Café Moment Bombing

The Café Moment bombing took place during the Second Intifada, a sustained Palestinian terrorist campaign marked by mass-casualty suicide bombings in Israeli cities and towns. March 2002 was particularly deadly: a later Ynetnews retrospective reported that 132 Israeli soldiers and civilians were killed in terrorist attacks and gunfire incidents during that month.[5]

Café Moment was one of Jerusalem's most popular gathering places and a regular Saturday-night destination.[2] The café had moved to its premises on Aza Street in Rehavia only a few months before the attack because its previous location had become too small to accommodate demand.[2] Police had received intelligence indicating a planned attack somewhere in Jerusalem and deployed additional forces, although the warning was non-specific and focused mainly on northern Jerusalem.[2]

An August 2002 Ynet report said six suspects had admitted during Shin Bet questioning to involvement in the bombing and other attacks. It identified Wael Qassem as the cell leader and said that Qassem and Muhammad Ouda conducted reconnaissance at Café Moment before selecting it as the target.[4]

The same account identified the bomber as Fuad Hourani, 22, and said Muhammad Arman brought him to a mosque in Beit Hanina. Qassem and Ouda then drove him to the café while Wisam Abbasi traveled ahead in another vehicle to open the route. After leaving Hourani at the café, they departed the area.[4]

In 2012, an Israeli military court convicted Ibrahim Hamed, described as Hamas's military-wing commander in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — of responsibility for a wider series of attacks that included the Café Moment bombing. He received 54 life sentences for that series.[6] Palestinian Media Watch identifies Abdallah Barghouti as the person who prepared the explosives used in the attack.[1]

Shortly before 22:30 on Saturday, March 9, 2002, the suicide bomber entered the busy café, crossed its crowded courtyard, and detonated at the building's entrance.[3][2] The explosive device contained nails and similar fragmentation material.[7] Hamas claimed responsibility in a statement sent about an hour after the explosion, while Palestinian Media Watch identifies the Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades as the responsible Hamas military wing.[1][3]

The blast killed 11 people, all between 22 and 31 years old: Limor Ben-Shoham, Nir Borochov, Danit Dagan, Livnat Dvash, Tali Eliyahu, Uri Felix, Dan Imani, Natanel Kochavi, Baruch Lerner, Orit Ozerov, and Avraham Haim Rahamim.[2] One of the wounded was a United States citizen.[8]

A Maariv account reports that Limor Ben-Shoham's brother telephoned her after hearing warnings about Jerusalem that night and urged her to leave immediately. She told him she was about to go but was killed in the explosion moments later.[9] Survivor Sharona Brashi recalled asking a security guard to check everyone entering the café. She briefly stepped away to make a telephone call, during which her friend Orit Ozerov moved to her seat. Brashi later said she believed she would have been sitting where the blast struck had she not moved.[10]

The bombing occurred while a large Peace Now demonstration was taking place nearby.[9] On the following morning, 26 injured people remained hospitalized in Jerusalem, five of them in serious condition.[3]

By the evening after the bombing, most of the broken glass and debris had been cleared from the site, and by the following morning the blood had been washed away.[11] The location became a makeshift memorial, with dozens of yahrzeit candles and bouquets of flowers. By the next day it was also the site of opposing political demonstrations: Peace Now called for unilateral withdrawal from the territories, while right-wing demonstrators demanded that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon adopt a tougher response to terrorism.[11]

Café Moment reopened three months after the attack.[12] An account quoted by HonestReporting called the gathering on reopening day "a robust show of survival" and said someone described it as "non-violent revenge."[7] Survivor Joseph Cohen, 50, had spent two months recuperating in hospital. He was left partially blind and had pitted scars on his back from nails in the bomb, yet returned to the café every day for a drink.[7]

Despite the symbolic reopening, the café's owner later said debts had accumulated from the day of the attack. The venue closed permanently about two and a half years after the bombing, which Ynet reported had changed the leisure habits of Jerusalem residents and other Israelis.[12] During later redevelopment, a memorial plaque bearing the victims' names was preserved and installed at a new location near the building's entrance.[13]

In 2012, a military court at Ofer convicted Ibrahim Hamed of responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks in which 46 Israelis were murdered, including the Café Moment bombing, and of eight counts involving attempted homicide. He was sentenced to 54 life terms for the wider series.[6] Hamed's lawyer stated that the prosecution lacked evidence and that Hamed did not recognize the Israeli court's authority to hear the charges.[14]

Wael Qassem was reported to have received 35 life sentences for involvement in the Café Moment bombing and the 2002 attacks at the Sheffield Club and Hebrew University.[15] Walid Anajas, identified as having taken part in the Café Moment bombing, received 36 life sentences and was later released into exile in a prisoner exchange.[16] The U.S. Department of Justice lists the incident as the "March 9, 2002 Suicide Bombing at Moment Café in Jerusalem" among cases involving American victims of overseas terrorism.[17]

Sources consistently report 11 people killed but differ on the number wounded. The U.S. State Department reported 52 wounded, including one U.S. citizen.[8] Palestinian Media Watch and a later N12 account reported 54.[1][10] Ynet reported 58, while Maariv gave a total of 64.[4][9] A contemporaneous Ynet report separately recorded that 26 injured people remained hospitalized the following morning; this was not presented as the final casualty total.[3]

Sources also differ over the claim of responsibility. Hamas claimed the bombing in a statement sent about an hour after the explosion, and Palestinian Media Watch identifies its Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades as responsible.[1][3] A U.S. State Department chronology instead recorded that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed responsibility, attributing the information to media and U.S. Embassy reporting.[8]

The Department of Justice and Palestinian Media Watch date the bombing to March 9, 2002.[17][1] A later Ynetnews retrospective listed it as March 10.[5] An April 17, 2002 Congressional Record floor statement also incorrectly said the Jerusalem café attack took place in Ramallah and gave a figure of 50 wounded.[18] Those details conflict with the Justice Department's placement of the bombing in Jerusalem and the State Department's figure of 52 wounded.[17][8]