Statement by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin on the 1994 Murders in Hebron

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Statement by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin on the 1994 Murders in Hebron

Speech

Date: February 25, 1994

Source: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Archive available at: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/.

About the Author: Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem on March 1, 1922 . Elected as head of the Labor Party, Rabin served as Prime Minister from 1974 to 1977. As part of a national unity government, Rabin served as Minister of Defense from 1984 to 1990. In response to the First Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in 1987, Rabin directed Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to respond "promptly and vigorously" to Palestinian assaults. In 1992 Rabin's Labour Party returned to power and he returned to act as Prime Minister. Rabin stated that reaching a peace accord with the Palestinians was a top priority of his government. Eventually Rabin entered negotiations with the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) headed by Yassar Arafat and under Rabin, the Oslo Agreement was signed in September 1993. The agreement guaranteed Palestinians a five year period of self-rule while Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, Jericho, and later from territories in the West Bank. Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Arafat shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for their agreement. Rabin's peace policy enraged some sectors of Israeli society who opposed compromise with the PLO and withdrawal from the territories. On November 4, 1995, a young Jewish student, Yigal Amir, shot and mortally wounded Rabin.

INTRODUCTION

The new global era ushered in by the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the subsequent collapse of the USSR and its empire of satellite states and strategic alliances transformed the two-nation geopolitical system—with the Soviet Union and United States constantly competing for preeminence—to a unipolar, American-led international system. In the Middle East, this quickly manifested itself with Arab states, previously supported by Soviet military and economic aid, realigning themselves with the United States and the West. So quick was this transformation that when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, former Soviet allies—such as Syria—were brought into an alliance with the West.

This realignment of U.S.-Arab relations was invariably followed by a reassessment of U.S.-Israeli relations. Previously the mainstay of U.S. strategic planning in the region, Israel had ceased to assume the same importance with the end of the Cold War—a fact heightened by the readiness of Arab states to align themselves with the West during the first Gulf War. From being a prized asset, Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza proved problematic to U.S.-Arab diplomacy. This precipitated a renewed urgency for a diplomatic settlement to the seemingly unsolvable Arab-Israeli conflict.

Moves toward a solution were initiated at U.S.-Russian sponsored talks held in Madrid in October 1991 and heightened in the following year by the election of a Labor government in Israel. The new Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, showed a greater readiness toward reconciliation than his hawkish predecessor, Itzhak Shamir. Talks were staged in Oslo, Norway, throughout 1993, where the Declaration of Principles (DOP) was agreed upon between the Israeli and Palestinian parties. The DOP—also known as the Oslo accords (later Oslo-A)—outlined arrangements for interim self-government, elections of a Palestinian council, and concessions in the West Bank, and was signed by Rabin and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993.

The majority of Israelis were willing to give Rabin's vision for peace a chance, but the religious right was quick to frame the Oslo process in religious terms. The West Bank was presented as a sacred land and many religious leaders argued that Israeli withdrawal constituted the surrender of Jewish people's religious heritage.

For ultra-right Jewish sects, and extremist organizations, such as Kach, who favored the restoration of the biblical state of Israel, the Oslo accords were totally unacceptable. Between them, they staged a noisy campaign opposing the Oslo agreements, which sometimes teetered into violence.

Part of the Israeli right's campaign was to increase the number of Jewish settlements on occupied territory. The aims were twofold: in the short term it would bring biblical lands into Jewish hands; long term it promised to complicate any handover of territories to the Palestinians. Life in the settlements, however, was filled with danger. Most had few basic amenities, and they were often isolated from other Israeli urban communities. As such, they represented easy targets for Palestinian extremists, who attacked them regularly.

One man who apparently suffered at the hands of such attacks was the physician Baruch Kappel Goldstein. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in December 1956, Goldstein immigrated to Israel and served as a physician in the Israeli Defense Forces. He later became a member of Kach and was a West Bank settler. A friend of Goldstein's, as well as the man's son, were murdered by Palestinians in December 1993, which apparently served as a prompt for Goldstein to bring his beliefs into horrific action.

On Friday, February 25, 1994, Goldstein approached the Cave of Patriarchs, a site in the city of Hebron holy to both Muslims and Jews. Friday marked the Muslim day of prayer and around five hundred men were praying. Armed with a submachine gun, Goldstein opened fire, killing twenty-nine worshipers and injuring another hundred. He was eventually overcome by survivors and beaten to death.

A few hours after the massacre, Prime Minister Rabin issued the following statement which condemned Goldstein's act of religious terrorism.

PRIMARY SOURCE

STATEMENT BY PRIME MINISTER RABIN, 25 FEBRUARY 1994.

A loathsome, criminal act of murder was committed today at a site holy to both Jews and Arabs in Hebron.

The Prime Minister and Defence Minister, government ministers and citizens of the State of Israel severely condemn this terrible murder of innocent people, which occurred during Ramadan prayer services.

On behalf of the government and myself, I wish to express our sorrow over the incident and extend condolences to the families of those who were killed and to the Palestinian people, and wish a full and speedy recovery to the wounded.

We call on everyone, Arab and Jew alike, to act with restraint and to not be drawn into committing further acts which could worsen the situation.

The ministers of the political-security cabinet will be meeting this afternoon to discuss the situation in light of this terrible act.

This is a difficult day for all those, Jews and Arabs, who seek peace. However, the crazed actions of disturbed individuals will not prevent the reconciliation between the citizens of the State of Israel and the Palestinian people.

We will do everything necessary to advance the peace talks, to prevent misunderstandings, to remove obstacles in the way and to reach, together, the day of peace; the day on which extremists on both sides will lose all hope of damaging the peace process.

The IDF and security forces have been given instructions to do all they legally can to maintain public order and prevent further incidents and bloodshed.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Hebron massacre provoked repulsion on both sides of the Arab-Israeli divide. Rioting in the wake of the carnage led to the deaths of a further twenty-six Palestinians and two Israelis.

The Israeli government and most movements within Judaism publicly denounced Goldstein's actions as an act of terrorism. The Kach movement, however, though denying any knowledge of Goldstein's plans, gloried in his actions, claiming that he had prevented the mass murder of Jews by Arabs. The inscription on his tombstone reflects how his supporters regarded his actions:

"Here lies the Saint, Dr. Baruch Kappel Goldstein, blessed be the memory of this righteous and holy man, may the Lord avenge his blood, who devoted his soul to the Jews, Jewish religion, and Jewish land. His hands are innocent and his heart is pure. He was killed as a martyr of God."

Israel's government moved quickly to outlaw Kach and in 1998, the Knesset (the Israeli legislature) passed a bill forbidding the erection of monuments to terrorists. Two years later a small shrine surrounding Goldstein's tomb was demolished.

After Goldstein's murders, the Hamas movement (a group of Palestinian Islamic fundamentalists), which had previously focused its attacks against Palestinian collaborators and the Israeli army, radically switched tactics and began to copy the civilian-targeted suicide bomb attacks of Lebanon's Hezbollah. Invariably, this led to an upsurge in confrontation between the Palestinians and Israelis, further polarizing the two camps and within them severely testing patience with the peace process.

Rabin pressed on with the Oslo process, although orthodox and nationalist organizations harshly criticized him, and each Hamas bombing made moderate sections of the Israeli population further question the value of the peace process.

The result of this conflict between the religious right and Rabin came on November 4, 1995. Leaving a peace rally in Tel Aviv, Rabin was assassinated by Yigal Amir, a devoutly religious student, acting on his conviction that Jewish law required the death of any Jew who turned over Jewish land to the enemy.

Rabin's assassination left negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians suspended. Not for another four years would serious efforts be made to resurrect them.