Ben Yehuda Street bombings

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Car bomb explosion on Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem, February 22, 1948

The Ben Yehuda Street bombings refer to a series of attacks by Arab terrorists and suicide bombers on civilians in downtown Jerusalem, Israel from 1948 until today. The attacks were carried out on a main street, later a pedestrian mall, named for the founder of modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben Yehuda.

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[edit] 1948 bombing

On February 22, 1948, as the conflict over the coming partition of Palestine grew, three British Army trucks led by an armoured car driven by Arab irregulars and British deserters exploded on Ben Yehuda Street killing 52 Jewish civilians and leaving 123 injured.[1][2] A statement issued the following day in Jerusalem claimed that the explosions where in retaliation for an Irgun bomb attack in Ramla.[3]

1948 Ben Yehuda Street Bombing
Location Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem
Date February 22, 1948
Attack type car bombs
Deaths 58
Injured 123

Two British deserters (Eddie Brown, a police captain who claimed that the Irgun had killed his brother, and Peter Madison, an army corporal) were involved in the attack, having been promised pay by Abd al-Kader al-Husseini, who was the commander of the Holy War Army forces in the area.[4]

The British were also blamed because armored trucks with police insignia had escorted the truck bombs into the area.

By 25 Feb seven British soldiers had been killed in revenge attacks.[5] On 29 February the Irgun blew up the Cairo to Haifa train at Rehovoth killing 29 British soldiers. The Irgun announcement said the bombing was in retaliation for the Jerusalem attack. 35 soldiers and 100 civilians were injured.[6]

[edit] 1975 bombing

1975 Ben Yehuda Street Bombing
Location Zion Square, leading onto Ben Yehuda Street , Jerusalem
Date July 4, 1975
Attack type time bomb
Deaths 15
Injured 77
Perpetrator(s) Ahmad El-Sukar

On Friday, July 4, 1975, a refrigerator that had five kilograms of explosives packed into its sides exploded on Zion Square, a main square leading to Ben Yehuda Street and to Jaffa Street. Fifteen people were killed and 77 were injured. After the attack, Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister, said: "The murder serves as a warning not to get caught up in illusions about the intentions of the terror organizations ... Therefore we must follow a strict policy of not negotiating with them. We must speak to them only in the language they understand, the language of the sword."

Ahmad El-Sukar, who was responsible for placing the bomb, was released from Israeli prison in 2003 as a gesture to Arafat.

[edit] 1997 bombings

1997 Ben Yehuda Street Bombing
Location Ben Yehuda Street , Jerusalem
Date September 4, 1997
Attack type suicide bombers
Deaths 7 (including 3 suicide bombers)
Perpetrator(s) Hamas

On September 4, 1997, three Hamas suicide bombers simultaneously blew themselves up on the pedestrian mall, killing four Israelis. The bombing was carried out by Palestinians who all came from the village of Asira al-shamaliye. The month before, Israel had assassinated a senior Hamas leader named Mahmoud Abu Hanoud from the same village. The assassination triggered a wave of suicide bomber attacks.[7]

One of the Israelis killed was Smadari Elhanan, the 14 year-old daughter of professor and peace activist Nurit Peled-Elhanan, and the granddaughter of the late general, Jewish scholar and politician Mattityahu Peled. As a result of her death, Smadaris parents cofounded the "Bereaved Families for Peace", an organization which brings together Israelis and Palestinians who lost their dear ones in the course of the conflict[8],[9].

Another result from the bombing was that five American students who had been wounded filed a lawsuit in the United States against the government of Iran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (Jenny Rubin, et al. vs. the Islamic Republic of Iran, et al.) for their suffering, under the Flatow Amendment of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, in accord with Section 201a of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, which states that "in every case in which a person has obtained a judgment against a terrorist party on a claim based upon an act of terrorism... the blocked assets of that terrorist party... shall be subject to execution". They were awarded a default judgment of $251 million in compensatory and punitive damages by Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, but there were few assets of the Iranian government present in the United States following the judgment. The plaintiffs threated to seize valuable Persian artifacts located in Chicago museums and sell them for proceeds, leading to the Chicago's Persian heritage crisis, as well as suing the account of the Bank Melli Iran in the Bank of New York, but having the United States Department of Justice speak as amicus curiae in support of Bank Melli, advising that the bank had no responsibility for turning the funds over, resulting in a ruling against the students..[10]

[edit] 2001 bombings

2001 Ben Yehuda Street Bombings
Location Ben Yehuda Street , Jerusalem
Date December 1, 2001
Attack type suicide bombers and a car bomb
Deaths 10 (+ 2 suicide bombers)
Injured 188
v • d • e
Al-Aqsa Intifada
terrorist attacks

On December 1, 2001 two suicide bombers detonated themselves on Ben Yehuda Street, followed by a car bomb set to go off as paramedics arrived. Eleven people were killed, including many children, and 188 were injured in the terrorist attacks. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack,[11] stating that it and a similar bombing in Haifa were retaliation for the killing of the senior Hamas militant Mahmud Abu Hanoud. A Hamas spokesman in Gaza stated that these bombings, however, did not assuage its lust for vengeance and that it would carry out further bombings.[12][13]

[edit] Other attacks

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz lists the following other attacks in a March 2001 article by Yair Sheleg:

  • September 8, 1971: A grenade was thrown into the entrance of Cafe Alno on Ben Yehuda Street. The grenade did not explode and there were no injuries.
  • December 12, 1974: An explosive device went off in Ben Yehuda Street. Thirteen people were injured lightly to moderately.
  • November 13, 1975: An explosive charge went off near cafe Naveh, on Jaffa Road near the pedestrian mall. Seven people were killed and 45 injured.
  • April 9, 1976: A car bomb was dismantled on Ben Yehuda Street shortly before it was to have exploded.
  • May 3, 1976: Thirty-three passers-by were injured when a booby-trapped motor scooter exploded at the corner of Ben Yehuda and Ben Hillel Streets. Among those injured was the Greek consul in Jerusalem and his wife. The following day, on the eve of Independence Day, the municipality organized an event at the site of the attack, under the slogan: "Nevertheless."
  • January 1, 1979: A car bomb was found opposite Cafe Atara on the pedestrian mall and was neutralized about half an hour before it was to have blown up.
  • March 24, 1979: One person was killed and 13 people were injured, most of them lightly, when an explosive charge blew up in a trash can in Zion Square.
  • May 2, 1981: A police sapper was moderately injured by an explosive charge that had been placed in a trash can near Cafe Alno.
  • August 15, 1984: A car bomb was discovered on Ben Yehuda Street and defused about 10 minutes before it was to have exploded. In the car were about 12 kilograms of explosives and another three kilograms of iron nails.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, 'O Jerusalem'.History Book Club. 1972. pages 191-195
  2. ^ Dov Joseph, 'The Faithful City - The seige of Jerusalem, 1948'. Simon and Schuster, New York. 1960. Library of Congress number: 60-10976. page 37. 'it was possible ... (that the) drivers (were) from the more than two hundred deserters who had already joined the Arab force' (as opposed to being officially sanctioned by the Brtish Army).
  3. ^ The Scotsman, Tuesday February 24th Jerusalem,(Monday) - The ‘High Command’ of the Arab military organisation issued a communique to the newspapers here to-day claiming full responsibility for the explosion in Ben Yehuda Street on Sunday. It was said to be in reprisal for an attack by Irgun at Ramleh several days ago. ‘Unless the Jews adhere to the rules of war, we shall continue indiscriminate reprisals on a bigger scale.’ said the communique. In Damascus Arab political officials also said that the explosion was the work of Arabs. In Jerusalem, Dr Hussein Khalidi, secretary of the Arab Higher Executive, would not comment on responsibility for the explosion, but said that the situation was becoming more serious. The incident proved that the use of time bombs and explosives was a dangerous double-edged weapon. Arabs had not begun ‘this game which could only produce bloodshed and destruction.’
  4. ^ Collins/Lapierre. page 192. Names the 'young man in the turret' of the leading armoured car as Azmi Djaouni, and states that Brown and Madison had 'two comrades'. They name the bomb maker as Fawzi el Kutub.
  5. ^ The Scotsman 'Wednesday February 25th:Jerusalem (Tuesday) - The seven British soldiers killed in Jerusalem after the Ben Yehuda Street explosion were :- Pte J. Monteith, 286 Kinnear Road, Parkhead, Glasgow; Pte G. Wilson, 11 Sir Michael Street, Paisely; Pte D. Walker, 19 Rosebank Avenue, Blantyre; Pte J. Crains, 125 Quarry Brae Street, Glasgow; Pte Boulby, of Sheffield; Pte Birks, of Renburn, Durham and Gnr T Seton, Royal Artillery, whose next-of-kin is unavailable.'
  6. ^ The Scotsman 'Monday March 1st: From Eric Downton, Jerusalem, Sunday : Twenty-eight British soldiers were killed and 35 injured when the train in which they were travelling from Cairo to Haifa was blow up by land mines near Rehovoth, six miles south of Lydda, this morning. Nearly 100 civilian passengers were also injured. Most of the Army casualties, according to unofficial reports, were men of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and the Irish Guards. The Stern Gang claimed to have carried out the attack. They said it was part of their avowed retaliation for the explosion in Ben Yehuda Street, Jerusalem, last Sunday, when 54 Jews were killed, and for which Jewish reports alleged British responsibility. The soldiers were returning from leave.' A 29th soldier died later.
  7. ^ Democracy Now! | "The Dominion of Death": An Israeli Mother Who Lost Her 13-Year Old Daughter in a Suicidebombing Speaks Out Against Israel
  8. ^ http://www.theparentscircle.com/
  9. ^ מגזין הכיבוש Occupation Magazine
  10. ^ U.S. Helps Iranian Bank Withdraw, Then Seeks To Freeze Funds, Josh Gerstein, The New York Sun, November 9, 2007
  11. ^ http://www.mfa.gov.il
  12. ^ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/dec/11/israel1 Israeli blunder kills two children], The Guardian, December 11, 2001.
  13. ^ Bombers leave Arafat facing toughest battle, The Guardian, December 3, 2001.

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ben Yehuda Street bombing (1948)

pedestrian mall in Jerusalem - December 1, 2001]

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