Settlers charged with bomb plot

Morag and Dvir (left and centre) say attacks are legitimate

Four extremist Jewish settlers have been charged by an Israeli court for allegedly plotting to blow up an Arab girls' school in Jerusalem a month ago.

Yarden Morag, Shlomo Dvir and Ofer Gamliel were indicted on Tuesday for planting the bomb in the Abu Tor district, which is in the Israeli-occupied eastern part of the city.

The fourth man, Noam Federman, was charged on Monday with supplying the explosives; reports said a fifth alleged plotter was expected to be charged later this week.

my husband has become the holder of detonators and firecrackers, like any average Beitar soccer fan

Elisheva Federman

Investigators said the group was planning to bomb the school just as the pupils lined up during morning assembly, and the Makassid hospital next door may also have been a target.

Reports say Mr Morag and Mr Dvir left a trailer packed with half a kilogram of explosives and containers of fuel and nails chained to an electricity pole outside the school in the early hours of 29 April.

But they were seen by police who arrested them and called a bomb disposal unit to defuse the device. Reports say the soldiers asked Mr Dvir to help them defuse the bomb, but he refused to do so.

A third man - alleged to have been Ofer Gamliel - was reported to have fled the scene, and was arrested a few days later.

Extreme views

Noam Federman, who comes from the Jewish settlement inside West Bank town of Hebron, has a record of extremist activity.

Supporters gather outside the court claiming Arabs are murderers and Jews are victims

He is a prominent supporter of the banned Kach party, which advocates the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza.

After the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, Mr Federman gained notoriety by saying he was glad it had happened, and he was investigated for incitement against Binyamin Netanyahu for signing the land-for-peace accords with the Palestinians.

The other accused come from the Beit Eyin settlement near Hebron.

The men claimed to have "authorisation under Jewish law" to perpetrate attacks like the one attempted in April, according to media reports.

Israeli attacks

In March Israeli police discovered a bomb at a boys' school in east Jerusalem. It exploded after children had been evacuated.

An unknown organisation called the Revenge for the Children said it was behind that attack.

Federman has a long record of extremist activity

The Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem says that since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation in September 2000, 18 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli civilians, although a small number of these may have been cases of self-defence.

As the indictments were issued, several dozen supporters of the men stood outside waving large placards bearing slogans such as "Persecute the murderous Arabs and not the victims".

Elisheva Federman, wife of the accused, said the authorities were acting "vengefully" by prosecuting her husband.

"From being the brains behind the resistance, my husband has become the holder of detonators and firecrackers, like any average Beitar soccer fan," she said in comments publish by Maariv newspaper.