Federman held over link to Jewish bomb plot in East J'lem
Right-wing extremist Noam Federman was arrested Monday on suspicion of being involved in the plot to detonate a powerful bomb in the courtyard of a school for Arab girls in the A-Tur neighborhood of East Jerusalem two weeks ago.
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| Noam Federman is suspected of involvement in the plot to detonate a bomb in an Arab girls' school. (Photo: Ha'aretz Archives) |
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The Jerusalem Magistrates Court extended Federman's remand Tuesday for a further eight days. Federman is a long-time supporter of assassinated Kach leader, Meir Kahane, and lives in the Jewish enclave of Hebron.
Federman was quoted in news agencies as saying that "I think the government should put bombs in [Palestinian] hospitals, but unfortunately the government doesn't do it, so it is up to the people to do those things."
Suspects allowed to meet attorney
Ealier Tuesday, two of the four suspected Jewish terroists being held by the Shin Bet security service in connection with the plot were allowed to meet with their attorney on Tuesday. The court order denying the two - Shlomo Dvir and Yarden Morag - access to their attorney expired at midnight Monday, and attorney Naftali Wartzberger held a long meeting with them.
According to Wartzberger, the suspects are "exhausted, after have been subjected to intensive interrogations, the likes of which I have not known." Wartzberger said that the two had been questioned for some 60 hours, and had been denied sleep.
An attorney for a third suspect, Yosef Ben Baruch, from Havat Maon, has not yet been allowed to meet with his client. The attorney, Ariel Atar, said that his client was not involved in the bomb plot, and was refusing to cooperate with the Shin Bet.
Police sappers discovered the bomb, comprised of two gas balloons and two barrels of gasoline, in a cart. It was set to go off at 7:35 A.M., when the 1,500 students at the school line up in the courtyard for their morning assembly. Police are also considering the possibility that the bomb was intended to be detonated on the sidewalk between the school and the adjacent Mukassed Hospital.
The hospital bombing plot is the latest sign of a resurgence among Jewish extremists, who have constantly accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of going soft on the Palestinians.
In March, a bomb exploded at a Palestinian boys' school in another part of Arab East Jerusalem, injuring seven children and a teacher. It was claimed by a group called the Revenge of the Children.
The police had not received any intelligence information about plans for an attack in A-Tur. The Jewish suspects were apprehended by a patrol unit that happened to notice them in the neighborhood before dawn on Monday, April 29. The policemen noticed a commercial vehicle pulling a cart and mounted a pursuit, suspicious of the vehicle's activity at that time of the day.
The suspicious vehicle stopped near Mukassed Hospital, on the main street of the neighborhood. Dvir (Zeliger), 29, and Morag, 25, both from the settlement of Bat Ayin, got out of the car and started to untie the cart. The police officers approached and asked the two what they were doing and they responded that they were fixing a flat tire. After the two refused to identify themselves or explain where they were headed, the police decided to take them in for questioning.
In the car, the police discovered guns that Dvir and Morag were not licensed to carry. A sapper was then called in to check the cart, finding and neutralizing the explosive device.
During a search at Bat Ayin, police also arrested Ofer Gamliel, 42, on suspicion of assisting the other two residents of the settlement in preparing the bomb.
Police are now checking whether the four were involved in a series of terror attacks carried out against Arab targets during the past two years. These attacks have included seven shooting deaths of Palestinians on roads in the West Bank. Several unknown groups have taken responsibility for these attacks, in which 10 other Palestinians were also injured.
Sources involved in the investigation into the road shootings said that it appeared that the suspects under arrest were not linked to these incidents. But the Shin Bet and police are also investigating whether the four suspects were involved in the school courtyard bombing in the village of Tsur Baher in East Jerusalem that took place in early March.
