4 july 2017
While demanding that the Palestinian Authority stop paying the monthly salaries of Palestinian political detainees for Israel, the Israeli government continues to pay a regular monthly salaries to Israeli prisoners who murdered Palestinian civilians, providing them and their families with social care and legal follow up.
Head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission, Issa Qaraqe’ said, according to the PNN, that the government of Israel is paying a regular monthly salary to the Israeli murderer Ami Popper who committed a bloody massacre, where he killed seven Palestinian workers from Gaza on May 20, 1990, in the Rishon Lezion area, near Tel Aviv.
The victims were waiting for their employers on the construction site when Ami Popper approached them wearing the Israeli army uniform. After he checked their IDs to make sure they were all Palestinians, he opened fire towards them, killing seven and injuring 20 others.
“Popper’s sentence, which was a life imprisonment, was reduced and he will be released next month, Qaraqe’ said. “Despite being in prison, he lives in luxury: He got married on the anniversary of the massacre (20 may 2013) and had kids while he was in prison. In addition, he was allowed to visit his house several times.”
“The Israeli government supports the Jewish terrorists and their extremist organizations, financially, socially and legally, through Israeli government-approved associations, including Haninu, Right Hand Association and others.
“The Israeli government is the largest financier of official terrorism in the Middle East that continues to claim legitimacy of their own terrorism,” he added.
This statement comes in midst of Israeli calls on the PA to cancel the monthly salaries for the Palestinian prisoners and their families who are imprisoned by Israel over political backgrounds.
“We reject being framed as criminals and terrorist. The struggle of our people is a legitimate struggle against the occupation and for self-determination and is guaranteed by UN resolutions and international and humanitarian laws,” he concluded.
Head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission, Issa Qaraqe’ said, according to the PNN, that the government of Israel is paying a regular monthly salary to the Israeli murderer Ami Popper who committed a bloody massacre, where he killed seven Palestinian workers from Gaza on May 20, 1990, in the Rishon Lezion area, near Tel Aviv.
The victims were waiting for their employers on the construction site when Ami Popper approached them wearing the Israeli army uniform. After he checked their IDs to make sure they were all Palestinians, he opened fire towards them, killing seven and injuring 20 others.
“Popper’s sentence, which was a life imprisonment, was reduced and he will be released next month, Qaraqe’ said. “Despite being in prison, he lives in luxury: He got married on the anniversary of the massacre (20 may 2013) and had kids while he was in prison. In addition, he was allowed to visit his house several times.”
“The Israeli government supports the Jewish terrorists and their extremist organizations, financially, socially and legally, through Israeli government-approved associations, including Haninu, Right Hand Association and others.
“The Israeli government is the largest financier of official terrorism in the Middle East that continues to claim legitimacy of their own terrorism,” he added.
This statement comes in midst of Israeli calls on the PA to cancel the monthly salaries for the Palestinian prisoners and their families who are imprisoned by Israel over political backgrounds.
“We reject being framed as criminals and terrorist. The struggle of our people is a legitimate struggle against the occupation and for self-determination and is guaranteed by UN resolutions and international and humanitarian laws,” he concluded.
20 may 1990
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Revenge
Number of victims: 7
Date of murders: May 20, 1990
Date of arrest: Same day
Date of birth: 1969
Victims profile: Male palestinians
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Rishon Lezion, Israel
Status: Sentence to seven life terms 1991. Commuted to 40 years 1999
Put on his army uniform and asked men waiting at a bus stop in a southern Israeli town for their identity cards. After confirming they were Arabs he lined them up and opened fire, killing seven.
He left the scene in a car belonging to one of the Palestinians, but was taken into custody after contacting police.
Ami Popper (Hebrew: עמי פופר; born 1969) is an Israeli convicted of murder.
Popper, a former dishonorably-discharged soldier, put on his army uniform on 20 May 1990 and asked men waiting at a bus stop in the Israeli town of Rishon Lezion for their identity cards. After confirming they were Arabs he lined them up and opened fire, killing seven. Within an hour, he was arrested by Israeli police.
After his act, Arab riots led to the deaths of seven more Palestinians, and 700 injured.
Israel Radio reported that Popper claimed to have been distraught because his girlfriend had decided to leave him. Later he told police that he had been raped by an Arab when he was 13 and had commited these killings out of shame and a desire for revenge.
Popper was charged and convicted of seven acts of murder in March 1991. In prison he became religious and in June 1993 he married a Canadian woman from a family of Kach activists. They had three children.
In February, 1999 Popper's sentence was commuted from seven life terms to 40 years. Currently he is expected be released on parole in 2023, after 33 years in prison.
On January 17, 2007, while on a 48-hour furlough, Popper was involved in a car accident caused by him crossing a solid line. His wife and one of his sons were killed in the accident. Popper himself was moderately injured. Israeli police reported that Popper's license had expired in 1999.
Israeli kills 7 Arabs, wounds 10
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
May 20, 1990
A 20-year-old Israeli armed with a U.S.-made M-16 assault rifle opened fire on a group of Palestinians waiting to go to work in a town south of Tel Aviv, killing seven and wounding 10, Israel radio said.
The radio report said the gunman apparently was a civilian. He left the scene in a car belonging to one of the Palestinians, but was taken into custody after contacting police, the radio said.
Shooting spree
San Jose Mercury News
May 20, 1990
An Israeli armed with a U.S.-made M-16 assault rifle opened fire today on a group of Palestinians waiting to go to work in a town south of Tel Aviv, killing seven and wounding 10, Israel radio said. It was the bloodiest attack by an Israeli against Arabs since the start of the 29-month-old Palestinian uprising. The radio said the gunman was a 20-year-old civilian. He escaped in a car belonging to one of the Palestinians, but was taken into custody after contacting police, the radio said.
Israeli kills 7 Arabs, hurts 11
The Miami Herald
May 21, 1990
An Israeli wearing a military uniform and armed with an automatic assault rifle opened fire Sunday on Palestinian workers, killing seven and wounding 11.
Within an hour of the killings, the suspected assailant -- a 21-year-old man -- was arrested. He was described in an Israel Radio report as distraught because his girlfriend had decided to leave him.
A bloody day for Israel
Former soldier kills 8 Arabs; 7 die, hundreds in riots
Detroit Free Press
May 21, 1990
An Israeli who was dishonorably discharged from the army shot and killed eight unarmed Palestinian laborers and wounded 10 on Sunday. Outraged Arabs rampaged through the occupied territories in clashes with Israeli troops that left at least seven more Palestinians dead and more than 650 injured.
Eleven Israeli soldiers were injured.
Gaza erupts as Israeli kills 8 Palestinians
The Washington Times
May 21, 1990
A dishonorably discharged Israeli soldier armed with an assault rifle opened fire yesterday on a group of unarmed Palestinians, killing eight men and rekindling the 29-month-old uprising against Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
News of the unprovoked murders spread quickly through the occupied territories, setting off fierce clashes with Israeli troops that left seven more Palestinians dead and nearly 700 wounded.
Israeli murder charges
The Philadelphia Inquirer
June 19, 1990
A Tel Aviv court yesterday charged a 21-year-old Israeli with the murder of seven Palestinian laborers in an attack that set off clashes in which 20 other people died.
A five-man psychiatric panel rejected a contention that the suspect, Ami Popper, was unfit to stand trial, officials said.
Revenge motive
San Jose Mercury News
June 29, 1990
The Israeli who has reportedly confessed in Jerusalem to killing seven Palestinian workers last month now says the massacre was a premeditated act of personal revenge for a gang rape he suffered at the age of 12, according to a jailhouse note. The 21-year-old Israeli, Ami Popper, wrote that the leader of a gang that raped him in 1982 was among the Arabs he attacked May 20. The jailhouse account contradicts Popper's earlier reported statement to police that he shot the Arabs over a failed romance.
Israeli refuses to testify at trial
The Pittsburgh Press
July 9, 1990
The 21-year-old Israeli charged with the premeditated murder of seven Palestinian laborers in a burst of automatic rifle fire refused to speak as his trial opened today.
Judge Chaim Steinberg ruled that Ami Popper's silence amounted to a plea of innocent to charges he gunned down the seven Arabs and wounded 10 others on May 20 outside Tel Aviv.
Soldier admits killing 7 Arabs
The Press of Atlantic City
December 24, 1990
A cashiered Israeli soldier admitted in court Sunday that he shot and killed seven Arab workers seven months ago but said his actions resulted from mental illness, not criminal intent.
The killings May 20 in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion set off three days of rioting in the occupied lands in which 13 Palestinians died from army gunfire, refueling the 3-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation.
7 Arabs slain to avenge rape, Court told
The Arizona Republic
December 28, 1990
A tearful Israeli told a court Thursday that he gunned down seven Arab workers from the occupied Gaza Strip in May to ''end the nightmare'' of his rape as a boy by Arabs.
Ami Popper, 21, taking the stand in his own defense, admitted killing the seven. But his lawyer said Popper was mentally ill and denied charges by prosecutors that he carefully calculated the slayings.
Israeli gets life term in killings
The Charlotte Observer
March 18, 1991
A court on Sunday sentenced an Israeli man to life in prison for shooting to death seven Palestinians in a massacre that touched off three days of rioting last spring.
The Tel Aviv District Court found 21-year-old Ami Popper guilty of seven murders and ordered him to serve seven life terms consecutively.
Israeli law does not provide for parole for prisoners serving life sentences. But they can seek a commutation from the president and become eligible for parole.
Israel cuts sentence for Jewish killer
The Sunday Times
February 4, 1999
Jerusalem: Israel yesterday commuted the lengthy prison terms of seven Jews convicted of murdering or plotting to kill Arabs, in a move that has angered the Palestinian Authority.
The prisoners included Ami Popper, who killed seven Palestinians in a wild shooting spree in 1990. From seven life sentences, his sentence has been reduced to 40 years. He could be eligible for release on parole after serving two thirds of that term.
Israeli killers' sentences reduced
BBC News
Thursday, February 4, 1999
The Israeli Government has cut the prison sentences of four Israelis jailed for murdering Palestinians and one convicted murderer is to be released.
One of the prisioners, Ami Popper, killed seven Palestinians in an shooting spree in 1990. His sentence has been reduced from seven life sentences to 40 years in prison.
Another prisoner, Nehemiah Mishbaum, who threw a grenade into an Arab butchers' market, killing one, will now walk free after 11 years.
Israel's justice minister told Israeli radio that the review of their sentences was justified because the government had released a number of Palestinian prisoners over recent years as a result of the peace process.
'Double standards'
Palestinian human rights activists have voiced their opposition to the policy saying Israel's position is that it will not release any Palestinian prisoners who "have Jewish blood on their hands".
The human rights activists say Palestinians who murder Israelis are charged in military courts and handed down severe sentences.
By contrast, they say, Israelis guilty of murdering Palestinians often claim self-defence and when they are charged, usually sit before regular courts which deal out lighter sentences.
The issue of prisoners was central to the recent stalling of the Wye peace accord. The Israelis had agreed to release 750 Palestinian prisoners, but the Palestinians complained that many of those who were actually released were common criminals.
Wife, son of Ami Popper die in collision
Israel.Jpost.com
Jan 18, 2007
The wife and six-year-old son of convicted Jewish terrorist Ami Popper were killed Wednesday night when the car he was driving collided head-on with one full of tourists on the Arava Highway, 50 km. north of Eilat, police said.
Five others were injured - two seriously - including Popper's two other children. The identities of those in the second vehicle were not released to the press.
Popper, who was on a 48-hour furlough from prison, was moderately injured, while his son was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Sarah, 42, an American-born social worker affiliated with the Kahane Chai movement, was killed instantly.
Popper is serving 40 years at Ma'asiyahu Prison near Ramle. He was originally given seven life sentences - one for each of the seven Palestinian laborers he gunned down near Rishon Lezion on May 20, 1990.
The initial investigation suggests the three Popper children were sitting in the backseat without seat belts. Police said they believed that Ami Popper had been distracted by his children, causing him to veer into oncoming traffic.
Popper's driving license expired in 1999, police said.
According to traffic authorities, one of the vehicles, most likely Popper's, made a sudden move into oncoming traffic just before 9:30 p.m., causing "one of the more horrific accidents we have seen... completely unnecessary." Magen David Adom medics treated casualties as firefighters extracted others from the wreckage. Two helicopters evacuated the most seriously injured to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
After completing the first 10 years of his sentence, Popper was allowed furloughs. He reportedly left the prison grounds more than 120 times since 2000.
A police representative said that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Services), and not the Israel Prisons Service, was responsible for approving the frequency and durations of Popper's furloughs.
The Shin Bet referred questions about the accident to the Prime Minister's Office.
Ami Popper's shooting rampage rocked the nation and still resonates 16 years later. Popper, 21 at the time, arrived at the Rose Garden Junction between Rishon Lezion and Ness Ziona with an IDF-issued rifle that he had stolen from his younger brother. He lined up Arab workers at the junction, and even stopped a car with West Bank plates, making the passengers join the lineup that he then raked with gunfire, stopping several times to reload.
Seven people were killed and 10 were wounded in the attack, and riots broke out across the territories, leading to additional Palestinian deaths from IDF fire.
Following his arrest, Popper told police he shot the men after his girlfriend left him, only to say later that he was raped by an Arab during his childhood and had acted out of shame and a desire for revenge.
More on wikipedia
Characteristics: Revenge
Number of victims: 7
Date of murders: May 20, 1990
Date of arrest: Same day
Date of birth: 1969
Victims profile: Male palestinians
Method of murder: Shooting
Location: Rishon Lezion, Israel
Status: Sentence to seven life terms 1991. Commuted to 40 years 1999
Put on his army uniform and asked men waiting at a bus stop in a southern Israeli town for their identity cards. After confirming they were Arabs he lined them up and opened fire, killing seven.
He left the scene in a car belonging to one of the Palestinians, but was taken into custody after contacting police.
Ami Popper (Hebrew: עמי פופר; born 1969) is an Israeli convicted of murder.
Popper, a former dishonorably-discharged soldier, put on his army uniform on 20 May 1990 and asked men waiting at a bus stop in the Israeli town of Rishon Lezion for their identity cards. After confirming they were Arabs he lined them up and opened fire, killing seven. Within an hour, he was arrested by Israeli police.
After his act, Arab riots led to the deaths of seven more Palestinians, and 700 injured.
Israel Radio reported that Popper claimed to have been distraught because his girlfriend had decided to leave him. Later he told police that he had been raped by an Arab when he was 13 and had commited these killings out of shame and a desire for revenge.
Popper was charged and convicted of seven acts of murder in March 1991. In prison he became religious and in June 1993 he married a Canadian woman from a family of Kach activists. They had three children.
In February, 1999 Popper's sentence was commuted from seven life terms to 40 years. Currently he is expected be released on parole in 2023, after 33 years in prison.
On January 17, 2007, while on a 48-hour furlough, Popper was involved in a car accident caused by him crossing a solid line. His wife and one of his sons were killed in the accident. Popper himself was moderately injured. Israeli police reported that Popper's license had expired in 1999.
Israeli kills 7 Arabs, wounds 10
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
May 20, 1990
A 20-year-old Israeli armed with a U.S.-made M-16 assault rifle opened fire on a group of Palestinians waiting to go to work in a town south of Tel Aviv, killing seven and wounding 10, Israel radio said.
The radio report said the gunman apparently was a civilian. He left the scene in a car belonging to one of the Palestinians, but was taken into custody after contacting police, the radio said.
Shooting spree
San Jose Mercury News
May 20, 1990
An Israeli armed with a U.S.-made M-16 assault rifle opened fire today on a group of Palestinians waiting to go to work in a town south of Tel Aviv, killing seven and wounding 10, Israel radio said. It was the bloodiest attack by an Israeli against Arabs since the start of the 29-month-old Palestinian uprising. The radio said the gunman was a 20-year-old civilian. He escaped in a car belonging to one of the Palestinians, but was taken into custody after contacting police, the radio said.
Israeli kills 7 Arabs, hurts 11
The Miami Herald
May 21, 1990
An Israeli wearing a military uniform and armed with an automatic assault rifle opened fire Sunday on Palestinian workers, killing seven and wounding 11.
Within an hour of the killings, the suspected assailant -- a 21-year-old man -- was arrested. He was described in an Israel Radio report as distraught because his girlfriend had decided to leave him.
A bloody day for Israel
Former soldier kills 8 Arabs; 7 die, hundreds in riots
Detroit Free Press
May 21, 1990
An Israeli who was dishonorably discharged from the army shot and killed eight unarmed Palestinian laborers and wounded 10 on Sunday. Outraged Arabs rampaged through the occupied territories in clashes with Israeli troops that left at least seven more Palestinians dead and more than 650 injured.
Eleven Israeli soldiers were injured.
Gaza erupts as Israeli kills 8 Palestinians
The Washington Times
May 21, 1990
A dishonorably discharged Israeli soldier armed with an assault rifle opened fire yesterday on a group of unarmed Palestinians, killing eight men and rekindling the 29-month-old uprising against Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
News of the unprovoked murders spread quickly through the occupied territories, setting off fierce clashes with Israeli troops that left seven more Palestinians dead and nearly 700 wounded.
Israeli murder charges
The Philadelphia Inquirer
June 19, 1990
A Tel Aviv court yesterday charged a 21-year-old Israeli with the murder of seven Palestinian laborers in an attack that set off clashes in which 20 other people died.
A five-man psychiatric panel rejected a contention that the suspect, Ami Popper, was unfit to stand trial, officials said.
Revenge motive
San Jose Mercury News
June 29, 1990
The Israeli who has reportedly confessed in Jerusalem to killing seven Palestinian workers last month now says the massacre was a premeditated act of personal revenge for a gang rape he suffered at the age of 12, according to a jailhouse note. The 21-year-old Israeli, Ami Popper, wrote that the leader of a gang that raped him in 1982 was among the Arabs he attacked May 20. The jailhouse account contradicts Popper's earlier reported statement to police that he shot the Arabs over a failed romance.
Israeli refuses to testify at trial
The Pittsburgh Press
July 9, 1990
The 21-year-old Israeli charged with the premeditated murder of seven Palestinian laborers in a burst of automatic rifle fire refused to speak as his trial opened today.
Judge Chaim Steinberg ruled that Ami Popper's silence amounted to a plea of innocent to charges he gunned down the seven Arabs and wounded 10 others on May 20 outside Tel Aviv.
Soldier admits killing 7 Arabs
The Press of Atlantic City
December 24, 1990
A cashiered Israeli soldier admitted in court Sunday that he shot and killed seven Arab workers seven months ago but said his actions resulted from mental illness, not criminal intent.
The killings May 20 in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion set off three days of rioting in the occupied lands in which 13 Palestinians died from army gunfire, refueling the 3-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation.
7 Arabs slain to avenge rape, Court told
The Arizona Republic
December 28, 1990
A tearful Israeli told a court Thursday that he gunned down seven Arab workers from the occupied Gaza Strip in May to ''end the nightmare'' of his rape as a boy by Arabs.
Ami Popper, 21, taking the stand in his own defense, admitted killing the seven. But his lawyer said Popper was mentally ill and denied charges by prosecutors that he carefully calculated the slayings.
Israeli gets life term in killings
The Charlotte Observer
March 18, 1991
A court on Sunday sentenced an Israeli man to life in prison for shooting to death seven Palestinians in a massacre that touched off three days of rioting last spring.
The Tel Aviv District Court found 21-year-old Ami Popper guilty of seven murders and ordered him to serve seven life terms consecutively.
Israeli law does not provide for parole for prisoners serving life sentences. But they can seek a commutation from the president and become eligible for parole.
Israel cuts sentence for Jewish killer
The Sunday Times
February 4, 1999
Jerusalem: Israel yesterday commuted the lengthy prison terms of seven Jews convicted of murdering or plotting to kill Arabs, in a move that has angered the Palestinian Authority.
The prisoners included Ami Popper, who killed seven Palestinians in a wild shooting spree in 1990. From seven life sentences, his sentence has been reduced to 40 years. He could be eligible for release on parole after serving two thirds of that term.
Israeli killers' sentences reduced
BBC News
Thursday, February 4, 1999
The Israeli Government has cut the prison sentences of four Israelis jailed for murdering Palestinians and one convicted murderer is to be released.
One of the prisioners, Ami Popper, killed seven Palestinians in an shooting spree in 1990. His sentence has been reduced from seven life sentences to 40 years in prison.
Another prisoner, Nehemiah Mishbaum, who threw a grenade into an Arab butchers' market, killing one, will now walk free after 11 years.
Israel's justice minister told Israeli radio that the review of their sentences was justified because the government had released a number of Palestinian prisoners over recent years as a result of the peace process.
'Double standards'
Palestinian human rights activists have voiced their opposition to the policy saying Israel's position is that it will not release any Palestinian prisoners who "have Jewish blood on their hands".
The human rights activists say Palestinians who murder Israelis are charged in military courts and handed down severe sentences.
By contrast, they say, Israelis guilty of murdering Palestinians often claim self-defence and when they are charged, usually sit before regular courts which deal out lighter sentences.
The issue of prisoners was central to the recent stalling of the Wye peace accord. The Israelis had agreed to release 750 Palestinian prisoners, but the Palestinians complained that many of those who were actually released were common criminals.
Wife, son of Ami Popper die in collision
Israel.Jpost.com
Jan 18, 2007
The wife and six-year-old son of convicted Jewish terrorist Ami Popper were killed Wednesday night when the car he was driving collided head-on with one full of tourists on the Arava Highway, 50 km. north of Eilat, police said.
Five others were injured - two seriously - including Popper's two other children. The identities of those in the second vehicle were not released to the press.
Popper, who was on a 48-hour furlough from prison, was moderately injured, while his son was pronounced dead at the scene. His wife, Sarah, 42, an American-born social worker affiliated with the Kahane Chai movement, was killed instantly.
Popper is serving 40 years at Ma'asiyahu Prison near Ramle. He was originally given seven life sentences - one for each of the seven Palestinian laborers he gunned down near Rishon Lezion on May 20, 1990.
The initial investigation suggests the three Popper children were sitting in the backseat without seat belts. Police said they believed that Ami Popper had been distracted by his children, causing him to veer into oncoming traffic.
Popper's driving license expired in 1999, police said.
According to traffic authorities, one of the vehicles, most likely Popper's, made a sudden move into oncoming traffic just before 9:30 p.m., causing "one of the more horrific accidents we have seen... completely unnecessary." Magen David Adom medics treated casualties as firefighters extracted others from the wreckage. Two helicopters evacuated the most seriously injured to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
After completing the first 10 years of his sentence, Popper was allowed furloughs. He reportedly left the prison grounds more than 120 times since 2000.
A police representative said that the Shin Bet (Israel Security Services), and not the Israel Prisons Service, was responsible for approving the frequency and durations of Popper's furloughs.
The Shin Bet referred questions about the accident to the Prime Minister's Office.
Ami Popper's shooting rampage rocked the nation and still resonates 16 years later. Popper, 21 at the time, arrived at the Rose Garden Junction between Rishon Lezion and Ness Ziona with an IDF-issued rifle that he had stolen from his younger brother. He lined up Arab workers at the junction, and even stopped a car with West Bank plates, making the passengers join the lineup that he then raked with gunfire, stopping several times to reload.
Seven people were killed and 10 were wounded in the attack, and riots broke out across the territories, leading to additional Palestinian deaths from IDF fire.
Following his arrest, Popper told police he shot the men after his girlfriend left him, only to say later that he was raped by an Arab during his childhood and had acted out of shame and a desire for revenge.
More on wikipedia
The martyrs of Oyoun Qarra massacre (Newspaper photos)
Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif carried their small lunch bags with a few bread loaves, a tomato and a sardine can, and said goodbye to their families in the early hours of Sunday 20.05.1990. It was very early in the morning, the sun hadn’t risen yet, and the refugee camps were engulfed in total darkness. The usually busy and noisy narrow roads and alleys were empty and quiet.
The children were still asleep and dreaming of the toy and the colouring book their fathers will bring them back from work. The young women were still asleep and dreaming of the ring and the necklace their fiancés would buy so they could finally marry. The wives sat near their sleeping children and dreamt of the meat their husbands might bring back from work so they could cook a decent meal for the family. The mothers sat in the darkness, watching their children leave to work, and prayed that they reach their working place safe, find a job for the day and get paid so they can repair the leaking roof before the next winter. As they watched them disappear in the darkness, they prayed that their children come back safe to their homes and to their families.
Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif carried their small lunch bags with a few bread loaves, a tomato and a sardine can, and said goodbye to their families in the early hours of Sunday 20.05.1990. It was very early in the morning, the sun hadn’t risen yet, and the refugee camps were engulfed in total darkness. The usually busy and noisy narrow roads and alleys were empty and quiet.
The children were still asleep and dreaming of the toy and the colouring book their fathers will bring them back from work. The young women were still asleep and dreaming of the ring and the necklace their fiancés would buy so they could finally marry. The wives sat near their sleeping children and dreamt of the meat their husbands might bring back from work so they could cook a decent meal for the family. The mothers sat in the darkness, watching their children leave to work, and prayed that they reach their working place safe, find a job for the day and get paid so they can repair the leaking roof before the next winter. As they watched them disappear in the darkness, they prayed that their children come back safe to their homes and to their families.
Oyoun Qarra massacre, 6:30 am on 20.05.1990 (Newspaper photo)
The roads and alleys of the refugee camps were quiet and empty, except for the sounds of the marching Israeli occupation soldiers, patrolling the open-air prisons, and holding the entire Palestinian population hostage to occupation and oppression. The roads and alleys of the refugee camps were quiet and empty except for the footsteps of the workers, heading to work in the early hours of the morning, hoping to find work that day, and thinking of their children, their mothers, their wives, their fiancés and hoping to be able to bring back toys, colouring books, food, a necklace and ring and enough money to fix the roof before the next winter.
Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were refugees, their families expelled from their original homes and villages by Zionist terror gangs during the Nakba. Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were made refugees by the Zionists colonists who ethnically cleansed entire Palestinian villages, demolished them and erased them off their invented Zionist map. Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif came originally from villages that once prospered and thrived. They had beautiful homes with flowers on the window sills, and had fertile lands which were green all year around. They once tended vast olive and apple fields, orange groves and vineyards.
The roads and alleys of the refugee camps were quiet and empty, except for the sounds of the marching Israeli occupation soldiers, patrolling the open-air prisons, and holding the entire Palestinian population hostage to occupation and oppression. The roads and alleys of the refugee camps were quiet and empty except for the footsteps of the workers, heading to work in the early hours of the morning, hoping to find work that day, and thinking of their children, their mothers, their wives, their fiancés and hoping to be able to bring back toys, colouring books, food, a necklace and ring and enough money to fix the roof before the next winter.
Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were refugees, their families expelled from their original homes and villages by Zionist terror gangs during the Nakba. Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were made refugees by the Zionists colonists who ethnically cleansed entire Palestinian villages, demolished them and erased them off their invented Zionist map. Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif came originally from villages that once prospered and thrived. They had beautiful homes with flowers on the window sills, and had fertile lands which were green all year around. They once tended vast olive and apple fields, orange groves and vineyards.
Some of the victims of Oyoun Qarra massacre (Newspaper photo)
The indigenous people of Palestine, the owners of the land, were forced to live exiled in their own country, were forced to live in over-crowded rooms while Zionist colonizers thrive and live in stolen Palestinian homes, on stolen Palestinian land. And as the Nakba continues, as the catastrophe of the Palestinian people continues, the suffering of the Palestinians knows no end and the injustice done to them and their families is limitless.
To feed their families, and like thousands of fellow Palestinians, Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were forced to work like slaves for the thieves who stole their lands and homes, were forced to work for the killers who forced their families out of their homes, were forced to work for the Zionists who had made refugees out of them.
Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were among a group of over 100 Palestinian labourers from the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip who were waiting at the Oyoun Qarra bus stop to be transported to their working place. An Israeli occupation soldier, Ami Popper, from nearby Rishon Lezion Zionist colony approached the workers and asked them for their IDs. After making sure all the workers were Palestinians, Popper lined them up, asked them to kneel down in 3 lines, and using his M16 sub-machine gun, he opened fire, killing 7 of them and injuring others.
Zionists passed by the scene of the crime in their cars, saw the Palestinian labourers, young and old, lying on the ground, drowning in pools of blood, their lunch bags scattered around them, and drove on.
The indigenous people of Palestine, the owners of the land, were forced to live exiled in their own country, were forced to live in over-crowded rooms while Zionist colonizers thrive and live in stolen Palestinian homes, on stolen Palestinian land. And as the Nakba continues, as the catastrophe of the Palestinian people continues, the suffering of the Palestinians knows no end and the injustice done to them and their families is limitless.
To feed their families, and like thousands of fellow Palestinians, Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were forced to work like slaves for the thieves who stole their lands and homes, were forced to work for the killers who forced their families out of their homes, were forced to work for the Zionists who had made refugees out of them.
Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were among a group of over 100 Palestinian labourers from the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip who were waiting at the Oyoun Qarra bus stop to be transported to their working place. An Israeli occupation soldier, Ami Popper, from nearby Rishon Lezion Zionist colony approached the workers and asked them for their IDs. After making sure all the workers were Palestinians, Popper lined them up, asked them to kneel down in 3 lines, and using his M16 sub-machine gun, he opened fire, killing 7 of them and injuring others.
Zionists passed by the scene of the crime in their cars, saw the Palestinian labourers, young and old, lying on the ground, drowning in pools of blood, their lunch bags scattered around them, and drove on.
Some of the victims of Oyoun Qarra massacre (Newspaper photo)
Zionists passed by the scene of the crime in their cars, heard the Palestinian labourers moan in pain, heard them cry out for help, and drove on. When the Israeli ambulances and occupation police finally arrived to the scene of the massacre, 7 Palestinians were already dead, and instead of providing help to the severely injured, the Israeli police started beating the Palestinians workers who had survived the death machine.
And as with all massacres committed by Zionists, the Israeli government rushed to declare Popper deranged. But when it was proven that he wasn’t, he was theatrically ‘tried’ and ‘charged’ with murder in 7 cases.
However, while in detention, the terrorist Popper receives “special treatment”; he was allowed to get married, had 3 children with his wife and is allowed 48-hour furloughs. In 1997, the Israeli government reduced the prison sentences of 4 Zionist terrorists convicted of murdering Palestinians and ordered the release of a fifth Zionist terrorist. Popper’s sentence of 7 life terms was reduced to 40 years.
Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were Palestinian labourers from the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. Like every Palestinian labourer, they woke up every morning to a new day, full of new hopes and new strength to face and defy the occupation, the oppression, the siege, the closure and the Zionist terror. Like every Palestinian labourer, they woke up every morning, went to work because they wanted their children to have food on the table, a roof over their heads, an education and a future that is free of occupation and oppression, a future free of Zionism. And on the morning of 20.05.1990, they woke up early to go to work and buy toys, colouring books and food for their families. But on that day, on ‘Back Sunday’, Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif did not reach work.
Zionists passed by the scene of the crime in their cars, heard the Palestinian labourers moan in pain, heard them cry out for help, and drove on. When the Israeli ambulances and occupation police finally arrived to the scene of the massacre, 7 Palestinians were already dead, and instead of providing help to the severely injured, the Israeli police started beating the Palestinians workers who had survived the death machine.
And as with all massacres committed by Zionists, the Israeli government rushed to declare Popper deranged. But when it was proven that he wasn’t, he was theatrically ‘tried’ and ‘charged’ with murder in 7 cases.
However, while in detention, the terrorist Popper receives “special treatment”; he was allowed to get married, had 3 children with his wife and is allowed 48-hour furloughs. In 1997, the Israeli government reduced the prison sentences of 4 Zionist terrorists convicted of murdering Palestinians and ordered the release of a fifth Zionist terrorist. Popper’s sentence of 7 life terms was reduced to 40 years.
Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif were Palestinian labourers from the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. Like every Palestinian labourer, they woke up every morning to a new day, full of new hopes and new strength to face and defy the occupation, the oppression, the siege, the closure and the Zionist terror. Like every Palestinian labourer, they woke up every morning, went to work because they wanted their children to have food on the table, a roof over their heads, an education and a future that is free of occupation and oppression, a future free of Zionism. And on the morning of 20.05.1990, they woke up early to go to work and buy toys, colouring books and food for their families. But on that day, on ‘Back Sunday’, Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif did not reach work.
Palestinian worker crying after the massacre (l). Israeli police checking clothes of the victims (r). (Newspaper photos)
They were massacred by a Zionist terrorist, killed in cold blood by an Israeli occupation soldier, a member of ‘the most moral army in the world’. They were massacred, they blood spilt, their dreams killed, their lives brutally cut short by a terrorist entity that supports and encourages and is built on terror. On “Black Sunday”, Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif did not return to their homes with toys, colouring books, meat, rings, necklaces and a promise to repair the leaking roof.
They returned to their waiting mothers, wives, children and fiancés carried on the shoulders of their fathers, sons, brothers and comrades. They returned to their waiting mothers, wives, children and fiancés soaking in their blood. They returned to their waiting mothers, wives, children and fiancés as bridegrooms of Palestine, The martyrs of Oyoun Qarra massacre are:
They were massacred by a Zionist terrorist, killed in cold blood by an Israeli occupation soldier, a member of ‘the most moral army in the world’. They were massacred, they blood spilt, their dreams killed, their lives brutally cut short by a terrorist entity that supports and encourages and is built on terror. On “Black Sunday”, Abdil Rahim, Ziyad, Zayid, Sleiman, Omar, Zaky and Yousif did not return to their homes with toys, colouring books, meat, rings, necklaces and a promise to repair the leaking roof.
They returned to their waiting mothers, wives, children and fiancés carried on the shoulders of their fathers, sons, brothers and comrades. They returned to their waiting mothers, wives, children and fiancés soaking in their blood. They returned to their waiting mothers, wives, children and fiancés as bridegrooms of Palestine, The martyrs of Oyoun Qarra massacre are:
- Abdil Rahim Mohammad Salim Baraka, 43 yrs, from Khan Younis
- Ziyad Mousa Mohammad Swe’id, 22 yrs, from Rafah
- Zayid Zeidan Abdel Hamid Al-’Mour, 33 yrs, from Khan Younis
- Sleiman Abdel Raziq Mohammad Abu ‘Anza, 22 yrs, from Khan Younis
- Omar Hamad Ahmad Dahlees, 27 yrs, from Rafah
- Zaky Mohammad Hamdan Qdeh, 35 yrs, from Khan Younis
- Yousif Ibrahim Mansour Abu Daqqa, 36 yrs, from Khan Younis
- Iyad Ismail Abdallah Saqir, 17 yrs from Rafah
- Shifa’ Naim Ali Al-Hummus, 23 yrs, from Rafah
- Mousa Ibrahim Abdel-Halim Hassounah, 27 yrs, from Ash-Shati’
- Ali Mahmoud Mohammad Az-Za’amrah, 21 yrs, from Halhoul
- Husam Abdel Rahman Abdallah Nazzal, 14 yrs, from Qabatia
- Wail Mohammad Ibrahim Al-Badrasawi, 22 yrs, from Ash-Shati’
