Terror attack in Jerusalem 22 Oct 2014
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Behind the Headlines: Terror attack in Jerusalem

  • 10/26/2014
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    The terrorist attack was carried out by 21-year-old Abd el-Rahman Shaloudi, a 21-year-old Palestinian from Silwan, who made no secret of his support for Hamas, posting messages and video clips about the terrorist organization on his Facebook page.
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    Chaya Zissel photographed at the Western Wall shortly before she was killed by a Palestinian terrorist Chaya Zissel photographed at the Western Wall shortly before she was killed by a Palestinian terrorist
     
     
    The attack

    On Wednesday, October 22, 2014, a Palestinian deliberately rammed his car into a crowd of Israelis standing next to a light-rail train station in Jerusalem. The victims had just disembarked at the station near the Ammunition Hill memorial and were on the pavement when hit.


    The victims

    A three-month-old baby girl was thrown at least ten meters from her stroller after being struck by the car. The critically injured infant died of her head wounds two hour later in the nearby Mount Scopus Hadassah Hospital. Eight others were injured, including the baby’s father.

    The infant, Chaya Zissel Braun, was a dual Israeli-American citizen, as are her parents. The young family was returning home from her first visit to the Kotel (Western Wall). In an interview to the media, her grandfather, Shimshon Halperin, stated that Chaya's parents had tried for years to have a child and that he and his wife had flown in from the US to meet their granddaughter for the first time.


    Karen Jemima Mosquera, 22, of Ecuador, critically wounded in the attack, died on Sunday, October 26. Mosquera had come to Israel a year and a half ago to complete her conversion to Judaism after discovering she was descended from Conversos, Spanish Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism after 1492. She spent the last two months in a Midrasha, an institute of Jewish studies for women, with other women from South America. 

    Karen Jemima Mosquera in Jerusalem last winter
     Karen Jemima Mosquera in Jerusalem last winter


     
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    The perpetrator

    The terrorist attack was carried out by 21-year-old Abd el-Rahman Shaloudi, a 21-year-old Palestinian from Silwan (a neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem). He was shot by police as he tried to flee the scene and died despite being treated in Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Hospital.

    Shaloudi made no secret of his support for Hamas, posting messages and video clips about the terrorist organization on his Facebook page. He is the nephew of Muhi a-Din Sharif, the former head of the terrorist organization's armed wing and its chief bomb-maker who died in 1998.

    Shaloudi had been arrested for terrorism-related violence against Jews in the past and served two prison sentences. Among the charges to which he pleaded guilty were throwing petrol bombs at Jewish cars, attempted arson and aggravated assault.


    Palestinian praise

    There was widespread praise of the terrorist attack by Palestinian officials, media and terrorist organization spokesmen.

    Fatah Facebook page honoring Abdel Rahman al-Shaloudi

    The Fatah movement, headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, published items glorifying Shaloudi. Sultan Abu-Aynayn, a Fatah Central Committee member and Abbas advisor, praised Shaloudi and called him "a heroic martyr" in Facebook comments posted Thursday (23 October).

    Fatah also published a poster Thursday on its official Facebook page celebrating the terrorist: “The Silwan branch of Fatah honors the heroic martyr Abdel Rahman al-Shaloudi, who executed the Jerusalem operation which led to the running over of settlers in the occupied city of Jerusalem.” Fatah portrayed his death as "his wedding" [a reference to the Muslim belief that martyrs marry 72 virgins in paradise].

    A senior Hamas spokesperson, Mushir al-Masri, praised the terrorist attack Thursday, deeming it a "daring operation" and a "natural response."

    Islamic Jihad's al-Quds Brigade released an official statement Thursday, similarly calling the attack a "natural right" and a response to "Zionist aggression."

    Meanwhile, the Hamas-supported news agency Shehab produced a poster encouraging more Palestinians to use their cars to carry out terrorist attacks. The poster, which shows the floor of a car on the drivers' side, replaces the acceleration pedal with a Kalashnikov magazine overflowing with bullets.