Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 2, 1990 TAG: 9005020023
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JERUSALEM LENGTH: Medium
Jerusalem District Court Judge Shalom Brenner also handed Rabbi Moshe Levinger a seven-month suspended sentence for fatally shooting shoe store owner Kayed Hassan Salah on Sept. 30, 1988.
Levinger was initially charged with manslaughter, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison. As part of a plea bargain, he said he was guilty of the lesser charge of causing death by negligence.
Salah, 42, was standing at the entrance to his shop when he was shot during a stone-throwing incident in the West Bank town of Hebron.
Israeli human rights advocates say settlers have killed at least 29 Palestinians since the start of the uprising nearly 29 months ago. Only one other settler besides Levinger has been sentenced to jail since the insurrection began in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In Jerusalem's Old City, settler spokesmen said 50 Jewish families had complied with a Supreme Court order to vacate the 72-room St. John's Hospice, which is owned by the Greek Orthodox Church.
"I believe they will be back. I believe in justice," settler spokesman Shmuel Eviatar said, as bells from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and other nearby churches pealed loudly.
Greek Orthodox Bishop Areopulos Christodulos pledged to "continue in all the courts until all the settlers get out of the building."
After heated arguments between the settlers and clergymen in black cloaks, a six-member church delegation was allowed to inspect the complex to confirm that all settlers who were supposed to leave had done so.
"They evacuated the settlement, except for 20 people," said Avraham Sochovolsky, an attorney for the church.
Reporters and photographers saw settlers leave the building in small groups over the past few days, apparently to avoid a mass exit that would look like a retreat.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that all but 20 of the 150 settlers who moved into St. John's Hospice on April 11 should leave by noon Tuesday.
The remaining settlers act as caretakers for the Panama-based SBC company, which acquired the lease that the church contends is invalid. The court let them stay until the tenancy dispute is decided.
The caretakers were later seen in the windows, which were draped with blue-and-white Israeli flags.
Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek and senior police officials have warned that the settlers' presence threatened to provoke violence in the Old City, which is divided into jealously guarded Christian, Moslem, Jewish and Armenian quarters.
The Old City was captured from Jordan in 1967 and annexed by Israel. Most nations, including the United States, do not recognize Israel's claim to sovereignty.
by CNB