For Immediate Release
Toronto, October 17, 2001… The Canadian Jewish Community reacted with shock and anger today upon learning of the assassination of Israeli Minister of Tourism Rehavam Ze’evi. A gunman of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) murdered the 75-year-old father of five, affectionately known by Israelis as "Gandhi", at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Jerusalem. Just hours earlier, the Israeli government had significantly eased the closure of Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem. Investigators are examining the likelihood that this ‘confidence building measure’ allowed the assassins access to their target.
Rochelle Wilner, President of B’nai Brith Canada, was outraged. “The PFLP is claiming that this is a response to the Israeli killing of Abu Ali Mustapha a number of weeks ago. No moral equivalency can be imposed. The murder of a democratically elected civilian minister of the government and member of the Knesset bears no resemblance in fact or rationale to the killing of the terrorist mastermind Mustapha. His organization had planned, executed, and claimed responsibility for the slaughter of innocent men, women and children in Israel and beyond its borders for decades. Israel had demanded his arrest, but the PA let him go freely about his murderous business.”
Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President, continued. “After September 11th, all we seem to be hearing from the Americans and the Europeans is that sacrifices have to be made in the name of ‘coalition building’, that, as the US State Department stated on Monday, there is a difference between terrorism against the US and terrorism against Israel. These artificial distinctions are nonsense. Israeli blood and American blood are the same somber red. Palestinian terror and Al Qaeda terror are the same unmitigated evil.”
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For more information, please contact:
Rochelle Wilner or Frank Dimant at (416) 633-6224
B’nai Brith has been active in Canada since 1875 as the community’s senior human rights organization.
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