Foundation Laid for Memorial Paying Tribute to Victims of 1994 Panama Plane Bombing Perpetrated by Hezbollah

A ceremony was held earlier this month in Panama City, Panama, at which the foundation was laid for a memorial monument paying tribute to the victims of the 1994 bombing of Alas Chiricanas Flight 901.

A video of the ceremony, which was held on the 29th anniversary of the bombing and organized by B’nai B’rith Panama’s CAD Anti-Defamation Commission, can be viewed here.

All 21 people on board Alas Chiricanas Flight 901, including 12 members of Panama’s Jewish community, were killed when the Panama City-bound Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante exploded shortly following takeoff from Colón on the evening of July 19, 1994.

While the case has never been officially solved, authorities in Panama, the United States, and Israel consider the bombing to have been an act of terrorism, and the leading theory is that it was perpetrated by a Hezbollah suicide bomber.

The Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 bombing occurred just a day after a bomb-laden van was driven into the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 85 people, the worst terrorist attack in Latin American history, and also carried out by Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The “Living Conscience” memorial monument being built on Panama City’s Cinta Costa II seaside thoroughfare is a creation of well-known Panamanian artist Olga Sinclair.

Among the dignitaries in attendance at the foundation-laying ceremony on July 19 were leaders of Panama’s Jewish community and Israeli Ambassador to Panama Itai Bardov.

Embajador @ItaiBardov participa junto a la Comunidad Judía en la puesta de la primera piedra del monumento “Conciencia Viva” que estará ubicado en la Cinta Costera, como una respuesta al atentado terrorista perpetrado por Hezbollah en 1994 en #Panamá. pic.twitter.com/jsCcT5INr9

— Israel in Panama (@IsraelinPanama) July 19, 2023

The names of the victims of Alas Chiricanas Flight 901 were:

– Albert Aboud Attie
– Emmanuel Attie
– Jorge Luis Avila
– Martín Bim
– Salomón Chocrón
– Edmundo Delgado
– Omar Jean Francois
– Rani Gabay
– Joseph Gershon
– José Antonio González
– Isaac Harrouche
– Mauricio Harrouche
– Freddy Moadeb
– Vincent Pantaleo
– Moshe Pardo
– Lizzie de Phillips
– Jaica Rascovsky Yaker
– Saúl Schwartz
– James Ward Cain
– Miguel Zubieta