Cave of the Patriarchs massacre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See also Hebron massacre (disambiguation)

The Cave of the Patriarchs attack occurred on February 25, 1994 in the southern West Bank city of Hebron. It is also known as the Mosque of Abraham massacre or the Hebron massacre or the Purim massacre.

The killings were perpetrated by Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli-American settler and off-duty IDF army reservist^{[1] [2]} and member of the extremist Kahanist movement. A total of 29 Palestinian Muslims were killed and another 125 injured, with Goldstein himself also being killed. In the aftermath, violent protests broke out across the Middle East and several dozen more Palestinians and several Israelis were killed in clashes and attacks. The massacre occurred during the overlapping Jewish and Muslim religious holidays of Purim and Ramadan. Israel immediately condemned the attack and the attacker, and paid compensation to the families of the victims.^[3][4]

Contents 1 The massacre 2 Response 2.1 Israeli government 2.1.1 Shamgar Commission 2.2 Jewish diaspora 2.3 Protests and violence 2.4 Other reactions 3 References 4 External references

[edit] The massacre

The Cave of the Patriarchs is divided into two sections, one for Jewish worshippers and the other for Muslim worshippers. The section for the Jewish worshippers includes the Abraham Hall, which is also used for brit milah ceremonies, and the Jacob Hall. A Yeshivah has also been set up. Numerous Jewish religious services take place every day in this section of the Cave. The section for Muslim worshippers includes the much larger Isaac Hall. On ten days in the year the entire cave is reserved for the exclusive use of Jewish worshippers and on ten other days in the year for the exclusive use of Muslim worshippers.

At 05:00 a.m. on February 25, eight hundred Palestinian Muslims passed through the east gate of the cave to participate in Fajr, the first of the five daily Islamic prayers.^[1] The cave was under Israeli Army guard, but of the nine soldiers supposed to have been on duty, four were late turning up and only one officer was there. ^[2]

Shortly afterwards Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement and member of the extremist Kahanist movement, entered the Isaac Hall of the cave. He was dressed in his army uniform and carrying an IMI Galil assault rifle and four magazines of ammunition, which held 35 rounds each. He was not stopped by the guards, who assumed that he was an officer entering the tomb to pray in an adjacent chamber reserved for Jews.^[3]

Standing in front of the only exit from the cave and positioned to the rear of the Muslim worshippers, he opened fire with the weapon, killing 29 people and injuring another 125, that is 154 casualties with 140 rounds. He was eventually overwhelmed by survivors, who beat him to death. Israeli Attorney General refused to prosecute those who killed Goldstein after disarming him.^[4][5][6][7]

Reports after the massacre were inevitably highly confused. In particular, there was uncertainty about whether Goldstein had acted alone; it was reported that eyewitnesses had seen "another man, also dressed as a soldier, handing him ammunition." ^[8] There were also reports that he had thrown grenades into the worshippers. ^[9] The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat claimed that the attack was the work of up to 12 men, including Israeli troops. However, a preliminary Israeli Army investigation, and the more thorough commission later set up, found that there had been no use of grenades and that Goldstein had acted alone without the assistance or connivance of the Israeli guards posted at the cave. ^[10]

[edit] Response

[edit] Israeli government

Goldstein's actions were immediately condemned by the Israeli government, the mainstream Israeli parties and the Israeli populace in general. Spokespeople for all the organized denominations of Judaism denounced his act as immoral and as terrorism. The Kach movement, to which he belonged, was outlawed as a terrorist organization. The cabinet agreed to take away the weapons of some right-wing extremists and put them in administrative detention.

In an address to the Knesset, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin denounced the US-born Goldstein as a "foreign implant" and an "errant weed." He continued, "We say to this horrible man and those like him: you are a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism." Binyamin Netanyahu, head of the right of centre Likud party declared, "This was a despicable crime. I express my unequivocal condemnation." ^[5]

[edit] Shamgar Commission

The Israeli government appointed an official and independent commission of inquiry headed by then president of the Supreme Court, Judge Meir Shamgar. It found that:

• Goldstein acted alone in planning the massacre, telling no one of his scheme. ^[11]
• Coordination between the IDF, the police, and the Civil Administration was problematic.
• The political leadership and security forces could not have been expected to predict the massacre.
• Testimony from survivors referring to IDF assistance and grenade explosions in the massacre was found to be contradictory and inconsistent; investigators did not find any grenade fragments. ^[12]

[edit] Jewish diaspora

In Britain the Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks stated "Such an act is an obscenity and a travesty of Jewish values. That it should have been perpetrated against worshippers in a house of prayer at a holy time makes it a blasphemy as well." He continued, "Violence is evil. Violence committed in the name of God is doubly evil. Violence against those engaged in worshipping God is unspeakably evil." ^[6]

An editorial in The Jewish Chronicle written by Chaim Bermant denounced the Kach organisation to which Goldstein belonged as "Neo-Nazis" and a U.S. creation, funded by American money and a product of American gun culture.^[7] The same edition also reported that some liberal synagogues in the UK had begun fund-raising for Goldstein's victims. ^[8]

[edit] Protests and violence

Angry mobs began rioting in the aftermath of the massacre, which led to the deaths of 26 more Palestinians and 9 Israelis. In Amman, Jordan, 77-year-old British tourist Howard Long was stabbed by Arab protesters. The attacker, Khalid Husni Al-Korashi, was subsequently arrested and the Jordanian Interior Ministry called for its citizens to show calm and restraint in their response^[9].

[edit] Other reactions

Goldstein is not known to have given any reasons for his actions. However, immediately after the attack, Mike Guzofsky, spokesman for Kahane Chai in New York and a close friend of Goldstein said, "He wanted to stop the peace process dead. He couldn't have picked a better day – Purim, when Jews fight back." ^[10]

At Goldstein's eulogy Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba stated: "Goldstein could not continue to bear all the cases he was seeing as a doctor; he might have gone insane from all he went through." ^[11]

A poll of 500 Israeli adults for the International Centre for Peace in the Middle East found that 78.8 percent of people condemned the Hebron massacre while 3.6 percent praised Goldstein^[12]

[edit] References

1. ^  Report of Shamgar Commission p. 15; Timetable of Events, Exhibit 14, (ISA 7645/1-1/gimmel)
2. ^  Evidence of Al-Mutlab Natshe, Cave of Machpelah, 25 February 1994, Exhibit 245, (Israel State Archives 7645/1-7/gimmel); Exhibit 824, op. cit.
3. ^  Evidence of Al-Mutlab Natshe, Hebron Police Station, 31 October 1994, (Frishtik file)
4. ^  Minutes of Shamgar Commission p. 2109
5. ^  Pathologist's Report, 27 February 1994, Exhibit 1094, (Israel State Archives 7647/3-25/gimmel); see also Exhibit 162, p.2, op. cit.
6. ^  Middle East Journal, Chronology, vol 48, no 3 (Summer 1994) p511ff.
7. ^  Commission of Inquiry Into the Massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron - Excerpts from the Report
8. ^  Report of Shamgar Commission pp. 79, 223
9. ^  Clipping from Yediot Achronot, Exhibit 680, (Israel State Archives 7646/2-14/gimmel); Yediot Achronot, 25 February 1994, supplement, p.6; see also submission no. 42, op. cit.
10. ^  "Hebron Massacre: Hell comes to a holy place", The Independent (London), 27 February 1994
11. ^  "Massacre at the mosque", The Guardian (London), 26 February 1994
12. ^  "Security failed, says army", The Guardian (London), 28 February 1994

[edit] External references

• The Massacre: A Dictionary on Ynet
• The Background and Consequences of the Massacre in Hebron, by Israel Shahak in Middle East Policy, 1994