American Jewish Committee Report: Halberstam Murder Was Terrorist Act

American Jewish Committee
Wednesday, 15 November 2000

The murder of Aaron Halberstam on the Brooklyn Bridge six years ago was unquestionably an act of terrorism inspired by Islamic extremists in the Middle East, concludes an American Jewish Committee report issued today.

"Testimony presented at Rashid Baz's trial indicates that he thought of himself as a mujahid, or one who fights jihad, or holy war," writes Yehudit Barsky, director of AJC's Division on Middle East and International Terrorism, in the AJC report, The Brooklyn Bridge Shooting: An Independent Review and Assessment.

Despite the evidence presented at the trial, "the Brooklyn Bridge shooting has never been recognized as an act of terrorism," observes the AJC report.

Baz, who opened fire on a van carrying 15 Lubavitch Chasidic yeshiva students, was convicted of the attack and the murder of Halberstam, and sentenced to 141 years in prison.

While law enforcement agencies and media reports have labeled the attack an incident of "road rage," the Halberstam family has maintained that the assault was an act of terrorism. The American Jewish Committee conducted the assessment of the case at the request of Devorah Halberstam, Mr. Halberstam's mother.

The federal government reopened the investigation of the case in May 1999. Its report is pending.

As the AJC report shows, Baz carried out his attack on the yeshiva student van after Islamic extremist organizations in the Middle East, reacting to the murder of Muslim worshipers at a Hebron mosque by a lone Israeli, called for vengeance against Jews worldwide.

"An examination of the Middle Eastern context at the time of the attack as well as evidence presented at his trial indicates the Baz was inspired by and identified with the ideology of Islamic extremist movements in the Middle East, " writes Ms. Barsky.

"His actions on March 1, 1994, were reflective of the calls for revenge against Jews that were emanating from the Middle East at that time."

Ms. Barsky said that classifying the Brooklyn Bridge murder as an act of terrorism would be an important step toward recognizing that political developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict and pronouncements by some Muslim religious leaders can have a deadly impact far from the Middle East.

Understanding the entire story behind the Brooklyn Bridge murder also provides insight into the current danger to Jews posed by the recent calls of some Muslim religious leaders to attack Jews, and in the past seven weeks there have been dozens of attacks in North America and Europe.

"Islamic extremists who call for acts of violence against Jews make those pronouncements with the intent that their calls will be taken seriously and such manifestations of their 'holy war' will be carried out worldwide, either by their own followers or admirers of their movements," writes Ms. Barsky.

"The responsibility of governments, law enforcement agencies and community leaders is to take them at their word and to recognize the dangers that are created by such calls to commit acts of terror."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org