April 27, 1984
After a two-year investigation, the Shin Bet (the Israeli security service) arrests 15 members of the Jewish Underground in connection with a plot to sabotage five Arab buses in East Jerusalem. In the subsequent days, 12 more members of Gush Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful) are arrested for a series of plots and crimes, including violent attacks on two West Bank mayors, the murders of three Hebron college students and a plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Authorities find a cache of stolen IDF weapons and explosives in the Kiryat Arba settlement outside Hebron.
Although members of the Jewish Underground are convicted and sentenced to life in prison, President Chaim Herzog grants them clemency so that they serve no more than 10 years.
The 1970s and 1980s saw the growth of Jewish religious fundamentalism in Israel after the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1978 Camp David Accords. Many of the fundamentalists live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip because they believe that Jewish law forbids Israel from relinquishing any territory. Gush Emunim is one such fundamentalist organization.
After the Camp David Accords, some members of Gush Emunim were distraught that Israel was willing to return all of Sinai to Egypt and to discuss Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza. Two of their members, Yehuda Etzion and Yeshua Ben Shoshan, led the formation of the militant Jewish Underground.
