mid-east: Bomb author jailed

A Jewish extremist who wrote a book in praise of Baruch Goldstein, the Hebron mosque massacre gunman, has been jailed for eight months. A Jerusalem magistrate said the book, Baruch, the Hero was an incitement to racism.

Michael Ben Horin, the author, was sentenced to eight months for supporting a terrorist organisation, while two men who helped him to write it were fined and given suspended sentences.

Judge Yaakov Tzaban said the three were no different from the Muslim extremists who praise Islamic militant suicide bombers, the Yediot Ahronot daily said. "The book turns an act of terror into an act of bravery, and the perpetrator of this act into a hero ... a society wanting to prevent terrorism cannot allow such a publication," Judge Tzaban said.

In February 1994, the Brooklyn-born Goldstein turned an automatic rifle onMuslim worshippers kneeling in prayer in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank town of Hebron. He killed 29 Palestinians before being beaten to death. The most militant among Jewish settlers have praised Goldstein as a hero, and his grave has become a site of pilgrimage.

- AP Jerusalem