An Arab terrorist infiltrated Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva at around 8:30 Thursday night and murdered eight Jews. At least 10 students were wounded, including five in serious to critical condition.

Five of the dead were high school students in Merkaz Harav's Yeshiva LeTze'irim, and three studied in the upper-school Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva. 
 

Blood-stained fringed garment (tallis) worn by Jewish student victim
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Lifeless body of Jewish victim seen through bullet-riddled window, Merkaz Harav, 06Mar08
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The attacker entered the yeshiva and opened fire on students before he was gunned down himself by a part-time yeshiva student, aided by an off-duty army officer from the neighborhood. The attack began in the seminary's library with the terrorist spraying bullets in every direction before anyone could react.

The part-time yeshiva student who first shot the terrorist, 40-year-old Yitzchak Dadon, said he was in the Yeshiva's study hall when he heard the shots.  "Everyone left through a side door," he said, "and I left through a window, and lied down on a roof overlooking the library... When he came out, I shot him in the head twice.  I saw him start to stagger, and then David Shapira [a yeshiva graduate and paratroopers officer] arrived on the scene, shot him with his M-16 rifle, and then we emptied our magazines into him."

Dadon later told Arutz-7, "It was terribly frustrating feeling, knowing he was in there shooting, but I could do nothing but wait for him to come out so that I could shoot him... While waiting, I could see some boys in a side room in the library turn off the lights and barricade their door - and though he tried, he was unable to come into the room and gun them all down."

The book that one student victim was studying from in the Merkaz HaRav library, 06Mar08
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Zaka volunteer points to bullet hole in blood stained fringed garmet (tallis), Merkaz HaRav, 06Mar08
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State-Run Radio Leaves Dadon Out of Report
Dadon was interviewed on various television and radio channels and told his story.  When describing what the terrorist was wearing, Dadon emphasized that he was armed with a Kalachnikov rifle that was given him by "our President Peres and by the Olmert government."  The interviewers invariably tried to cut him off.  Later, the official news report by government-run Israel Radio left him out of its reports, announcing only, "An IDF officer who lives near the Yeshiva heard the shots, came to the scene and shot the terrorist to death."  That report still appeared on its internet site late Friday morning.

Dadon told Arutz-7 that it is imperative that every yeshiva begin a military training course so that the students can defend themselves when necessary.  It was just such a course, provided by the Mishmeret Yesha organization, that helped the counselors of the Mekor Chaim yeshiva in Kfar Etzion kill two terrorists who came to perpetrate a massacre there just over a month ago.

Initial reports indicated that a second terrorist was hiding in the yeshiva building, forcing students to take cover for an additional while, but responding security forces finally determined that there had been only one terrorist. Police deployed in the surrounding neighborhood, and scoured the yeshiva and connected buildings. Most students in the building were evacuated after taking cover in the yeshiva's bomb shelter.

Zaka volunteers collect body parts and soak up blood for Jewish burial
Photo: Zaka

Zaka volunteer places blood-soaked garments of dead yeshiva students in bag for Jewish burial
Zaka

Fifty ambulances responded to the scene. The wounded were evacuated to Hadassah Ein Karem and Shaarei Tzedek Hospitals.

In Gaza City, Arab residents went out into the streets and fired rifles in the air in celebration of the attack against the Jews of Jerusalem.

Murdered Yeshiva students lined up in Merkaz HaRav entrance hall, 06Mar08
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Zaka volunteers mop up spilt Jewish blood for buria, Jerusalem, 06Mar08l
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Police forces have been increased throughout the capital and placed on heightened alert around the country.

The Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva is located near the entrance to Jerusalem, in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood. The yeshiva, founded by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, is at the heart of the national-religious movement in Israel.

Police conduct room-to-room search with pointed rifle in Yeshiva seminary building
Photo: Flash90

Police conduct room-to-room search in yeshiva building
Photo: Flash90

Seriously-wounded Jewish student with blood-soaked shirt and pants transferred to ambulance
Photo: Flash90

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Four People Injured in Other Attacks
Four people were wounded in a rocket attack on Sderot on Thursday evening. One of the victims, who was in his house when it sustained a direct hit, suffered moderate head wounds. Three other people suffered light injuries.

A second rocket hit a gas tank, causing a fire. Firefighters managed to gain control of the blaze. No injuries were reported.

Arabs attacked Israeli drivers on Thursday night, rolling flaming tires onto Route 60 as cars drove past.  The attack took place west of Hevron, near the town of Otniel. IDF soldiers witnessed the group beginning its attack and fired on one of the attacker's legs. The attacker was hit and wounded moderately.

Doron Mehereta, 26, of Ashdod
Ro'i Rote, 18, of Elkanah in Samaria (Shomron)
Yonadav Haim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kokhav HaShachar (Shomron)
Yochai Lipshitz, 18, of the Old City of Jerusalem
Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, of Shilo (Shomron)
Neriah Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem
Segev Pniel Avichayil, 15, of N'vei Daniel in Gush Etzion
Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat, Gush Etzion

Doron, Yonadav and Ro'i were students in Merkaz HaRav; the others were students in the LeTze'irim Yeshiva High School of Merkaz HaRav in the adjacent building.

Seven of the ten wounded students remain hospitalized. The public is asked to pray for the recovery of: Naftali ben [son of] Gila from Sderot, Yonatan ben Avital, Shimon ben Tirza, Nadav ben Hadas, Reuven ben Naomi and Elchanan ben Zehava.

The funerals began at near the main entrance to the capital, at Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva, considered to be the heart of the national religious movement. The ambulances carrying the victims arrived around 10:30, making their way with difficulty through the large crowd of mourners and arousing new waves of sobbing and wailing with each arrival. Rabbi Benny Eisner, a veteran Merkaz HaRav student and teacher in the high school, led the mourners in the recital of Psalms. 

The first eulogy was delivered by Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, who succeeded his late father, Rabbi Avraham Elkanah Kahana Shapira, at the helm of the yeshiva when the latter passed away just a few months ago. Rabbi Shapira spoke sobbingly of the "eight sons that we have lost in one day," and called for a "better and more believing leadership... This slaughter is a continuation of the slaughterous pogrom of 1929 in Hevron [when Arabs murdered with axes 67 Jews in their homes and synagogues]... The Land of Israel, which these eight loved so much and were so devoted for - we have to stop playing with it!  We have to stop dividing it!..  Please pray for us, and for the yeshiva, that it should continue to grow and have influence..."

Rabbi Yerachmiel Weiss, head of the Merkaz high school, spoke next, in a voice breaking with emotion and tears: "G-d is just, and His ways are just... We have questions; but the questions are so difficult, so difficult...  How is it possible to eulogize one Torah scholar on Rosh Chodesh Adar?  But two? and three, and four, and five...??  Your ways are so hidden, Master of the Universe!  ... In Adar, we increase joy - look how much joy You gathered to Heaven!  They were in the midst of studying Torah, such joy, such purity... We have been left with such a hole... I just want to tell You, Master of the Universe, what great people You took: Yehonadav - he gave [nadav, in Hebrew] so much; what purity and simplicity... You took Yochai from us - he lives [chai] in G-d, what Torah study he did; even while they were setting up for the Purim party, he came to learn Torah... You took Segev Pniel of the Avichayil family - what a family, and what valour [chayil] in Torah! ... You took Yehonatan [meaning "G-d gave"] - what prayer, what Torah, what beauty...  You took our dear Avraham David - just two days ago I had a long talk with him in his room - what knowledge he had, what integrity, what music he gave us with his Torah reading... and the youngest, Neriah - the candle of G-d, his light will be missing from us..."

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, a former Chief Rabbi of Israel and one who has been very close to the Yeshiva and its students for decades, was unable to attend because of ill health, but his assistant Rabbi Shmuel Zaafrani read aloud his message of eulogy.

Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Rishon LeTzion, quoted verses speaking of enemies defiling G-d's holies, and asked, "How much longer, O G-d?... Whoever could have thought that the evil would have come to the gates of the yeshiva, with such cruelty... This is a tragedy of all of Am [Nation] Yisrael; we are all crying, we are all mourning... Let us arouse to distance ourselves from all hatred and disunity, and let us increase love, brotherhood and Torah study..."

Eight Families Tear Clothes, Recite Kaddish
Following the concluding eulogy by Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupoliansky, the eight families of mourners tore their shirts and recited aloud the Kaddish prayer.

At the conclusion of the eulogies and prayers, eight separate funeral processions set out for the various communities where the boys are to be buried.  Yochai and Neriah will be buried in the Mt. of Olives cemetery in Jerusalem.  Announcements were made regarding each funeral - where the ambulance carrying the body would be stationed and from where the bus setting out for the burial was leaving.

The Heart of Religious National Zionism
National Union MK Effie Eitam noted Friday morning that “whoever chose the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva as a terrorist target knew it was the heart of national Zionism.”  Virtually every religious-Zionist yeshiva in the country was founded and/or staffed by former students of the yeshiva. 

Eitam, who learned at the yeshiva 30 years ago after living in the secular Ein Gev kibbutz, called the institution “the mother of all Zionist yeshivas” whose graduates serve in the IDF and have been at the forefront of development in Judea and Samaria.  “The victims were murdered,” he declared, “but their hope and faith cannot be killed.”

Among the thousands of mourners at the funeral could be seen rabbis from around the country, as well as Minister Meshulam Nahari of Shas, MKs Nissan Slomiansky, Nissim Ze'ev, Ruby Rivlin, and Zevulun Orlev, and former MK Ehud Yatom. Benches were set up at the entrance to the yeshiva for the families of the victims, surrounded by the large crowd of mourners.

"With deep shock and sorrow, we announce the abominable murder of our holy and precious students, blossoming cedars at the height of their strength, as they held texts of Torah in their hands.  This horrific murder occurred in the heart of Jerusalem, in the great Torah center, in the holy of holies of the nation, the heart of the State of Israel.  It is part of the long-running war waged by the Arabs against the very existence of the Nation of Israel and the Torah of Israel.

 

"These holy boys were felled in the Sanctification of G-d's Name, in the battle for the building of our nation in its Land. They have the status of national martyrs 'in whose presence no creature can stand' [as our Sages teach].

"This monstrous attack must bring about a major and substantial change.  We call upon and demand from the Government of Israel to wake up and to fight to the end, without mercy, against the enemies of Israel.

"This is a terrible crisis! It is one of private mourning and of national mourning.  But the Yeshiva will continue its path of study, teaching, growing and disseminating the Torah of Israel in our complete and holy Land of Israel."

Yeshiva Leading to Universal Redemption
Merkaz HaRav was founded as the Central Universal Yeshiva by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook in 1924.  He saw it as the ultimate Torah center in which to raise Torah scholars and leaders who would help build a modern Torah society in the Land of Israel that would lead to universal and religious redemption.

When Rabbi Kook, who also served as the Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land, passed away in 1935, he was succeeded by his colleague/student, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Charlop.  Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, son of the original founder, took over in 1952, and served until his death in 1982.  He was then succeeded by Rabbi Sha'ul Yisraeli and Rabbi Avraham Shapira; the latter took over as sole Rosh Yeshiva when Rabbi Yisraeli died, and Rabbi Yaakov Shapira took over from his father, who died just five months ago.

Merkaz, as it is known, is famous for its very spiritual, Torah-centered, love-of-Israel atmosphere. The vast study hall is packed with books, benches, book-stands (shtenders), and, almost throughout the day and night, students.  Many of the students have completed their army service and some are IDF officers. 

Thousands of Merkaz graduates saturate Israeli public life as rabbis, rabbinical court judges, army officers, professors, teachers and educators in many dozens of schools and yeshivot around the country.  Rabbi Avraham Kook is considered the father of the entire movement of re-awakened religious nationalism.

Police denied reports that the murderous terrorist had once worked for Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav.  However, he was a driver who often transported children and others, and there were reports that he had occasionally been hired by the yeshiva.  His last trip was Thursday evening to Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, where his van was found after the attack with ammunition inside. 

Magen David Adom emergency medical services are on the highest level of alert all around the country.  Jerusalem police are out in force as well, especially to guard the Moslem prayers on the Temple Mount - though police commentator Uri Cohen Aharonov said, "The Arabs have basically had their fill for one day, and no disturbances are expected."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced, shortly after the slaughter, the emplacement of a closure on the Arabs of Judea and Samaria that "will be lifted according to security assessments." The closure will not include humanitarian, medical and exceptional cases.

Israel's Foreign Ministry issued this statement regarding Islamic terrorism after the attack:

"Tonight’s murder of yeshiva students during a religious event expresses at its most deplorable the fundamentalist-extremist foundations, in the name of which Palestinian terrorism operates.  Israel will never allow terrorism to achieve its goals.  Such abominable terrorist attacks must strengthen the free world’s understanding of the nature of the terrorist threat.  A clear, decisive and uncompromising stand is necessary against such terrorism.

 

"Israel is at the forefront of the struggle against terrorism and will continue to defend its citizens, who are exposed to this threat on a daily basis.  Israel expects the nations of the world to support it in its war against those who murder students, women and children, by any means and with respect for neither place nor target."

The source told the US-based magazine that police received a tip that a suicide bomber was about to enter the capital, and set up checkpoints in a ring on the outskirts of the city. However, the murderer of students at the Merkaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva in Jerusalem was a local resident of the eastern section of the city and held an Israeli identity card.

“Based on the kind of weapons he was carrying, we think he was part of a terrorist cell and that it was a well-organized attack,” said a police official quoted by the magazine.

Government Condemns Attack, Continues Talks with PA
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni vowed Thursday night that Israel would continue its talks with the Palestinian Authority despite the slaughter.

The murderous terrorist attack, in which eight students were murdered and nearly a dozen others wounded, “shows that the Palestinian Authority is not fighting terror hard enough,” said Olmert, but added that negotiations over a final status agreement would not be stopped.

The prime minister’s aides told reporters there is a direct connection between sources of terror in Gaza and those in Judea and Samaria.

The Foreign Ministry echoed the prime minister’s words. “These terrorists are trying to destroy the chances of peace, but we certainly will continue the peace talks,” spokesman Aryeh Mekel said.

Fatah, Hamas
Speaking on behalf of Abbas, senior PA negotiator Saeb Erekat said the PA chairman condemned the attack, adding that he denounces "all attacks that target civilians, whether Arabs or Israelis.”  The Hamas terrorist organization that controls Gaza praised the slaughter in a statement to the media, saying “We bless the [Jerusalem] operation. It will not be the last.”

International Condemnation, Pressure to Continue Talks
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, issued a statement after Thursday night’s massacre saying he “condemns in the strongest terms [the] savage attack on a Jewish seminary in west Jerusalem and the deliberate killing and injuring of civilians.”

Ban extended condolences to the victims’ families and said, “The Secretary-General is deeply concerned at the potential for continued acts of violence and terrorism to undermine the political process, which he believes must be pursued to achieve a secure and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians based on a two-state solution.”

U.S. President George W. Bush called the massacre “a barbaric and vicious attack on innocent civilians [that] deserves the condemnation of every nation.” He telephoned the Prime Minister to express his condolences.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who this week ordered Israeli leaders to halt the IDF counterterrorism operations in Gaza, called the slaughter an “act of terror and depravity.” In a phone conversation with the foreign minister, Rice said the attack “has no place among civilized peoples and shocks the conscience of all peace-loving nations. There is no cause that could ever justify this action.”

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the attack was “an arrow aimed at the heart of the peace process so recently revived.”

Libya blocked the UN Security Council from debating a draft resolution by the US condemning the attack due to the inclusion of the word “terrorist.”

The resolution stated, “The members of the Security Council condemn in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that took place in Jerusalem March 6, 2008 which resulted in the death and injury of dozens of Israeli civilians.”

PA Arabs in Gaza held a full-scale celebration Thursday night after the attack, handing out candies and firing gunshots into the air.

A hearing was held Wednesday in the Kfar Saba Magistrates Court for Tzviyah, who has been imprisoned for almost three months on charges of having attacked Arabs who attempted to enter her town of Elon Moreh in Samaria (Shomron).  Though her friend and fellow-arrestee signed the necessary papers and was immediately released, Tzviyah refuses to cooperate with the justice system at all. She is therefore still in prison, with her next court date set for a month from now.

The protocol of the testimony of the two Arabs who were allegedly attacked indicates, as Honenu director Shmuel Medad later told Arutz-7, "that there is simply a plot and scheme to keep Tzviyah in jail, for no justified reason.  The elderly Arab says Tziyah did nothing more than try to take his cane, the other one said the same, and even the judge herself seemed ashamed to keep Tzviyah in jail for another month.  It's either orders from above or I don't know what, but the judge ran out without announcing the decision - she had the stenographer do it for her - and did not seem to be happy or proud of her ruling."

Before the hearing began, State Prosecutor Shir Laufer - a religiously-observant woman living in central Israel - reportedly approached Tzviyah's mother and asked her, "Perhaps your daughter will agree to sign after all?  Because if not, this won't end today..."  This, Medad said, "appears to indicate that the prosecutor and judge have discussed the case and that the prosecutor knows the judge's plans."

Friends of Tzviyah, students at a religious girls' high school in the Shomron, addressed the following letter to the prosecuting attorney:

Shir Laufer, to whom are you loyal?

Tzviyah has been in jail for three months. She does not recognize your authority.  You know that the responsibility for whatever harm befalls her is yours.

You, and the system that pays your salary, want her just to say: "Yes, I recognize your authority."  But there is not one law in the current regime that obligates her to say so. 

...You know that just a month ago, you [plural] were forced to release the girls, Tzviyah's friends [who also refused to cooperate with the court system], because even the [Jerusalem District] Court ruled that they were not to be punished before being found guilty.  You know that after that ruling, the Prosecution was then forced to crawl back and request their release.

You have dual loyalty. On the one hand, the wig on your head declares that you believe in G-d and that you have a Jewish conscience.  But on the other hand, it's not your conscience or faith that are paying your salary - and therefore you feel less obligated to them.

Shir Laufer, be ashamed!

This is not how a Jew should act. Your are not a robot of instructions and salary.  Everyone knows that, although you [plural] want to drive Tzviyah insane, meanwhile, thank G-d, she is very strong.

Release Tzviyah from jail at once. Now.

Some of Tzviyah's friends said they planned to protest outside Ms. Laufer's home.

Two prosecution witnesses, Abdel Karim Hussein, 36, and Abdel Baki Shahada Amar, 81, said that Tzviyah was not the girl who assaulted them in Elon Moreh.  At one point, after being asked repeatedly to say whether Tzviyah had assaulted him, Hussein said with exasperation, "I want to understand one thing: You brought me here so that  I could testify that she's the one?"

A report on IsraelJustice.com gave the following account of the testimony:

"I'm surprised that the girl who made all the problems is not here," Hussein said. "It was the other girl."   Hussein said that Tzviyah had yelled at him to leave but she had not pushed him...  Hussein, Amar and five others, aged between 60 to 70, said they were brought to Elon Moreh by the Civil Administration and the army on Dec. 4, 2007 after authorities had told them that they must come to claim their land or the Jewish settlers would take it.

Hussein refuted the police charge sheet that they had come to pick olives. "We had not visited our land for 20 years," Hussein said. "They're all old. They just wanted to see the land." 

[Aram said,] "the girls came towards us and they told us to leave saying that the land belongs to Elon Moreh."  Aram, who addressed the court through a translator, then testified that Tzviyah had cursed him, but when pressed, he retracted the accusation. He said that she only spoke Hebrew and that he did not understand Hebrew and that she had not cursed him. Amar... denied that Tzvia had either pushed him or threatened him.           

The judge, noticeably annoyed with prosecutor Shir Laufer, said that the entire testimony was chaotic and asked if the witness was confused or had a hearing problem.   Amar said he heard perfectly well and that he was over 80 years old and he refused to lie under oath.      ...Laufer read [Aram's accusations] in Arabic but Aram denied writing the statement. He testified that he barely knew how to read Arabic and that the police officer just told him to sign. 

"When the police wrote, I don't know what they wrote," Amar said. "I just signed. They told me to bring my identity card and to sign. The person who wrote my statement in Arabic spoke in Hebrew..."  Bechor then asked Aram if he had been threatened to change his testimony. Amar said that Civil Administration officials had telephoned him every day to pressure him to testify. 

"What am I? A child?" Aram asked. "Am I a lying witness? Civil Administration officials called every hour pressing me to testify. I was scared that they would punish me if I didn't come to testify."   At this point, the judge declared..., "I am declaring the witness a hostile witness, after his testimony essentially differs from his statement." 

Judge Bechor took long breaks during the hearing and heard other cases in between although all the remaining prosecution witnesses waited the entire day to testify. Several seconds after hearing a different case, the judge fled from the courtroom without announcing her decision. She whispered to the court stenographer that the next hearing in the case was called for April 3. 

Hussein also said, "We are not interested in the accused being incarcerated, because she is a young girl, and I want this girl to know something, that the next time we come back to our lands, that she should not interfere, because it causes confusion/awkwardness to the police and the army. I tell you, in the name of the Haj, we are willing to withdraw the complaint because we want peace..."

Minutes later, the judge ordered the court adjourned without having Tzviyah released, and set the next court date for a month from now.