Bali bomber Umar Patek reveals ‘revenge’ for Israel sparked terror attack

Bali bomber Umar Patek singled out Australians in a new interview in which he revealed the motive for the 2002 terror attack which killed 202 people.

Bali bomber Umar Patek claims the 2002 terror attack that killed 202 people was motivated by the occupation of Palestine and singled out Australians as among those that “don’t want to forgive me”.

In a new interview with Al Jazeera, the now 57-year-old said Jemaah Islamiah (JI) wanted to get revenge for the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and were further motivated by Israel’s attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in April 2002.

More than 50 Palestinians were killed in that conflict, along with 23 Israeli soldiers.

After nine years on the run, Patek was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for his role in the Bali bombings, but he was released last December having served only 11 years in jail.

Umar Patek escorted by anti-terror police as he arrives at Bali Police Headquarters in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, in 2011.

The bombs he helped build killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, when they were detonated at two Kuta bars on October 12, 2002.

He said Bali bombing mastermind Imam Samudra “wanted revenge” after the battle of Jenin and devised the plot to “bomb Westerners in nightclubs in Bali”.

“I told them, if we wanted to get revenge for the atrocities committed against Muslims in Palestine, we should go to Palestine and not kill Westerners in Indonesia,” Al Jazeera quoted Patek as saying.

“I asked them, ‘What is the relationship between these people who will be victims and your motive of revenge for Muslims in Palestine?’”

Umar Patek during his trial at West Jakarta District Court in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2012.

Patek said he warned the JI leaders a one-tonne bomb would “explode everywhere” and “kill lots of other people who were not their target” but he felt “there was no way I could refuse”.

“Imam Samudra had locked the front door of the house so that no one could leave. So I did it, and made the last 50kg of the bomb,” he said.

Patek apologised to the families of victims upon his release from prison in December 2022, and singled out Australians as among those who don’t want to forgive him.

“Some people don’t want to meet me and don’t want to forgive me, like people from Australia. That is their right, but my responsibility as a Muslim, and someone who has done wrong, is to apologise. I don’t know if I will be forgiven, only God knows that,” he said.

“I feel I am a murderer and a sinner,” he said, according to Al Jazeera.

He also stated that he “did not say sorry to get out of prison early”.

Umar Patek in December 2022 after his early release from prison for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings. Picture: AFP

International counter-terrorism expert, Rohan Gunaratna, said “Palestine has always featured prominently in al-Qaeda statements and radicalised its affiliates including JI”.

Professor Gunaratna, the author of the newly released book Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Massacre: Lessons for the International Community said al-Qaeda’s ideological father Abdullah Azzam, was a Palestinian man from Jenin, who instilled the need to fight Israel.

“After the Soviet invasion of Iraq, no conflict has galvanised the jihadi fraternity more than Palestine,” said Professor Gunaratna.

“In the coming decade, until there is a permanent solution to the Israel-Palestine dispute, an anti US/Western and an anti-Israeli/Jewish narrative is likely to drive radicalisation and global violence.”

Originally published as Bali bomber Umar Patek reveals ‘revenge’ for Israel sparked terror attack