Staff Notebook
Under Attack
British citizen carries out latest
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
News Service Reports-
he man who carried out
the suicide bombing that
killed three people and
wounded 60 at 1 a.m.
Tuesday, April 29, at a Tel Aviv beach-
front pub was a British citizen.
Another terrorist whose explosives did
not detonate also was British, the
Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz reported
the next day.
Omar Khan Shard, 27, escaped
from the crowd outside the pub. The
Israeli authorities are seeking public
help in finding him. The suicide
bomber, who was killed in the blast,
also was British and identified as Asif
Mohammed Hanif, 21.
Roth men entered Israel from the
Gaza Strip, the first time an attack was
carried out from there in the 31
months of the current intifada (upris-
ing), according to Ha'aretz.
"I am puzzled as to how this could
have happened given that the Gaza
Strip is very tightly controlled by the
Israelis," said David Gad-Harf, execu-
tive director of the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
"It's easier to control than the West
Bank — a fence surrounds the whole
thing. So it's hard to understand how
the people made it out of the Gaza
Strip, especially as they were evidently
32
said. "Clearly this bombing was timed
to coincide with the [naming] of the
new prime minister. It sends a strong
message that that there's a long way to
go before violence comes to an end."
The White House condemned the
suicide bombing as a "cowardly act,"
but said it would not scuttle the start
of a new peace initiative.
United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan also condemned the
attack and urged both sides not to
allow it to derail the recently resumed
peace process. ❑
— Roni Singer and Haim Shadmi of
Hakretz and StaffWriter/Copy Editor
Diana Lieberman of the Detroit Jewish
News contributed to this report.
A Test Of Resolve
According to wire reports, the attack
was jointly planned by the Al-Aqsa
Martyrs' Brigades, linked to Yasser
Arafat's Fatah organization, and the Al
Qassam Brigades in retribution for the
recent killing of an Al-Aqsa member
by the Israeli Army.
The attack came soon after the
Palestinian parliament voted to approve
the new cabinet presented by incoming
Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu
Israelis Pavel, third left, and Tanya Kostyuk, second right, stand near the coin,
wrapped by an Israeli flag, of their son Alexander during his funeral in a cemetery
near the city of Tel Aviv on April 28.
WSU Rejects Divestment
Trading Toronto For Novi
t its April 30 meeting, the board
of governors of Wayne State
University unanimously passed a
resolution to stand by its October 2002
statement by President Irvin D. Reid
and "will not take action to divest the
university of interests it may hold in
companies that do business in Israel."
The resolution, read by board chair-
man Paul Massaron of Southfield, is in
response to a divestiture request made in
a resolution passed April 17 by the WSU
Student Council. The April 17 resolu-
tion, proposed by the Student Movement
for Justice, met no Jewish resistance
because it was held on the night of the
second Passover seder, despite
attempts to reschedule the meeting.
A similar request for divestiture was
put before President Reid in October,
n light of concerns related to
Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS) for travelers to
Toronto, the Society for Humanistic
Judaism has rescheduled this weekend's
conference to the Novi Hilton Hotel.
The conference, titled "Humanistic
Judaism: Transforming Judaism for
Our Times," will run Friday-Sunday,
May 2-4.
The agenda includes installation of
SHJ officers, musical programming,
workshops and a keynote address by
Birmingham Temple Rabbi Adam
Chalom, who will speak on "Loo
Y'hee — The Next 40 Years for
Humanistic Judaism."
The May 2-4 SHJ Teen Conclave
has also been moved to the Novi
A
5/ 2
2003
on the lookout for people with foreign
passports."
Two men and one woman were
killed in the blast at "Mike's Place," a
beachfront pub on Herbert Samuel
Street in Tel Aviv. Musician Yanai
Weiss, 46, from the nearby city of
Holon was killed in the bombing. He
had been playing at the pub. The
other victims were Ran Baron, 24, and
Dominique Caroline Hess, 29, both
of Tel Aviv. Hess had immigrated to
Israel five years ago from France.
The pub, a popular hangout for
tourists, is near the U.S. embassy,
which was not damaged in the blast.
The security guard at the pub, who
was injured seriously, is credited with
physicallypreventing the bomber from
entering the pub.
Mazen). In his inaugural address, Abu
Mazen indicated that his new govern-
ment would move against militia
groups and called for an end to "terror-
ism," which he said had not served the
Palestinian cause, Ha'aretz reported.
However, extremist groups Hamas
and Islamic Jihad responded by saying
they would not lay down their
weapons as long as the "Israeli occupa-
tion" continued. Some observers sug-
gested the attack in Tel Aviv was a
message from the armed Islamic
groups to Abbas and his new govern-
ment that they rejected all attempts to
bring about a cease-fire.
"It puts to a test the resolve of the
new prime minister to stop terrorism,
to destroy terrorist cells," Gad-Harf
prompting the response not to divest,
which was reaffirmed on April 30.
The board of governors' resolution
encourages students to use their right
of free speech, but says that "accusa-
tions, acrimony and demands of this
nature are counter to the traditions of
intelligent dialogue and free discourse
for which the university stands."
It further states that "demanding
that this university separate from com-
panies linked to Israel or any other
state in the region is not helpful to
resolving the crisis in the Middle East
... It is misguided to confuse dissatis-
faction that some may feel with the
policies of a government in power at
any point in time with the very legiti-
macy of a state." •
— Keri Guten Cohen
I
Hilton Hotel and will include a com-
munity action event, an "open mike"
night and a talk by Deborah Rose.
A concert will feature Aelita: Songs
of an Open Heart: A Journey through
Jewish Music.
Public plenary leaders include
demographer Egon Mayer and author
Michael Carin.
A special tribute will honor
Birmingham Temple Rabbi Sherwin
Wine.
For information on the conference
or to make reservations, contact the
Society for Humanistic Judaism at
(248) 478-7610, send an e-mail to:
info@shj.org or access the Web site at:
www.shj.org
— Shelli Liebman Dorfman