The Sbarro Massacre: The Hamas Narrative

Hamas, among a vast number of other terror organizations, uses public relations in general and the web in particular, in intensive ways.

The Hamas version of the massacre in Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant on 9th August 2001 which took Malki Roth's life, says this:

Sobaroo restaurant operation” the leader’s revenge “:

On August 9th of  2001, and as a response  on the assassination of the leaders Jamal Saleem and Jamal Mansour, Ezzdeen Al Masri executed martyrdom operation in the pizza restaurants in Jerusalem, 18 soldier were killed and more than 90 injured.

See offline version of the document here.

There were, of course, no "18 soldiers" among the victims of this Hamas massacre. It's only in the English language that Hamas propagandists even trouble themselves to make such a patently absurd and false statement. The Arabic-speaking readers of Hamas propaganda are comfortable with the less-nuanced version: that all Israelis, all Jews, are fair targets for the 'rage' and 'desperation' of the Hamas killers - whether they are women, children, civilians, pensioners or anything else.

Nor was the Sbarro massacre a response to the "assassination" of Saleem or Mansour or anyone else.

Saleem and Mansour were terrorist leaders with years of involvement in acts of cold-blooded Hamas-instigated murder costing the lives of 37 Israelis, and 376 wounded. They had spear-headed the Dolphinarium bombing/massacre (22 dead, mainly girls) on 1st June 2001 in Tel-Aviv. Immediately after the killings at the Dolphinarium, the names of Saleem and Mansour were handed to the Palestinian Authority by the government of Israel with an official request for them to be arrested. The PA ignored the request. They were killed in an IDF helicopter attack on Hamas offices in Nablus on 31st July 2001. The Telegraph (UK) reported:

"Mansour was one of the seven founders of Hamas and the leader of its political wing in the West Bank. Aware that he was a prime target for the Israeli security forces, although refusing to wear a bulletproof vest, he once said: "So what if they assassinate me? It's not a bad thing to be a martyr." Israeli security officials said the Nablus branch of Hamas was responsible for about half of the recent suicide attacks in Israel and the Hamas members killed were planning attacks in the Jerusalem area. Mr Sharon's office said the attack was aimed at those "who carried out acts of terror in the past and planned additional terror activities. The army acted in order to prevent acts of murder against Israeli civilians."

Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who engineered the Sbarro massacre, planted a bomb in Jerusalem a day before the deaths of the two Hamas mass-murderers Saleem and Mansour. So much for that as the 'root-cause' of the Sbarro killings.

Malki's Parents Write

The Events of 9th August 2001