Cave of the Patriarchs massacre

Cave of the Patriarchs massacre
The compound in 2009
Hebron
Location of Hebron within the West Bank
Hebron
Location of Hebron within the de jure State of Palestine
LocationHebron, West Bank
DateFebruary 25, 1994 (1994-02-25) (GMT+3)
TargetMuslims
Attack type
Mass shooting
WeaponsIMI Galil
Deaths30 (including the perpetrator)
Injured
125
PerpetratorBaruch Goldstein
MotiveIslamophobia, anti-Arabism

On February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli supporting the militant religious Zionist Kach party,[1] shot Muslim worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque.[a][2] 29 were killed[2] and 125 wounded. Goldstein was beaten to death by the crowd.[3]

Events

February 25, 1994 was the same date for the Jewish festival of Purim and the Muslim Ramadan. Both Jews and Muslims were allowed to visit their respective parts of the compound.[4][5] Goldstein was dressed in army uniform, holding an IMI Galil assault rifle[b] when he entered the Hall of Issac where 800 Muslims were praying.[6] After he opened fire, someone threw a fire extinguisher at him, allowing others to disarm and beat him to death.[3]

There were contradictory reports. Some survivors alleged that "another man, also dressed as a soldier, handing him ammunition",[7] while some alleged that Israeli guards shot the crowd, which was denied by the Israeli government, and was attributed to panic and confusion in handling the mass shooting.[8][9]

Aftermath

Terrorist attacks in Israel

Riots happened afterwards. 20 Palestinians were killed and 120 wounded.[8] Palestinian militants, including the Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, retaliated against Jews.[10] Eight civilians were killed and 55 wounded in the Afula Bus suicide bombing on April 6. Six more were killed and 30 wounded in the Hadera bus station suicide bombing.[11][12]

Terrorist attacks in the United States

On March 1, 1994, four days following the mass shooting, Lebanese immigrant Rashid Baz fired at a van of 15 Chabad Orthodox Jewish students, killing one and wounding three others. Baz was heard chanting in Arabic "Kill the Jews", expressing revenge for the mass shooting. Baz's shooting was considered antisemitic,[13] with Baz sentenced to 141 years in prison.[14]

Reactions

Israeli government

The Kach party was banned after supporting Goldstein.[15] Speaking at the Knesset, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin condemned Goldstein:[16]

You are not part of the community of Israel [...] You are not part of the national democratic camp which we all belong to in this house, and many of the people despise you. You are not partners in the Zionist enterprise. You are a foreign implant. You are an errant weed. Sensible Judaism spits you out. You placed yourself outside the wall of Jewish law [...] We say to this horrible man and those like him: you are a shame on Zionism and an embarrassment to Judaism.

Israeli public

Goldstein's act was widely condemned by the Israeli public.[17] The Jewish Settler Council condemned the act as "not Jewish, not humane".[18] A poll found that 78.8% of Israeli adults condemned Goldstein's act, while 3.6% praised Goldstein. A 2023 poll showed that 10% of Israeli Jews considered Goldstein a hero, 57% as a terrorist, and the rest were undecided.[19]

Ehud Sprinzak, an expert on terrorism, said that anti-Jewish violence, which came with the calls of "kill the Jew",[20][21] had radicalized Goldstein.[22][23] As a follower of Meir Kahane, Goldstein found Kahane's messages[c] aligned with his own experiences, making him consider the Arabs a threat to be addressed violently.[22]

Religious figures

Most religious leaders condemned Goldstein's act. The Sephardi Chief Rabbi said that "I am simply ashamed that a Jew carried out such a villainous and irresponsible act",[24] and suggested that he be buried outside the cemetery.[18] His Ashkenazi counterpart, Yisrael Meir Lau, called it "a desecration of God's name".[24]

Some rabbis, however, endorsed Goldstein's act.[25] At Goldstein's funeral, Rabbi Yaacov Perrin said that even one million Arabs are "not worth a Jewish fingernail".[26][27] Meanwhile, Rabbi Israel Ariel called Goldstein a "holy martyr", questioning the victims' innocence by holding them responsible for the massacre of Hebron's Jews in 1929.[28] Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba called Goldstein a saint whose "hands are innocent, his heart pure", comparing him to the martyrs of the Holocaust.[29]

Jewish diaspora

Britain's Chief Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks stated:[30]

Such an act is an obscenity and a travesty of Jewish values. That it should have been perpetrated against worshippers in a house of prayer at a holy time makes it a blasphemy as well [...] Violence is evil. Violence committed in the name of God is doubly evil. Violence against those engaged in worshipping God is unspeakably evil.

An editorial in The Jewish Chronicle penned by Chaim Bermant condemned the Kach party to which Goldstein belonged as "Neo-Nazis" and a U.S. creation, funded by American money and a product of American gun culture.[31] The same edition also reported that some British Liberal synagogues had raised funds for Goldstein's victims.[32]

United Nations

The United Nations Security Council adopted the United Nations Security Council Resolution 904 to condemn Goldstein's act, calling for the protection of Palestinians, including disarming Israeli settlers.[33]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Commonly known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, located in Hebron, Palestine.
  2. ↑ With four magazines of ammunition, estimated 140 rounds in 35 rounds per magazine[3]
  3. ↑ Including Kahane's framing of hillul Hashem as humiliation of Jews by Arabs, which had narrative fidelity and experiential commensurability with Goldstein as a member of the Jewish settlers[22]

References

  1. ↑
    • Magid, Shaul (March 17, 2019). "Kahane Won". Shalom Hartman Institute. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
    • Krauss, Joseph (March 23, 2021). "Far-right party set to gain new influence after Israeli vote". AP News. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
    • Lazar, Menachem (June 2, 2024). "Otzma Yehudit's Path to Public Legitimacy—From a Fringe Party to the Government Cabinet". NEXUS: A Review of Middle Eastern Religions & Politics. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
    • "Kach". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved June 28, 2025.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 George J. Church,"When Fury Rules", Time 7 March 1994 (subscription required)
  4. ↑ Lustick, Ian (1994) [1988]. For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. Council on Foreign Relations. pp. x–xi. ISBN 978-0-87609-036-7.
  5. ↑ Block, Thomas (2012). A fatal addiction: war in the name of God. New York: Algora. pp. 52–53. ISBN 9780875869322.
  6. ↑ Yoram Peri, The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Stanford University Press, 2000 p. 101.
  7. ↑ "Hebron Massacre: Hell comes to a holy place", The Independent (London), 27 February 1994 ProQuest 313029063
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Hedges, Chris (March 16, 1994). "That Day in Hebron – A special report.; Soldier Fired at Crowd, Survivors of Massacre Say". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 23, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  9. ↑ "Israeli Army Says Security Was Lax at Massacre Site". The New York Times. March 8, 1994. Archived from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
  10. ↑ Martin, Gus (2009). Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues (3rd, illustrated ed.). SAGE. ISBN 978-1-4129-7059-4. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  11. ↑ Pape, Robert; American Political Science Review (2003). The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on April 1, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  12. ↑ Stork, Joe; Human Rights Watch (2002). Erased in a moment: suicide bombing attacks against Israeli civilians (Illustrated ed.). Human Rights Watch. ISBN 978-1-56432-280-7. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2016.
  13. ↑ Murphy, Mary (March 1, 2011). "Back at Police Plaza, Bratton and Miller recall 20th anniversary of Brooklyn Bridge shooting". WPIX. WPIX. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2016.
  14. ↑ James, George (January 19, 1995). "Bridge Gunman Gets 141-Year Term". The New York Times. B3.
  15. ↑ In the Spotlight: Kach and Kahane Chai Center for Defense Information, 1 October 2002 Archived November 22, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  16. ↑ Haberman, Clyde (March 1, 1994). "West Bank Massacre: The Overview; Rabin Urges the Palestinians To Put Aside Anger and Talk". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 21, 2012. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  17. ↑ Oliver, Anne Marie; Steinberg, Paul F. (2005). The Road to Martyrs' Square: A Journey into the World of the Suicide Bomber. Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0198027560.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Jacobson, David C. (1997). Israeli Poetry and the Bible. Wayne State University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0814326237.
  19. ↑ "10% of Israeli Jews think terrorist Baruch Goldstein is a 'national hero' - poll". The Jerusalem Post. March 6, 2023. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  20. ↑ Jones, C., (1999). ‘Ideo-Theology and the Jewish State: From Conflict to Conciliation?’ British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 26, No. 1 (May, 1999) 9-26
  21. ↑ Marsden, S., (2013). How terrorism ends : understanding the outcomes of violent political contestation. PhD thesis, (St. Andrews: University of St. Andrews)
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (June 13, 2021). "From a handshake to a handgun: Religious Zionist responses to the Oslo Accords (1992-1995)" (PDF). University of St Andrews. Retrieved June 28, 2025. However, Sprinzak (1998) argues that while the moral shock of Oslo was a necessary condition for Goldstein's massacre, it was not sufficient. Palestinian violence against Jews was also key [...] The calls of itbah al-yahud ('kill the Jew' in Arabic) around Hebron in early 1994 and intensification of attacks against Jews deeply troubled Goldstein [...] Goldstein was both an inhabitant of a settlement surrounded by Palestinian towns [... and] emergency physician, was regularly exposed to the consequences of Palestinian aggression towards Jews.
  23. ↑ Sprinzak, E., (1998). ‘Extremism and Violence in Israel: The Crisis of Messianic Politics’ The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Jan., 1998, Vol. 555, Israel in Transition (Jan., 1998), 114-126.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Rayner, John D. (1998). A Jewish Understanding of the World. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1571819741.
  25. ↑ Linnan, David K. (2008). Enemy Combatants, Terrorism, and Armed Conflict Law: A Guide to the Issues. Praeger Security International Series. ABC-CLIO. p. 198. ISBN 978-0275998141. Despite general and overwhelming condemnation from Jews around the world about this unprovoked attack on unarmed civilians, a few rabbis and lay leaders in Israel and North America praised Goldstein's murderous action and death as an act of martyrdom (Kiddush Hashem).
  26. ↑ Kraft, Scott (February 28, 1994). "Extremists Pay Tribute to Killer of 48 at Funeral". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  27. ↑ Brownfeld, Allan C. (1999). "Growing Intolerance Threatens the Humane Jewish Tradition". Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: 84–89. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
  28. ↑ Gorenberg, Gershom (2002). The end of days: fundamentalism and the struggle for the Temple Mount. Oxford University Press. p. 205. ISBN 0-19-515205-0. Did he kill innocent people? The same supposedly innocent people slaughter innocents in 1929 [...] The whole city of Hebron slaughtered Jews then. Those are the 'innocent people' who were killed in the Tomb of the Patriarchs", said Ariel.
  29. ↑ Lichtenstein, Aharon; Lior, Dov (1994). "A Rabbinic Exchange on Baruch Goldstein's Funeral". Tradition. Vol. 28. Rabbinical Council of America. pp. 59–63. Yes, I did eulogise the late Baruch Goldstein (may God avenge his blood), who was lynched by the non-Jews in the Cave. A Jew who is killed because he is a Jew must certainly be called a kadosh, a holy martyr, just as we refer to the kedoshei ha-Shoah, the holy martyrs of the Holocaust, without investigating their previous conduct. How much more so in this case, for we knew him intimately as God-fearing and compassionate, as one who loved humanity and saved lives [. ...] In my eulogy, I intentionally did not mention the deed, but focused on his personality and his achievements, and I did not take a public position on the deed.
  30. ↑ The Jewish Chronicle (London) 4 March 1994, p. 1 and then expanded on p. 23
  31. ↑ Chaim Bermant "Has one settler settled the settlers future?" in The Jewish Chronicle (London), 4 March 1994
  32. ↑ The Jewish Chronicle (London), 4 March 1994
  33. ↑ "U.N. Security Council Condemns the Hebron Slayings". The New York Times. March 19, 1994. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
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