Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing: Difference between revisions

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The '''Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing''' took place on [[August 9]] [[2001]] in [[Jerusalem]], [[Israel]].
The '''Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing''' took place on [[August 9]] [[2001]] in [[Jerusalem]], [[Israel]].



Revision as of 15:11, 6 February 2008

Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing
LocationJerusalem
DateAugust 9 2001
2:00 pm –
TargetSbarro pizza restaurant
Attack type
suicide bomber
Deaths15
Injured130
PerpetratorsHamas

The Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing took place on August 9 2001 in Jerusalem, Israel.

At the time of the massacre, the Jerusalem branch of the Sbarro pizza restaurant chain was located at the corner of King George Street and Jaffa Road in Jerusalem, one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in Israel. Just before 2:00 p.m. on a summer holiday afternoon, when the restaurant was filled with customers and pedestrian traffic outside was at its peak, a suicide bomber thought to be carrying a rigged guitar case or wearing an explosive belt weighing 5 to 10 kilograms, containing explosives, nails, nuts and bolts, detonated his bomb.

In the blast 15 people (including 7 children) were killed, and 130 wounded. Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad initially claimed responsibility. Several Hamas members were subsequently captured by the authorities, tried, convicted and imprisoned. The suicide bomber who died in the course of carrying out the attack was later identified to be Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri from the Palestinian West Bank town of Aqaba. Izz al-Masri was 22 at the time and the son of a successful restaurant owner, and from an affluent land-owning family. He was escorted to the restaurant by Ahlam Tamimi, a 20-year-old female university student and part-time journalist, who had disguised herself as a Jewish tourist for the occasion. Ahlam Tamimi was sentenced to 16 life terms. She later commented that "I am not sorry for what I did" and does not recognize Israel’s existence. The person constructing the explosives was a man called Abdallah Barghouti. For his part in this and a string of other attacks, in which 66 civilians were killed, he was handed down 67 life sentences in 30 November 2004[1].

5 of the 15 people killed were a set of parents along with their three children (two other of their children survived).

Killed

The victims are:

  • Giora Balash, 60, from São Paulo, Brazil
  • Zvika Golombek, 26, from Karmiel, Israel
  • Shoshana Yehudit (Judy) Greenbaum, 31, from Passaic, New Jersey, USA
  • Tehila Maoz, 18, from Jerusalem, Israel
  • Frieda Mendelsohn, 62, from Jerusalem
  • Michal Raziel, 16, from Ramot, Jerusalem
  • Malka Chana (Malki) Roth, 15, from Ramot, Jerusalem (memorial) (originally from Melbourne, Australia)
  • Mordechai Schijveschuurder, 43, from Neria, West Bank
  • Tzira Schijveschuurder, 41, from Neria
  • Ra'aya Schijveschuurder, 14, from Neria
  • Avraham Yitzhak Schijveschuurder, 4, from Neria
  • Hemda Schijveschuurder, 2, from Neria
  • Lily Shimashvili, 33, from Jerusalem
  • Tamara Shimashvili, 8, from Jerusalem
  • Yocheved Shoshan, 10, from Jerusalem

The death toll would likely have been much higher, except that the building had recently been retrofitted to improve its structural integrity. The building was built with the same "Pal-Kal" construction technique responsible for the Versailles wedding hall disaster less than three months before. Although not required to do so, owner Noam Amar added extra support columns on the advice of city inspectors.[2]

Palestinian celebrations

File:Napalestinian.jpg
Palestinian students at the Al Najah exhibition

After the suicide bombing, Palestinian university students at the An-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus created an exhibition celebrating it [3] [4]. The exhibit’s main attraction was a room-sized re-enactment of the bombing at Sbarro. The installation featured broken furniture splattered with fake blood and human body parts as well as an idolized portrait of the suicide bomber holding a Koran and an automatic rifle. Also featured in the exhibition is a room with mannequins dressed as suicide bombers carrying automatic rifles in one hand and the Koran in the other, and aside another mannequin dressed up to resemble an Orthodox Jew with a taped voice quoting from the Muslim Hadith[5]: "O believer, there is a Jewish man behind me. Come and kill him."[3] The entrance to the exhibition was illustrated with a mural depicting the bombing.

See also

References

  1. ^ Abdallah Barghouti sentenced to 67 life sentences
  2. ^ Hillel Fendel (May 31, 2007). "Inventor of Pal-Kal Sentenced to Four Years". Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
  3. ^ a b "Gruesome exhibit marks anniversary of uprising". The Associated Press. September 24, 2001. Retrieved 2006-08-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |date= at position 19 (help)
  4. ^ "An Exhibit on Campus Celebrates Grisly Deed". The New York Times. September 25, 2001. Retrieved 2006-08-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); line feed character in |date= at position 19 (help)
  5. ^ Translation of Sahih Muslim, Book 41 Number 6981

External links