In the annals of Israeli terror attacks its one of the most memorable in a long line of such horrible incidents. Horrible not just because of the shock of the incident (then bus hijackings were unheard of). But for the trail of lies, collusion and cowardice perpetrated by senior Israeli officials to cover-up the murder in cold-blood of the attackers after they’d been captured.
It is known as the Bus (or Kav) 300 incident for the name of the bus line on which the hijacked vehicle ran. In April 1984, four Palestinians from Gaza took over the bus just after it left Tel Aviv. Eventually, Israeli forces stopped it and commandos attacked killing two of the militants. The remaining two were removed from the bus in handcuffs. Pictures of them were later disseminated around the world. Then Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom commanded that they be killed on the spot. They were dispatched with blows to the skull from large rocks. No one at the time was aware that a photographer had recorded the terrorists alive and in handcuffs. When the Shin Bet reported that all the terrorists had been killed during the operation to free the bus, David Shipler told NY Times readers that the Israeli magazine, Hadashot had a photograph of one of the hijackers, Majdi Abu Jummaa being led alive off the bus.
In Israel, Uri Avnery’s HaOlam HaZeh, published a photo that blurred the face of the hijacker. Then all hell broke loose.
The Shin Bet chief tried to blame the IDF officer in charge of the operation. The State tried him and eleven others for the murders, but they were not convicted. Later, it turned out that Shalom had orchestrated the entire trial in order to protect himself and his staff.
Later, three Shin Bet deputies turned on their boss. They appealed to minister Shimon Peres, but he backed Shalom. The deputies were then forced out of the agency. One and a half years after the incident, they all turned to the State attorney general, Yitzhak Zamir, who opened an investigation against Shalom. But before he could prosecute, he too was forced from office after he refused to end it and was charged with jeopardizing national security. No one was punished. In fact, Israel’s then president, Chaim Herzog issued blanket pardons to a number of figures even before being charged. Shalom charged that all his actions had been authorized, which implied that even prime minister Yitzhak Shamir was implicated. It was a deemed a fuck-up too big to fail. The State, as a result, circled the wagons to protect its own and turned on the lesser figures who were trying to stand up for right and decency. The whistleblowers, as usual, got the short end and the evildoers got off scot-free.
When he retired from the Shin Bet in 1996, Ehud Yatom admitted in an interview that he was the killer and proud of that fact. He added this memorable and truly twisted claim:
“Only clean, moral hands in Shin Bet can do what is needed in a democratic state.”
The Bus 300 incident harkens back to an earlier time in the history of Israel. A time when Israelis still trusted implicitly anything their leaders, especially their military and intelligence leaders told them. They still do, by the way. But no longer does every Israeli do so without question. Then there was trust and innocence, a belief in authority and in the justness of the Israeli cause. In hindsight, many look back on this incident and see it as a turning point and everything that followed from it proved the hypocrisy and mendaciousness of which the authorities were capable in order to protect their interests, especially when they involved Palestinians, whose lives were deemed cheap enough to sacrifice.
The incident also put into sharp relief the role of the media in exposing the sordid underbelly of the cover-up. Journalists like Shipler (who later won a Pulitzer Prize) and Avnery were the heroes. Unfortunately, today there are fewer heroes and more evildoers, or at least those in the media who acquiesce to them.
I fail to see why you have suddenly brought up this story from nearly 30 years ago. You’ve added nothing new to the story that hasn’t been already in public knowledge and reported openly.
But if you mentioned the story, then you forgot to mention:
That the “militants” (do you work now for the BBC? – these were terrorists) threatened to kill all 50 or so passengers.
That one hostage was killed in the cross-fire.
That Ehud Yatom was denied the possibility of being a minister because of his record (the supreme court ruled thus) – thus showing Israeli accountability.
That it is to the immense CREDIT of Israel that its free press in a mainstream outlet (Hadashot) broke the news and stood up to the extremely strong security orientated government. You virtually imply that the media and Israel are separate and the media was some outside entity. This is why Israel still likes calling itself democracy as its press is still as free as any other western country.
That in spite of the bad call by Pres. Hertzog in granting immunity, the vox populis was up in arms and together with the media drove out Avraham Shalom and his cronies from any public life afterwards.
Like with Ariel Sharon after Sabra and Shatila, that’s unfortunately indeed the Israeli idea of “accountability”. Murder someone in cold blood, and we won’t let you be a minister. That’ll show you.
Did you not read the Haaretz story I linked? If you had (don’t lawyers read sources before making public comments so they don’t appear foolish), you’d know that Gidi Weitz has received new documents under a FOIA request about the incident & published an expose about it & that a good deal of what Weitz reported was new information.
I read that a soldier involved in the rescue was killed, not a passenger. Ehud Yatom should’ve been prosecuted for cold blooded murder, not just denied a ministerial job, though Israel does include a number of such murderers among its top military, intelligence & political leadership (as do the Palestinians I’m sure, though they’re capable of a much lower level of mayhem than their Israeli counterparts).
As for the free press, not so fast. When questioned, the Hadashot editor at first denied that the photograph pictured the attacker. Instead he claimed it was a picture of a passenger. So he wasn’t quite that courageous. Only Uri Avnery, who was almost murdered by right wing thugs only 2 decades earlier) stood up completely. The censor did everything in its power to suppress this story including threatening to withdraw David Shipler license (who was shortly about to depart Israel anyway).
Shalom too should’ve been put in leg irons in jail. Instead he likely enjoyed a comfortable retirement in some villa in Herzliya.
I of course read the article – but saw no new relevation i Weitz’s report. All the facts were public before the release of the papers, especialy since the supurb doco-drama that came out a few years back.
A female soldier who was killed was a passenger who just happened to be a soldier on the bus. She had nothing to do with the operation to release the hostages.
I agree that Ehud Yatom and Avraham Shalom ought to have been prosecuted. There seems to be a worldwide “honourary absolution” for leaders or high ranking officials who commit serious crimes for ideological causes or security reasons. Even Arafat was never prosecuted or killed though the Israels’s had ample opportunity to do so. And the British never asked to extradite or try Begin or Shamir, and Algeria never asked to try the French colonialists etc
Read the full article in the magazine in Hebrew. I only linked to an excerpt in English.
What you failed to recall, Richard (and, not surprisingly, Shmuel above failed to remind you) is that on their rushed way south, the hijackers stopped to let off the bus a pregnant passenger.
The hijackers certainly endangered the innocent passengers’ lives. But murderers here were the GSS from Yatom upwards, all the way to the terrorist PM who had given the black-flagged orders.
They smashed their skulls with rocks? Unbelievable…
Yes, why waste a bullet? (black humor)
I thought I was jaded enough for anything, but smashing to death with large rocks, man to man? I am speechless with shame and grief. How could it happen? Richard, I catch your rage and I sympathize.
If you think about the situation, there were hundreds of army & intelligence personnel in the immediate vicinity. They probably didn’t have a quiet way to do the job. So they smashed their heads in.
I have been thinking of this for a while: You suggest (if I understand correctly) that they used this barbarous method because it was more silent. But didn’t the two men cry out then, when they were struck? And did number 2 watch silently why his comrade had the treatment, or did they smash their skulls simultaneously?
Shooting them would have made it easy to pass it of as killings that happened during the shoot-out, when the Israeli part accidentally shot one of the hostages too. But smashed skulls with rock fragments embedded and so on? How could they ever think they could get away with that?
They must have been quite certain that they would go scot-free, or they must have let their basest instinct take over in order to choose this particular method. Yuk.
You’re right Yankel I didn’t mention that they let off a pregnant lady as I’d never heard that till now. That probably gives them membership to the lammed vav club. Maybe such tzadikkim deserve a grave visit from the bretzlever hassidim instead of their bothering to go to Oman. Their mother’s must be real proud of these heroes.
Shanah tovah
They’re certainly not as remarkable tzadikkim as some rabbis you know too well who advocate slaughtering babies who might grow-up to be your enemies, let alone those IDF tzadikkim of Gaza who shot a whole family group carrying a white flag then watched them all bleed to death, refusing to let medics approach them, let alone the tzadikkim of the Jewish underground who tried to blow up a girls’ school (and got away with symbolic sentences along with VIP treatment in jail) let alone the Kafar-Kassem tzadikkim who spared neither young nor old, and the scroll goes on…
Well, none of those had their skull smashed, as they’re all tzadikkim bney tzadikkim whose mothers are proud of their offspring just as your mum should be proud of you, Shmuel.
Hear, hear, Yankel!
His mother might be even more proud if he represented Palestinian suspects pro bono through his law firm or arranged for a defense attorney to do so if he isn’t one. I’ve challenged him on this & never heard a reply.
In answer to your “challenge” – I don’t have a law firm, and I can’t represent Palestinians pro bono or otherwise as I serve as a judge in the same courts, so there is a strong conflict of interests.
Also I don’t speak Arabic well enough to represent a P who does not know Hebrew (a translator is not good enough for facilitating talks betweenan accused and his lawyer)
However, for your information, there is no need for pro bono services from me as all Palestinians can get pro bono legal representation from two possible sources:
If the charge is some sort of terrorist related charge, then there is an organisation (funded by the PA) called the “prisoner’s club” who will provide free of charge a lawyer to represent any accused Palestinian who chooses not to take a lawyer at his own expense. These lawyers are GOOD! Also one sees that certain lawyers often appear only to represent accused Palestinians according to their political affiliations, and my guess is that their respective political organisation pays for the same lawyer (e.g. Hamas, PFLP, Islamic Jihad)
If the charge is not terrorist related (e.g. theft, narcotics, illegally entering Israel from the OT etc) and the accused declares that he has no money for a lawyer, then the court will appoint a lawyer for him paid for by the State at a rate which most lawyers will be pleased to accept. The court will usually appoint a lawyer from the “prisoner’s club”, but not nescessarily, each case according to its merits.
You should learn Arabic (or better), you really should. You live in an Arab speaking region and you belong to the educated class. You ought to have a good ability in the language. I learned French and German, the languages of my neigboring countries too. And in your case, it is even the language of an important part of your fellow countrymen.
Elisabeth – I learned French and Russian at school and a course in Arabic at University, but can’t speak any of them. One either has a flair for languages or doesn’t, and I don’t have!At my age, nearer 60 than 50, it doesn’t come any easier.
But that aside, I was intrigued by your expression that I “belong to the educated class” – that’s a rather patronising term to use implying some sort of superiority to those who have a college education. Surely most of the western world is “educated” today? And what connection do you find between education and a flair for language? Some of the most uneducated people I know are bilingual.
I am not talking about superiority but about privilege. Being highly educated is a privilege and with privilege comes obligation. For instance in furthering the understanding between the Arab speaking and Hebrew speaking communities by learning each other’s language.
And it cannot be denied that being highly educated gives you easier access to learning a foreign language, for instance in terms of money, and being trained in study. Why deny that there is a correlation between the level of education that a person received and the chances they had to study another language?
Another way of learning a foreign language is of course growing up in a bilingual or multilingual community. But that is a different story.
It would have been good if learning each other’s language had been made compulsory in schools in Israel years ago (in both communities) don’t you think?
It used to be compulsory in Israeli schools to learn Arabic, but now few actually choose the now optional language. As a result only the older generation, and mostly “mizrahim” speak Arabic at any acceptable level.
I believe all Palestinian Israelis learn Hebrew.
In the OT since most no longer work in Israel, the younger generation no longer knows Hebrew.
It is a great loss to both peoples, and may lie at the root of each misunderstanding each other, for in language is culture and history.
I understand then, as you only followed a course at university, that you did not grow up in Israel? (Because you said that Arabic used to be compulsory in school, and that this was changed unfortunately.)
I agree that the fact that they changed that is terrible (and extremely dumb). Was it an expression of the new nationalism?
The fact that Israeli Arabs are bilingual whereas Jewish Israeli’s do not have to put an effort into becoming fluent in Arabic reflects the unequal position of the two groups in Israel.
All Jewish Israeli’s should learn Arabic. It’s a sign of respect, and even the nationalists cannot claim that this would endanger the ‘Jewish’ character of the state. (See the Mizrahi.)
Just as proud as the mothers’ of many Israeli leaders were when their sons bombed the King David Hotel or murdered scores at Deir Yassin, etc.
You can understand Kav 300 in many ways. To me its just another chapter in the same story: the will of Israel (with US support) to ‘Judify’ the land, and the will of the Palestinians not to disappear. New lines of this story are written on a daily basis. Israel and the US would love to finish them once and for all but its probably more profitable for them do it very slowly – just enough to keep the area on a gentle boil. Its a kind of a strange hobby for them.
I agree with you about the final true purpose of Israel as we know it now. It’s not like there’s anyone in israel who doesn’t know what it’s really all about – after all, they openly express to each other their not so secret wish – if only the Palestinians would “disappear”. And sometimes, the wise ones add – “after all, the American Indians did”, followed by -“and look what a great country America became”. But then the bad son adds “how come they [all] got away with it, and not us”? and the son[s} who didn’t know what to ask just sat there and dreamt the wet dreams of zions lost.
So what became of the good sons, one might care to ask….maybe you know the answer hidden in the”ex”? kind of like some of us who knew not what they could do to be good for real?
But it is certainly good to do what we can to help the Palestinians to not disappear, to so not disappear. That is a true Mitzvah if ever there was one.
Besides, the Indians would not disappear so conveniently either if only there was internet….and that is the answer to the bad sons.
[comment deleted–comments supporting murder will not be published
This book was discussed by Ian Black and Benny Morris in their Secret Wars of Israel. Since that book was published before Yatom’s confession, it does not include it.
What it does say — according to my recollection — is that Shin Bet tried — unsuccessfully — to put the blame on an Army officer.
Oops, I meant “This incident”.
The real question this affair raises is why doesn’t Israel enforce the death penalty against terrorists? From the Wikipedia article:
I agree with those sentiments completely, however the punishment must be carried out after due process, not at the hands of a rogue officer. Kudos to the Israeli press for exposing the coverup.
Israel has a bit problematic history with terrorism and moral. Many of those who formed the political elite of Israel had ordered and/or performed pure terrorist acts. When Israel got its independence these mass murderers did not face death penalty, they did not face any penalty. They became respected national heroes.
It is rather certain, that when Israel has “to empty” most of the West Bank if a peace settlement is ever made, will create strong Jewish underground extremist organizations which will use terrorism against Palestinians. If those terrorist acts are made against Israeli Palestinians or “not any more occupied” Palestinians, which rule set Israel should use? Death penalty and destroying family’s home? Same rules which Israel uses against Palestinian terrorism?
If Jewish communities stay inside Palestine and there exists Jewish terrorism and resistance, will you approve that Palestinians will use exactly the same tool box Israel has used for decades? Thousands of Jews in prisons after no or a questionable legal process. Apartheid walls around Jewish settlements. Arab police humiliating Jews on road blocks. Arab police killing Jewish terrorist suspects. Police shooting Jewish children throwing rocks. Etc. If we can accept such a vision of future Palestine, we can accept the moral of the Israeli behaviour during the last decades.
“Terrorists must know that they will not come out alive from such an operation.”
Well lets see if we agree on that when the tide turns.
Richard, in the accounts you read – what role is assigned to my late friend Yossi Ginosar? was he mentioned in these new accounts? I know he was forced to resign, and suffered the shame of the cover-up. But i also know he was amply rewarded in time, with fine assignments, and a great payoff, of the kind available to top brass throughout the little country of israel, where every ex-carreer officer heads a security company or a museum or sits on any number of boards. Few things are more lucrative than to have been part of the security or IDF establishment – that wheel is greased well indeed. Yossi, BTW, died a very well off man – – with just this one little black dot on his legacy.
But I remain curious as to what really happened. Was he one of lower level scapegoats? did he repent? I never cared to ask – that would be impolite, wouldn’t it?
The full article is now available in Hebrew here.
There are two separate issues her: the incident and the GSS.
The GSS is a crime organization with some “islands” of patriotic activities. In particular, the criminals are concentrated in the non-Arab division, and the VIP Defence division. The Garbage of the Jewish people has concentrated there.
As for the incident, I admire your creativity calling terorists “militants”. They deserved death and this is how they would be treated eslsewhere in democratic and non democratic states alike.
In this blog, we don’t sentence anyone to death before trial. So if you’re supporting their murder you’ll be swiftly outa here.
If you don’t want me here, I’ll disappear voluntarily. I thought that despite your anti-Israel views, you would like to have some discussion. I guess I was wrong and you are interested in having discussions only with your ideological twins only.
I don’t have “anti-Israel” views. That’s your first comment violation. Your second is advocating killing people on sight. Contrary to your lying or ignorant claim, those who engage in acts of violence–terrorism or whatever you want to call it–in the U.S. are not shot on sight or even weeks later unless they wield a gun and use it or intend to use it. We actually arrest them and try them. Except in the case of Bin Laden, which I’ve decried. I get the feeling that for people like you this is all a big elaborate game. But unfortunately, there are very real people who die fr espousing views like yours. And when you kill someone under your rules of engagement (really, rules of the jungle) then the other side will do the same to you. Unlike you, I won’t allow the world to collapse into the laws of the jungle. And if you want to behave like a wild animal, you’ll do it somewhere else.
You are no longer welcome here.
You are simply wrong. In Europe for one, terrorists are not sentenced to death. You should do a minimal fact check before commenting.
No death penaly, with the exception of excecuting terrorists on site. This happens EVERYWHERE. In the US, if ones shoots a police officer, he will be shot even weeks later.
He’s not even arguing that they deserve a trial and then the death penalty. He’s arguing that they should be shot on sight without benefit of trial! This is an example of the corruption of democratic values & the rule of law Israel has suffered over the yrs.