Isareli artist trial of grave defacing

An Israeli artist went on trial yesterday for defacing the grave of Baruch Goldstein, the US-born Jewish settler who slaughtered 29 Muslim worshipers in the west bank city of Hebron in 1994. Artist Avraham Paso splattered black paint and broke memorial lamps at Goldstein's tomb, a pilgrimage site for militant Jews, in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, adjacent to Hebron.

He defaced the grave, after a religious Jew opposed to peace deals with the Palestinians assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin two years ago.

"I saw it as a personal protest three days after the murder of a prime minister emerging from a deep pain," Paso told Israeli army Radio outside the Jerusalem magistrates courtroom yesterday. Left-wingers who are opposed to putting Paso on trial scuffled with right-wing militants, witnesses said, Al Ahrar daily said today.