Defense Minister Moshe Dayan tonight called the Jewish Defense League foolish after Rabbi Meir Kahane and about 100 JDL members stormed into Hebron in an effort to demonstrate Jewish ownership of the West Bank city and hold a public trial of Hebron’s Mayor Sheikh Mohammad Ali Jaabari. Dayan made the remark last night after a meeting with Jaabari, saying that if the JDL wanted to clarify something they should have appealed to the Israeli government.
The JDL militants succeeded in breaching the roadblocks set up by the military government to prevent their arrival. They gathered near the Tombs of the Patriarchs where they declared they would hold a public trial of Jaabari in view of his role during the 1929 massacre of Hebron Jews and the 1948 fighting. Brigadier General Raphael Vardi, Military Governor of the West Bank, asked them to leave and they obeyed quietly.
Jaabari told reporters that he would be happy to appear in a public trial to accuse his accusers. It was later in the evening that Dayan visited the mayor after which he made his comments on the JDL. A conference of Hebron notables decided this weekend not to stage a counter-demonstration against the JDL after Israeli authorities promised that law and order would be maintained.
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