Anniversary of the Goldstein Massacre in Hebron

by Charles Lenchner · 2009-02-27 09:27:00 UTC
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On this day, fifteen years ago, Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein entered the Cave of the Patriarchs, a site holy for Jews and Muslims, and opened fire on the Palestinian worshipers. Thirty-three people were murdered that day. Yesterday, Palestinians and foriegn guests marked the sad anniversary with a candle light vigil. The Israeli army responded by declaring the event a closed military zone, blocking a group of Israelis invited to attend and detaining six of them.

This is an important anniversary in the aftermath of the bloody invasion of Gaza and the rise of Hamas. In 1994, Hamas was in a much weaker position. It was nowhere near the ability to win in a democratic election, as happened in 2006. It had not yet adopted the tactic of suicide bombing, with only one such attack taking place in the organizations entire history in 1993, and none in the eleven months before the Goldstein massacre.

On April 6th, 1994, a Hamas operative blew himself up next to a bus in Hadera, killing eight Israeli civilians. The press communique from Hamas read: "You turned our Id al-Fitr [the end of Ramadan] into a black day, so we vow to turn your Independence day into Hell."

In other words, one can say that the tactic of sacrificing oneself in the effort to murder as many civilians as possible was pioneered by this US born, Jewish-fundamentalist Israeli settler. As disturbing was the years long effort to honor him by the local settler community with a memorial. Despite laws against supporting or promoting terrorism, the IDF allowed it to remain in place for many years. (It was finally removed, after six years, in 2000.)

Charles Lenchner
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