Gush Shalom sent this morning an urgent letter to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein, calling upon him to immediately launch a criminal investigation against the leaders of the "Lehava" organization, on charges of incitement to murder. This letter was sent following a fiery Lehava communiqué published in the aftermath of a racist murder which was perpetrated in Jerusalem during the last weekend.

Last Friday, a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem was stabbed to death by a number of young Jews. Lehava published a few hours later a statement reading: "The situation in Jerusalem is on the verge of explosion. Arabs are harassing and dishonoring Jewish girls for nationalistic reasons. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that Jewish boys are no longer willing to restrain themselves from reacting to these harassments."

In their letter to the Attorney General, Gush Shalom activists Uri Avnery and Adam Keller wrote: "In our humble opinion, this is not a legitimate expression of an opinion, however extreme. It is a clear and unambiguous case of racist incitement, and more importantly – of incitement to murder. This statement legitimizes the killing of Arabs, just because they are Arabs. There is, unfortunately, no doubt that some people in today's Israeli society are liable to be influenced by such incitement.

There is a clear and present danger that some of the people who hear and read this statement published by "Lehava" will be moved to take up a knife or other weapon and commit additional murders of any Arab resident whom they would consider as having "harassed and dishonored Jewish girls".

Contact: Adam Keller 054-2340749