President Reuven Rivlin rejects a request to posthumously pardon a controversial social activist who was imprisoned following a deadly siege and standoff with police in 1994 that led to the death of one of his followers, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
Activists have sought to clear the record of Uzi Meshulam, who campaigned to reveal what happened to thousands of Yemenite child immigrants allegedly kidnapped from their parents by state authorities when they arrived in the country in the 1950s.
Meshulam’s intense campaigning came to a head in 1994 when he and his followers, heavily armed with guns and other weapons, barricaded themselves in his home for several weeks with police surrounding the building. The incident ended with a violent standoff that resulted in the death of one and the arrest of 11 of his followers.
Screen capture from video of activist Uzi Mushalem. (YouTube)
Meshulam and his followers were convicted of a slew of offenses including conspiracy to commit a crime, obstructing justice, intent to cause serious injury, deliberate risk of human lives, and manufacturing illegal weapons. He was eventually sentenced to six and a half years in prison over the affair, but president Ezer Weizman took off seven months from his sentence.
His health failed in prison and after being released he retired from public life. He died in 2013 aged 60.
Illustrative: Children being airlifted from Yemen in Operation Magic Carpet, in front of an Alaskan Airlines plane. (Courtesy AJM)
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
