Baruch Goldstein

Baruch Kopel Goldstein (Template:Langx; born Benjamin Carl Goldstein;<ref>Template:Citation</ref> December 9, 1956 – February 25, 1994) was an American and Israeli physician and religious extremist who, in 1994, murdered 29 Palestinian people in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an incident of Jewish terrorism.<ref>Israel and the Politics of Jewish Identity: The Secular-Religious Impasse. By Asher Cohen, Bernard Susser. p.59</ref><ref>"CIA paper cites Jewish acts of terrorism" Template:Webarchive, JTA, August 26, 2010</ref><ref>Kutler, Hillel. "US report cites increase in terrorism deaths in Israel", Jerusalem Post, April 30, 1995</ref> Goldstein was a supporter of Kach, a religious Zionist party that the United States, the European Union and other countries designate as a terrorist organization.<ref name="eu-2009/67/CFSP">Template:Cite web</ref> Kach was banned less than a month after Goldstein's attacks on account of statements made in support of his actions.

Born in 1956 in Brooklyn, New York, to an Orthodox Jewish family, Goldstein received his education there, starting with Jewish scripture studies, and eventually studying medicine at Yeshiva University. In the United States, he was a member of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant Jewish organization founded by his boyhood acquaintance Meir Kahane. In 1983, Goldstein immigrated to Israel, and served as a physician in the Israeli military, during which he refused to treat Arabs, including those serving as soldiers. Later, he worked as a physician, and lived in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Goldstein was active in Kahane's Kach party, and was third on the party list for the Knesset during the 1984 elections.

On February 25, 1994, Goldstein dressed in an Israeli military uniform, entered a mosque in the Cave of the Patriarchs and opened fire on the 800 Palestinian Muslim worshippers praying there during the month of Ramadan, killing 29 and wounding 125 worshippers, until he was beaten to death by survivors.<ref name=BBC/><ref name="mej">The Middle East Journal. "Chronology", vol 48, no 3 (Summer 1994) p. 511 ff.</ref><ref name="shame">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Goldstein's gravesite became a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists.<ref name="Party"/> The following words are inscribed on the tomb: "He gave his life for the people of Israel, its Torah and land."<ref name=shame/> In 1999, after the passing of Israeli legislation outlawing monuments to terrorists, the Israeli Army dismantled the shrine that had been built to Goldstein at the site of his interment. The tombstone and its epitaph, calling Goldstein a martyr with clean hands and a pure heart, was left untouched.<ref name=dismantle>GreenBerg, Joel. "Israel destroys shrine to mosque gunman" Template:Webarchive, December 30, 1999, The New York Times.</ref> After the flagstones around it were pried away under the eye of a military chaplain, the ground was covered with gravel.

Early life and education

Goldstein was born on December 9, 1956, as Benjamin Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York, to an Orthodox Jewish family. He attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush religious day school. He studied medicine at Yeshiva University,<ref>Precker, Michael. "Brooklyn's image as extremist hotbed disputed by some Borough defenders say ties to Israel cherished, but radical groups aren't", The Dallas Morning News, March 20, 1994. Accessed August 6, 2007. "'This is not what we are teaching,' said Rabbi David Eliach, principal at the Yeshiva of Flatbush, where Dr. Goldstein attended high school."</ref> receiving a medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He belonged to the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant Jewish organization founded by his boyhood acquaintance Meir Kahane.<ref>BBC News Template:Webarchive "Goldstein had been a member of the Jewish Defense League."</ref>

Immigration to Israel

Goldstein immigrated to Israel in 1983.<ref name="Time"/> He served as a physician in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), first as a conscript, then in the reserve forces. Following the end of his active duty, Goldstein worked as a physician, and lived in the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron, where he worked as an emergency doctor, and was involved in treating victims of Arab-Israeli violence.<ref>BBC News Template:Webarchive "Goldstein had lived in Israel for 11 years and was a doctor in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, just outside Hebron." "As the settlement's main emergency doctor, he was involved in treating victims of Arab-Israeli violence."</ref> He changed his name from Benjamin to Baruch, married a Soviet immigrant named Miriam,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and had four children. Israeli press reports claimed that Goldstein refused to treat Arabs, even Arab soldiers serving in the IDF, believing it was against Jewish laws to treat non-Jews even for payment.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Israel Shahak, Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. (1999) 2nd edition Pluto Press 2004 p.96.</ref> This was also reflected in comments by his acquaintances.<ref>Mass-mediated Terrorism Template:Webarchive Brigitte Lebens Nacos, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002</ref> Goldstein was active in Kahane's Kach party, and was third on the party list for the Knesset during the 1984 elections.<ref>"Brother Against Brother" Template:Webarchive By Ehud Sprinzak pg. 242</ref> He compared Israel's democracy to the Nazi regime, and often wore a yellow star with the word JUDE on it.<ref>Ami Pedahzur, Arie Perliger. Jewish Terrorism in Israel. Columbia University Press, 2011. p.71.</ref>

Massacre

Template:Main article On February 25, 1994, that year's Purim day, Goldstein entered a room in the Cave of the Patriarchs that was serving as a mosque, wearing an Israeli army uniform "with the insignia of rank, creating the image of a reserve officer on active duty".<ref name=BBC>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He then opened fire, killing 29 worshippers and wounding more than 125.<ref name=haaretz_Issacharoff>"Settlers remember gunman Goldstein; Hebron riots continue". Issacharoff, Avi. Haaretz. March 1, 2010.</ref> Mosque guard Mohammad Suleiman Abu Saleh said he thought that Goldstein was trying to kill as many people as possible, and described how there were "bodies and blood everywhere".<ref name=BBC20050225/> Eventually, Goldstein was overcome and beaten to death by survivors of the massacre.<ref name="Time19940307">Template:Cite magazine</ref> According to Ian Lustick, "By mowing down Arabs he believed wanted to kill Jews, Goldstein was re-enacting part of the Purim story."<ref>Ian Lustick. For The Land and The Lord, Council on Foreign Relations (1988) 2nd ed., 1994, Preface</ref>

File:Clashes following the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, 1994 Dan Hadani Archive III.jpg

Civilian injured in the riots on the Temple Mount days after the massacre

Palestinian protests and riots immediately followed the shooting; in the following week, twenty-five Palestinians were killed (by the Israel Defense Forces), as well as five Israelis.<ref name="mej"/> Following the riots, the Israeli government imposed a two-week curfew on the 120,000 Palestinian residents of Hebron. The 400 Jewish settlers of H2 were free to move around.<ref name="Hindu">Template:Cite news</ref> Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin telephoned Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat, and described the attack as a "loathsome, criminal act of murder".<ref name=BBC20050225>"On This Day 1994: Jewish settler kills 30 at holy site" Template:Webarchive, February 25, 2005, BBC News.</ref> In an address to the Knesset, Rabin, addressing not just Goldstein and his legacy but also other militant settlers, stated:

"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."

The Israeli government condemned the massacre, and responded by arresting followers of Meir Kahane, forbidding certain settlers from entering Arab towns, and demanding that those settlers turn in their army-issued rifles, though rejecting a PLO demand that settlers be disarmed and that an international force be created to protect Palestinians.<ref name="NYT Haberman">Template:Cite news</ref> Goldstein was immediately "denounced with shocked horror even by the mainstream Orthodox",<ref name="ethics">Brekke, Torkel. The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations: A Comparative Perspective. Routledge, 2006, p. 44.</ref> and many in Israel classified Goldstein as insane.<ref name="wilson">Wilson, Rodney. 2007. "Review Article: Islam and Terrorism". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. 34 (2): 203–213. (accessed August 29, 2010).</ref>

Gravesite and shrine

File:Baruch Goldstein tomb.jpg

Goldstein's tomb

Israeli military authorities refused to allow Goldstein to be buried in the Jewish cemetery in Hebron.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was buried opposite the Meir Kahane Memorial Park in Kiryat Arba, a Jewish settlement adjacent to Hebron. The park is named in memory of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Israeli far-right political party Kach, a group classified by the United States and Israeli governments as a terrorist group. Goldstein was a long-time devotee of Kahane.<ref name="Time">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

The gravesite has become a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists; a plaque near the grave reads, "To the holy Baruch Goldstein, who gave his life for the Jewish people, the Torah, and the nation of Israel". According to Baruch Marzel, about 10,000 people had visited the grave by the year 2000.<ref name="Party">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1996, members of the Labor Party called for the shrine-like landscaped prayer area near the grave to be removed, and Israeli security officials expressed concern that the grave would encourage extremists.<ref>"Goldstein's grave draws extremists" Template:Webarchive, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 22, 1996.</ref> In 1999, following passage of a law designed to prohibit monuments to terrorists, and an associated Supreme Court ruling, the Israeli Army bulldozed the shrine and prayer area set up near Goldstein's grave.<ref>"Israel removes shrine to mosque murderer", CNN, December 29, 1999. Template:Webarchive</ref> As of 2014, a new tomb has been built, and still receives visits from Jewish pilgrims.<ref name=shame/>

Veneration by extremists

While mainstream Jewish religious leaders, including the chief rabbis of Israel, rejected the suggestion that killing Palestinians was authorized by the Torah, some extremist religious Jews have defended Goldstein's actions.<ref name="LATimes-022894"/>

At Goldstein's funeral, Rabbi Yaacov Perrin claimed that even one million Arabs are "not worth a Jewish fingernail".<ref name="LATimes-022894">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="wrmea-0399">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="TheNewCrusades">Template:Cite book</ref> Samuel Hacohen, a teacher at a Jerusalem college, declared Goldstein the "greatest Jew alive, not in one way, but in every way", and said that he was "the only one who could do it, the only one who was 100 percent perfect".<ref name="wrmea-0399"/><ref name="TheNewCrusades"/> Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba declared that Goldstein was "holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust".<ref>Rachlevsky, Sefi. "Ruth Calderon in the wonderland of mutilated Israeli ideology" Template:Webarchive at Haaretz, April 10, 2013</ref>

In the weeks following the massacre, hundreds of Israelis traveled to Goldstein's grave to celebrate his actions. Some Hasidim danced and sang around his grave.<ref name="nyt">Haberman, Clyde. "Hundreds Of Jews Gather To Honor Hebron killer" Template:Webarchive, April 1, 1994, The New York Times.</ref> According to one visitor to the gravesite in the wake of the attacks, "If [Goldstein] stopped these so-called peace talks, then he is truly holy because this is not real peace."<ref name=nyt/> Some visitors declared Goldstein a "saint" and "hero of Israel".<ref name=nyt/>

The phenomenon of the veneration of Goldstein's tomb persisted for years.<ref name="Party"/> Even after the dismantling of Goldstein's shrine in 1999, radical Jewish settlers continued to celebrate the anniversary of the massacre in the West Bank, sometimes even dressing up themselves or their children to look like Goldstein.<ref name="Party"/><ref name=bou>Bouckaert, Peter. Center of the Storm: a case study of human rights abuses in Hebron District Template:Webarchive, 2001, page 82.</ref><ref>Horowitz, Elliott. Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence Template:Webarchive pp. 8, Princeton University Press</ref><ref>Purim Party Sparks MKs Protests Template:Webarchive, Haaretz, March 19, 2003</ref>

In 2010, Jewish settlers sang songs in praise of Baruch Goldstein's massacre demonstratively in front of their Arab neighbours, during celebrations of Purim. A phrase from one song reads, "Dr. Goldstein, there is none other like you in the world. Dr. Goldstein, we all love you ... He aimed at terrorists' heads, squeezed the trigger hard, and shot bullets, and shot, and shot."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Prior to entering the Knesset, Otzma Yehudit party leader and current Israeli Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir displayed a portrait of Goldstein in his living room. It was removed when Ben-Gvir entered politics.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Israeli–Palestinian conflict
• Jewish fundamentalism
• Kahanism
• Terrorism in Israel
• Zionist political violence
• List of rampage killers (religious, political, or ethnic crimes)

External links

• Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Excerpts from the report of the Commission of Inquiry Into the Massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron (aka the "Shamgar Report")
• UN document containing extracts of the Israeli inquiry report