Israel has secretly buried Palestinian suicide bombers in cemetery plots throughout Israel, a government official admitted Monday.
The statement was made after residents of the northern cooperative community of Kibbutz Revadim, 25 miles south of Tel Aviv, discovered that six terrorists had been buried in a cemetery the kibbutz leased out several years ago for the burial of non-Jewish residents of Israel.
Officials are now trying to find and exhume the 67 other suicide bombers buried throughout the country, said Yoel Lipschitz, legal adviser to Israel's Health Ministry. The army will be responsible for burying all suicide bombers in special designated cemeteries.
Among those buried at Kibbutz Revadim was the female Palestinian suicide bomber who killed three Israelis at the entrance to a shopping mall in the northern city of Afula as well as two terrorists who blew themselves up in Jerusalem.
"We did not want suicide bombers buried near our old timers," said Netai Keren, the secretary-general of Kibbutz Revadim. "Our cemetery is full of soldiers who fell in Israel’s wars. It is outrageous that the state of Israel buried these corpses under our noses without any regard to our sensitivities."
“Concerned that returning the bodies of suicide bombers to their families would further increase the terrorists’ celebrity and lead to festive funerals, Israel has refused to hand over the remains,” Lipschitz said. Instead, Israel buries the bombers, who have killed hundreds of Israelis over the course of the Oslo War, anonymously in plots throughout Israel.
The bodies were exhumed in November after Revadim residents threatened to dig them up themselves and lay them out on the highway.
Lipschitz issued an apology on behalf of the government, saying that the failure to inform the kibbutz about the burials had been a grave mistake, but the situation was being rectified.
The statement was made after residents of the northern cooperative community of Kibbutz Revadim, 25 miles south of Tel Aviv, discovered that six terrorists had been buried in a cemetery the kibbutz leased out several years ago for the burial of non-Jewish residents of Israel.
Officials are now trying to find and exhume the 67 other suicide bombers buried throughout the country, said Yoel Lipschitz, legal adviser to Israel's Health Ministry. The army will be responsible for burying all suicide bombers in special designated cemeteries.
Among those buried at Kibbutz Revadim was the female Palestinian suicide bomber who killed three Israelis at the entrance to a shopping mall in the northern city of Afula as well as two terrorists who blew themselves up in Jerusalem.
"We did not want suicide bombers buried near our old timers," said Netai Keren, the secretary-general of Kibbutz Revadim. "Our cemetery is full of soldiers who fell in Israel’s wars. It is outrageous that the state of Israel buried these corpses under our noses without any regard to our sensitivities."
“Concerned that returning the bodies of suicide bombers to their families would further increase the terrorists’ celebrity and lead to festive funerals, Israel has refused to hand over the remains,” Lipschitz said. Instead, Israel buries the bombers, who have killed hundreds of Israelis over the course of the Oslo War, anonymously in plots throughout Israel.
The bodies were exhumed in November after Revadim residents threatened to dig them up themselves and lay them out on the highway.
Lipschitz issued an apology on behalf of the government, saying that the failure to inform the kibbutz about the burials had been a grave mistake, but the situation was being rectified.