Jerusalem, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) said Tuesday, September 10.
With the Jewish New Year barely underway, the three men reportedly planned to poison patrons at the Rimon Café, just off the Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall in central Jerusalem.
The ICEJ News Service said the suspects had also been in contact with an explosives expert from Hamas, with whom they planned a suicide bombing against a right-wing Jewish movement.
Israeli media reports said the assistant cook at the café contacted Hamas after Israel killed the militant group’s military chief Salah Shehadeh and a large number of civilians in Gaza at the end of July.
WAGE INCREASE
One of the arrested men, the only one not to be charged so far, had worked in the café for three years. One of the café owners described him as a good worker and stressed the two had recently discussed a wage increase.
"I have just had the shock of my life," the ICEJ News Service quoted co-owner Yosef Rimon as saying. The plan to poison the diners apparently involved dissolving odorless and tasteless muscle relaxant in drinks.
The drugs bought at a Jerusalem pharmacy and, when taken in lethal doses, cause what appears to be heart attacks, the ICEJ News Service said. There was no reaction from Palestinian officials, but several Arabs expressed concern they may be stigmatized.
PALESTINIAN FOOD
Moshe Nuriel, the owner of a Jerusalem restaurant, said that Jewish people never feared food from Palestinians. "This (poisoning) has never happened," he was quoted as saying. "I have had Arab employees for 15 or 20 years. They always came to work and they always worked in the kitchen with my relatives. God forbid that because of one incident, we should harm them all…"
Nuriel stressed he hopes "they won’t make a big deal out of this story, because that would unfairly hurt the Arabs." Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert was disappointed with the latest involvement of Jerusalem Arabs in terrorism.
"It is true that I had hoped that Jerusalem residents would not become involved in terrorist activities, and I am deeply disappointed that they have," he said.
ALLEGED EXTREMISTS
The latest developments came as Israel continued its military crack down against alleged extremists in other area’s. Israeli officials said a wanted Palestinian was killed and a number were wounded, while two suicide bombers died before they got to their target.
As the fighting continued, the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Tuesday, September 10, that it is officially opposed to terrorist attacks against civilian targets
inside sovereign Israel.
However Israel analysts point out that the group still backs continued violence against Israeli civilian and military targets inside the territories, which is interpreted to include anyone entering the Old City and eastern Jerusalem.
NEW YEAR
There were signs that the Jewish people would not face a happy New Year, Tuesday, September 10. On the eve of the first anniversary of the attacks of September 11, a booklet anticipating the destruction of the United States by 2004 has become a best seller in the Palestinian areas, the ICEJ News Service reported.
The booklet reportedly compares today’s geo-political reality with that of ancient Egypt in the time of Moses, who the Bible says lead the Jewish people to the Promised Land. Among other methods, the booklet is turning to the Koran to see the physical similarities between the Hebrew deliverer Moses and Osama bin Laden.
"Both are described as being tall, dark, and having an aquiline nose. Like Moses, bin Laden is said to use a stick to lean on while walking, and to belong to the same tribe from the Arabian Peninsula," ICEJ observers said.
The booklet also notes "striking similarities" between the US administration and "the corrupt Pharaoh who oppressed the believers and enslaved them."
