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Palestinian Leader Lauded by Western Press Provided Money and Explosives to Suicide Bomber

(Jerusalem Post) Stephen M. Flatow - A glowing feature article about PA official Hussein al-Sheikh by Adam Rasgon of the New Yorker and Aaron Boxerman of the New York Times appeared in Foreign Policy on July 31. Yet it failed to mention al-Sheikh's involvement in a Palestinian suicide bombing attack on King George Street in the heart of Jerusalem on March 21, 2002. Five people were murdered, and more than 100 were injured. The explosion hurled U.S. citizen Alan Bauer 20 feet into the air. Two screws packed into the bomb ripped through his left arm. His son, Jonathan, 7, suffered severe shrapnel wounds and underwent numerous operations to remove nails and screws from his head, including one that was lodged in his brain. He was left with permanent injuries. After the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military arm of the Fatah movement, openly claimed responsibility for the bombing, the U.S. State Department finally put the group on its official list of terrorist organizations. The family of a young couple, Gadi and Tzipi Shemesh, who were killed in the bombing, filed a suit against the PA. In 2018, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the PA was responsible for the bombing, citing testimony provided by Israeli intelligence officials. According to the court's ruling, one of those named by the officials was "senior Fatah official Hussein al-Sheikh, who met the suicide bomber and two other operatives, and gave them money and two hand grenades to carry out the bombing." According to American and Israeli law, this makes al-Sheikh equally guilty of multiple murders.
2023-08-07 00:00:00
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