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March 27, 2002 | The Passover Massacre

On this day in 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in during a seder in an Israeli hotel, killing at least 30, many of them children.

Islamist extremists really hate the Jews and always cite them as the #1 problem in the world: sometimes they actually succeed in killing them.

If you read enough terrorist propaganda, as I have over the years, you learn that those behind it are very, very predictable. Not to mention not very imaginative. They use the same memes, the same tropes time and time and time again. They blame the same actors for all the world’s ills.

Of all those actors none are as vilified as the Jews. Whether it is Israel proper or the Zionists or the Jews behind the ‘new world order’ or whatever, you cannot get more than a few words into any jihadi piece of blather before you see these kinds of references.

Israel is of course a target for a whole host of reasons. It was created in an area of the world that has long been under contention. What was Israel was known as Palestine in the Ottoman Empire and as the homeland of Jews well before that. Before the UN decision to create Israel in 1948 there were terrorist attacks both by Jewish as well as Islamist extremists.

Those who work for Israel’s security intelligence, law enforcement and military are constantly at high alert over the very real possibility of a terrorist attack. And for good reason: I have no idea how many attacks have occurred in that nation (or how many were thankfully thwarted) but I can imagine it is a lot.

The groups behind the threat are all well known: the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), although that one is less of a concern now, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. They have been responsible for countless deaths and injuries.

On this day in 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in during a seder in an Israeli hotel, killing at least 30, many of them children.

On this day in 2002 a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded hotel dining room in Netanya, Israel, just as more than 200 people had gathered for their seder (Passover holiday meal), killing at least 30 and wounding more than 140 others, many of them children. Hamas took responsibility for the outrage, and Israel’s leaders reacted with fury at the audacity of the attack on people who were celebrating one of the highest Jewish holidays.

2002 Passover Massacre

The attack is now known in Israel as the ‘Passover massacre’. A year after the slaughter the four Palestinian Hamas terrorists who planned it were sentenced to 29 life terms and another 20 years in prison.

Someone please tell me how targeting the faithful during a meal is legitimate. This hatred and despicable lack of feeling for the innocent must stop one day.

By Phil Gurski

Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. Phil is a 32-year veteran of CSE and CSIS and the author of six books on terrorism.

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