I just received this from a subscriber to the Winipeg Jewish Review today October 12, --I will update the story in due course:
Rhonda,
Don’t know if you know…Washington Post is reporting that one of those being released for Gilad Shalit is a terrorist named Ghanayem who perpetrated the Bus 405 attack in which Winnipeger (and dear friend and classmate of mine) Fern Shawna Rykiss z’l was murdered after our Grade 12 trip from Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate…
Jeremy Feuer, Winnipeg
Update: Ha'aretz and the Washington Post have both reported that the perpetrator of the Bus 405 attack will be part of the prisoner release in exchange for Gilad Shalithttp://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/shin-bet-chief-israel-got-best-security-terms-possible-in-shalit-swap-deal-1.389551
The Tel Aviv-Jerusalem bus 405 attack was a suicide attack which was carried out on July 6, 1989 by Abd al-Hadi Ghanayem, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member, on a crowded Egged commuter bus line No. 405 en route from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. Ghanayem seized the steering wheel of the bus from the driver and pulled the bus over a steep precipice into a ravine in the area of Qiryat Ye'arim. Sixteen civilians were killed in the attack—including Winnipeg's Fern Shauna Rykiss who was 17 years old at the time, and had gone to Israel with the rest of her graduating grade 12 class from Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate.
The attack is regarded as the first Palestinian suicide attack despite its perpetrator was not wearing a suicide belt as in later attacks, a common tactic during the Second Intifada. Jeremy Fueuer remembers the tragedy of that fateful day. When asked how he felt on hearing of the news of Ghanayem's release in the Shalit deal:
" Fern was murdered just before noon outside N’eve Ilan on the road to Jerusalem. We had just finished our JWC Grade 12 trip; Our trip ended on July 2nd; and there were four of us, including Fern and I, staying at a hostel in Jerusalem for a few days. I went to Rishon LeZion on the 4th or 5th to stay with relatives. When Bus 405 happened on the 6th the whole country was shocked. My relatives begged me to call my parents and tell them I was ok… at first I resisted but I finally relented. Tamar Amihude called me on the morning of the 7th to say that Fern had been identified as one of the victims. Those of us still in Israel met at a hostel on Ben Yehuda in Tel Aviv and then attended an official Israeli government memorial to Fern before her casket was loaded on a plane for burial in Winnipeg.
When asked how he felt on hearing of the news of Ghanayem's release in the Shalit deal, Feuer responded:
"I am happy for Gilad Shalit and his parents certainly do deserve a night’s rest after years of living with this nightmare. However the terrorist who committed the atrocity on Bus 405 has shown no remorse. He received multiple life sentences for murder. Although there is no capital punishment in Israel, I regret that he wasn’t executed years ago…"
According to the Ha'aretz report Ghanayem will not be able to return to theWest Bank and will be deported to the Gaza Strip or abroad
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