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Dr. Baruch Goldstein (file)
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| By Saul Phillipson March 23, 2008 |
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Fourteen years ago, on the day of the massacre in the Cave of the Machpala, in Hebron, a prominent Palestinian reporter Khaled Abu-Toameh , who now serves as the Palestinian Affairs reporter for the Jerusalem Post, interviewed 25 survivors from age nine to eighty in six different hospitals. All of them said that there were two or three shooters.
Indeed, a dozen of these survivors testified that there was more than one shooter at the Shamgar Commission Of Inquiry Into The Hebron Massacre headed by Meir Shamgar, the same former Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court who later presided over the government inquiry which examined the Rabin assassination, also leaving many questions unanswered.
Three soldiers on duty also testified that seconds after Goldstein entered the mosque, another Jew carrying a Galil assault weapon followed him in.
For whatever reason, Judge Shamgar ruled that all the Arab witnesses perjured themselves and that the soldiers were mistaken.
All this contrasts with the accepted narrative, which is that in February, 1994, an angry and crazed Dr. Baruch Goldstein supposedly walked into the Hebron Mosque within the Cave of the Patriarchs and shot 29 worshipers dead, while wounding another 60. Some writers have come up with the theory that Dr. Goldstein was in a sudden, maniacal fit, in which he convinced himself that he slaughtered Arabs to prevent the slaughter of Jews.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) originally announced that Goldstein had arrived in uniform at the mosque in his civilian Subaru. The Shamgar Commission heard very different evidence. Dr. Goldstein's wife Miriam was surprised to discover a note informing her that Baruch was called to reserve duty. She phoned the IDF duty commander for Kiryat Arba, Shmuel Eidelstein to ask if he knew where her husband was. He said he didn't. And yet, evidence presented at the Shamgar Commission proved that Goldstein arrived in Eidelstein's IDF jeep.
The IDF ruled that Goldstein shot 111 rounds in a minute and a half. Ballistics experts such as Mustafa Adawi of the Palestinian police force denied that was possible. All victims of the massacre said the shooting went on for five minutes at least. The IDF denied that any of the victims died outside the mosque. In fact, six Arabs, including the mosque Iman, were shot by IDF soldiers at an exit door. Shamgar ruled the soldiers shot into an unruly mob in self-defence.
Israeli Police, normally on duty at the mosque, were called away to investigate the shooting of one Muhmad Ibrahim Ayat in Kiryat Arba a few minutes before Goldstein arrived at the mosque.
The following evidence, taken directly from the Shamgar Commission's Final Report, points to a very different massacre than the one Shamgar described to the public in his findings. Point by point:
- Although the 60 people wounded were of varying ages, all 29 dead were old. Although complete medical reports of the wounded were written, not one full report was prepared for the dead.
- While some of the wounded were shot by bullets, most were hit by shrapnel, the vast majority in their legs.
- A soldier in a booth had the duty of watching the mosque from three TV cameras within the prayer hall. One camera was broken that day and the shooter(s) stood within its lens field. Yosef asks if the shooter(s) was told where to be out of camera range beforehand.
- Dr. Goldstein arrived in IDF unform. The guards asked him if he was on reserve duty and he calmly answered that he was. They reported no change from his normal behaviour. He left before his wife woke up and she knew nothing of a call to serve in the reserves.
- The soldier guarding the prayer hall entrance within the mosque testified that Dr. Goldstein did not pass by him. That means he could have only entered through one of the two locked side entrances and since he didn't have a key, that would have required help.
- An Arab witness who got a close look at Dr. Goldstein described him as wearing black ear protectors. Goldstein's ear protectors were found in his gun belt unused and colored off white. According to this man's testimony, Dr. Goldstein wasn't the shooter the man saw.
- Numerous Arabs saw Dr. Goldstein subdued by up to twenty men armed with the same metal nightsticks. The IDF soldier watching the events on his TV monitor, saw three such men armed with iron batons subdue Dr. Goldstein. One Arab witness told the police he saw a man open a storage closet and hand out the nightsticks to the worshipers.
- All witnesses, Arab and Jew, heard two explosions before the shooting.
- Yet no grenade shrapnel was found in the prayer hall. Shamgar concluded that the explosions were caused by the imam Sheikh Jamal Natsha, twice slapping his hand in fear on his microphone, which was broadcast loudly as booms in the speaker system after the shooting began. However, the explosions were heard BEFORE the shooting began "but we will never know the truth since
the imam was shot to death while leaving the mosque."
- Since he was on standby duty, Dr. Goldstein would not have thought it unusual to be called into the reserves in the middle of the night. He was driven to the mosque and escorted to a side door. He entered with his two other men, who threw two stun grenades into the crowd and shot
blank bullets. Then they left the prayer hall, locking the door behind them. Goldstein was alone and armed facing the mob.
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