Baruch Goldstein

Baruch Goldstein, born on December ninth, nineteen fifty-six, in Brooklyn, New York, emerged from an Orthodox Jewish family. His early education was steeped in Jewish scripture, which laid the foundation for his later studies in medicine at Yeshiva University. In the United States, he became involved with the Jewish Defense League, a militant organization founded by his childhood acquaintance Meir Kahane.

In nineteen eighty-three, Goldstein immigrated to Israel, where he served as a physician in the Israeli military. Notably, he refused to treat Arab soldiers, reflecting his extremist views. He later settled in Kiryat Arba, an Israeli settlement near Hebron, and became an active member of Kahane's Kach party, even running for a Knesset seat in the nineteen eighty-four elections.

On February twenty-fifth, nineteen ninety-four, Goldstein committed a heinous act of violence by entering the Cave of the Patriarchs mosque during Ramadan, armed in an Israeli military uniform. He opened fire on worshippers, resulting in the deaths of twenty-nine Palestinians and injuring one hundred twenty-five others before being killed by survivors.

Goldstein's actions were widely condemned, and Kach was banned shortly after due to its support for his actions. His gravesite has since become a pilgrimage site for Jewish extremists, with an inscription that glorifies him as a martyr. In nineteen ninety-nine, following legislation against monuments to terrorists, the Israeli Army dismantled the shrine built at his burial site, although the tombstone remained intact.