Six more Arabs from the administered territories were arraigned in magistrates court here Monday in connection with Saturday’s Tel Aviv beach bombing in which a young Canadian tourist was killed.
Two 17-year-old Arabs, also from the territories, were remanded to custody in juvenile court Sunday.
The eight were detained out of dozens of suspects questioned, after a magistrate decided their alibis did not conform to the evidence of eyewitnesses who were on the crowded beach at the time a concealed pipe bomb exploded.
In addition to the fatality, 18 people were injured, none seriously.
The body of the victim, 17-year-old Marnie Kimmelman of Willowdale, Ontario, a Toronto suburb, was flown home Sunday night for burial.
She had been one of 80 Canadian students between the ages of 18 and 21 who were on a six-week tour of Israel sponsored by the Canadian Zionist Federation.
Most are from the Toronto and Montreal areas. They left Canada June 25 and were to return Aug. 8.
About 20 members of Kimmelman’s group flew home Sunday. Some wanted to attend the funeral, while others said they could not continue their tour. But most of the group remained in Israel, explaining, “That is what Marnie would have wanted.”
Psychologists accompanying the students recommended that they remain together for the duration of the trip.
The bereaved parents, Dr. Harold and Linda Kimmelman, intended to fly to Israel when they learned their daughter was wounded. They canceled when told Sunday night that she had died.
The World Zionist Organization Executive issued a statement of condolences to the family Monday.
Meir Shetreet, acting WZO chairman, expressed hope that Marnie Kimmelman’s tragic death would not deter young Jews from coming to Israel.
The International Organization of Victims of Arab Terror blamed the Israeli government for the attack, because it refuses to implement the death penalty against terrorists.
Moreover, the organization noted, the government has released Arab prisoners as a gesture of goodwill, which, it claimed, serves to further terrorism and create the impression that Israel is weak.
The organization consists of some 200 families who have lost a loved one to terrorist acts.
Friends, neighbors and teachers of Marnie Kimmelman described her as “a vivacious social person” who “stood out” in both academic and sporting activities at York Mills Collegiate High School, where she was a student.
She was the second Canadian teen-ager to fall victim in little over a year, and the third Canadian.
Fern Rykiss, 17, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Shelley Halpenny, 33, of Vancouver, British Columbia, were killed in July 1989, when an Arab terrorist grabbed the wheel of a Tel Aviv-Jerusalem bus, plunging it off the highway into a ravine, where it burst into flames.
Canadian Jewish leaders are urging External Affairs Minister Joe Clark to suspend all Canadian contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Clark declared in a statement issued Saturday that “Canada is shocked and angered at this vicious act of terrorism perpetrated on innocent victims.”
Ian Kagedon, government relations director of B’nai Brith Canada, said that whether or not the PLO takes responsibility for the bombing, it is ultimately behind it.
“I think swift action renouncing our relations will send a message,” he said.
Les Scheininger, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said “It is now time for the government of Canada to put some tough questions to the PLO.”
“If the PLO or any of its affiliates are shown to have committed this heinous act, Canada should immediately cut off all contacts with them once and for all,” Scheininger said.
(JTA correspondents Gil Sedan in Jerusalem and Ben Kayfetz in Toronto contributed to this report.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
