| Assassination of Meir Kahane | |
|---|---|
 The monument built in memory ofMeir Kahane, in Kahane Park, in theIsraeli settlement ofKiryat Arba, in theWest Bank | |
 Interactive map of Assassination of Meir Kahane | |
| Location | 40°45′20″N73°58′22″W / 40.75556°N 73.97278°W /40.75556; -73.97278 525 Lexington Avenue New York Marriott East Side,New York City, U.S. |
| Date | 5 November 1990 (18 Cheshvan 5751) Shortly after 9:00 p.m. (EST) |
| Target | Meir Kahane |
Attack type | terrorist attack |
| Weapons | .357-caliber pistol[1] |
| Deaths | 1 (Meir Kahane) |
| Injured | 3 (1 bystander, 1 police officer, the perpetrator) |
| Perpetrator | El Sayyid Nosair |
| Motive | Islamic extremism |
Meir Kahane, anIsraeli American rabbi, ultranationalist politician and convicted domestic terrorist,[2] was assassinated byEl Sayyid Nosair on 5 November 1990 at theNew York Marriott East Side hotel inManhattan, New York City.
On the evening of 5 November 1990, Kahane gave a speech in the second-floor lecture hall of theNew York Marriott East Side hotel, inManhattan, at 525 Lexington Avenue, to an audience, most of whom wereOrthodox Jews. After his speech, a crowd of well-wishers gathered around Kahane as he answered questions. Shortly after 9:00 p.m., a man disguised as an Orthodox Jew approached Kahane and shot him from close range with a.357-caliber pistol.[1] Kahane was hit in the neck by the gunfire and died of his wounds shortly thereafter.[3][4][5]
After shooting Kahane, the assassin fled from the hotel and reachedLexington Avenue, where, in front of a post office, he attempted to take over a taxi at gunpoint. Carlos Acosta, an on-duty postal police officer, drew his pistol and ordered the assassin to freeze.[1] Instead, the assassin turned toward the officer and shot and hit him in the chest. The officer returned fire, hitting the assassin in the chin. Afterwards, the officer arrested the man. Born inEgypt, he was American citizen El Sayyid Nosair, who had been living inJersey City, New Jersey.[1]
At the time, Nosair's assassination of Kahane was categorized as anantisemitichate crime. In subsequent years, Nosair's actions have been re-evaluated as an early example ofIslamic terrorism in the United States.[6][7][8]
Nosair was charged with the murder of Kahane. During the legal proceedings, Nosair denied all charges against him. Although there were witnesses who identified Nosair as the assassin, Nosair was not convicted of Kahane's assassination, in part because Kahane's family had opposed the performing of an autopsy after the assassination and the extracting of the bullets. However, Nosair was convicted of assault, possession of an illegal firearm, and of shooting aUnited States Postal Inspection Service agent. Nosair was sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment, the maximum allowed.[9]
Nosair was to serve his sentence atAttica Correctional Facility, in New York. In 1993, the "Blind Sheikh,"Omar Abdel-Rahman, was arrested in New York. An investigation later revealed that a terrorist cell, led by Abdel-Rahman, conducted detailed surveillance of Attica facilities and that it had discussed plans to use atruck bomb attack, combined with an armed assault, to rescue Nosair from prison.[10][11]
Several years after the1993 World Trade Center bombing, Nosair made a confession to federal agents of assassinating Kahane.[12]
In August 2010, the Israeli newspaperThe Jerusalem Post, which, in turn, quoted from the mid-August issue ofPlayboy, claimed that Nosair had two partners and that his original target was Israeli military figure and futureIsraeli Prime MinisterAriel Sharon. "He added that on the night he shot Kahane dead, he was accompanied by two co-conspirators to the Marriot Hotel in Manhattan where Kahane was speaking – one of whom was also carrying a gun. The men, Bilal al-Kaisi of Jordan andMohammed A. Salameh, a Palestinian illegal alien later involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, have never been charged for their part in the slaying."[12]
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