[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Following the lead of "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas,
PHRMG doesn't condemn the attack because it is immoral but instead because
it is counterproductive.]

March 9, 2009
Press Release

PHRMG Strongly Condemns Attack on Jerusalem Yeshiva

Last Thursday evening, Alaa Abu Dhein opened fire in a crowded study-hall of
Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Abu Dhein killed 8 students, seven of
which were under the age of 20, and injured an additional nine.

Several residents of East Jerusalem claimed that Dhein, 20, was from the
Jabel Mukaber neighborhood near East Talpiyot. He had been arrested four
months earlier for suspected involvement with Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ia
Islamic militant group, but was released two months later due to a lack of
evidence. According to Dhein's neighbors, he had once been employed by
Mercaz Harav as a driver.

Thursday's attack marked the second terrorist attack carried out in Israel
since January 2008. On February 4th, Mousa Khaleel Ahmad Arafat and Loua'
AL Ahwani, affiliated with the armed wing of Hamas, were responsible for a
suicide bombing in a shopping center in Dimona, Israel. The first attacker
detonated an explosive, killing two elderly Russian immigrants, Lyubov
Razdol'skaya and her husband, Edward Gedalin, and injuring more than ten
others. The second terrorist was knocked out by the first bomb and was
unable to detonate his own explosive before being shot down by rescue
police. The Dimona bombing constituted the first terrorist attack in over a
year. The Mercaz Harav Yeshiva shootings bring the death toll of Israeli
civilians to 10 in 2008 and to 558 since the beginning of the second
Intifada in 2000.

While Israel's deadly operations in Gaza last week deserve serious
condemnation, such violent acts of terror on Israeli civilians only further
damages the future of the Palestinian People and hopes for peace in the
Middle East. International and Israeli attention has now shifted from the
tremendous casualty count in Gaza to the brutal attack on Israeli students
in Jerusalem. International press and public opinion must focus on the
worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the barrage of human rights
violations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in order to effect change on
the ground for Palestinians. Continuous terrorist attacks not only drive
Israeli overreaction, but trap international supporters of the Palestinian
People. The Palestinian efforts for statehood and peace lose necessary
backing (both financial and ideological) when fundamentalists resort to
violent terrorist tactics.

In addition, the PHRMG calls on the Israeli Authorities to lift the
heightened restrictions on movement to and from the West Bank, preventing
Palestinians from accessing the al-Aqsa Mosque for prayer in East Jerusalem.
Israeli authorities have decided to continue peace talks with Mahmoud Abbas,
claiming that moderate Palestinians should not be punished for the terror
employed by a radical few. However, despite the rationale used to sustain
peace efforts, Olmert and his government have constructed additional
checkpoints in Jerusalem and the West Bank and increasingly stifled
Palestinian movement in Israel and in the Occupied Territories. Such action
takes a heavy toll on the lives of all Palestinian civilians.

The PHRMG ultimately condones the perseverance of Mahmoud Abbas and the
Israeli government in their efforts to continue down the path to peace in
the upcoming months. However, the targeting of innocent civilians must
immediately halt on both sides. As noted in a recent statement by Amnesty
International in response to widespread Gazan support for the Yeshiva
attack, the Palestinian Authority must hold individuals accountable for
violent strikes against the Israeli civilian population, but their failure
to do so does not legitimize massive Israeli retaliatory action.

Abeer Abdeen
Public Relation Officer
Email: admin@phrmg.org
P please consider the environment before printing this email
_________________________________________________
The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) is a Palestinian,
independent, non-governmental organization working to end human rights
violations committed against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and
East Jerusalem, regardless of those responsible. The members of the PHRMG
believe that the strength of democracy and civil society in Palestinian
society will be determined by the Palestinian people, through their defense
or neglect of human rights.
P.O. Box 19918
East Jerusalem 91198
Tel.:+972-2-583-8189
Fax:+972-2-5837197
www.phrmg.org