Jewish terror attack

Aug. 4, 2005 18:16 | Updated Aug. 4, 2005 21:42

Jewish terrorist Eden Tzuberi kills 4 on Shfaram bus

By MATTHEW GUTTMAN, YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST STAFF



In what police are calling an incident of Jewish terrorism, a Jewish man dressed in IDF uniform opened fire on a bus in the northern town of Shfaram Thursday evening, killing at least 4 people and wounding nearly a dozen more.

The shooter, Eden Tzuberi, 19, was also killed when he was assaulted by a mob of furied bystanders and witnesses. A crowd of thousands gathered around the site of the attack and surrounded the bus, where the attacker's body still lay.

Hundreds of police were dispatched to the northern town. Some forces were delayed in arriving on the scene owing to the large numbers mobilized over the past few days in and around Ofakim to guard against the infiltration of anti-pullout activists into Gaza.

Former OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Yom Tov Samiyah said the shooting attack should not be isolated from the pending disengagement. He linked that attack to attempts by radicals to target different sectors of the public to divert security forces from the evacuation of settlements.

The suspect was a resident of the West Bank settlement of Tapuah and was well-known to police for extremist views. He was a member of the outlawed ultra-Right-wing Kahane Chai party. An IDF soldier, Tzuberi had been tried in the past for refusing orders linked to the disengagment plan, and had been reported AWOL from the IDF 77 days ago - still in possession of his army-issued firearm. During his short army career he served time in military prison on two occasions.

Sources in the Shin Bet said that they had received no warning of plans by Jewish extremists to attack Israeli Arabs. Far-right activists told The Jerusalem Post that they had seen the shooter at anti-disengagement events.

Ikutiel Ben Yaacov, the founder of the far-right Jewish Legion group based in the West Bank settlement of Tapuah, shared police suspicions that such an attack might be aimed at derailing Israel's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

"We hope that Eden's death will not have been in vain," said Ben Yaacov, and added that "his murder will derail this sadistic disengagement plan."

Furious mob surrounds bus

A furious mob of the neighborhood's residents stormed the bus in order to neutralize the shooter, trapping him inside. Police forces gathered inside and near the bus to guard the suspect from the mob, but owing to the crowds, could not evacuate him from the bus.

As darkness fell, residents of other towns joined the angered crowds while police worked to maintain calm.

An enraged witness to the incident said, "If this attack had occurred in a Jewish neighborhood and the attacker was Arab, he would have been killed immediately. The police came and they didn't do anything!" he said. "The police didn't even shoot the attacker - they were holding him alive in the bus."

Hadash MK Muhammad Barakei, who had joined the mobs in Shfaram, blamed the attack on what he said was a campaign of incitement by Jews against Arabs. "This is not the act of a single individual extremist," Barakei said. "It comes from a culture of incitement."

The attack: Tzuberi opens fire on bus 165

Tzuberi opened fire on bus 165 from Haifa to Shfaram as the vehicle reached the town's Druse neighborhood.

Shfaram is a mixed village made up of roughly 50 percent Muslims as well as Druse and Christians.

Among the victims were two adolescent girls and the driver of the bus. The shooter also directed his fire outside the bus, and the casualties included pedestrians and bystanders.

I dont think it is good idea to make sweeping statements such as 'Jewish' attack this kind of terminology whiffs of labelling.

In what police are calling an incident of Jewish terrorism, ...

I hate to condone mob justice, but, um...the f*cker got what he deserved. They beat him to death? Good. I hope it was a slow, painful beating.

kickycan wrote:

I hate to condone mob justice, but, um...the f*cker got what he deserved. They beat him to death? Good. I hope it was a slow, painful beating.

Why do you hate to condone mod justice given your sentiment about it?

Gunman's body to lie near his racist hero
Bus killer's family in burial site row

Conal Urquhart and Rishon Letzion
Sunday August 7, 2005
The Observer

The Jewish gunman who killed four Arabs last Thursday may be buried next to the killer he tried to emulate, officials at the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba said.

The funeral of Eden Natan-Zada was postponed on Friday after his family was denied the right to bury him in a military cemetery or civilian cemeteries near his home.

The 19-year-old boarded a bus headed for Arab towns in the north of Israel and shot the driver and three passengers, apparently in protest at Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank. After the shooting he was beaten to death by an angry mob.

Now Natan-Zada could be buried next to Baruch Goldstein, a US-born doctor who killed 29 Palestinians in a mosque in 1994, it was reported by Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

Goldstein is buried alone in a garden that has become a shrine to the right-wing extremists Natan-Zada had joined after making contact with them on the internet.

Yesterday his mother Debbie told The Observer there had been no decision but said she wanted her son buried close to their home so the family could visit his grave. The family are upset that they have not been able to bury their son swiftly, in accordance with tradition.

Yitzhak, the gunman's father, threatened to carry the body to the home of Shaul Mofaz, the defence minister.

'I will come with my son's body to Mofaz's home so he may look into my eyes and tell me not to bury it,' he said.

'The defence minister is a coward. We were offered to bury him in Tapuah, but we would not be able to visit him there. The Israel Defence Force abandoned my son, and that is why he was murdered.'

Mofaz said Natan-Zada was not fit to lie next to the dead of Israel's wars. On Friday the teenager's victims: bus driver Michel Bahus, 56; Nader Hayak, 55; Hazar Turki, 23, and her 21-year-old sister Dina; were buried in Shfaram, near Haifa.

Before the killing, Natan-Zada had absconded from the army and was believed to be hiding in the West Bank settlement of Tapuah, which was founded by followers of Meir Kahane, an American rabbi whose Kach party was banned by the Israeli government for its racist views.

Kahane was murdered in New York in 1990 and his followers established a new party, Kahane Chai (Kahane lives) which was also outlawed. Its followers remain active and dozens assembled at the cemetery in Rishon Letzion on Friday awaiting the body of the gunman.

Many likened Natan-Zada to Goldstein, claiming they were both gentle men before carrying out acts of violence driven by despair at the government's direction.

After becoming close to the Kahanists, Natan-Zada initially refused to enlist for his compulsory military service. During his short period of service he was jailed for refusing orders and then deserted a month ago.

It is not clear how Natan-Zada had got from Tapuah to the north of Israel but police have arrested three teenagers from the settlement on suspicion of aiding him.

Although last Thursday's murders have been condemned by most Israelis, the right-wingers who waited to mourn Natan-Zada were already planning to place him in their pantheon of heroes.

Avigdor Eskin, 45, a writer from Jerusalem believes more young Israelis are preparing to carry out acts of violence.

'Many people are desperate because of the government's decision to expel a certain part of the population from their homes. This will develop into more tragedies.

'He was looking for a way to stop what he saw as a Holocaust. I don't think he was to blame, the government was to blame,' he said. He likened Natan-Zada to Goldstein. 'He was also a very gentle man. This was not a hate crime... it was a political act,' he said.