Mideast situation/Attacks – Letter from Israel

Identical letters dated 17 October 2005 from the Chargé d’affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

  I am writing to draw your attention to another wave of fatal terrorist drive-by shootings perpetrated against Israeli citizens this weekend.

  Yesterday, Palestinian terrorists associated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade drove through Gush Etzion junction and opened automatic fire on a group of young Israeli citizens waiting for transportation. The terrorists murdered Kinneret Mandel, a 23-year-old Israeli woman; Matat Adler-Rosenfeld, her 21-year-old newly-wed cousin; and Oz Ben-Meir, a 15-year-old Israeli boy who had just begun high school.

  Less than an hour later, Palestinian terrorists again carried out a drive-by shooting, this time at the Eli Junction in Binyamin. In this attack, terrorists fired at Israeli teenagers walking by the roadside, wounding a 14-year-old critically.

 These heinous attacks serve as a reminder that terrorism remains the stumbling block to any future peace. Any advancement towards forging a real, lasting peace is inconceivable so long as terrorists are allowed to target Israelis and their children.

  Israel calls upon the Palestinian Authority to reaffirm its commitment to fighting and eliminating terrorism and immediately take whatever steps are necessary to achieve those goals. The elimination of terrorism is the first and most fundamental step towards peace. Particularly after new momentum was created by Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, it is imperative that the Palestinian Authority live up to its commitments.

  Furthermore, Israel urges the international community to reiterate its intolerance of terrorism in the strongest terms and to demand from the Palestinian Authority that it take immediate and comprehensive steps to effectively prevent Palestinian terrorism.

  I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter circulated as a document of the sixtieth session of the General Assembly under agenda items 14 and 108.

(Signed) Daniel Carmon 

Ambassador

Chargé d’affaires a.i.

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