Jerusalem – Terror struck Jerusalem again as a Palestinian backhoe driver went on a rampage just down the street from the King David Hotel, where U.S. presidential contender Barack Obama stayed last night.

The terrorist who stands accused of driving the backhoe was Hassan Abu Tir, a resident of the Umm Tuba neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem, and the possessor of an Israeli identity card. Mr. Hassan is a relative of the Hamas parliament member Muhammad Abu Tir, who is being held in Israeli prison. Muhammad Abu Tir was arrested in June 2006 in conjunction with the Hamas kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in Gaza.

The terrorist began his attempt to murder Jews on King David St. near the Yemen Moshe neighborhood. He took the Jerusalem municipal tractor from a construction site, and began plowing into vehicles along the street, hitting at least three cars – one of which he completely overturned – and a bus. One driver was able to escape from his car even though the tractor plowed it into a bus stop. When the terrorist reached the intersection of Keren HaYesod St., a 56-year-old farmer from a Southern Hebron Hills community ran toward the tractor and killed the terrorist. A border guard policeman also shot the terrorist.

In all, 23 people were hurt, including a mother and her 9-month-old son. Magen David Adom paramedics treated the victims at the scene, they evacuated them to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Bikur Holim, Hadassah Mount Scopus and Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospitals. MDA Blood Services have immediately contacted the hospitals to send the required blood units and components.

Exactly three weeks ago, another Jerusalem Arab killed three people in a similar attack before he was himself killed by a seminary student who is also serving in an elite Israeli army unit.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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