Suspicions raised in Kiryat Arba car-bombing
July 17, 2001

Right-wing activist Noam Federman vehemently denies police suspicions that he was connected to the explosion that destroyed his car yesterday in Kiryat Arba.

Yesterday afternoon, Federman's car exploded in the parking lot of Kiryat Arba's commercial center. Federman told ynet that his wife and baby son had just gotten out of the car minutes before the explosion, in which no one was hurt. "This happened recently in Yehud, and now it is happening here," Federman said. "I don't know if this was supposed to strike at me, or at my wife, or my baby, or at any Jew," he added.

Police sappers investigating the explosion discovered a large quantity of IDF explosives and ammunition in the car. According to media reports, the way the explosives were placed inside the car raised police suspicions that they may have belonged to the car's owner. Federman, a former activist in the outlawed Kach movement started by Rabbi Meir Kahane, has frequently been connected to vigilante Jewish extremist groups.

Federman, who lives in the Jewish community of Hebron, said his car had recently been repaired in a garage, and someone may have tried to break into it there. "Does it make sense I'd let my wife and child use a car full of explosives?" he asked.

A police spokesman told Israel Radio that the car would be checked thoroughly in the Israeli Police's crime lab, and that all possibilities were being investigated.

Last night a group of some 50 settlers tried to break into the Hebron police station in which Federman was being held for questioning. The settlers threw stones and eggs at the policeman, lightly injuring one. Federman was later released.

An unnamed security source cited in Maariv said he feared that acts of revenge by Jewish extremists against Palestinians in Hebron were imminent. The next Baruch Goldstein has never been this close," the source said, referring to the Hebron resident who killed 29 Muslim worshippers in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1994.