Murder of Shalhevet Pass

The murder of Shalhevet Pass was a shooting attack carried out in Hebron, West Bank, on 26 March 2001, in which a Palestinian sniper killed 10-month-old Israeli infant Shalhevet Pass. The event shocked the Israeli public, partly because an investigation ruled that the sniper had deliberately aimed for the baby.[2] According to Deborah Sontag of the New York Times, the murder became a "potent Israeli symbol as an innocent victim of the raging violence."[3]

Murder of Shalhevet Pass
Part of the Second Intifada militancy campaign
Murder of Shalhevet Pass is located in the Southern West Bank
Murder of Shalhevet Pass
The attack site
Native nameרצח שלהבת תחיה פס
LocationAvraham Avinu neighborhood, Hebron, West Bank
Coordinates31°31′25″N 35°06′25″E
Date26 March 2001 (2001-03-26)
c. 4:00 pm (GMT+2)
Attack type
Shooting attack
WeaponSniper rifle
DeathsA ten-month-old Israeli infant (Shalhevet Pass)
PerpetratorTanzim militant group[1]
AssailantMahmud Amru

The murder

At 4:00 pm on 26 March 2001, Shalhevet was shot in her stroller while accompanied by her parents from a parking lot by Hebron's Avraham Avinu neighborhood, where the family lived.[2][4][5]

After a ten-minute lull, the Palestinian sniper resumed firing from the Abu Sneinah neighborhood on the hill opposite.[2][5] Shalhevet was killed instantly;[6] her mother grabbed her when she heard the gunshots, only to discover that the baby was already dead. One of the sniper's bullets penetrated the baby's head, passing through her skull, and hit her father as well.[7][8] Shalhevet's father, Yitzchak Pass, a student, who had been pushing the stroller, was also seriously wounded minutes later by two bullets.[2][4][9][10][11]

Press accounts indicated that the playground was very busy at the time, because a load of new sand had recently been delivered.[2] According to unconfirmed accounts, another child was grazed by a bullet and two more had bullets pass through their clothing.[2]

Aftermath
Tombstone of Shalhevet Pass

The murder, which occurred during the Second Intifada, produced vocal outrage in Israel and abroad. The nation mourned the killing of the baby.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned the attack and sent his condolences to the Pass family. Sharon also stated that he saw the Palestinian Authority as responsible for the attack. The Jewish community in Hebron demanded that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reoccupy the Abu Sneineh neighborhood, and the Pass family even stated that they would not bury their baby until the IDF did so.[2]

Capture and trial of killer

The Palestinian Authority initially arrested the sniper, but released him after a short while. On 9 December 2002 the Shin Bet managed to capture the sniper—Tanzim member Mahmud Amru. In December 2004, a military court convicted the killer and sentenced him to three life terms.[12][13]

According to the Israeli government, an investigation concluded that the sniper had intentionally targeted the baby.[2][14] A spokesperson for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said:

The fact that they could pick off the baby and then the father makes this a hideous, deliberate, cold-blooded murder. Snipers are not just gun-toting youth.... If Arafat had wanted, the sniper would not have been there.[2]

In the verdict the judges expressed their shock of the brutality of the murder:

It was enough for one bullet, fired from a sniper rifle, to end the life of the infant Shalhevet Pass, who up to that event was unknown to the wide public, and just lived her life as all other children, until one day as the evening came she was hit in her head, and she died, and Shalhevet whom was still small and in her infant stage, was sentenced to death by a vile killer whom intentionally, using a Telescopic sight, pulled the trigger. The picture of the shot baby is on our table, is engraved in our minds and does not give peace to our souls. We cannot understand and we cannot accept the unbearable ease with which the killer decided to harm a helpless person.... We the judges are only humans and we cannot see anything else but the image which emerges in our senses, an image full of hate, blood and bereavement. We must not accept this image and we need to do everything we can to condemn it.

Memorial to Shalhevet Pass, Hebron

Yitzchak Pass, the child's father, later joined the Bat Ayin Underground terrorist group which planned to blow up a Palestinian girls' school in East Jerusalem. He was eventually arrested and convicted for possession of 10 pounds of explosive, consequently serving a two-year prison sentence.[15]

Media reaction

The Associated Press ran the story with the headline "Jewish toddler dies in West Bank",[16] and was criticized by Joshua Levy in his book The Agony of the Promised Land for downplaying the murder.[17]

The Voice of Palestine, the Palestinian Authority's official radio station, reported that the report of the girl's shooting death was a lie, and that the girl's mother had murdered her own baby.[18][19][20][21][22]

A song was dedicated to the memory of "Baby Shalhevet", sung by Avraham Fried at a concert in Hebron. The song was written by Fried's brother Rabbi Manis Friedman.[23]

See also

References
  1. Yonah Alexander (2003). Palestinian secular terrorism: profiles of Fatah, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. ISBN 9781571053077. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  2. Peter Bouckaert (2001). Center of the storm: a case study of human rights abuses in Hebron District. Human Rights Watch. pp. 64–65. ISBN 1-56432-260-2. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  3. Sontag, Deborah. 2 April 2001. Israeli Baby's Funeral Becomes Focus of Settler Militancy." The New York Times.
  4. "Target: Israeli Children". Israeli Ministry of Education. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. In the afternoon, Yitzhak and Orya Pass took a walk with their daughter Shalhevet from their home in the Beit Hadassah neighborhood to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood where Orya's parents lived. They heard shots when they reached the entrance to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood. Yitzhak fell.
  5. Morey Schwartz (26 March 2001). Where's My Miracle?. ISBN 9789652294845. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  6. Nechemia Coopersmith; Shraga Simmons (2003). Israel: Life In The Shadow Of Terror. ISBN 9781568712376. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  7. Charles W. Greenbaum; Philip E. Veerman; Naomi Bacon-Shnoor (2006). Protection of children during armed political conflict: a multidisciplinary perspective. ISBN 9789050953412. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  8. Daniel Gordis (2003). Home to Stay: One American Family's Chronicle of Miracles and Struggles in Contemporary Israel. Random House. ISBN 9780307530905. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  9. Judy Lash Balint (2001). Jerusalem diaries: in tense times. Gefen Publishing House Ltd. p. 171. ISBN 9789652292711. Retrieved 16 March 2011. Shalhevet Pass.
  10. Mark Matthews (2007). Lost years: Bush, Sharon, and failure in the Middle East. ISBN 9781568583327. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  11. Nachman Seltzer (2006). The Link. ISBN 9781568714011. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  12. BBC Monitoring Newsfile, 16 December 2004, quoting Ma'ariv web site, Tel Aviv, in English. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  13. Margot Dudkevitch (16 December 2004). "Baby's murderer gets three life sentences". Jerusalem Post. p. 2.
  14. "Target: Israeli Children". Israeli Ministry of Education. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. On Monday, 26 March 2001, a Palestinian sniper aimed his rifle and opened fire at 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass in Hebron, while she was lying in her stroller. Shalhevet was killed by a bullet to the head.
  15. "Pass released from prison." Israel National News. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  16. "Jewish Toddler Dies in West Bank". Associated Press. 26 March 2001. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  17. Joshua Levy (2004). The Agony of the Promised Land. iUniverse. ISBN 9780595321339. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
  18. Fiamma Nirenstein (2005). Terror: the new anti-semitism and the war against the West. Smith and Kraus. Retrieved 16 March 2011. Shalhevet Pass.
  19. AMIT magazine. 2001. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  20. "Palestinian radio reports Israeli mother killed baby". Jweekly. 6 April 2001. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  21. Michael Chabin (15 June 2001). "Media spawns anti-Semitic propaganda". Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  22. "News at a Glance". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 4 April 2001. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  23. Baby Shalhevet. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
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