Eden Natan-Zada

Eden Natan-Zada (עדן נתן-זדה, born 9 July 1986, died 4 August 2005) was an Israeli deserter soldier who opened fire in a bus in Shefa-Amr in northern Israel on 4 August 2005, killing four Arab citizens of Israel and wounding twelve others.

He was restrained, disarmed and cuffed when he tried to reload to prepare for another round of shooting.

After he was restrained and handcuffed, he was beaten to death by the crowd, as recorded on video.

It has been inferred that the shooting was a personal protest against the Israeli government's disengagement plan, since an orange ribbon was found attached to Natan-Zada's pocket (orange was an emblem color of anti-disengagement activism).

No group had taken credit for the terror attack and one official in the settler movement denounced it.

Natan-Zada was absent without leave and in hiding from the IDF at the time of the shooting.

He had recently become religious after getting involved with far-right activists.

Natan-Zada was born to an Israeli Jewish family that had immigrated to Israel from Iran and Yemen.

Natan-Zada's parents describe him as having been a "bright and studious Israeli schoolboy" prior to his becoming involved with the Jewish extremist Kahanism movement, to which he was introduced via the Internet.

He then began spending weekends in Kfar Tapuach, an Orthodox West Bank settlement.

During his national service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Natan-Zada deserted the army and hid in Kfar Tapuach to avoid further service.

According to Matthew Gutman of The Jerusalem Post, Kfar Tapuach "became the unofficial headquarters of the Jewish terrorist group Kahane Chai in 1990," but supporters deny the existence of a Kahane headquarters.

In a letter left behind after his desertion, Natan-Zada expressed dismay to his parents over the disengagement plan, saying "Just as I couldn't carry out an order that desecrates the Sabbath, I cannot be part of an organization that expels Jews."

He added the anti-pullout slogan "Jews don't expel Jews" to his letter, and concluded the message with the words: "I will consider how I will continue to serve."

His mother claims that prior to the shooting she alerted the IDF and other security services that her son was still in possession of his military-issued weapon.

"We told everyone he's AWOL, that he could do something with his gun. We begged them to take away his gun. He also asked them to take his gun. The army destroyed my child. The army destroyed my life."

According to The New Republic, an army psychiatrist warned that he wasn't fit for weapons or uniform, but his professional judgment was awaiting approval by a panel of medical experts.

A "former chief of staff of the IDF" had reportedly "speculated that the killer's parents might have a chance to win damages in court for neglect by the army of the welfare of their son."

Natan-Zada boarded the Shefa-'Amr-bound bus on Thursday, 4 August 2005.

He was dressed in full IDF uniform, carrying his IDF-issued M16 rifle, and, according to observers, wearing the skullcap, beard, and sidelocks of an observant Jew, as well as an orange ribbon hanging from his pocket.

According to witnesses, the bus driver was initially surprised to see a religiously observant Jewish soldier making his way to Shefa-'Amr (an overwhelmingly Arab city) via public bus, so he asked Natan-Zada if he was certain he wanted to take his current route.

Upon arriving in Shefa-'Amr's primary Druze neighborhood, Natan-Zada stood up and approached the front door as if to disembark the bus.

When the door opened, Natan-Zada turned around and shot the driver.

He then fatally shot a man sitting behind the driver, and fired into the rest of the bus, killing two young women and wounding twenty-one passengers.

When he paused to reload his weapon, a passenger grabbed the barrel of his gun, sustaining burn injuries, and he was subdued by streetgoers gathered around the scene of the bus shooting.

When the police arrived at the scene he was tied up but still alive, but the small force of police officers on the scene could not prevent the crowd from lynching him, and nine police officers were injured attempting to protect him.

It took the police four hours to remove his body from the scene.

The four victims were Hazar Turki and Dina Turki, two sisters in their early twenties, and two men, Michel Bahus (the driver) and Nader Hayek; all were Arab citizens of Israel.

The wounded were rushed to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.

In the days after the attack, 40,000 people attended a funeral service in honor of the victims in the town.

The two sisters were buried in an Islamic cemetery, and the two men in the local Christian cemetery.

In March 2010, a lawyer representing some of the lynch suspects discovered security forces aerial footage of the scene prior to, during and after Natan-Zada's attack and after the lynching of Natan-Zada and accused the Israeli government of prior knowledge of Natan-Zada's intentions.

At the time, the police denied it had aerial support and some have claimed a conspiracy theory that the government was trying to delegitimize the anti-disengagement movement by provoking an extremist act or setting up Natan-Zada.

Then Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon condemned Natan-Zada's actions unequivocally, calling them "a reprehensible act by a bloodthirsty Jewish terrorist," and "a deliberate attempt to harm the fabric of relations among all Israeli citizens."

Vice Premier Shimon Peres and Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz visited the bereaved families.

"Your pain is the pain of the entire State of Israel. We will not allow crazy men and terrorists to harm your life here," Peres told the families.

Sharon's government consistently referred to the shooting as "an act of terrorism," language usually reserved for Palestinian suicide bombers.

While the Israeli government and US Department of State both consider groups based on Kahanism to be terrorist organizations, Kahanist advocates insist their ideology only advocates the forced removal of Arabs from the Land of Israel, not murder.

The Israel Police opened a criminal investigation into Zada's lynching.

The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel called on the government to refrain from investigating the death of Eden Natan-Zada.