"Palestinians" killing
"Palestinians"
Palestine Royal
Commission Report said
"toleration by the Government of subversive [terrorist] activities,
more
especially those of the Mufti of Jerusalem,"1
included not only terrorism of Jews but also of moderate Arabs and
those effendis engaged
in a power struggle with the Islamic leadership. As the Palestine
Royal
Commission Report had observed, with uncharacteristic indignation
in
1937,
... intimidation
at the point
of a revolver has become a not infrequent feature of Arab politics.
Attacks
by Arabs on Jews, unhappily, are no new thing. The novelty in the
present
situation is attacks by Arabs-on Arabs. For an Arab to be suspected of
a lukewarm adherence to the nationalist cause is to invite a visit from
a body of "gunmen." Such a visit was paid to the editor of one of the
Arabic
newspapers last August shortly after he had published articles in
favour
of calling off the strike." Similar visits were paid during our stay in
Palestine to wealthy Arab landowners or businessmen who were believed
to
have made inadequate contributions to the fund which the Arab Higher
Committee
were raising to compensate Arabs for damage suffered during the
"disturbances."
Nor do the "gunmen" stop at intimidation. It is not known who murdered
the Arab Acting Mayor of Hebron last August, but no one doubts that he
lost his life because he had dared to differ from the "extremist"
policy
of the Higher Committee. The attempt to murder the Arab Mayor of Haifa,
which took place a few days after we left Palestine, is also, we are
told,
regarded as political. It is not surprising that a number of Arabs have
asked for Government protection.2
The Associated Press ran this
story, "Palestinians
Face Internal Violence" on March 16, 2002
BETHLEHEM, West
Bank (AP) -- One
was strung up by his heels in the middle of a downtown traffic circle.
The battered body of another was dragged through the streets before
assailants
tried to hang the corpse from a rooftop overlooking the traditional
site
of Jesus' birth. Two more were snatched off a West Bank road, driven to
a deserted slaughterhouse and riddled with bullets.
Palestinians accused of
collaborating with
Israel have frequently been targeted by fellow Palestinians during
nearly
18 months of bitter fighting with Israel, but in recent days, the pace
of these vigilante-style killings has picked up sharply. Seven
suspected
collaborators have been slain by Palestinian gunmen in the past week
alone,
compared to about two dozen until then.
The killings echo a grim
pattern established
during the first Palestinian uprising against Israel, which lasted from
1987 to 1993. In those years, more than 800 suspected collaborators
were
slain by fellow Palestinians -- about one-third of the total
Palestinian
deaths in that intefadeh3.
Assisted Suicide Martyrs
An even more disturbing trend
is that there
is increasing evidence that "Palestinians" are killing "Palestinians"
not
only for collaboration with Israel (which could mean as little as
buying
and selling an Israeli product), but also for bumping up the numbers of
"martyrs" for the "Palestinian" cause.
- When the current
Intifada
started, after Ariel
Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount, a handful of Palestinian rioters
were
"shot in the back" as they were throwing stones at the Israeli
Police.
The Israeli Police never gave the order to use live ammunition.
If
the rioters backs were towards the Temple Mount compound, from what
direction
did the shots come? Jibril Rajoub, head of PA Preventive Security
had led the Israeli government to believe that there would be no
reaction
to Likud MK Arik Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount as long as Sharon
did
not attempt to enter the mosque itself. Yet exactly the opposite
happened. (see How PA Violence was planned
)
Using forensic
evidence to try
and trace the source of the bullets themselves would be complicated by
the fact that the Israeli Government authorized the transfer of
thousands
of guns to the Palestinians, for use by the Palestinian Police force.
“We
have no problems with weaponry since we have enough guns that were
given
to us by Israel,” stated Abed el-Qader, Senior Tanzim Leader on March
8,
2001.
- The film clip of the
shooting of Al Dura,
the 12 year old palestinian boy, shown worldwide clearly shows firing
coming
from someone who stood next to the Palestinian camera man Talal Abu
Rahma
(see Who
killed Muhammad al-Dura? )
- A BBC was killed by
Hisbollah mortar fire,
as the Israeli troops were retreating from Lebanon, was blamed on
Israel.
- The Christian German
doctor from Beit Jalla
who was asked to leave his house at 11:30 at night by Palestinian
Paramedics, only to be gunned down 50 yards from his front door with
bullet
holes riddling the wall behind him that could not have come from an
Israeli
helicopter.
As far back as 1936, the Haj
Amin al-Husseini,
the Mufti of Jerusalem's "systematic extermination" caused the murder
or
flight from the country of any Arab suspected of less than total
loyalty
to the rebels: mayor, affiliated official, sheikh, village mukhtar
(headman),
rival Arab notable, and even prominent Muslim religious figures-all
were
victims. In larger part he took his queue from similar German SS
actions. (see Muftism and Nazism: World War II
Collaboration
Documents )
The mayor of Hebron, Nasr
el Din Nasr,
murdered August 4, 1936, was a close ally of the Mufti's chief
opponent,
Ragheb Bey Nashashibi; the wife and daughter of the mayor of Bethlehem
were wounded July 1937; the mayor Nablus, Suleiman Bey Toukan, who
publicly
warned the government of chaos if terrorism was not squelched, fled
after
attempted assassination in December of 1937. No fewer than eleven
mukhtars
were slain, along with family members, between February of 1937 and
November
of 1938.
Feb. 1937 |
Mukhtar of Arab
Birket Caesarea |
Sept. 1937 |
Balad Esh Sheikh |
Dec. 1937 |
Shahmata |
April 1938 |
Migdal. He was a
Christian Arab. His wife
was also murdered. |
April 1938 |
Mafaleen |
Aug. 1938 |
Ejn Razal |
Aug. 1938 |
Beth Mahsir |
Sept. 1938 |
Wife and three sons
of the Mukhtar of
Deir Es Sheikh. Mukhtar was absent at the time. |
Oct. 1938 |
Mukhtar of
Ard-el-Yehud, near Haifa. He
was a Christian Arab. |
Oct. 1938 |
Beth Hema |
Nov. 1938 |
Akaba Quarter, Nablus |
"During the same period,
attempts were
made on the life of the Mukhtar of Lifta
village (July 1937), and the
Mukhtar of
Seir (October, 1938)"; cited in Arab v. Arab, pamphlet, Wadsworth and
Co.,
Rydal Press, Keighley, England, 1939, p. 13; also see Palestine,
October
6, 1937, vol. XII, no. 40, for list of Arab "notables" "murdered
between
April and September, 1937."
Muslim religious leaders
murdered or wounded
included the following:
March 1938 |
Sheikh Yunis el
Husseini, head of El Aqsa
Mosque administration, was wounded. |
July 1938 |
Sheikh Ali Nur el
Khatib, of El Aqsa Mosque,
was murdered. |
Dec. 1938 |
Sheikh Dauoud
Ansari, Imam of El Aqsa
Mosque, was killed (after fourth attempt). |
Other Sheikhs who were
murdered then by
Arab terrorists included:
July 1938 |
Sheikh Nusbi Abdul
Rahim, Counsel to the
Moslem Religious Court, murdered at Acre. |
July 1938 |
Sheikh Abdul el
Badawi, murdered at Acre. |
Nov. 1938 |
Sheikh El Namouri,
murdered at Hebron |
A similar list of
"moderate" Arabs, including
Anwar Sadat, etc. who have been exterminated recently by the Militant
Palestinian Groups-the modem "Muftism"--could be compiled today.
What most outsiders don't
realize is that
the "Palestinians" are not really a single ethnic group. Samuel
Herbert, the first British High Commissioner for Palestine said in
1921, "Four-fifths of the whole population are Moslems. A small
proportion
of these are Bedouin Arabs; the remainder, although they speak Arabic
and
are termed Arabs, are largely of mixed race." They are a collection of
immigrants from Syria, Iraq, Egypt and the East and West Banks of the
Jordan
river. Containing Suni, Shiite, Kurd Moslems as well as small
numbers
of Christians. Palestine, until 1967, was never thought of as separate
state, but rather refereed to part of Southern Syria, although it was
at
times part of Syrian and Egyptian conquests.
1. Palestine
Royal Commission Report, p. 366.
2.
Ibid.,
p. 135.
3.
IDF statistics
report the actual numbers to be between 1000-1200.
Summary Executions
ICEJ NEWS SERVICE FROM
JERUSALEM
WEDNESDAY, 17 JANUARY 2001
News and comment on Middle
East affairs,
compiled by journalists at the International Christian Embassy
Jerusalem,
publishers of the monthly Middle East Digest.
PALESTINIAN AREAS
DESCENDING INTO CHAOS
In a sign of spiraling
mistrust and lawlessness
in Palestinian areas over the past week, two Palestinians were
summarily
executed for alleged collaboration with Israel, three more were
secretly
murdered by militants, another two have been sentenced to death, and at
least five others have been arrested as suspected informers. And in
Gaza
on Wednesday, the head of Palestinian TV was shot dead by masked gunmen
in an unexplained hit.
The director of the
Palestinian Broadcasting
Corporation was killed today when three masked men, armed with
weapons
equipped with silencers, opened fire on him at close range as he left
the
Gaza Beach hotel in Gaza City. Hisham Miki, 54, died 15 minutes after
the
attack. He had headed "Palestine Television" since its founding in 1994
and was a close associate of PLO chief Yasser Arafat.
While the mysterious
incident is still
under investigation, the Palestinian Authority issued a statement
saying
he was "gunned down by bullets of treason and betrayal," a suggestion
the
shooters had ties with Israel. But some Palestinian sources indicated
it
may have been linked to charges the TV director was involved in
corruption
with PA officials. Then again, another Palestinian source offered a
third
theory, saying Islamic extremists may have targeted him for his
extensive
business dealings with Israelis.
The PA has declared war on
suspected Palestinian
informers assisting Israel in its campaign to "eliminate" key leaders
of
armed militias and terrorist cells. At noon on Saturday, PA firing
squads
executed two men convicted of collaborating with Israel in recent hits
on Palestinian operatives. Hours later, a court in Bethlehem convicted
two more accused collaborators to death and two more to life in prison
at hard labor.
In addition, three corpses
of Arab men
have been found in the last three days, victims of armed Palestinian
militants.
On Monday, the body of Muhammed Haled was found near Nablus, shot at
the
entrance to his home.
Palestinian sources said
Haled was shot
by three masked men on suspicion of collaboration.
On Tuesday, the
bullet-riddled body of
40-year-old Mourshed Rafiq Suliman, a resident of a PA-ruled village
near
Jenin, was found by Israeli police. ISRAEL RADIO reported that he too
was
killed on suspicion of collaborating with Israel. Palestinian sources
said
masked men dragged the man from his home late Monday night.
And on Wednesday, a
Palestinian was found
shot to death in a car in the vicinity El Bireh, near Ramallah, ISRAEL
RADIO reported. The man appears to be the latest victim in a wave of
Palestinian
attacks on Palestinians.
The body of a fourth man
was found by PA
forces this morning near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in Gaza. The
man had been shot in the head under circumstances that are still
unclear.
Much like in the first
intifada from 1987
to 1993, Arab on Arab violence seems to be running rampant, as law and
order breaks down and local militias rule the street. As many as 1,000
Palestinians were murdered by other Palestinians during the earlier
uprising.
While most were charged with "collaborating" with Israel, many of the
killings
were actually committed to settle scores in clan feuds and money
disputes.
By many accounts, the spree
of murders
left more Arabs dead at the hands of fellow Arabs than from Israeli
forces.
This pattern follows the PLO's
record over the decades of
killing far
more Arabs than Jews in its bloody campaign for Palestinian statehood.
The recent spate of murders
are not the
first hits on suspected collaborators during the renewed intifada. On
December
17, for example, an Arab man who had served in the Israeli police years
ago and was forced to flee to the Israeli town of Ariel was ambushed by
Palestinians during a visit to his home village nearby. He was falsely
drawn there by promises to his family that a "sulha" (a traditional
Arab
reconciliation dinner) was being arranged.
The current situation has
deteriorated
to the point that any Palestinian associated with Israelis has come
under
increased suspicion and hostility. Even Palestinian workers have been
stoned
in recent days when lining up at the Erez crossing point on the way to
jobs inside Israel.
Fatah officials in
Jerusalem said four
more Palestinians turned themselves in to the PA as part of an
"amnesty"
program. Also on Tuesday, Palestinian Preventive Security forces
reported
that they arrested a cell of five "collaborators" in Hebron. The group
members are accused of having passed information to Israel that helped
lead to the assassination of Hamas activists in the city. Palestinian
sources
told ARMY RADIO that the five members will go on trial at the Court for
National Security, where they face possible execution.
Fatah leader Marwan
Barghouti said the
PA should be in charge of dealing with collaborators, but added that if
the PA does not take the necessary action, Fatah would instead.
ICEJ NEWS SERVICE
Editor: David Parsons
Famed Refusenik Issues a
Call To Save a Palestinian from Palestinians
By Eli Lake Staff Reporter
WASHINGTON - A Palestinian Authority police officer accused of helping
Israel with counterterrorism is facing death at the hands of a firing
line unless a last-minute appeal to President Bush can save him.
The cause of the police officer, Imad Sa'ad, is being championed by a
woman who became famous as a political prisoner in the Soviet Union
before she moved to Israel in 1987, Ida Nudel. It comes as Secretary of
State Rice this weekend arrived in Israel for another round of
diplomacy aimed at creating an independent Palestinian Arab state
before the end of the Bush presidency.
The case raises questions about the intentions of Prime Minister
Abbas's Fatah government in the West Bank. Mr. Sa'ad, a former member
of the Palestinian Authority's national security forces, is accused of
providing the Israel Defense Forces with the whereabouts of four
accused Palestinian terrorists Mr. Abbas's regime was unwilling to hand
over to the Israelis. In a court in Hebron he was convicted of being a
collaborator. But cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority on counterterrorism is a precondition under agreements for
the relinquishment of land for a Palestinian Arab state. What's more,
the sentence against Mr. Sa'ad was meted out by a judge from Fatah,
which is Mr. Abbas's Palestinian faction and the one that Ms. Rice
hopes her diplomacy will strengthen against Hamas, the Iranian-backed
terrorists who now control Gaza.
"Sa'ad's crime was simply reporting to Israeli authorities on the
whereabouts of four fugitive Palestinian gunmen that the PA was
unwilling to arrest," the director of the Israel Law Center, Nitsana
Darshan-Leitner, writes in a letter that will be sent to Mr. Bush
today. "Fortunately, the security services were able to utilize the
information and take out the terrorists before they could unleash any
further attacks on Israeli civilians. This operation saved the lives of
scores of Israelis and other innocent victims. It is no different than
the recent preventive American
army attack on Al Qaeda terrorists in Somalia. However, for assisting
in this operation, Sa'ad was arrested and sentenced to death by a
Palestinian firing squad."
Ms. Darshan-Leitner asks for President Bush to suspend $200 million in
security assistance promised to Mr. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority
until Mr. Sa'ad's sentence is overturned. She has also sent out similar
appeals to the European Union and the Vatican.
"President Bush, these so called 'collaborators' are Israel's front
line in the war on Palestinian terror," she wrote. "They have assisted
the Israel Defense Forces in thwarting thousands of suicide bombings
and have saved many thousands of innocent lives. They must not be
abandoned by democratic nations, such as the United States, which are
combating terrorism worldwide."
The fate of Palestinian Arabs who have cooperated with Israel has been
a thorny issue in the last 15 years of negotiations that began with the
Oslo agreements in 1993. Israeli authorities have at times had to
evacuate their former sources and have also pledged at one point openly
in the Oslo years to refrain from recruiting new sources in the West
Bank and Gaza. Nonetheless, the conviction and at times execution of
these so-called collaborators by Palestinian Arab courts has been a
semi-regular occurrence for Israel's peace partner, particularly after
negotiations fell apart in September 2000 and Yasser Arafat called for
a second Palestinian uprising.
Ms. Nudel has devoted much energy to saving Palestinian Arab so-called
collaborators from execution. Ms. Darshan-Leitner, who is working with
Ms. Nudel on this case, said that often the trials of the so-called
collaborators are brief and the suspects are not allowed to be
represented by an attorney. Another problem has been that those
suspected of collaboration are often targeted by Palestinian
terrorists, and thus far the Palestinian Authority has done next to
nothing to investigate their murders, according to Ms. Darshan-Leitner.
At times, however, the advocacy of Ms. Nudel and the Israel Law Center
has succeeded in obtaining the stay of scheduled executions.
Secretary Rice in Ramallah yesterday praised Mr. Abbas, and
particularly his leadership of the security services. "It takes some
time to deal with the effects of the Intifada, but a lot of it has to
do with responsible actions by the Palestinian government and the
Palestinian Authority which are really now in place," she said. "And
because of that, I think you are going to see improvements on the West
Bank."
In an interview, Ms. Darshan-Leitner said that she first appealed to
Prime Minister Olmert to bring up the status of her client in the
current negotiations. On April 29, she urged him in a letter to do
everything he could to secure the release of Mr. Sa'ad. The letter
included the demand, on behalf of Ms. Nudel, "that Israel employ its
considerable military capability to launch a rescue operation to
extract the prisoner from his cell."
New York Sun, May 5, 2008
This page was
produced by Joseph
E. Katz
Middle Eastern Political
and Religious
History Analyst
Brooklyn, New York
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