PM Rabin on Murderer Sharon is Releasing: expose every manifestation of
tolerance towards terrorism

Statement in the Knesset by Prime Minister Rabin on the PLO attack in
Jerusalem, 7 July 1975.
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0e7x0

[IMRA: One the the "gestures" Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced last
week to PA PM Abu Mazen is to release Ahmad Ibrahim Musa Abu El-Sukar, who
is serving a sentence for murdering 14 people in the 4 July 1975 Zion Square
bombing. Two Americans were among the wounded. It is Mr. El-Sukar's good
fortunre that he murdered Israelis in Jerusalem instead of Texans in Austin.
As the murdered of Israelis in Jerusalem he has George W. Bush to thank for
his release - if he had done the same in Austin, Governor Bush would have
sent him to meet his maker.]

On Friday, 4 July 1975, Palestinian terrorists placed an old refrigerator,
full of explosives, in Zion Square, in the heart of Jerusalem. In the
ensuing explosion, 14 persons were killed, among them Arabs, and 62 wounded.
The perpetrators of the attack were captured two years later. In his
statement to the Knesset, Mr. Rabin reiterated Israel's determination to
fight Arab terror. Text:

Mr. Speaker, Members of the Knesset,

Let us bow our heads in mourning in memory of the fourteen civilians,
passersby in Zion Square - Jews and Arabs, children, young people and
elderly - victims of a despicable act of murder perpetrated by cowardly
terrorists in the heart of Jerusalem last Friday. Let us extend condolences
to the families who have lost their dear ones. Let us wish -full recovery to
the dozens of wounded still in hospital.

The explosion occurred a few seconds before 10 a.m. on Friday. As a result,
14 people were killed and 62 wounded.

According to the findings of the police investigation, some 45 minutes
before the explosion on Friday a Volkswagen vehicle with a double cabin,
displaying administered territories plates, was observed parked near the
Tefahot bank on Helene Hamalka street. It appears that there were two
persons in the vehicle. One of them offloaded a renovated old refrigerator
into a cart, pushing it manually along the road as far as the site of the
explosion. There, he had difficulty getting the cart onto the sidewalk, one
of the porters nearby helped him lift the cart onto the sidewalk, without
remuneration. The refrigerator was placed next to the wall of a building,
with stores on the ground floor and an hotel above.

The refrigerator stood there unnoticed for about 7-8 minutes. After about
nine minutes, two telephone linesmen working nearby on line repairs - that
is why a large number of the telephone lines were inoperable at the
time -stepped up to the refrigerator, opened its door and the freezing
compartment, and discovered nothing inside. One woman went up to the second
storey of the building to inform the police. Explosives of a force equal to
5-6 kg. TNT, packed inside the refrigerator's motor, were set off by a
timing device set to blow at 10.00 hours. The explosion occurred precisely
then, 25 minutes after the refrigerator had been placed there. Immediately
following the explosion, comprehensive steps were taken by the police and
the security forces to locate suspects.

Investigations and checks are continuing on a large scale.

Deeply pained and grieved as we are by what happened Friday morning at Zion
Square in Jerusalem, I wish to express appreciation to the police, the
security forces, the health services and the auxiliary services, to all the
authorities and the citizens as a whole, who took efficient action on the
stop to restore life to normal - insofar as this is possible under such
circumstances.

Members of the Knesset,

The murderous operation at Zion Square - which is another link in a chain of
criminal operations - has an address. Its perpetrators are not anonymous.
Their identity is manifest. The terrorist organizations, headed by Yasser
Arafat, were quick to claim responsibility for this bloodshed. This is the
face of the man who led the U.N. General Assembly astray - so easily - with
the olive branch in his hand and the pistol strapped to his waist. This is
the act of those whose principles are designed to liquidate Israel and deny
sovereign Jewish national existence.

The murder at Zion Square must serve as a grave warning against dangerous
illusions as regards the aims of the terrorist organizations. The killers at
Zion Square and those who sent them, the heads of the terrorist
organizations -who were so quick to claim, with their characteristic
vainglory, full responsibility - testify to the true intentions of these
organizations. Hence, we must continue to firmly adhere to Israel's policy
of not entering into any negotiations with the terrorist organizations. The
only language they understand is that of the sword - and it is in that
language that we shall talk to them.

The intention of the terrorist organizations is to go on shedding blood -
especially in Jerusalem. They want to cause violent brawls between Jews and
Arabs living in the united city. They exploit the special conditions of a
mixed city.

These bloody deeds fill us with mourning and grief, but they have not
succeeded in attaining their goal. United Jerusalem continued to live its
life - a life of labour and culture, of work and learning - despite the
bloodshed. Notwithstanding the constant efforts of the killers, the city is
developing - Jerusalem is being increasingly built up from day to day, to
the chagrin of all our enemies.

Members of the Knesset,

The government is firm in its determination to continue an unrestricted war
against Arab terrorism, and to take all the measures it deems appropriate
and effective to combat it. The security forces have succeeded in
frustrating more than a few criminal attempts. Some of them on the very
brink of implementation. The security forces have in many instances
succeeded in discovering the killers - though not all of them. The forces
and branches in charge of the war on terrorism expend much thought on its
improvement from the intelligence and operational points of view alike. We
shall spare no effort in order to increase the sophistication of our methods
of operation against terrorism.

The government is greatly encouraged by the reaction of the public and its
utter readiness to confront the hardest trials without being deterred in the
slightest by the criminal efforts of the men of violence to strike a blow at
normal life and good-neighbourliness in the capital of Israel.

The government calls once again upon enlightened persons, organizations and
governments to cast off their indifference, to abandon discriminatory
attitudes, and to disclaim the hypocrisy of preferring momentary advantage
over elementary moral principles. The international community, if it has any
self-respect, must not only immediately and categorically denounce the
criminal act at Zion Square, it must, without delay, draw the immediate
logical conclusions. It must not bow its head and humble itself in such a
degrading manner before the threats of Arab terrorism, its supporters,
financial backers and sympathizers. It must do its duty and halt, while
there is yet time, the decline of its institutions into the abyss of
appeasement by opening its gates to the representatives of the terrorists -
for it is only a few steps away from self-liquidation.

The international community, has reached a new peak in its rapid decline
towards appeasement when its representatives - so it is reported - are
giving sympathetic consideration to the application of representatives of
the Arab murder organizations to take part at the U.N. conference for the
prevention of crime and terrorism, which is shortly to take place in
Toronto, Canada.

The government will continue to expose every manifestation of tolerance
towards terrorism, and the appeasement of its perpetrators. The government
regards every expression, direct or indirect, of encouragement for Arab
terrorism in the international decisions of the U.N.'s institution, leading
to the moral bankruptcy of the United Nations, fraught with danger to the
survival of a free, enlightened human society.

Members of the Knesset,

At this moment, though plunged into grief at the loss of the lives of
innocent civilians, Jews and Arabs, Israelis and others, we must, as in the
past, act coolly, avoid any unrestrained reactions, and follow the path of
disciplined behaviour, which will fortify our international standing and
increase the power of the principles that guide us.

This path certainly does not mean that we will remain inactive. Our ruthless
and unrelenting war against the murderers and those who sent them will
continue with even greater vigour. Much has already been done in this sphere
of battle to deter, to prevent, to frustrate, to uproot and to wipe out -
and much will yet be done. I want to emphasize that we have given no
publicity to all the measures taken up till now, measures of prevention and
measures of reaction, measures which have registered success and achieved
their goals. Nor shall we in the future reveal all that will be done in the
sphere of the continuing war against terrorism. But the Knesset may be
perfectly confident that much will yet be done, and that no effort - even
the most difficult - will be spared until this vile plague is uprooted from
our neighbours. Nothing will deter us from persevering in our policy: We
believe in its justice and we are confident of its execution.

Even in this hour of profound grief and burning pain, when no consolation
can replace the precious lives lost by the afflicted families, our people do
not lost their heads. Schooled by experience, they will not be deterred, as
they have never been deterred in the past, from continuing, while
controlling their grief, with their every-day actions and the fulfilment of
our national tasks.

We offer our esteem to the Israel Defence Forces, the Israel police and the
other security forces, to the Civil Guard and the entire public for their
untiring efforts in the war to frustrate and uproot terrorism.

We have felt it necessary to make this brief statement in the Knesset in
order to make it clear to the nation once again that the government of
Israel is determined to continue, with even greater energy, its operations
against terrorism - by prevention, attrition and punishment against the
terrorist organizations wherever we can reach them. We cannot promise rapid
results, but there will be a systematic effort. We know that it is not by
pressing on some magic button, but only by bold systematic and sophisticated
action that we can overcome terrorism.

The mourning and the anger of the nation will be a source of tremendous
power to enable us to overcome any enemy.