Mideast situation/Attacks – Letter from Israel

Letter dated 21 June 2002 from the Permanent Representative of Israel

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I wish to draw your attention to the latest incidents in the ongoing Palestinian campaign of terrorism against the citizens of Israel.

Shortly after 9:00 p.m. (local time) last night, two Palestinian terrorists, armed with assault rifles and hand grenades, infiltrated the community of Itamar, broke into a private home, and opened fire on the family inside. When security forces arrived, the terrorists engaged them in an intense gunfight that continued for over an hour until the terrorists were subdued. Among the dead were Rachel Shabo and three of her children: Neria, age 16, Zvika, age 12, and Avishai, age 5; two other Shabo children were among the eight Israelis wounded in the attack. Yosef Tuwito, a security guard, was killed when he tried to come to the aid of the Shabo family. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group headquartered in Damascus, claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Wednesday evening, at approximately 7:00 p.m. (local time), a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a neighbourhood of northern Jerusalem. It was the third suicide bombing in Israel in as many days, and the second in Jerusalem within 36 hours. After disembarking from a car, a Palestinian terrorist began running towards a bus stop crowded with several dozen people. Israeli policemen were attempting to stop him when he detonated charges packed with nails and other projectiles designed to increase the pain and suffering of the victims. The force of the explosion killed 7 Israelis, several of them teenagers, as well as an infant girl; 43 others were wounded, one of them critically. The Al Aqsa Brigades, an internationally recognized terrorist organization under the authority of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement sent to Hizbullah’s Al Manar television station in Lebanon.

Among those affected by Wednesday’s bombing were three generations of women from the same family. Noa Alon, age 60, was walking with her daughter Penina and two grandchildren — 5-year-old Gal and 18-month-old Sagi — at the time of the explosion. Noa, who was walking ahead of the others, bore the brunt of the explosion and died of her wounds. Gal, whose small body could not withstand the force, was also killed. Penina, suffering from a head wound and other scratches and bruises, is recovering in a Jerusalem hospital.

The Government of Israel holds the Palestinian Authority fully responsible for these attacks. The Palestinian Authority’s financial, organizational and ideological support for terrorism continues unabated while it continues its attempts to obscure such support through disingenuous renunciations of terrorism issued for the benefit of Western audiences. Chairman Arafat’s apparent condemnations betray the fact that he has not fundamentally rejected the legitimacy of murdering Israeli civilians, but rather is concerned that such acts “have given the Israeli Government the excuse” to take defensive measures. That Wednesday’s bombing was perpetrated by members of Chairman Arafat’s own Fatah faction serves to further underscore the insincerity of Chairman Arafat’s statements and the depth of official Palestinian involvement in the murder of Israeli civilians.

Israel continues to await any steps by the Palestinian side that might prevent further acts of terrorism, including action to arrest and disarm members of its own forces, as well as those of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups currently planning to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians. No agreement capable of addressing the legitimate needs and aspirations of both sides will be possible so long as terrorism remains the chosen tactic of the Palestinian leadership. Until such time as the Palestinian leadership genuinely renounces terrorism and is prepared to use its authority to fight rather than promote terrorism, Israel will be left with no choice but to act in accordance with its legitimate right to self-defence in order to protect its citizens from the constant threat of Palestinian terrorism.

I submit this letter in follow-up to my numerous letters detailing the campaign of Palestinian terrorism that began in September 2000.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter circulated as a document of the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 166, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Yehuda Lancry
Permanent Representative

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