Cave of the Patriarchs massacre

On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli supporting the militant religious Zionist Kach party, 


  shot Muslim worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque.* 



  29 were killed and 125 wounded. Goldstein was beaten to death by the crowd.George J. Church,"When Fury Rules", Time 7 March 1994 

Events

February 25, 1994 was the same date for the Jewish festival of Purim and the Muslim Ramadan. Both Jews and Muslims were allowed to visit their respective parts of the compound. Goldstein was dressed in army uniform, holding an IMI Galil assault rifle when he entered the Hall of Issac where 800 Muslims were praying.Yoram Peri, The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Stanford University Press, 2000 p. 101. After he opened fire, someone threw a fire extinguisher at him, allowing others to disarm and beat him to death.

There were contradictory reports. Some survivors alleged that "another man, also dressed as a soldier, handing him ammunition","Hebron Massacre: Hell comes to a holy place", The Independent (London), 27 February 1994  while some alleged that Israeli guards shot the crowd, which was denied by the Israeli government, and was attributed to panic and confusion in handling the mass shooting.

Aftermath

Terrorist attacks in Israel

Riots happened afterwards. 20 Palestinians were killed and 120 wounded. Palestinian militants, including the Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, retaliated against Jews. Eight civilians were killed and 55 wounded in the Afula Bus suicide bombing on April 6. Six more were killed and 30 wounded in the Hadera bus station suicide bombing. 

Terrorist attacks in the United States

On March 1, 1994, four days following the mass shooting, Lebanese immigrant Rashid Baz fired at a van of 15 Chabad Orthodox Jewish students, killing one and wounding three others. Baz was heard chanting in Arabic "Kill the Jews", expressing revenge for the mass shooting. Baz's shooting was considered antisemitic, with Baz sentenced to 141 years in prison.

Reactions

Israeli government

The Kach party was banned after supporting Goldstein.In the Spotlight: Kach and Kahane Chai Center for Defense Information, 1 October 2002  Speaking at the Knesset, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin condemned Goldstein:

You are not part of the community of Israel [...] You are not part of the national democratic camp which we all belong to in this house, and many of the people despise you. You are not partners in the Zionist enterprise. You are a foreign implant. You are an errant weed. Sensible Judaism spits you out. You placed yourself outside the wall of Jewish law [...] We say to this horrible man and those like him: you are a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism.

Israeli public

Goldstein's act was widely condemned by the Israeli public. The Jewish Settler Council condemned the act as "not Jewish, not humane". A poll found that 78.8% of Israeli adults condemned Goldstein's act, while 3.6% praised Goldstein. A 2023 poll showed that 10% of Israeli Jews considered Goldstein a hero, 57% as a terrorist, and the rest were undecided. 

Ehud Sprinzak, an expert on terrorism, said that anti-Jewish violence, which came with the calls of "kill the Jew",Jones, C., (1999). ‘Ideo-Theology and the Jewish State: From Conflict to Conciliation?’ British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1 (May, 1999) 9-26Marsden, S., (2013). How terrorism ends : understanding the outcomes of violent political contestation. PhD thesis, (St. Andrews: University of St. Andrews) had radicalized Goldstein.Sprinzak, E., (1998). ‘Extremism and Violence in Israel: The Crisis of Messianic Politics’ The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Jan., 1998, Vol. 555, Israel in Transition (Jan., 1998), 114-126. As a follower of Meir Kahane, Goldstein found Kahane's messages aligned with his own experiences, making him consider the Arabs a threat to be addressed violently.

Religious figures

Most religious leaders condemned Goldstein's act. The Sephardi Chief Rabbi said that "I am simply ashamed that a Jew carried out such a villainous and irresponsible act", and suggested that he be buried outside the cemetery. His Ashkenazi counterpart, Yisrael Meir Lau, called it "a desecration of God's name". 

Some rabbis, however, endorsed Goldstein's act. At Goldstein's funeral, Rabbi Yaacov Perrin said that even one million Arabs are "not worth a Jewish fingernail". Meanwhile, Rabbi Israel Ariel called Goldstein a "holy martyr", questioning the victims' innocence by holding them responsible for the massacre of Hebron's Jews in 1929. Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba called Goldstein a saint whose "hands are innocent, his heart pure", comparing him to the martyrs of the Holocaust.

Jewish diaspora

Britain's Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks stated:The Jewish Chronicle (London) 4 March 1994, p. 1 and then expanded on p. 23

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 [...] Violence is evil. Violence committed in the name of God is doubly evil. Violence against those engaged in worshipping God is unspeakably evil.

An editorial in The Jewish Chronicle penned by Chaim Bermant condemned the Kach party to which Goldstein belonged as "Neo-Nazis" and a U.S. creation, funded by American money and a product of American gun culture.Chaim Bermant "Has one settler settled the settlers future?" in The Jewish Chronicle (London), 4 March 1994 The same edition also reported that some British Liberal synagogues had raised funds for Goldstein's victims.The Jewish Chronicle (London), 4 March 1994

United Nations

The United Nations Security Council adopted the United Nations Security Council Resolution 904 to condemn Goldstein's act, calling for the protection of Palestinians, including disarming Israeli settlers.

Footnotes

References

Category:Mass shootings in the 1990s