Thirty-two years ago, on February 25, 1994, Brooklyn-born Zionist settler Baruch Goldstein carried out the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the occupied West Bank, murdering 29 Palestinians in cold blood and wounding over one hundred and fifty more as they prayed. Seven of the martyrs were children. Source: Wikipedia.
The massacre started during "Fajr prayer" on Friday, February 25, 1994, corresponding to the 15th of Ramadan, 1415 AH. The settler Baruch Goldstein stood behind one of the mosque's pillars and waited until the worshipers prostrated themselves in prayer. He then opened fire on them with his machine gun while they were in prostration.
At the same time, others assisted him in reloading his weapon with explosive "dum-dum" bullets. Shrapnel from the bullets and grenades pierced the heads, necks, and backs of the worshipers.
The Ibrahimi Mosque massacre resulted in the martyrdom of 29 worshippers and the injury of 15 others before worshipers overpowered Goldstein and killed him.
After the massacre, the occupation soldiers present in the mosque closed its doors to prevent the worshippers from escaping and also prevented those outside from entering the courtyard to help the wounded.
After the massacre, the Ibrahimi Mosque was divided, with Muslim access to the holy site reduced. Image credit: tiefdancer.blogpost.com
During the funeral procession for the victims of the massacre, Israeli soldiers fired on the mourners, killing several of them, raising the total number of dead to fifty and the number of wounded to 150.
Baruch Goldstein was an American Israeli physician and religious extremist terrorist. He was born on December 9, 1956, in Brooklyn, New York to an Orthodox Jewish family. He studied at the Yeshiva of Flatbush and later attended Yeshiva University, where he earned a medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Goldstein was involved with the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant organization founded by Meir Kahane, and he immigrated to Israel in 1983. JDL was once listed by the FBI as a domestic terrorist organization.
While the Israeli government publicly condemned Goldstein and denied any involvement, eyewitness accounts from the Palestinian survivors of the massacre exposed the Zionist entity’s direct participation in the massacre and the violence that followed.
Hamadi al-Mohtesab, who was shot three times and left paralyzed, witnessed his friend die in an ambulance after occupation forces stopped them at a checkpoint and blocked the ambulance driver from reaching the nearest hospital.
Arafat Bayaat, one of the many Palestinians who rushed to donate blood after hearing the news of the massacre, was shot and killed by occupation forces outside of Ahli Hospital after giving blood.
In the aftermath of the massacre, Goldstein became a hero in the eyes of extremist Zionist settlers in the West Bank, who turned his grave site in the illegal settlement of Kiriyat Arba outside of Al-Khalil into a shrine. Israel is the only country in the world who celebrates terrorists as heroes.
As much as Zionist politicians and media pundits sought to distance themselves from Goldstein’s genocidal violence, the massacre was not the exception, but the rule, in the history of Zionist settler colonialism. As long as Zionism has existed, Zionists settlers from around the world have moved to Palestine to participate in the genocide of Palestinians, from the Nakba up until today.
Within Our Lifetime news site published an article by Lolo titled, "We remember the martyrs of the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, in which she said, 'On the anniversary of the Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre, we not only honor the memory of the 29 martyrs but also defend the right of Palestinians to resist Zionist genocide by any means necessary.'
Meanwhile, we have the Israeli Crime Minister Netanyahu lying to the rest of the world about Israel as being the only place in the Middle East where Christians are fully free to practice their faith. At the same time, lunatic Israeli Interior Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir brags about attacking and insulting Christians in occupied Palestine by calling it, "Spitting toward Christians is not a crime, it is an ancient Jewish custom."
Mahmoud El-Youseph is a Palestinian freelance writer and retired U.S. Air Force veteran. He writes on U.S. foreign policy, Middle East affairs, and justice. Email: elyousseph6@yahoo.com
