Baruch Goldstein
| Baruch Goldstein | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 9, 1956 Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Died | February 25, 1994 (aged 37) Hebron, West Bank |
| Cause of death | Beaten to death |
| Resting place | Kiryat Arba, across from the Meir Kahane Memorial Park |
| Residence | Kiryat Arba |
| Other names | Benjamin Goldstein |
| Alma mater | Yeshiva University (1977) highest honors, Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
| Occupation | Physician (emergency doctor) |
| Years active | 11 |
| Known for | Cave of the Patriarchs massacre |
| Spouse(s) | Miriam Goldstein |
Baruch Kopel Goldstein (Hebrew: ברוך קופל גולדשטיין; December 9, 1956 – February 25, 1994) was an American-Israeli physician, religious extremist and mass murderer who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron, killing 29 Palestinian Muslim worshippers and wounding another 125. He was beaten to death by survivors of the massacre.
The Israeli government condemned the massacre, and responded by arresting followers of Meir Kahane, criminalizing the Kach movement and affiliated movements as terrorist, forbidding certain Israeli settlers from entering Palestinian towns, and demanding that those settlers turn in their army-issued rifles, although rejecting a PLO demand that all settlers in the West Bank be disarmed and that an international force be created to protect Palestinians. Jewish Israelis were barred from entering major Arab communities in Hebron. The Israeli government also took extreme measures against Palestinians following the deadly riots after the massacre, expelling them from certain streets near Jewish settlements in Hebron, such as Al-Shuhada Street, where many Palestinians had homes and businesses, and allowing access exclusively to Jewish Israelis and foreign tourists.
Goldstein's gravesite became a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists. The following words are inscribed on the tomb: "He gave his life for the people of Israel, its Torah and land." In 1999, after the passing of Israeli legislation outlawing monuments to terrorists, the Israeli Army dismantled the shrine that had been built to Goldstein at the site of his interment. The tombstone and its epitaph, calling Goldstein a martyr with clean hands and a pure heart, was left untouched. After the flagstones around it were pried away under the eye of a military chaplain, the ground was covered with gravel.
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