The Zionist Organization of America News Release, March 14, 2003.
The murder of two more U.S. citizens in Israel by Palestinian Arab terrorists
brings to 39 the number of American citizens murdered by Palestinian Arab
terrorists since the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords.
The latest victims were Rabbi Eli & Dina (Debbie) Horowitz. Eli was the son of
the former principal of the Hebrew Academy of Washington, D.C.; Dina was a
graduate of the Hebrew Academy and the Yeshiva High School of Greater
Washington. She was a high school teacher and a piano instructor.
She and her husband were murdered by terrorists while sitting at their
Sabbath table in their apartment in the town of Kiryat Arba.
More than 20 of the Palestinian Arab terrorists involved in the murders of U.S.
citizens have been publicly identified by the Israeli or American governments.
They are living freely in Palestinian Authority-controlled territory, and
some have been rewarded with jobs in the PA police force. Yet the State
Department has never demanded that they be handed over.
A February 2003 McLaughlin poll found that by a margin of 73% to 16%, the
American public wants the U.S. to demand that the PA hand over all Palestinian
Arabs involved in attacks in which Americans were murdered and wounded.
The ZOA recently published a powerful new booklet, ‘The Forgotten Victims:
American Citizens Murdered by Palestinian Arab Terrorists’. It includes
biographical entries on Americans murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists and a
“Killers at Large” section revealing the names – and, in some cases, the photos –
of Palestinian Arab killers of Americans who are being sheltered by the PA.
For a free copy of The Forgotten Victims, please call the ZOA at
212-481-1500.
Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America
(ZOA), said:
“Americans murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists are victims of discrimination
by the State Department, in that they are the only cases of overseas terrorism
against Americans in which the State Department has made no serious effort to
bring the killers to justice.
The State Department has never asked the Palestinian Authority to surrender
for prosecution any Palestinian Arab suspects in the murders of Americans. The
State Department refuses to publicize the names and photos of fugitive
Palestinian Arab killers of Americans — even though it publicizes the names and
photos of other terrorists who have killed Americans overseas.
Although the State Department officially offers rewards for information
leading to the capture of these killers, it refuses to publicize them in Palestinian
newspapers or cities — which is what it routinely does in other countries to
capture fugitive terrorists.
“The State Department has allowed its political agenda to interfere with the
pursuit of justice and the U.S. fight against terrorism. It does not want to have
a conflict with the Palestinian Authority by demanding that the PA hand over
killers of Americans. And so the killers walk free. The time has come to take
this issue out of the hands of the State Department and put it in the jurisdiction
of the Justice Department.”
* 39 American citizens have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists since
the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993, 27 of them since the Palestinian
Authority launched the current wave of violence in September 2000. In
addition, 68 Americans have been wounded since 1993, 43 of them since
September 2000.
* A total of at least 106 Americans have been murdered by Palestinian Arab
terrorists, and 119 wounded, since 1968.
In response to the ongoing murders of American citizens by Palestinian Arab
terrorists, the ZOA is strongly supporting the Koby Mandell Act, which was
recently introduced in Congress.
The Koby Mandell Act would create a special office within the Justice
Department which would: gather evidence against Palestinian Arab killers of
Americans; arrange to bring the terrorists to the U.S. for trial; initiate
negotiations with the Palestinian Authority for financial compensation for
victims’ families; and maintain a liaison with the families to update them on
efforts to capture the killers.
The legislation has broad bipartisan support in Congress. In the Senate, the lead
sponsors are Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). In the
House of Representatives, the lead sponsors are Representatives Rob Andrews
(D-NJ) and Jim Saxton (R-NJ).
