NEWS Metzger Begins Serving Jail Term Lovely, affordable homes... tree-lined streets... warm and friendly neighbors... all await you and your family! You may be able to purchase your own home in Oak Park or Southfield with the help of The Neighborhood Project. THE Rif J 0° ‘413 44*:q. (), For information, call 967-1112. SPONSORED BY THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 1992 Los Angeles (JTA) — White supremacist leader Tom Metzger began serving a six-month jail term for his part in a cross-burning eight years ago. The sentence is Mr. Met- zger's first ever despite decades of anti-Semitic and anti-black activities. The founder of the White Aryan Resistance and former grand dragon of the California Ku Klux Klan was taken into custody by Los Angeles County mar- shals after he was unable to raise $100,000 bail. A judgment of $9 million was rendered in 1990 against Mr. Metzger, his son John and WAR, in a civil suit brought for inciting skinheads to attack and kill an Ethiopian man in Portland, Ore. The California judge, J.D. Smith, refused to release Mr. Metzger on his own recognizance, pending ap- peal. He sharply repri- manded him for using the trial as a platform for his racist views. "What galls the court most is (that) Mr. Metzger con- tinues to tell the world," said Mr. Smith, that his con- viction was based on his philosophy. "That's not true," he said. "This was a simple trial." Even as he was led away, Mr. Metzger was trumpeting his beliefs. "I'm prepared to go to jail. I've got a lot of friends in jail already," he boasted. He added that "it doesn't do much good to kill the messenger because the word is out. White people are piss- ed off all over the world." Mr. Metzger, 53, was among 15 hooded and robed men arrested eight years ago during a ceremony in which the participants shouted racist slogans, gave Nazi salutes and burned three towering crosses in a canyon overlooking the Los Angeles suburb of Lake View Ter- race. Prosecutors charged that the ceremony was intended to provoke violent clashes, unite several white racist groups and intimidate black and other residents of the racially mixed community. After an 11-week trial, the jury convicted Mr. Metzger on one misdemeanor count of unlawful assembly. Besides the jail sentence, the judge imposed a $200 fine and or- dered the veteran racist to perform 200 hours of corn- munity service with organ- izations that work with minorities or in a hospital. Mr. Metzger will be held in a one-man cell in an isolated area of the jail to protect him from other inmates. For his additional safety, he will be escorted by two sheriff's deputies each time he leaves his cell, according to defense attorney Kevin Avery. Prosecutor Joan Phillips said the conviction and jail- ing of Mr. Metzger sent a strong message that cross- burning and other racist be- havior will not be tolerated in Los Angeles County. "We like to think that the prosecution impeded the Klan's activity here in California," Mr. Phillips said. Abie Nathan Petition Made Paris (JTA) — More than 700 French scientists and scholars have signed a peti- tion to Israeli Prime Min- ister Yitzhak Shamir urging the immediate release of peace activist Abie Nathan from jail. . Mr. Nathan was sentenced in October to 18 months in prison for meeting with Palestine Liberation Organ- ization chief Yassir Arafat in Tunis in June, as well as other meetings with PLO of- ficials. It is the second time this year that he has been jailed for the same offense. Israeli law forbids contacts with the PLO. The petition stated that "the undersigned consider that this sentence is a penal- ty for an act intended to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which is essential for the future of Israel, as well as for all the people of the area." The petition urged repeal of the law. The signatories included prominent philosophers and sociologists active in Jewish life, who usually refrain from making political statements in public. The petition, with copies to President Chaim Herzog of Israel and Israeli Justice Minister Dan Meridor, was handed to the minister plenipotentiary at the Israeli Embassy in Paris, Yitzhak Eldan. Last month, leaders of the Reform Jewish movement in the United States called on the Shamir government to free Mr. Nathan.