SUICIDE BOMBING IN TEL AVIV IS HORRIFIC WARNING THAT ABBAS WILL HAVE TO SHUT DOWN TERRORISTS OR THERE WILL NEVER BE PEACE

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is condemning tonight’s suicide bombing of The Stage nightclub in Tel Aviv. The terrorist organizations Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have claimed responsibility.

“Once again the innocent blood of Israelis has been spilled and dozens of people maimed by a suicide bomber dispatched by the Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade Palestinian terrorist organizations,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, the Founder and Dean and Associate Dean of the Center, respectively. “The brutal attack comes the very week Israel released 500 Palestinians implicated in earlier attacks and hours after a demonstration by Hamas in Gaza demanding the release of other terrorists from Israeli custody,” they added.

"Today’s attack makes brutally clear, yet again that unless and until the Palestinian Authority shuts down terrorist groups there will never be peace in the holy land. If President Abbas cannot or will not do what has to be done to end terror, Israel will exercise its right and obligation to do so itself,” Hier and Cooper concluded.

In the past year, the Wiesenthal Center has spearheaded a campaign to have suicide bombings declared a ‘crime against humanity.’  The goal of the campaign is to create a legal tool for victims to go after sponsors and those who inspire this deadly culture of mass murder worldwide. To this end, Center officials have brought the initiative to EU head Javier Solana, His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdallah Gul, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and diplomats from 20 other countries.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, or visit www.wiesenthal.com.