ALA Council and Dina Carter

Five years ago today, nine people were killed when a bomb exploded in the cafeteria of the Mount Scopus Campus of Hebrew University, Jerusalem. At least three of the dead were Americans. One of them was a woman named Dina Carter, and she was a librarian.

At ALA's 2003 Midwinter meeting, ALA Council passed a resolution honoring the memory of Dina Carter. You can read it for yourself here. That they should pass a memorial resolution for Ms. Carter is entirely appropriate. Unfortunately, the resolution they actually passed is a case study in moral cowardice. If I may quote the following passages:

Whereas, ALA condemns the violence that resulted in the loss of Dina Carter's life; and

Whereas, ALA abhors the loss of all innocent lives, including Dina Carter's, during the recent conflict in the region; now therefore, be it


The "violence that resulted in the loss of Dina Carter's life"? The phrase virtually drips with nauseating equivocation. You would think Ms. Carter had died as a result of some unfortunate act of nature, independent of all human will and action. You would, of course, be wrong. Please allow me to fill in the gaps.

The Hebrew University bomb was the handiwork of a Palestinian terror cell belonging to Hamas. Overall, the cell managed to murder 35 people before being apprehended. Far from expressing any regrets over the loss of life he caused, the cell's leader actually wrote a bomb-making manual called The Engineers of Death, which was smuggled out of prison and is now being sold in Palestinian bookshops.

Of course, the Hebrew University atrocity is just one of many committed by Hamas. According to the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base, 85% of Hamas' attacks have been against "Private Citizens & Property". An offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas' Islamist agenda is spelled out in its 1988 covenant. The covenant declares that all of Palestine will be made into an Islamist state, governed by Sharia law. The fact that the covenant cites the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a source (see Article 32) should tell you all need to know about the fate of Israeli Jews if Hamas gets its way.

In short, Dina Carter did not die because of nameless, impersonal violence. She was murdered, in an inexcusable act of terrorism perpetrated by an Islamist organization. An organization committed to the destruction of the nation where Ms. Carter lived and worked, that has tried to ban books from libraries, and uses lovable cartoon characters to indoctrinate children with its message of hatred and fanaticism.

Regardless of one's position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is no cause that justifies planting a bomb in a university cafeteria, and no moral or logical way to justify such an act as legitimate resistance. ALA Council has had no problem condemning the actions of the US government, but yet it couldn't bring itself to condemn a terrorist attack on a university campus that claimed the life of a librarian, nor even mention the name of the Islamist terror organization that carried it out. Instead, Council did nothing but issue a resolution that is a textbook example of politically correct nonsense.