Israelis prefer an Arab-killer to the rule of law

Mourners carry the body of Muayyad Jabarin during his funeral in the West Bank village of Sair, east of Hebron, on 15 January 2016. The 20-year-old man was shot dead the previous day after he allegedly attempted to stab Israeli soldiers at the Beit Einoun junction near Hebron. Photo by Wisam Hashlamoun, APA images

Palestine: simmering or boiling over

Summary: no peace process – progress of BDS and a filmed extra-judicial execution.

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Arab Digest

In the absence of any peace process the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, and that of Arab Israelis, continues to fester. A series of UN statements deplore acts of violence that undermine the future of both Palestinians and Israelis and call on leaders on all sides to live up to their responsibilities, as always trying to maintain a balance of blame.

On 24 March the UN special coordinator Nickolay Mladenov warned that

The time has come to ring the alarm bells that the two-state solution is slipping from our fingers… The past month has been marked by some of the bloodiest incidents in this current wave of violence across Israel and the occupied West Bank. That violence has left 198 Palestinians and 30 Israelis dead in the past six months, with most of the Palestinians killed while reportedly carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks. [Palestinians should not praise or glorify violence and Israelis should realise that] “actions such as illegal building and movement restrictions breed anger among people who feel they are being collectively humiliated, punished and discriminated against.

Two recent matters are worth noting. The first is the development of the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement (whose website we were unable to reach) which targets businesses based in the settlements and East Jerusalem and also extends to direct pressure on Israel itself. This has continued to have some success (catalogued on the Gush Shalom website), causing a number of companies to relocate their operations from the settlements to Israel, or to try to conceal their location.

On 24 March the UN Human Rights Council passed a non-binding resolution on the occupied territories containing a long list of matters of concern including the illegal settlements, the illegal wall, land and water, settler violence, etc. Thirty-two states voted in favour, and fifteen abstained including the UK, France and Germany, with none against. The resolution concluded by asking the High Commissioner for Human Rights “to produce a database of all business enterprises involved in the activities [in the occupied territories] to be updated annually”. (We have had difficulty locating the text of the resolution; a draft which may have been the final version is at link.)

As a report on the Al Monitor website comments that this is a serious move because firms and business people will be warned that involvement with the settlements could entangle them in human rights violations. Quoting Gush Shalom, the report refers to “the relocation from the West Bank of companies like seltzer manufacturer SodaStream, Mul-T-Lock, Barkan Wines, Bagel Bagel and soon the Dead Sea Ahava cosmetics plant in the wake of the EU product labeling decision and indications of an international anti-Israel boycott… the list of companies fleeing the West Bank is growing and now includes Adanim Tea, which moved out of the settlement of Ofra; the cosmetics firm Intercosma, which moved from the Atarot industrial park east of Jerusalem to Ashdod; Ikoo Design, which relocated from the Barkan industrial park to Ashdod and the town of Nesher; M.B.T., owned by drug giant Teva, which uprooted itself surreptitiously from the Atarot settlement industrial zone to the town of Beit Shemesh; and the Delta textile company, which relocated its warehouses from the West Bank to the industrial zone of Caesarea.” Companies accused of concealing their location in the occupied territories include Majhoul Dates owned by the Jordan River Company, the Fried blanket company, the furniture chain Beitili and Keter Plastic.

The Times of Israel reports that Benjamin Netanyahu said the UN council “has turned into an anti-Israel circus, which attacks the only democracy in the Middle East and ignores the blatant violations of Iran, Syria and North Korea.” The Israeli ambassador to the UN said “The Human Rights Council has turned into an accomplice of the BDS movement and its conduct is both anti-Israeli and antisemitic.” But the former foreign minister Tzipi Livni blamed Netanyahu, calling “the fact that the states closest to Israel didn’t oppose the decision… a dramatic diplomatic failure.”

The second recent matter is the shooting dead on 24 March of a Palestinian, Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif, who had allegedly stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in Hebron on the West Bank. This would not have attracted special attention were it not for a video reportedly filmed by a Palestinian who passed it to the Israeli NGO B’Tselem which seemed to show that he had been killed by an Israeli soldier as he lay wounded but still alive on the ground. The UN in an unusually blunt statement described the incident as an “apparent extra-judicial execution” in circumstances that were “particularly chilling…This is not the first incident to be captured on video that raises concerns of excessive use of force. A major concern is that such cases appear not to have been systematically subjected to criminal investigations… [and as usual for balance] We urge the Palestinian authorities to take all feasible measures to prevent attacks on Israelis, which are reprehensible.”

The article below published on the Al Monitor website by a leading Israeli columnist analyses the reaction inside Israel and concludes “As far as most Israelis are concerned, all those who attack Jews deserve to die.”

The soldier who shoots Abed al Fatah a-Sharif  is walking towards him, in the higher red circle. His friend and co-attacker Ramzi al-Qasrawi, is lying dead at the back of the picture.

Why Israelis are defending IDF soldier who shot Palestinian

A recent poll shows that most Israelis side with an IDF soldier who shot a subdued Palestinian, even though it’s clear the soldier was not acting in self-defence.

By Ben Caspit, trans. Sandy Bloom, Al Monitor Israel Pulse
March 28, 2016

A short video filmed by a resident of the West Bank city of Hebron March 24 has been shaking Israel’s political, public and military foundations for four days now. The video ignited a battle between the Israeli right and the left, inflamed much of the Israeli public against the top brass of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), set six government ministers against Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot and generated another down-and-dirty confrontation between Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Defence Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon together with Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu. Outside this inner circle, Yisrael Beitenu chair Avigdor Liberman mocked them both.

Above the fray hovers an emotional storm among millions of Israelis who refuse to accept international conventions while they trample on the rule of law and moral values. They defend an isolated soldier who shot a neutralized attacker in the head in Hebron and is now being indicted for murder.

This is not only a war between right and left, but between emotions and reason, between one’s boiling blood and political correctness.

On that morning, two Palestinians attacked IDF soldiers with knives as they ascended toward the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood in Hebron. They managed to lightly wound one soldier before the others shot at them. One was killed on the spot and the other one lay motionless on the road, evidently dying (though there is no proof at the moment). At that stage, a B’Tselem activist who lives in a nearby apartment began to film the scene.

The video shows an IDF soldier lift his weapon, cock it, aim and shoot one bullet into the head of the assailant at a range of about 3 metres (9.8 feet). The man, Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, was killed on the spot.

As could be expected, the video generated a major storm as soon as it hit the networks. IDF spokesperson Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz reacted sharply. The chief of staff ordered an immediate investigation. The military police investigations unit arrested the soldier and took him handcuffed into custody as a suspect in a murder case. At this stage, the gates of hell opened on Israeli social networks, which are mainly dominated by the voice of the right. From there, the storm spread to the political system, the top military brass and the media.

The findings of the military investigation at this stage leave no room for doubt: The soldier did not act in self-defence and was not in any danger. The man did not pose a threat, as he was already subdued. He had even been examined and was found not to be booby-trapped and was not wearing a detonator belt. The soldier who shot the neutralized attacker had not been present at the site during the attack itself, but came afterward. He carried out the shooting 6 minutes after the incident had ended and the danger had passed. The area was quiet, with additional soldiers and medical staff circulating calmly. There was no atmosphere of emergency and no military procedure — the kind of drill that takes place when a dangerous agent is present in the vicinity — was active.

The left and the media accused the soldier of carrying out an execution without the authority or authorization of his superiors. The Facebook page of the soldier, a 19-year-old from the central Israeli town of Ramle, revealed that he has close connections with extreme right circles. In another video released two days after the incident, the soldier is seen shaking hands with Baruch Marzel, an especially radical right-wing activist who lives in Hebron. The handshake took place minutes after he had executed the attacker.

None of these incriminating details deterred the Israeli masses from siding with the detained soldier, whose identity is under a court-mandated gag order. A poll published on Channel 2 March 27 contained startling data: Most Israelis think that the soldier acted correctly and should not have been arrested. Only 21% of Israelis support Eizenkot’s public statements against him, and only 5% of the public thinks that his act constitutes murder, which was the bill of indictment given when the investigation was opened.

Support for the soldier crossed all political lines. Not only did the radical right and regular right-wingers join the protest wave, but the political centre and even some on the left got on the bandwagon. Protests began on the social networks and mushroomed into petitions, demonstrations and protests throughout the country.

One sign of the Israeli rejection of the rule of law is their anger with chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eisenkot [L]. His order for an investigation of the soldier concerned let loose a storm of protest. Such citizens would rather see the IDF acting as local militias protecting settlers and killing more Palestinians (see below)

Eizenkot, backed up by Ya’alon, were among the few to stand up against this wave. On the morning of March 28, at the Yedioth Ahronoth anti-boycott, divestment and sanctions convention, they were joined by President Reuven Rivlin, who had sharp words for those who incite against the chief of staff.

Usually, Israel’s chief of staff enjoys enormous popular support, much more than other political figures. There is no greater consensus in Israel than the one surrounding the chief of staff, no matter who he is. The fact that the chief of staff’s position this time was defeated by a tremendous public margin in favour of a young, anonymous soldier exemplifies the magnitude of the rupture. The Israeli public is consciously discarding dispassionate analysis of the event for raw emotion, siege mentality and tribal unity.

In the last half year, the Israelis have been victim of a difficult terror wave. So far, the terror has taken the lives of 34 policemen, soldiers and civilians. From the point of view of the Israeli public, the soldiers are doing their duty by protecting them with their bodies.

As far as most Israelis are concerned, all those who attack Jews deserve to die.

In the past, there were quite a few incidents in which Israeli policemen or soldiers spared wounded attackers and paid for this mercy with their lives. The fact that it was proven that the soldier faced no danger to his life hardly sways anyone in Israel. Overnight, the soldier became an Israeli hero, while Israel’s leaders and IDF heads were the subject of ridicule and scorn. This astounding phenomenon evokes memories of the tremendous sense of surprise at the results of the recent elections in 2015, when the polls had announced a clear trend toward Netanyahu. In both cases, it seems that many analysts did not foresee the prevailing public response.

There is reason for worry in the IDF as well. The military, like the people, is now divided. One section continues to adhere to the rule of law, moral values and following orders. The other part is mainly comprised of the forces with policing duties in Judea and Samaria. They are blending in with the settlers and becoming a kind of obscure police militia, not entirely controllable.

Something is happening to the Israeli public under the media radar, and something is happening to the IDF. And it doesn’t bode well for the State of Israel.