Nazir Majally, Asharq Al-Awsat

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 23 February 2004 — On the eve of a World Court hearing on Israel’s controversial barrier in the West Bank, a Palestinian yesterday blew himself up in a crowded Jerusalem bus, killing eight people.

Police said around 60 people were wounded in the blast that turned the green No. 14 bus into a charred skeleton at a busy intersection near the Inbal Hotel, where leaders of major US Jewish organizations were meeting.

An hour after the blast, bodies still lay on the sidewalk. Rescue workers wrapped them in white sheets and put body parts in bags. Security forces stood on the roof of the nearby gas station watching the crowd. Sniffer dogs were led around the scene.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement that called the barrier “a Nazi wall which will not stop us attacking.”

Al-Aqsa named the bomber as Mohammed Zaal, a 23-year-old from Hussan village near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. It said the attack was a reaction to the barrier and to an Israeli raid that killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza City on Feb. 11.

The World Court begins hearings in The Hague today on the legality of the barrier that Israel says keeps bombers out, but which Palestinians call a land grab.

President Arafat’s office condemned the attack and called the timing deliberate and harmful for the diplomatic campaign against the barrier. The top Palestinian security body vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

The bombing strengthened Israeli arguments for erecting the barrier. “The Palestinian murderers have again shown that Israel is not the aggressor, the Palestinians are, and that the fence was not meant for anything other than to save lives,” said Justice Minister Yosef Lapid.

“I hope that the 15 justices in The Hague understand the message.... If there was a fence around Jerusalem there would not have been an attack today.”

Soon after the bombing, Israeli troops sealed off Bethlehem and Palestinian police left their posts in the town, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz called a meeting with top security officials to discuss possible responses to the attack.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei condemned the bombing. In a statement, he called for “an immediate halt to these actions,” which he said gave Israel an excuse to continue building the barrier and to carry out raids against militants.

European leaders strongly condemned the attack.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called it a “terrible outrage”, adding that it damaged the Palestinian cause. Straw said in a statement: “This is another terrible outrage perpetrated by rejectionist terrorists. Their immediate victims are always innocent civilians but it is time they understood just how much damage they do to the Palestinian cause itself.”

Straw said he was sending a message to express his condolences to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.

Germany called for the “terror and violence” to end and said only a political solution based on negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians could provide the basis for peace.

“Murderous terrorists are trying once again to reduce to nothing the hope for progress in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians,” Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said.

In Paris, his French counterpart Dominique de Villepin said France condemned “with the greatest firmness this act of intolerable barbarity”.

“Nothing can ever justify terrorism,” he added.

Russia, one of the four sponsors of the road map for Middle East peace, called on the Palestinian authorities to “take all necessary measures” to clamp down on extremists.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement also urged Israel to show restraint in its military operations.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Ana Palacio said it fell to everyone to do their utmost to ensure attacks stopped. “Once again, unfortunately, we have to condemn it in the plainest terms because it is terrorism,” she told journalists.

— Additional input from agencies