationalism Organizations based in Asia designated as terrorist Organizations designated as terrorist by Israel Zionist political violence