Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 20, 2004
JERUSALEM — An Israeli judge was killed in a drive-by shooting outside his
home in a normally tranquil Tel Aviv suburb Monday evening, shocking even a
country that has become greatly inured to violence. Authorities described it as
the first known assassination of a judge in Israel's history.
A
Palestinian militant group, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, claimed responsibility
for killing Tel Aviv district court Judge Adi Azar, who was shot at point-blank
range by a gunman on a motorcycle as the jurist sat in his car outside his home,
according to police and witnesses.
Israeli officials expressed doubts
that a Palestinian assailant with a nationalistic motive had carried out the
attack. However, Azar presided over a case last year in which the Palestinian
Authority was ordered to pay Israel's main bus company more than $15 million in
damages in connection with terrorist attacks.
If Azar's killing were
proved to have been carried out by a Palestinian militant group, it would
represe nt a chilling, unprecedented tactic. In nearly four years of conflict,
Israeli public figures have generally been immune to such attacks, although
groups such as Hamas have often made threats against Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon.
The only remotely similar case was the assassination of a
right-wing Cabinet minister, Rehavam Zeevi, at a Jerusalem hotel in October
2001. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility for that killing.
Senior Israeli officials and some lawmakers receive protection akin to
that provided by the Secret Service in the United States. Other than the
killing of Zeevi, no close calls for Israeli public figures had been reported
since the current Palestinian uprising erupted in September 2000.
"We
are at the very beginning of this investigation," Tel Aviv police spokeswoman
Shulamit Herzberg said. "It's too early to talk about background or motive."
Members of the judge's family found him slumped in his car moments
after he had pulled up outside his h ome in the affluent neighborhood of Ramat
Hasharon, Herzberg said. He had been shot three times in the head and chest,
and medics were unable to revive him, Herzberg said.
Israeli Justice
Minister Tommy Lapid quickly dismissed the notion that the killing of the
49-year-old judge might have been the work of Palestinian militants. "There is
no suspicion that this was an act of terror," Lapid said shortly after the
shooting, which occurred about 7 p.m.
Azar, balding and bespectacled,
was described by some judicial officials as less a judge than a bureaucrat.
According to Israeli news reports, his main duty was assigning cases to others
rather than presiding over trials. In the courtroom, his work almost
exclusively involved civil cases, they said.
The former law professor
and magistrate had served on the Tel Aviv district bench since September
2002.
Gangland violence is common in Israel, and commentators noted that
the judge lived in the same neighborhood as a suspected crime ki ngpin. But no
evidence suggesting a link to organized crime immediately emerged.
In
the Israeli news media, the killing was afforded as much coverage, if not more,
as a serious terrorist attack would have received. Sharon expressed "deep
outrage" and pledged that all measures would be taken to bring those responsible
to justice.
A shaken Lapid reported the killing to parliamentarians.
"It's shocking — it undermines the foundation of law," he said.
"This is the first time in Israel's history that a judge has been murdered," a
grim-faced anchor on Israel's main evening newscast informed viewers, launching
a lengthy special report on the case. Senior police officials were swiftly
summoned to the scene.
Police described the killing as highly
professional. Israeli television said neighbors had earlier reported a
suspicious man in the neighborhood wearing the uniform of a security
guard.
Police Commissioner Shlomo Aharonishki said there was no proof
that the killing w as connected to the judge's work. "We need to be cautious,
and examine all angles," he told Israeli journalists.
Azar was the
presiding judge in two cases last year in which the families of terrorism
victims and the Egged bus company sued the Palestinian Authority. The judge
ordered a judgment of 72 million shekels, or about $18 million.
The
judge's slaying drew quick calls for tighter guarding of judicial officials.
"This is so unexpected. But I always thought security should be
upgraded," said a fellow judge, Dan Arbel. But he acknowledged that it would be
difficult to protect all of Israel's more than 500 judges and
magistrates.
Despite Azar's 2003 ruling involving the Palestinian
Authority, intelligence sources said the claim by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
did not appear credible.
Oded Granot, the main Arab affairs
commentator for Israel television, noted that it came less than an hour after
the killing — "suspiciously soon," he said.
Azar's family did not
comment publicly, but the nanny to his two sons said she did not know of any
enemies the judge might have had. "I never heard of any threats against him,"
Batsheva Nissani told television reporters.