The New York Times · 29 May 1984

CP-1984-054

ARABS WERE SLAIN BY ISRAELI GUARDS, INQUIRY CONCLUDES

Bus Hijackers, Captured Alive, Were Beaten by Security Men While in Custody

By DAVID K. SHIPLER

Shown from the top. The whole column — 5.6 times taller than it is wide — is in the enlargement.

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, May 28 — The Defense Ministry announced today that a commission of inquiry had determined that two of the four Arab terrorists who hijacked an Israeli bus last month were captured alive and then killed by security men. The commission said the two terrorists’ skulls had been fractured with blunt objects.

The commission found that no order had been given by superiors that the two be killed. But a criminal investigation will be conducted by the military and civilian police and the State Attorney’s office, the Defense Ministry’s statement said, and disciplinary measures are to be taken against other security personnel.

Arens Condemns Behavior The communiqué declared that Defense Minister Moshe Arens “regards with utmost gravity — and condemns most forcefully — the behavior which led to the deaths of the two terrorists who had been captured on the bus, behavior which is in clear contradistinction to the basic rules and norms incumbent on all and especially on the security forces.

“Not even the special circumstances of this case justify such behavior,” he said. “Therefore, legal action shall be taken, in accordance with the evidence uncovered by the investigation, against those suspected of illegal acts or behavior.” Mr. Arens added, “All possible steps will be taken to insure that there be no recurrence of a similar incident.”

Individuals Not Identified In a radio interview later, Mr. Arens said that the commission was unable to determine who among those who beat the hijackers had delivered the fatal blows and that this would be a subject of the criminal investigations.

Asked if he thought the fate of Israeli soldiers being held by Palestinian factions would be affected, the Defense Minister replied: “It shouldn’t have any effect. Of course, we can’t assume for sure how terrorists will behave. The fact is it hasn’t had any effect until now. It is known that our norms of behavior are completely different from theirs.

A deviation from the norm took place here, but we also carried out the proper measures that are needed in such a situation.” After an all-night standoff, Israeli troops stormed the bus just before dawn April 13, killing an Israeli woman and wounding seven other passengers.

The army’s public statements — that two “died on the way to the hospital” — implied that all four terrorists were killed as a result of the assault. But according to the Defense Ministry, the commission found that only two of them, Jamal Kablan and Mohammed Barakeh, died “at an early stage of the strike force’s assault on the bus, as a result of the attacking force’s gunfire.”

The two others, cousins named Majdi and Subhi Abu-Jumaa, were captured, the commission said. They were apparently beaten two or three times, with the fatal blows coming later. The text of the commission’s report was not released; it was summarized by the Defense Ministry communiqué and was apparently timed to precede Mr.

Arens’s visit this week to the United States, where he could have expected to face uncomfortable questioning about the matter. Initially, the Israeli authorities tried to suppress news of the case by having the military censor ban the publication of news photographs of the two hijackers being led away from the bus. News articles on the subject were also barred by censorship.

Inquiry Commission Appointed But after The New York Times published the details despite the censor’s restrictions, Mr. Arens appointed the inquiry commission, headed by a reserve army general, Meir Zorea, who has a reputation of high integrity in Israel. The censor closed a daily newspaper, Hadashot, for four days because it reported the creation of the commission.

The authorities have been concerned about the repercussions of the case. It has been longstanding Israeli policy not to kill captured terrorists, mainly to induce them to surrender and to avoid situations in which they feel they have nothing to lose by fighting to the death and killing hostages.

In addition, interrogations of prisoners have often yielded rich details on guerrilla cells, lines of support and other such matters useful to the Shin Beth, the Mossad and other Israeli security services. The hijacking began the evening of April 12 as the bus was making a regular run from Tel Aviv south to the Mediterranean town of Ashkelon.

Four Palestinian Arabs forced the driver to continue into the occupied Gaza Strip, where they threatened to blow up the bus with its 35 passengers unless 500 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli prisons.

How this transcription was made

ASSEMBLED FROM 2 SCANS. Scan 1 is the front-page column (A1), ending “Continued on Page A8, Column 1”. Scan 2 is page A8: the jump under the different headline “2 ARAB TERRORISTS KILLED IN CUSTODY”, a photograph with caption, and the separately-headed companion document “Text of Israeli Statement on Inquiry” (the item the A1 cross-reference points to). The excerpt below joins A1 and the A8 jump in reading order; the statement text is NOT folded into the excerpt but is recorded under `companion_document` and `censorship`. — The running head on scan 1 is clipped at the left but reads “SDAY, MAY 29, 1984” — TUESDAY. 29 May 1984 was a Tuesday. The byline block reads “Special to The New York Times” and the jump refers to “The New York Times” by name in the body. Matches Maria’s label. — Two clippings of one article, joined into a single image for the record (s048_1.png, s048_2.png).

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