Attack in Hebron – Letter from Israel

Letter dated 11 July 1983 from the Permanent Representative of Israel

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I wish to draw your urgent attention to an outrage, perpetrated on 7 July 1983, in which Aharon Gross, a student at the Religious Seminary in Hebron, was brutally stabbed to death by a number of assailants in the town’s market place.

It will be recalled that this is not the first instance of an attack on religious seminary students or Jewish residents of Hebron (see my letter of

5 February and 5 May 1980 (A/35/86-5/13781 and A/35/207-5/13923) respectively).

As recently as October 1982, a resident of the neighbouring town of Kiryat Arba was attacked as he left a local synagogue, sustaining severe stab

wounds.

Since 1980 and until this latest murder, Hebron has see” a series of disruptions and hostile terrorist actions, of which the wanton slaying of

Aharon Gross is one of the most despicable examples.

Moreover, the record shows that this latest outrage is the culmination of various attempts to disrupt order in Judea and Samaria by violent means over an extended period of time. The following instances constitute a small sample of the ongoing violence directed against civilian Jewish targets in Judea and Samaria:

On 29 January 1983, 22-year old Esther Ochana was mortally wounded when the car in which she was travelling was stoned south of Hebron. Esther Ochana died of her injuries in hospital on 12 February 1983.

On 14 February 1983, an official of the civil administration in Judea and Samaria was wounded in Ramallah by stone-throwing residents of the town.

On 17 February 1983, a fire-bomb was hurled at a passenger bus carrying Israel civilians near the village of Arabe, in the Jenin district. There were no injuries.

On 13 March 1983, two tourists were wounded when the bus in which they were travelling was stoned by local residents of the town of Dahariya.

On 11 and 16 May 1983, a total of six fire-bombs were hurled from a local girls' school at a passenger bus travelling from Jerusalem to Kiryat Arba. Providentially, there were no casualties.

Against this background, and in the wake of the latest violent bloodshed in Hebron, the Israel authorities dismissed the appointed mayor of the town, Mustafa Natshe, and the members of the City Council. The appointed mayor and Council members contributed in word and deed to the encouragement of the attacks and disturbances. They also boycotted the Civil Administration since its establishment and refrained from co-operating ,with it. During the period that Mustafa Natshe and the Council members headed the Hebron Municipality, administrative irregularities and criminal offences were recorded.

Beyond the immediate objective of indiscriminate violence, the aim of this latest unconscionable and cold-blooded ,killing was to fan the flames of religious fanaticism and to incite still further hostilities.

I have the honour to request that this letter be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 34 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Yehuda Z. BLUM

Ambassador

Permanent Representative of Israel

to the United Nations

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* A/38/50/Rev.l.

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