At an election meeting, the leader of the "Jewish National Front" list,
Baruch Marzel, called upon the Israeli army to kill Uri Avnery - this
was reported by the right-wing Haaretz reporter, Nadav Shragai on March
21. The story was also published in Maariv, and the day before in all
the important on-line papers.
Clearly, the Israeli army was mentioned only in order to disguise the
incitement to murder - a criminal offence - as a proposal to the military.
The call came after the official radio, Kol Israel, broadcast remarks
made by Avnery to a reporter during a demonstration against the Israeli
army attack on the Jericho prison. The declared aim of this action was
to capture the leader of the Palestinian Popular Front, who allegedly
ordered the killing of the Israeli minister, Rehav'am Ze'evi, after the
killing of the former leader of the Popular Front. Answering a question,
Avnery said that the killing of Ze'evi was a Palestinian 'targeted
killing", much like the killing of Palestinian political leaders by the
Israeli army. The radio did not quote his next words: "I am against all
assassinations, both by Israelis and Palestinians."
On the day of publication, one of the most popular Israeli TV programs,
"Five in the Evening", asked him to take part in a joint interview with
Marzel. Avnery refused, of course. But "Channel 10" interviewed Marzel
at length, with a huge picture of Avnery in the background.
Marzel's participation in the elections contravenes Israeli law, which
prohibits racist lists. Marzel vows to realize the program of the late
Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose election list was prohibited years ago by the
Supreme Court. However, in his election broadcasts, which were confirmed
by the chairperson of the Election Committee, there appears a picture of
Kahane.
The news of the call for murder was published abroad. It alerted several
peace and human rights organizations, who issued statements of
condemnation and sent protest letter to the Israeli embassies.
Especially active was the "AAchen Peace Prize" committee in Germany,
which years ago had awarded its prestigious prize to Gush Shalom and Uri
Avnery. It demanded that the German Foreign Ministry and the Israeli
ambassador in Berlin intervene in order to induce the Israeli government
to indict Marzel for incitement to murder.