Israel Matzav

Tel Aviv lawyer arrested in effort to slander Right, religious Jews

Israel Radio has been reporting all evening about the release for publication of the arrest of an Israeli lawyer named Gor Finkelstein. What it has not been mentioning is that many of the crimes in which Finkelstein and/or his cohorts were involved were intended to defame Right wing and religious Jews.

An alleged Arab Israeli Jaffa crime organization planned to detonate a bomb under the car of a Muslim sheikh last month over a business dispute and then spray paint 'price-tag' graffiti in the area in order to draw blame on the far right, police suspect.

A total of eight suspects have been under arrest since last month, including four brothers from one family and two brothers from another family. They had already assembled a powerful bomb, and were stopped by a police raid on a home in Jaffa in April hours before they planned on planting the device, a law enforcement source said. They had allegedly planned to detonate the device after evening prayers at a Jaffa mosque. Police believe a disastrous outcome was averted thanks to the raid.

...

In an unrelated plot, the suspects were allegedly hired by a lawyer, named as Gor Finkelstein, to harm Shota Hovel, head of the construction oversight department at Tel Aviv Municiaplity, over Hovel's decision to knock down a building in Jaffa owned by Scientologists due to building regulations.

Finkelstein allegedly had a financial interest in preventing the building from being demolished, and was behind a May 9 attempt to detonate a car bomb under Hovel's car in Bat Yam. Hovel escaped from the incident unharmed, but the vehicle was damaged.

In a subsequent assassination attempt, three suspects dressed as police officers stopped Hovel in his car, and attempted to attack him with an electric shocker. That attack failed too, and the suspects fled the scene. Hovel was lightly injured.

Finkelstein eventually concluded that it would be most profitable for him to arrange for the building to be rebuilt elsewhere, police suspect, as he received commission from contractors behind the construction.

He therefore repeatedly ordered the Jaffa suspects to attempt to damage the building, police allege. In one attempt, a truck carrying 300 liters of fuel and a gas balloon was allegedly used in a failed bid to bomb the building. In a second attempt, a suspect allegedly entered the building, poured gasoline inside, and set fire to the place.

The suspects allegedly were dressed up as Orthodox Jews, in the hope that the attack would be blamed on Jewish religious organizations who are opposed to the presence of Scientology in Israel.

Hmmm....

Labels: Gor Finkelstein, Israeli Arab, Jaffa

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:32 AM