SETTLERS MOURN THE PASSING OF ARCH CRIMINAL MOSHE LEVINGER

May 17, 2015 at 07:30 (DesertPeace Exclusive, Ethnic Cleansing, Israel, Palestine, Settler Violence, zionist harassment)

May he

For eternity!

As I write this, preparations are underway to lower the body of Rabbi convicted murderer Moshe Levinger into a grave in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron. Jewish Law prohibits cremation so Satan himself will light the fires when the burial is complete…

Settler leader Rabbi Moshe Levinger will be laid to rest in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday at 12:30pm, a day after he died at the age of 80. He had suffered from health problems in recent years, after a serious stroke some seven years ago. 

Levinger, who helped reestablish Jewish settlement in the heart of Hebron, will be buried close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. 

The rabbi led the first settlers back to Hebron in 1968, a year after Israel captured the city from Jordan in the Six-Day War. Jews had lived in the city for centuries until Arab riots drove most of them out in 1929. Today around 800 settlers live in heavily guarded areas of Hebron alongside 180,000 Palestinians. (From)

Levinger has been arrested and charged at least 10 times starting in 1975 in relation to incidents in Hebron or Kiryat Arba.

In 1984, Rabbi Levinger was arrested on suspicion of involvement with the Gush Emunim Underground. In July 1985, Levinger was fined approximately $15,000 and given a three-month suspended sentence for trespassing in the house of a Hebron woman and attacking her six-year-old son. Levinger told the Jerusalem Magistrate Court that the boy had thrown a stone at his son.

In 1988, Levinger was indicted on two separate criminal charges involving events in Hebron. On September 30, 1988, Levinger, who had been hit a week before by a rock, was attacked by stoners who smashed his windshield, injuring his son. He reached an Israeli checkpoint. Levinger pulled out his pistol, turned round and went back down the streets shooting at shop windows, killing Palestinian store owner Hassan Abdul Azis Salah. A customer was also wounded. Levinger claimed he had been surrounded by Palestinians who threatened his life, and only to have shot into the air to defend himself against stone throwers. In a press conference following the shooting, Levinger said, “Regarding the actual deed, I will respond when the time comes. I have already said that as far as the substance of the case goes, the State Attorney’s Office knows that I am innocent and that I did not have the privilege of killing that Arab. Not that I may not have wanted to kill him or that he did not deserve to die, but I did not have the privilege of killing that Arab.” He was charged with “manslaughter, causing bodily harm in aggravated circumstances and intentionally damaging property”. His trial began in August 1989, despite protests by 13 right-wing Knesset members and hundreds of supporters. Levinger pleaded not guilty to the charges but accepted a plea-bargain to the lesser charge of negligent homicide. He was sentenced to 5 months imprisonment and 7 months suspended, of which he served 92 days. During his imprisonment, he was given leave to attend a public event in Hebron. On his release in August 1990, he told Israel Radio, “If I’m in a situation of danger again, I’ll again open fire. I hope that next time, I will be more careful and I won’t miss the target.”

In another case, which related to an event five months before the first, he was alleged to have assaulted a Palestinian woman and her two children after other Arab children had “made fun of” his daughter. At his trial in May 1989, the magistrate dismissed the evidence of the Arab witnesses on the grounds that they were interested parties and wanted to see Levinger in prison for ideological reasons, and also dismissed the evidence of two IDF soldiers who testified to the assault. Six weeks after Levinger’s release from prison on his separate negligent homicide conviction (see above), the Jerusalem District Court overturned his acquittal on the earlier assault charges. He was sentenced to 4 months imprisonment, plus an additional 10 days for an outburst in court. He served about two months. On his release in March 1991, he said “Over the years, I’ve carried out dozens of actions and all of them were against the law. It was worthwhile to violate the law, as all these actions advanced the whole Land of Israel.”

In July 1995, Levinger was sentenced to seven months imprisonment for a violent altercation in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in September 1991. The court found that Levinger had pulled down the partition separating Jewish and Muslim worshippers and assaulted an IDF officer. He served four months in prison in 1996.

In December 1995, Levinger was sentenced to six months in prison and six months suspended for an incident in June 1991. He was found guilty of rioting in the Hebron market, of overturning stalls, forcing other merchants to close their shops, and of firing his pistol. His defense was that he was attacked by Palestinians throwing rocks.

In December 1997, Levinger was sentenced to six months jail and fined $2,300 for disturbing Muslim prayers at Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1994 and of blocking an army commander from entering Kiryat Arba.  (FROM)

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting his ‘beloved’ wife and fellow criminal, here she is … 

And here is his long awaited for obituary from Ynet

Leading settler rabbi Levinger passes away at the age of 80 Moshe Levinger was among the leaders of the renewed Jewish settlement in Hebron and one of the founders of Kiryat Arba. Rabbi Moshe Levinger, who has been a leading figure in the movement to settle Jews in the West Bank, passed away on Saturday at the age of 80. The official announcement of his passing said, “the Jewish yeshuv in Hebron expresses deep sorrow over the death of the father of the community, Rabbi Moshe Levinger. Rabbi Levinger was the bearer of renewed Jewish settlement in the city, and for many years was a symbol and a respected figure in Hebron and the settlements in Judea and Samaria in general.” Rabbi Levinger, who was one of the principals of the now defunct settler movement Gush Emunim, grew up in Jerusalem, served in the Nahal, studied at the Mercaz haRav yeshiva in Jerusalem and at Kfar Haroeh. He served as a rabbi at Kibbutz Lavi in the Lower Galilee and in Moshav Nehalim near Petah Tikvah. On Passover eve 1968, a group of religious families led by Rabbi Levinger gathered at Park Hotel in Hebron, with the help of several Israeli ministers, to celebrate Seder night, and then refused to leave. In a deal with the Israeli government, he moved with his family and followers to a former army base on a hill just northeast of Hebron, where, with the state’s cooperation, they established the settlement of Kiryat Arba. In 1975, Levinger led the attempt to establish a settlement on the ruins of the Sebastia train station. When then defense minister Shimon Peres demanded the settlers to evacuate the place, Rabbi Levinger said there was “nothing to talk about.” He was photographed, alongside former MK Hanan Porat, carried on the shoulders of the settlers. In 1979, the rabbi’s wife Miriam entered Beit Hadassah in Hebron, and the family later moved to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood in Hebron. In 1988, Rabbi Levinger shot to death a Palestinian, after he was pelted with rocks. The court sentenced him to five months imprisonment after he was convicted of negligent homicide. Before he started serving his sentence he said: “I was faced with two possibilities: Open fire, or not. It is better that I sit five months and even five years in prison than to be led, along with my four children, to burial.” In recent years, Levinger suffered from health problems after a serious stroke some seven years ago.