April 12
Israel again suspends municipal elections in the Occupied Territories. Six months later, the High Court of Justice approves the decision.April 12
Four Palestinians from the Gaza Strip take control of an Egged bus on the No. 300 line, on its way from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon, and hold the passengers hostage, intending to bring about the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli. The hostages are freed by military action, one woman passenger and two of the four abductors being killed during the action. The other two Palestinians are captured, shackled, and taken by soldiers to a nearby field, where, under the orders of the head of the Shabak, Avraham Shalom, they are killed by blows to the head with a rock. The public is told that all the abductors had been killed in the military action. A few days later, the newspaper Hadashot publishes a picture showing one of the abductors alive after the action and accuses the Shabak of whitewashing the killing of the abductor. Following the affair, Shalom resigns, along with other Shabak heads. All the Shabak members involved in the incident are ultimately pardoned by Israel’s president, Chaim Herzog.May 24
An indictment is filed against twenty-seven members of the Jewish underground. They are accused of murder, attempted murder, and membership in a terrorist organization. Thirteen of them will be convicted on the latter charge—two sentenced to life imprisonment, one to nine years’ imprisonment, and the others to sentences of three to four years’ imprisonment. Within a few years, most of the members of the underground are freed. Those sentenced to life imprisonment are released after serving less than seven years in jail.———
The Knesset adopts a law amending and extending the Defense (Emergency) Regulations, opening the way for applying Israeli statutory law to residents of the settlements without the need for a separate amendment of each particular statute. Prior to this, certain laws were extended to cover Israeli “residents of the region.”