Gruenwald-Kastner Trial 1954

In 1954, the Attorney General of Israel, Haim Cohen, filed a lawsuit against Malkiel Gruenwald, the Jerusalem journalist of Hungarian origin, on the charge of publishing a pamphlet which claimed that Dr. Rudolf Kastner, who was serving then in a public position, had collaborated with the German occupation forces in Hungary. Kastner had been a Jewish public leader in Hungary and a member of the Vaad Hatzala in Budapest at the time of the war. At the end of the war, Kastner had emigrated to Israel, become integrated as an active member of the Mapai Party (Workers Party of Eretz Israel) and served in public office.

Judge Benyamin Halevi ruled in his verdict that Kastner had indeed collaborated with the German authorities and he found Gruenwald innocent of the charges of libel in most of the paragraphs of which he was charged. The verdict raised a storm within the Israeli public and even led to a parliamentary crisis.

On 04 March 1957 Kastner was murdered by three young Israelis. After Kastner's death, the appeal regarding Judge Halevi's verdict which had been entered by the Attorney General of Israel was accepted.