The Israelis’ Emblem Remains the Same since the Al-Khaleel Massacre

By Ahmad Hamada (translated from Arabic)
Damascus newspaper Al-Thawra
No. 11721
22 February 2002

In the early morning of Friday, 25 February 1994, while hundreds of Palestinian Arab Muslims were having their “Salat” prayers at the holy main mosque of the city Al-Khaleel, an Israeli physician, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, who was supported by four other Jewish extremists, started randomly shooting non-Jews.  The outcome of his actions was horrible: 67 dead and 225 people with serious injuries.

This ugly, terrorist-crime was naught but a small link in the long series of similar acts.  These Zionist terrorist invasions have been steadily occurring for a long time: Deir Yassin, 1948; Kafir Kassem, 1956; ongoing in Occupied Palestine; Sabra; Chatilla; Kana; and Lebanon.  Yet, the Al-Khaleel massacre provided more proof of the Israeli racism and their Zionistic rancor against mankind.  

The terrorist Goldstein was a 35-year-old resident doctor in the Krayat Four settlement near Al-Khaleel. He was born in New York City and was an active participant in the Jewish Defense League with Rabbi Meir Kahan. Dr. Goldstein arrived as an immigrant in 1983, working as a captain in the Israeli army and later became an active member of the extremist Kach movement.  He was a 1988 candidate for the Zionist parliament.

In the book The Al-Khaleel Massacre, said Bilal Al-Hasan, “It is difficult to tell when the decisive moment occurred on Goldstein’s internal clock—that is, when Goldstein decided to start his murder spree.  Perhaps, it began a year ago, when he donated a copy of the Torah … while saying, ‘Someday, some Jew will seek revenge for Rabbi Kahan’s death by murdering dozens of Arabs.’  Or, perhaps, it began when he said to a friend, ‘I’m going to do something.’ Maybe, it began when he departed a settlers’ meeting, bellowing to his cohorts, ‘I’ll do what I want to do, not what you want me to do.’  … Or, it might have started at 5 o’clock that very morning when he, in a very unusual way, put on his military uniform, strapped his machine gun to his shoulder, grabbed his ammunition, and headed to the mosque, where he emptied all his bullets into the bodies of unarmed worshippers everywhere.”

After the massacre, many settlers said, according to Israel’s television and radio, that Goldstein was a real good Jew.  His associates in the extremist Kach movement issued a statement, expressing their feelings.  They said, “We bow our heads for our sacred hero, Dr. Goldstein.  He died as a martyr, while killing for the cause of God.” His close friends said, “He was a great Jew, who dared to commit the very same thing that we have always wanted to do ourselves.”

On Saturday, the day after the massacre, the cameras of European television were recording scenes. One incident caught on tape was a bus of Jewish schoolchildren who were singing a popular song.  This song says something disturbing:

“This ugly Arab … whom I hate …  I’ll kill him with my bare hands … and pierce his flesh with my teeth … then, with these lips of mine, I’ll suck his blood.”

This was the general feeling of Jews to the bloody carnage of the Al-Khaleel Mosque.  It was not just the extremists who venerated Dr. Goldstein, nor was it just children.  The Israeli people paid full respect to their terrorist criminal, who heroically dared to embody their desires.

The Israeli government, under the leadership of Rabin, tried to throw dust in the eyes of the world in an attempt to conceal the true nature of this disgusting crime.  It was claimed that it was but an accident--that a madman without the aid of soldiers or settlers had committed it single-handedly. This was a Big Lie.  Many witnesses testified that the Israeli soldiers didn’t participate in the shooting, but they did support their captain by being absent from the spots where they were assigned to watch.

As for Israeli policy, it has only one particular goal: to murder and expel as many of the original Palestinians as possible.  As for the Israeli government, it always offers the same excuse: The killers are always insane and, consequently, are not responsible for their actions.  But these very same killers, afterwards, become ministers and prime ministers in Israel.  This standard pattern causes us to remember that Israelis regarded Shamir, Begin, and Anan as heroes of the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948.  Yet they were also purportedly insane, according to the Israeli government at the time.

The French press revealed the true, ugly face of Israel by confirming that the Israeli government had foreknowledge of what was to occur.  Apparently, the Israeli spy agency Mossad knew in advance that the settlers were preparing to do something in the mosque.  Israel’s television, according to the French press, broadcast scenes of the preparations and of a plan to transform the holy mosque into a synagogue.

The Al-Khaleel massacre added a new chapter to Israel’s giant racial-terrorist record, which reflects the hate of Jewish rabbis against every human aspect.  The rabbis said in a commemorative ceremony: “The Israeli people were ill, but Dr. Goldstein gave the prescription to cure us.”  The cure, according to the Zionist aspect, is to kill innocent people.  These criminals, according to the Israeli mind, are saints.

Eight years have passed since the horrible massacre of Al-Khaleel.  Yet Israel continues to commit daily massacres against the Palestinian people.  We clearly hear Sharon and his extremist staff shouting: All of us are Goldstein, until we completely eradicate and murder all the women, old men, and children of the Arabs.