Anti-pullout protester gets 2 years for planning to torch cars

[Englander]

By Zvi Harel

The Tel Aviv District Court yesterday handed down a two-year prison sentence to an opponent of the Gaza disengagement plan, who was convicted of attempting to torch two vehicles on the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv in May.

Mordechai Levkovitch, 21, was a resident of the West Bank settlement of Homesh, which was evacuated in August as part of the disengagement. He devised his scheme with the guidance of his teacher at the Homesh yeshiva, Rabbi Mordechai Levinstein, and Levinstein's brother Elitzur. The Tel Aviv District Court is discussing their cases.

In a plea bargain, Mordechai Levinstein has confessed to the charges against him. The prosecution has requested a sentence of 40 months imprisonment, while his attorney has asked for only one year. Sometime before May 3, Levinstein decided to set on fire two cars on the Ayalon Highway near the Kibbutz Galuyot junction. To that end, according to the prosecution, he bought two old cars. He then asked both his brother and Levkovitch, a student at the Homesh yeshiva, to join him. Due to a technical problem, Mordechai Levinstein's plan did not succeed.

Levkovitch's attorney, Yossi Zilberberg, claimed that his client was not involved in the planning stage, but was called in later by the rabbi. The attorney said he believed that Levkovitch caved in to what he felt were social expectations based on ideology, without considering the threat to human life.

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Haaretz