Tel Aviv District Court Justice Adi Azar, 49, was murdered in front of his Tel Aviv home last night. The only judge to have ever been murdered in Israel, police say they are not concentrating on the terrorist angle - despite indications to the contrary.
A gunman traveling on a motorcycle fired three shots at Judge Azar as he was sitting in his car in front of his home on HaTzorfim Street in Ramat HaSharon. His body was found shortly afterwards by his 15-year-old son, Tom, the second of his three children.
The Al-Aqsa Brigade of Fatah took responsibility shortly afterwards, linking it to the death earlier yesterday of a senior Hizbullah terrorist in a Beirut suburb. Hizbullah blamed Israel for the attack, vowing revenge.
Strengthening the terrorist-angle suspicions was the fact - reported by Ynet - that for the past two weeks, Tel Aviv area court guards have been briefed that the most up-to-date warnings say terrorist organizations plan to kill judges using guns with silencers. Judge Azar was murdered in precisely that fashion.
Judge Azar recently ruled against the Palestinian Authority, seizing tens of millions of shekels owed to Israel's Egged bus corporation.
Despite all the above, police say they are concentrating on two other avenues of investigation: personal, and on a more minor level, criminal. No other details on the investigation are forthcoming.
Justice Minister Yosef Lapid convened an emergency meeting in his office this morning. MK Atty. Roni Bar-On (Likud) said that the crisis this murder could cause "is no less than that caused by the murder of Yitzchak Rabin." Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishki said last night that if in fact the murder of Judge Azar was connected with his professional work, "this is an escalation, and a grave threat to the rule of law in Israel." Prime Minister Sharon, too, speaking from the Knesset podium, expressed deep shock at the murder. Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, however, said that we must not be "so quick to eulogize Israeli law and order."