Israeli historian critical of settlements wounded in bomb attack

[Scurrilous]

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"Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell, known for his criticism of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, was wounded when a pipe bomb exploded at his home on Thursday, police said.

Sternhell suffered light injuries to his right leg when the bomb exploded as he was trying to close the door to his house and was hospitalised in Jerusalem.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a special investigative unit was set up to look into the incident after police found fliers in nearby streets calling for the killing of left-wing activists.

"When we were searching the nearby neighbourhood looking for evidence after the attack we found fliers offering a reward of 1.1 million shekels (320,000 dollars, 221,000 euros) for attacking and killing members of Peace Now," Rosenfeld said.

Peace Now, an Israeli rights group devoted to ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories, said extreme right-wing groups were behind the attack.

"Law enforcement authorities must abandon their lenient policy when it comes to law-breakers from within the settler community and their supporters," the group said."

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[LeftishBrit]

1. Argh...

I am glad that he wasn't injured worse; but there needs to be a crackdown on the extreme RW; they have their own brand of terrorism, and are a real danger.

[Scurrilous]

2. Dichter: Jewish terrorists tried to murder Prof. Ze'ev Sternhell

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"Israel Prize winner Zeev Sternhell was lightly injured Wednesday when a pipe bomb exploded outside his home in Jerusalem, in what police suspect could be a new campaign by right-wing extremists to target prominent left-wingers.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter called the incident "a nationalist terror attack apparently perpetrated by Jews" and said the police would not rest until "those terrorists" were behind bars.

"We should see the explosive as aimed at killing," Dichter said, adding that the attack "takes us back to the days of (Prime Minister Yitzhak) Rabin's assassination."

Professor Sternhell walked out of his home in a quiet Jerusalem neighborhood shortly after midnight to shut a courtyard gate when the bomb went off, lightly wounding him in one leg, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

Outside Sternhell's home and in nearby streets Wednesday, the police found fliers offering NIS 1.1 million to anyone who killed members of left-wing human rights movement Peace Now. This led to the suspicion that Jewish terrorists were behind the pipe-bomb attack, due to Sternhell's harsh criticism of West Bank settlers and their harassment of Palestinians.

The police stressed that the bomb was not meant to intimidate but was a murder attempt."

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[Scurrilous]

3. Leftist prof.: Bomb at my home shows settler violence spilling over Green Line

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"Professor Zeev Sternhell on Friday said the pipe bomb attack at his home late Wednesday, believed by police to have been perpetrated by right-wing extremists, was a sign that settler violence was spilling over the Green Line into Israel proper.

The left-wing activist and Haaretz columnist told Israel Radio that "there are two populations in the (Palestinian) territories and there are two systems of law, and if settlers are allowed to beat Palestinians, to uproot their orchards and demolish their houses - why shouldn't this happen across the Green Line?"

The Green Line demarcates Israel's border with the West Bank as it lay before the 1967 Six-Day War.

Sternhell, an Israel Prize laureate, was lightly injured when a pipe bomb exploded outside his home in Jerusalem, in what police suspect could be a new campaign by right-wing extremists to target prominent left-wingers.

He said that he was sure that the attack had been perpetrated by a member of the extreme right. "It is possible that this was done by a lone crazy person, an organization or an entire settlement."

Sternhell also blamed apathy to settler violence for the bombing. "Society does not respond," he said during the radio interview, adding that when someone does in fact respond it is "positively or with a wink."

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