Leftist Israeli Professor mildly wounded by a pipe bomb

Friday September 26, 2008 00:09 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Israeli Police reported on Thursday that a leftist Israeli Professor was mildly wounded late on Wednesday at night, after in a pipe bomb attack targeting his home in Jerusalem.

Professor Ze'ev Sternhel

The professor, Ze'ev Sternhell, talking from his hospital bed, said that this attack marks the start of democracy’s decay in Israel.

He added that “If this attack was not carried out by an unbalanced person but by someone who represents a political view, then this is the beginning of the disintegration of democracy in Israel”, Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported.

 The professor is a Haaretz columnist and a left wing activist in Israel. He was moved to Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem where we was treated for minor injuries.

He said that this attack shows the urgent need to defend the fragile democracy in Israel with determination and resolve, Haaretz reported.

“If this attack was meant to terrorize me, it should be clear that I am not easily intimidated”, he said, “the attackers did not only try to hurt me, they tried to hurt each and every one of my family who could be the one who opened the door instead of me, there is no forgiveness for that”.

 The Jerusalem police said that it suspects that the attack was carried out by Jewish extremists, and added that the pipe bomb exploded when the professor walked out of his home after midnight in order to close a courtyard gate.

 The police added that they believe the attack is ideologically motivated.

 Sternhell is an expert on the history of fascism and is international renowned. Earlier this year, he was also awarded Israel’s highest honor prize known as the Israel Prize.

Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank were angered by the award and unsuccessfully petitioned the Israeli High Court to revoke it.

 Kadima Part leader, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, slammed the attack which she labeled as “intolerable”.

 She added that Israel is a lawful state and that it is the responsibility of the government and the Israeli society to renounce such attacks. Her statements came as she was marking the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) holiday.

 Earlier on Thursday morning, the Israeli Police in Jerusalem reported finding fliers offering a reward of NIS 1 Million to anyone who kills members of the Israeli left wing human rights organization Peace Now.

 After the attack and the discovery of the fliers, the police boosted its security measures around the home of Peace Now Secretary-General, Yariv Oppenheimer.

 Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, slammed that attack and expressed outrage for what he described as an attack “which has touched a nerve given the country's sensitive history of politically-oriented violence”, Haaretz reported.

Labor member of Knesset, Ophir Pines-Paz, said that that this attack is cowardly, and an act of terrorism carried out by people who have no sense of justice.

 He called on the police and the Shin Bet security services to conduct all needed efforts to locate and apprehend the attackers.

 Mertz member of Knesset Haim Oron, said that “These phenomena spring up on the right-wing [of the political spectrum]”, Haaretz added.

 He added that this attack is “a thuggish and dangerous act which comes as a result of “see-no-evil approach toward the vicious violence against soldiers and police officers and anyone else who doesn't agree with the brutish section of the extreme right wing", Haaretz said.

 Meanwhile, Itamar Ben-Gvir, an activist with a settlers groups known as the National Jewish Front described Sternhell as an irrelevant figure and said that he does not believe that this attack was carried out by settlers.

He added that he does not denounce the attack, but said that his group” is not categorically involved in it”.  

jerusalem | israeli attacks | news report saed at imemc dot org