![Inscription_on_the_Dolphinarium_Massacre_memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Inscription_on_the_Dolphinarium_Massacre_memorial.JPG)
On 1 June 2001, a
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
-affiliated
Islamist terrorist blew himself up outside the Dolphinarium discotheque on the beachfront in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, killing 21 Israelis, 16 of whom were teenagers. The majority of the victims were Israeli teenage girls, whose families had
recently immigrated from the former Soviet Union.
Attack
Suicide bomber Saeed Hotari was standing in line on a Friday night in front of the Dolphinarium, when the area was packed with teenagers. Most of the crowd were young people from
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
-speaking families from the former Soviet Union, who were waiting for admission to a dance party at the Dolphin disco, and others were in line to enter the adjacent
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
.
Survivors of the attack later described how the young Palestinian bomber appeared to taunt his victims before the explosion, wandering among them dressed in a disguise that led his victims to mistake him for an
Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
from Asia. Before detonating his bomb, he banged a drum packed with explosives and ball-bearings, while taunting his victims in Hebrew with the words "Something's going to happen". At 23:27, he detonated his explosive device. Witnesses claimed that body parts lay all over the area, and that bodies were piled one above another on the sidewalk before being collected. Many civilians in the vicinity of the bombing rushed to assist emergency services.
The suicide bombing followed a failed attack attempt on the same target five months earlier.
Perpetrators
Both
Islamic Jihad and a group calling itself "Hezbollah-Palestine" originally claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, only to later retract the claims. Later on it was revealed that the attack was carried out by Saeed Hotari, aged 22, a militant allegedly linked to the Palestinian Islamist militant group
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
.
Official reactions
Israeli officials called the attack a "massacre". President of the Palestinian Authority
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
condemned the attack and called for a cease-fire.
UN Secretary-General
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
The role of the secretary-ge ...
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder ...
stated that he "condemns this indiscriminate terrorist attack in the strongest possible terms." and that the attack "underlines the urgency of breaking the cycle of violence." The Kuwaiti Foreign Minister and acting Premier
Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah
Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah ( ar, الشيخ صباح الأحمد الجابر الصباح, translit=ash-Shaykh Sabāh al-ʾAḥmad al-Jābir aṣ-Ṣabāḥ; 16 June 192929 September 2020) was the Emir of Kuwait and Commander of the Kuwa ...
stated that he does not support Palestinian suicide bombings against civilians.
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
stated that he condemns the attack in the strongest terms and that "There is no justification for senseless attacks against innocent civilians."
Aftermath
After the attack many in the Israeli public demanded a harsh military retaliation; nevertheless, Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon (; ; ; also known by his diminutive Arik, , born Ariel Scheinermann, ; 26 February 1928 – 11 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006.
S ...
decided to not take any immediate retaliatory actions. U.S. and other governments applied heavy diplomatic pressure on Israel to refrain from action.
[Deborah Sontag, "Arafat Calls for Cease-Fire, Deploring Tel Aviv Attack", '']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 3 June 2001. Nevertheless, the attack was later on noted as one of the reasons cited by the Israeli government for building the
Israeli West Bank barrier
The Israeli West Bank barrier, comprising the West Bank Wall and the West Bank fence, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. It is a contentious element of the Israeli–Palestinian c ...
.
In
Ramallah
Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...
dozens of Palestinians celebrated in the streets and
fired in the air as a sign of celebration.
The bomber, Saeed Hotari, was praised as a
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
by his father.
U.S. President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
demanded that
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
condemn the terrorist act, which he did. The next day, Israeli-Arabs barricaded themselves in the
Hassan Bek Mosque
The Hassan Bek Mosque ( ar, مسجد حسن بك; he, מסגד חסן בק; tr, Hasan Bek Camii), also known as the Hasan Bey Mosque, is one of the most well-known mosques of Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel.
The mosque was built in 1916 at the nor ...
opposite the Dolphinarium site and threw objects at the police.
According to the
Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), also known as Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in honor of Meir Amit, is an Israeli-based research group with ties to the Israel Defense Forces and support from the ...
, an Israeli-based organization with close ties to the
IDF
IDF or idf may refer to:
Defence forces
* Irish Defence Forces
* Israel Defense Forces
*Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006
* Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917
Organizations
* Israeli Diving Federation
* Interac ...
, among the materials seized by the
IDF
IDF or idf may refer to:
Defence forces
* Irish Defence Forces
* Israel Defense Forces
*Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006
* Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917
Organizations
* Israeli Diving Federation
* Interac ...
in the course of
Operation Defensive Shield
Operation "Defensive Shield" ( he, מִבְצָע חוֹמַת מָגֵן, ''Mivtza Homat Magen'', literally "Operation Shield Wall") was a large-scale military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces in 2002 during the Second Intifada ...
were two documents issued by the Martyrs' Families and Injured Care Establishment, which is under the authority of the
Palestinian National Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine, 's Ministry of Social Affairs. The documents detail the transfer of US$2,000 to the father of the suicide bomber, who was living in Jordan at that time (18 June 2001). According to the
Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), also known as Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in honor of Meir Amit, is an Israeli-based research group with ties to the Israel Defense Forces and support from the ...
, the transfer was made despite the suicide bomber's Hamas affiliation, despite the father's public support of the suicide bombing attack, and despite Arafat's public condemnation of the bombing.
Dolphinarium site
![DolphinariumNightClub](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/DolphinariumNightClub.2012.04.16.jpg)
Opened in 1981, the Dolphinarium was originally a mixed-use entertainment venue with the main attraction being shows of captive dolphins. The project was the initiative of architect
Nahum Zolotov
Nahum Zolotov ( he, נחום זולוטוב; November 17, 1926 - May 15, 2014) was an Israeli architect and a recipient of the Rokach Prize in 1961 and in 1973. He was a recipient of the Rechter Prize.
Biography
Zolotov was born in 1926 in th ...
, who came up with the idea of a dolphin show in Tel Aviv and lined up Israeli businessmen and South African investors in support of his plan. The business ran into financial trouble after the South African investors were found to be using it as a money laundering operation and forced to leave the project. Without their financial support, the cost of running the expensive dolphin shows proved to be unsustainable and the business closed in 1985. The building was then used by a succession of businesses including nightclubs, movie theaters, catering halls, and sport shops, but with limited success. By 1993, the municipality was looking to demolish the structure. After the bombing, the Dolphinarium discotheque was abandoned and ended up being covered with
graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
. Its final use was as a surfing school. The building remained on the Tel Aviv beachfront until its demolition in May 2018.
For many years, the victims' families campaigned to permanently preserve the ruined building as a monument to the attack. Eventually, the building was demolished in order to extend the promenade along the coast. Memorial services to the victims of the attack were held every year at the site by friends and family of the victims.
14 лет со дня чудовищного теракта в тель-авивском "Дольфи"
01.06.2015 22:41, 9tv.co.il
See also
* Civilian casualties in the Second Intifada
The following is a partial list of civilian casualties in the Second Intifada. In the ten years from 2000-2010, of 6371 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, at least 2996 did not participate in hostilities when killed, and 1317 were minors. Of 1 ...
* Shevah Mofet
Shevah Mofet ( he, שבח מופת; russian: Шевах-Мофет), also transliterated Shevach Moffet, is a junior and high school on HaMasger Street in Tel Aviv, Israel. It was established in 1946 as a vocational school. Since the 1990s, new pr ...
– high school in Tel Aviv where seven of the killed teenagers and many of the injured studied
* Israeli casualties of war
Israeli casualties of war, in addition to those of Israel's nine major wars, include 9,745 soldiers and security forces personnel killed in "miscellaneous engagements and terrorist attacks", which includes security forces members killed durin ...
* Palestinian political violence
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence perpetrated for political ends in relation to the State of Palestine or in connection with Palestinian nationalism. Common political objectives include self-determination in and soverei ...
References
External links
Tel-Aviv suicide bombing at the Dolphin disco
Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs; accessed 2 September 2015
At Least 17 Dead In Tel Aviv Suicide Bombing
''Times Daily
The ''TimesDaily'' is the daily newspaper for Florence, Alabama. ''The TimesDaily'' covers a four-county region in Alabama including Lauderdale, Colbert, Franklin, and Lawrence counties, as well as portions of southern Tennessee and northeast ...
'', 2 June 2001
At Least 17 Dead, 86 Wounded In Tel Aviv Beachfront Bombing
''The Item
''The Item'', formerly known as ''The Sumter Daily Item'' and ''The Daily Item'', is an independent, morning newspaper published in Sumter, South Carolina five days a week, Tuesday to Friday with a "Weekend Edition" delivered on Saturday morning ...
'', 2 June 2001
Eyewitness accounts from the scene of the massacre
Ynet
Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...
, 2 June 2001 (Hebrew)
Inside the mind of a suicide bomber
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, 6 December 2001
Devotion, desire drive youths to 'martyrdom'
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
; 26 June 2001
Driver of the Dolphinarium attack terrorist – charged with homicide
Ynet
Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...
, 10 July 10, 2001 (in Hebrew)
{{Club fires
Suicide bombings in 2001
Terrorist incidents in Israel in 2001
Massacres in 2001
Israeli casualties in the Second Intifada
Massacres in Israel during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Hamas suicide bombings
Terrorist incidents in Tel Aviv
2000s crimes in Tel Aviv
Attacks on music venues
Attacks on nightclubs
June 2001 events in Asia
June 2001 crimes
Murdered Israeli children
Building bombings in Israel
Islamic terrorism in Israel