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Did Baruch Goldstein act alone? Eyewitnesses afterwards spoke of seeing another man, also dressed as a soldier, handing him ammunition
ALTHOUGH they did not learn his name until Friday, the figure of Baruch Goldstein had long been familiar to the Palestinian storekeepers on the Jerusalem road out of Hebron. Once and sometimes twice a day, Goldstein's big Peugeot station-wagon would swing out of the gates of Kiryat Arba, the Jewish enclave where he lived, and head out along this main thoroughfare "as if on parade - just to show us he was there", as Issam Ramseh put it yesterday.
Mr Ramseh owns a car paint shop, and, like most other local traders, often has little to do but watch the wacky world of Hebron go by. The tip of an Uzi sub-machine-gun would always be sticking out of Goldstein's open car window as he cruised the streets, and a large Star of David flag flew from the roof.
He liked to drive slowly, hooting at Palestinian drivers and making eye-contact with those on the street. "We get to know the settlers well - some would just drive past fast, but some obviously want to make trouble. I saw him two days before the massacre, so when they showed his face on television I recognised him straight away," Mr Ramseh said.
Goldstein's name now goes down in the annals of Hebron's bloody history. Until Friday "the Hebron massacre" was a reference to the killing by Arabs of 69 Jews in 1929. Goldstein avenged this on Friday morning with his own "Hebron massacre", killing at least 48 Palestinians as they prayed in the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
Hebron sprawls over the Judean hills just 15 miles from Jerusalem. It is a dingy town, and only the Tomb gives it any distinction. According to the Jews the site is theirs - Genesis states that Abraham bought this piece of land for 400 shekels. He and his wife Sarah are buried here, along with Jacob and his wife Leah, and Isaac and his wife Rebecca.
The Muslims, however, also revere the patriarchs, and since Saladin defeated the Crusaders 800 years ago, the building has been a mosque. Until Israel seized the occupied territories from Jordan in 1967, Jews...