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2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack

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On July 2, 2008, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem identified as Hussam Taysir Duwait (also referred to as Hussam Duwiyat,[2] Hossam Dawyyat,[3] or erroneously as Jabr Duwait[4]) attacked several cars on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem in a vehicle-ramming attack using a front-end loader (erroneously referred to as a bulldozer in the media[5]), killing three civilians and wounding at least thirty other pedestrians, before being shot to death.[2][6] Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that an inquiry indicated the attacker had been acting alone.[7] A motive for the attack could not immediately be determined, but police at the scene referred to the incident as a terrorist attack.[5] Three copycat attacks have occurred since then.

Jerusalem bulldozer attack
The attack aftermath
2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack is located in Jerusalem
2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack
class=notpageimage|
The attack site
LocationJerusalem
Coordinates31°47′18″N 35°12′23″E / 31.78833°N 35.20639°E / 31.78833; 35.20639
DateJuly 2, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-07-02)
11:55 a.m. – 12:10 p.m. (UTC+3)
Attack type
Vehicle-ramming attack
Deaths3 civilians (+1 attacker)[1]
Injured40[1]
AssailantHussam Taysir Duwait

This attack was the second incident in 2008 in which an Israeli Arab committed a violent act in west Jerusalem while carrying an Israeli ID Card (allowing for freedom of movement and travel throughout Israel), the first being the Mercaz HaRav massacre in early March 2008.[8] On April 7, 2009, Duwait's house was demolished as a declared deterrent against future attacks, the first such demolition since 2005.[9]

Attack

 
Damage caused by the attack

Preliminary investigations suggest the Caterpillar 966 front-end loader was taken from a nearby construction site on Jaffa Road. The perpetrator then drove the vehicle against traffic, before hitting an Egged public bus near the city's old Central Bus Station. The impact flipped the bus onto its side, hitting nearby vehicles and pedestrians.[10] The perpetrator, Hussam Taysir Duwait, was also heard yelling "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.[8] After a traffic policewoman had shot the driver, the vehicle came to a halt but then started again and crushed another car, killing another person.[2][11]

At the point when the vehicle had stopped for the first time, three men had climbed up to the cabin: A 20-year-old off-duty soldier from Jerusalem, Moshe Plesser, who had recently enlisted at the Israel Defense Forces,[4][12] an unnamed policeman, and Oron Ben Shimon, an armed civilian and manager of a regional security firm.[13] According to Oron, while he was struggling with the driver inside the cabin, trying to get his feet off the accelerator and take over the wheel, he shouted at the soldier to shoot the driver.[13] The soldier then grabbed Oron's handgun and killed Duwait with three shots to the head at point blank range.[10][14] After the vehicle had immediately come to a halt again, motorcycle policeman Eli Mizrahi climbed the cabin and fired two more shots.[10][15]

Haaretz quotes the soldier as saying that "I got closer to the bulldozer, the whole time looking for my weapon to shoot him."[10] Coincidentally, the soldier is the brother-in-law of Captain David Shapira, the paratrooper officer who shot and killed the perpetrator in the Mercaz HaRav massacre.[13]

The moments during which the perpetrator was shot and killed have been filmed from at least two different angles,[16] which accounts for the greater level of directly available descriptive detail in comparison to the original attack which is documented only through eyewitnesses on the scene as well as images that were taken mostly after the incident itself.

 

One witness is quoted as saying that Duwait was armed and "shooting at a police officer".[17]

Fatalities

  • Batsheva Unterman, 33, of Jerusalem[18] – a kindergarten teacher, and the wife of Ido Unterman, grandson of former Chief rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman. She was in her car at the scene of the attack. Her 6-month-old daughter was pulled from the car just before it was hit.[2]
  • Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, of Jerusalem[19] – originally of Austria, Elizabeth Goren-Friedman worked as a teacher in a school for the blind.[2]
  • Jean Relevy, 68, of Jerusalem[20] – an air-conditioner technician who lived in the Gilo neighborhood.[2]

Perpetrator

Duwait, a 32-year-old father of two from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sur Baher, was carrying an Israeli identity card, and was hired by a local construction firm for the Jerusalem Light Rail.[5]

Three Palestinian organizations took responsibility for the attack: the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the Galilee Freedom Battalion (Hebrew: גדודי חופשיי הגליל), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Despite the Palestinian claims of responsibility, Israeli police chief Dudi Cohen said the attacker appeared to be acting alone and that "it looks as if it was a spontaneous act."[15] Some two hours after the attack, a Hamas spokesman said that the attack is "a natural response to Israeli aggression." Nevertheless, he stressed that Hamas did not know who was behind the attack.[21]

Shimon Kokos, the lawyer of the perpetrator's family, said that Hussam "had not belonged to any militant organization and may have acted out of temporary insanity" and that, "had [he] not been killed during his rampage, it is doubtful whether he would have been judged fit to stand trial."[22] "My son never spoke of plans to carry out such an attack, if he had I would have tried to prevent it," Duwait's father, Tayseer told The Media Line as police officers were about to question him.[23]

A Jewish ex-girlfriend of Duwait, commented that "he really didn't hate Jews. The fact is that he was with me. It's insanity, but the motivation was not nationalist" and also that his bad temper may have been related to his "[smoking] a lot of drugs."[24] Other people have gone on the record as well alleging regular drug abuse by Duwait, one neighbour saying that he was "a drug addict [...]. He'd shoot up all the time. [...] He was really just a junkie."[25]

Aftermath

Israeli Border Guard officers ordered the Duwait family to remove the mourning tent they erected in the neighborhood for their son. A Border Guard patrol passing through the area identified the construction of the tent and ordered the family to remove it. The family then disassembled the tent without any noted resistance.[26][27] Two days after the attack, defense minister Ehud Barak ordered the demolition of Duwait's and Alaa Abu Dhein's (perpetrator of the Mercaz HaRav massacre) houses, as a stated deterrent against future attacks.[28] Following the supreme court rejection of appeals by Duwait's family, his home was razed on April 7, 2009, the first such demolition since a military commission recommended against such action in 2005.[9] During the demolition, police shot dead a Palestinian motorist who ran over and injured three police officers.[29]

Bulldozer attack of July 22

On July 22, another east Jerusalem Arab resident, Ghassan Abu Tir, rammed his bulldozer (this time it was a smaller backhoe loader) into cars and a bus on King David street in Jerusalem. He wounded 24 people, including one whose leg was partially severed. He was subsequently killed by a fusillade of gunfire from a Border Policeman and an armed pedestrian. The attack was seen as a copycat act of the July 2 attack, causing fears of repeated copycat acts in an emerging new terrorist tactic of vehicle ramming attacks.[30][31] The attack happened just down the road from the hotel where Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama was due to stay as part of a multi-country visit.[32]

BMW attack

Main article: Jerusalem BMW attack

On September 22, 2008, Qassem Mughrabi, a resident of East Jerusalem, drove a black BMW into a group of off-duty soldiers standing on a Jerusalem street injuring 19.[33][34] Mughrabi was subsequently shot dead by one of the soldiers. Police spokesmen asserted the event was a terrorist attack, not an accident.[35]

March 5, 2009, attack

Two police officers were lightly wounded in Jerusalem when an Arab bulldozer driver overturned their police car and rammed it into a bus, before being fatally shot by police and an armed taxi driver. The attack occurred around 1 P.M. near the Malha shopping mall, on Menachem Begin Boulevard in southern Jerusalem. Police said that a copy of the Koran had been found in the bulldozer after the attack, and that the driver had not been carrying any identification. Israel Police and local residents later identified the man as Marei Radaydeh, a West Bank construction worker in his mid-20s who lived with his family in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. Radaydeh was married and had a daughter. Hamas praised the attack, calling it a "natural response" to Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in Arab East Jerusalem and to Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.[36]

Official reactions

Involved parties

  Israel:

  • Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert mentioned that "There is no way to fence-off the Arabs of east Jerusalem and every home of a potential terrorist," and that "We need to stop the terror attacks carried out by east Jerusalem Arabs, and if that must be done through means of deterrence or the demolition of a home – then so be it."[37] B'Tselem has condemned the plans as "illegal collective punishment."[38]
  • President of Israel, Shimon Peres expressed pride in the speedy actions of the soldier who fired at and killed the attacker.[39]

  Palestinian territories:

Supranational
International

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Kershner, Isabel; Cowell, Alan (July 3, 2008). "Construction Vehicle Kills 3 in Israel Attack". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Two teachers among the dead in Jerusalem attack". Haaretz. July 3, 2008. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
  3. ^ "Olmert, Barak: Demolish terrorists' homes". Ynet. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on July 12, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
  4. ^ a b "Three dead in terror attack". TotallyJewish.com. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on July 7, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
  5. ^ a b c "Jerusalem bulldozer 'terrorist' kills 3 in rampage". CNN (via WUSA). July 2, 2008. Retrieved June 16, 2009.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "3 killed as Palestinian bulldozer driver goes on killing spree in Jerusalem". Ynetnews. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  7. ^ "Deadly Jerusalem bulldozer attack". BBC. June 11, 2009. Archived from the original on July 21, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  8. ^ a b "'He cried Allah Akhbar and hit the gas'". Jpost. July 3, 2008. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
  9. ^ a b Lis, Jonathan (April 7, 2009). "Police kill Palestinian assailant at demolition of terrorist's home". Haaretz. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2010.
  10. ^ a b c d "At least four dead, dozens hurt in Jerusalem terror attack". Haaretz. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  11. ^ "GTD ID:200807020027". Global Terrorism Database. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  12. ^ "IDF Awards Soldier Who Stopped Tractor Terrorist". Arutz Sheva. September 2, 2009. Archived from the original on March 26, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  13. ^ a b c Azoulay, Yuval; Jonathan Lis; Nadav Shragai (July 3, 2008). "Young recruit left his bike, felled bulldozer terrorist". Haaretz. Archived from the original on July 11, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
  14. ^ Haaretz Staff and Channel 10 (July 2, 2008). "Policeman shoots and kills Jerusalem terrorist during rampage". Haaretz. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ a b "Bulldozer plows into cars, buses in Jerusalem". NBC News. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  16. ^ "Dramatic video of attacker's killing". Reuters. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2008.
  17. ^ "Jerusalem bus driver: Terrorist looked me in the eye and drove at me". Haaretz Service and News Agencies. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  18. ^ "Batsheva Unterman". GxMSDev. Archived from the original on September 30, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  19. ^ "Elizabeth (Lili) Goren-Friedman". GxMSDev. Archived from the original on September 30, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  20. ^ "Jean Relevy". GxMSDev. Archived from the original on April 24, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  21. ^ "Palestinian kills 3 in Jerusalem bulldozer attack". Reuters. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  22. ^ "Bulldozer killer may have been temporarily insane: lawyer". July 3, 2008. Archived from the original on July 10, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
  23. ^ "Bulldozer Attack Shakes Jerusalem". Time. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on April 20, 2010. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  24. ^ "Jerusalem attacker had Jewish lover, child". NBC News. Associated Press. 2008. Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
  25. ^ Issacharoff, Avi; Amos Harel. "A junkie and a martyr". Haaretz. Retrieved July 5, 2008.[permanent dead link]
  26. ^ "Police Order Terrorist's Family to Remove Tent". IsraelNationalNews.com. July 3, 2008. Archived from the original on August 3, 2008. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
  27. ^ "Terrorist's mourning tent dismantled". The Jerusalem Post. July 3, 2008. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
  28. ^ "Police conclude Jerusalem bulldozer killer acted alone". Haaretz. June 6, 2008. Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved September 26, 2010.
  29. ^ "Palestinian 'attacker' shot dead". BBC News. April 7, 2009. Archived from the original on November 4, 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2010.
  30. ^ Copans, Laurie (July 22, 2008). "Palestinian in construction truck rams cars". USA Today. AP. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
  31. ^ "Israelis hit by new digger attack". bbc.co.uk. July 22, 2008. Archived from the original on January 15, 2009. Retrieved July 22, 2008.
  32. ^ Harrison, Rebecca (July 23, 2008). "Bulldozer in Jerusalem rampage before Obama visit". Reuters. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
  33. ^ Lefkovits, Etgar (September 22, 2008). "'J'lem terrorist was a Hamas member'". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
  34. ^ Lis, Jonathan. "Terrorist in car rams 19 in J'lem". Haaretz. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
  35. ^ Kershner, Isabel (September 22, 2008). "Palestinian Car Rams Israelis". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
  36. ^ "Two policemen hurt in bulldozer terror attack in Jerusalem". Haaretz. April 3, 2009. Archived from the original on April 16, 2009. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
  37. ^ "Olmert: We can't fence-off east Jerusalem Arabs". Archived from the original on November 8, 2016. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  38. ^ "Israel to destroy attacker's home". bbc.co.uk. July 4, 2008. Archived from the original on April 9, 2012. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
  39. ^ "Peres: I was Proud of the Soldier Who Fired". IsraelNationalNews.com. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  40. ^ "Israel weighs Jerusalem separation". The New York Times. July 3, 2008. Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  41. ^ Lefkovits, Etgar (July 2, 2008). "Terrorist plows bulldozer into vehicles". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  42. ^ "Ban Ki-Moon Expresses Condolences". Archived from the original on August 3, 2008. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  43. ^ Benhorin, Yitzhak (July 2, 2008). "Israel demands UN condemnation of attack". Ynetnews. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved July 19, 2009.
  44. ^ "Bulldozer rampage in Jerusalem". Al Jazeera. July 2, 2008. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
 
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