Arafat Frees Dolphinarium Terrorists
June 28, 2001
“There is no better example of the cynical attitude of the Palestinian Authority,” and of Arafat himself, to acts of terror than their handling of the Dolphinarium suicide slaughter that claimed 21 young lives. So wrote military correspondent Ze’ev Schiff in Ha’aretz (June 22). He recounted that Israel’s General Security Services quickly found out the names of two people who had dispatched the bomber, and although they presented their names to Palestinian security leaders and requested that they be arrested, this did not happen. Instead, the two were summoned for a conversation with PA security agents, admitted their involvement in the massacre, signed their consent not to carry out similar activities in the future – and were sent home! This, despite the Tenet agreement stipulation that the PA arrest those responsible for terrorism.
Voice of Israel Radio reported on June 24 in the name of German media sources that Arafat had written a letter of congratulations to the family of the Dolphinarium suicide bomber. Arafat reportedly wrote that the killer’s self-sacrifice is worthy of admiration.
German TV reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat praised the suicide bomber who killed 21 people when he blew himself up outside Tel Aviv’s Dolphinarium at the beginning of the month as a “wonderful example of a hero” in a letter obtained by the German television program Weltspiegel. The program displayed the letter, which was signed by Arafat, in a broadcast on June 23. Arafat’s office called the letter a “clear forgery.” (Arutz 7, Jerusalem Post, June 24 and 25, 2001)
Used with Permission from Bridges for Peace.