10 Years Since Hebrew University Terrorist Bombing

It's been 10 years since Palestinian Authority terrorists murdered students and staff at Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus, during the 2002 Second Intifada, also known to some as the Oslo War.

A memorial service was held Tuesday in the Nancy Reagan Plaza near the scene of the bombing to mark the somber occasion.

The ceremony, which opened with the recitation of the Yizkor memorial prayer, was followed by a reading of the names of the victims by Hebrew University Vice President and Director-General Billy Shapira. The Kaddish prayer at the conclusion of the proceedings was recited by Itzik Barashi, brother of victim Revital Barashi, who had worked in the Faculty of Law.

The event was attended by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro and French Ambassador to Israel Christophe Bigot, among others.

Benjamin Blustein, Marla Bennett, Revital Barashi, David Gritz, David Diego Ladowski, Janis Ruth Coulter, Dina Carter, Levina Shapira and Daphna Spruch – a total of nine students and staff members, including five Americans – all died in the attack.

Nearly one hundred others were also wounded in the 2002 terrorist bombing of the main cafeteria at the university.

"It is not only a time to mourn, but also a time to reflect upon the mission entrusted to us,” said Hebrew University President Professor Menachem Ben-Sasson at the ceremony.

"We are entrusted with the development of knowledge that knows no shade of skin or religion. And so we say to the families, we shall endure. If depraved terrorists wish to disrupt the things upon which all human beings base their lives, they will not succeed.”

The former commander of the Hamas military wing in the PA controlled areas of Judea and Samaria – Ibrahim Hamad – was convicted last month of ordering the cafeteria massacre. Hamad, 47, was also involved in a series of other murderous terror attacks, including one at the Sheffield Club in Rishon Letzion, a suicide bombing at Cafe Moment and an attack at the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall, both in Jerusalem.

However, the Hamas operative who actually assisted with carrying out the bombing of the university's Frank Sinatra cafeteria was released from an Israeli prison last year in exchange for the return of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. Walid Anajas also was involved in the 2002 bombings at Jerusalem's Café Moment which killed 11, and the Sheffield Club attack in Rishon Letzion that killed 16.

Anajas was one of 1,027 PA terrorist prisoners who were freed by Israel in exchange for Shalit's release by the Hamas terrorists who kidnapped the soldier in a 2006 joint cross-border raid from Gaza, along with the Popular Resistance Committees and Army of Islam terrorist organizations.

Arutz Sheva