The Toxic Roots Of Jewish Terror
The religious Zionist's denial to categorize Jewish terror as such fans the flames of terrorism in the name of Judaism and a Jewish state.
Avirama Golan
The longer the Duma arson suspects remain in custody, the greater the pressure from their friends and families on the Shin Bet security service’s Jewish division, to the point of reckless delegitimization of the state. That unruliness is perhaps to be expected, but its full dimensions bears examination.
The people who have the most trouble understanding this are members of the religious Zionist community, including rabbis in the settlements. Most members of this community, which of course cannot imagine itself supporting murder and violent acts, are shocked and terrified by any connection between it and the hard anarchist core of the “hilltop youth.” But in fact this community includes much broader and more complex groups of adults.
This misunderstanding requires clarification for a number of reasons, starting with the demand by spokesmen and supporters of Jewish terror that they be recognized as the pure, brave and just successors of Gush Emunim.
“What happened to the religious-national public?” Elyashiv Har-Shalom goads his parents’ generation in his blog. To his mind, that generation is indifferent to the arrests and interrogations.
“Where are their teachers? Where are all those who know full well the work of protest, the blocking of busy roads with sweeping song and faith in the justness of the path?”
Har-Shalom says his camp does not consist of “wild weeds,” but rather is the result of the great education at its core.
He accuses the founders, who raised their children on the heritage of the first settlements of Sebastia and Beit Hadassah in Hebron: “Your children, your next generation, the sons of your rabbis, have been in custody for weeks in the Shin Bet basements ... they are strong, don’t worry, they received a good education, but what about you?”
Rabbi Yossi Elitzur, a co-author of “The King’s Torah,” blasts the rabbis of Samaria for saying — (“out of fear of the master”) — after protesting the arrests, that they hoped the Duma murderers would be caught. Do they? Is it their hope that “these foes from the Shin Bet will manage to destroy lives and put Jews who could not remain silent in the face of bloodshed into prison for many years”?
Could anything be clearer? On Facebook pages with names like “We want a Jewish state” or “Back to the (Temple) Mount,” independent news bulletins such as “The Jewish Voice” and movements like Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh’s Derech Chaim, which has thousands of members, the calls are no less clear. Some are even more clear, such as the statement, “We do not know who did this and it is clear it was not the arrestees, but it was certainly a mitzvah (December 3, “We want a Jewish state”), and the choruses of Kahane Lives and Lehava.
The racism and the violence take various forms, but the idea is one: a pure state of Jewish law, a kingdom of faith at any price and right now. It is inconceivable that the religious Zionist public does not see the spring that feeds these toxic roots: from Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who described the restraining order issued in 2013 barring Boaz Albert from the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, where he lives, as an “order against the Zionism of God”; to Rabbi Dov Lior, who claimed during a visit in support of Albert that the Israeli government is restricting Jews as the British Mandate did and to Rabbi Eliezer Melamed (“the chutzpah of summoning rabbis for questioning”), “The King’s Torah,” “Baruch Hagever” and the like.
No doubt about it, these events are opening a chasm in the religious Zionist community, but the fear of betraying the “sector” and the panic over what is being revealed dictate silence and denial, which in turn empower the supporters of Jewish terror and crown them as the new leaders of the entire public. And woe to us, silence is an admission of guilt.
sunnuntai 27. marraskuuta 2016
sunnuntai 6. marraskuuta 2016
Thirty Bullets to Take Down a Teen With a Knife
Raheeq Birawi’s very brief married life in the U.S. was intolerable. Is that why she took a knife and traveled to an Israeli checkpoint three days before her planned return to America?
Gideon Levy and Alex Levac
Gideon Levy and Alex Levac
Did she want to die? Was she tired of her short married life, which began with a kitschy honeymoon and continued as a hell in San Francisco? Was she afraid to return to her husband in America, who, according to her mother, used drugs and beat her? Was Raheeq Birawi – a pretty 19-year-old from the town of Asira al-Shamaliya, near Nablus, a young woman from a poor family whose parents are separated – tired of her new life in the American golden cage? Is that why she took a shared taxi to the Tapuah checkpoint in order to end her life? And, above all, is it even important whether or not she wanted to die?
When someone tries to commit suicide, everywhere else in the world, including security forces, try to save him or her. In the occupied territories, however, the situation is reversed: There’s nobody like the Israel Defense Forces or the Border Police when it comes to helping Palestinians – mainly, Palestinian women – carry out their death plans. In the case of Raheeq Birawi, they were especially happy to do so: Border policemen fired over 30 bullets at her, one after another, to make sure 30 times over that her death wish would come true. Her story is not unique: A large percentage of the knife-wielding women killed by Israel in recent months at checkpoints and bus stops in the territories had a similar background and motives.
Asira al-Shamaliya is a hilly town. The home of the bereaved mother is a rented, one-story stone structure, with damp walls and rooms that are empty of almost any furniture. Here single mother Zahra Birawi lives in poverty, and here Raheeq grew up together with her five sisters and a brother. Their father, Shajia, a construction worker in Israel, separated from Zahra years ago and is remarried. He also lives in Asira.
Several Palestinian flags are now taped to the porch; a death notice was issued by the town council. Unusually, no organization has taken responsibility for the fate of this unfortunate shaheeda (martyr). Israel Air Force planes circled in the sky and made a deafening noise while we sat on the porch with Zahra, whose tears kept flowing. The contrast between the sophisticated jets in the air and the miserable situation here was egregious.
Dressed in blue, her face tired and grief-stricken, the bereaved mother is 47. When she shows us pictures of herself at her daughter’s wedding in San Francisco, just last March, it’s hard to recognize her. “Sadness changes one’s face,” said B’Tselem investigator Abed el-Karim Saadi, who accompanied us.
About three years earlier, A.G., a U.S. native whose family has its roots in East Jerusalem, and who owns a cell phone store in San Francisco, came to Asira to ask for Raheeq’s hand after their families agreed to the match, and they got engaged.
Early this year, mother and daughter traveled to California. First they spent a month in Sacramento with the groom’s family, and then they went to San Francisco for the marriage ceremony. The wedding album reveals a colorful picture of a different reality: the couple in their wedding finery, the happy mother of the bride, dressed up and elegant, dancing in a hotel banquet hall, a fairy-tale event.
Zahra says that at first she actually liked her daughter’s groom. After the wedding, she returned to Asira, while the young couple spent their honeymoon in Hawaii. But the honeymoon was very short-lived.
After they returned to California, Raheeq told her mother that her husband had changed drastically. Raheeq, whose name means “nectar,” became a battered woman. Her life became a hell, according to her mother. Her husband took back the gold jewelry he had given her for their wedding, selling it so he could buy drugs. Once she was even hospitalized, because of pills her husband gave her, according to Zahra.
Raheeq wanted to become a modern woman, and asked to learn to drive, but her husband forbade it. He is 34 years old and only recently did Zahra learn that he was previously married, perhaps even more than once. For his part, his mother, Raheeq’s mother-in-law, suspected that she was flirting with his brother, her brother-in-law. Raheeq was alone in her distress.
On August 21, about five months after the wedding, Raheeq returned to Asira, for her brother’s nuptials. Her mother says that she noticed black and blue marks on her face. When she questioned her, the situation became clear: Raheeq was afraid to return to her husband. Zahra phoned his family in the United States, but they claimed that Raheeq was inventing everything and that her husband hadn’t harmed her.
Zahra didn’t want to interfere, and didn’t try to tell her daughter what to do. “I gave my children freedom, without forcing my opinion on them,” she says when asked whether she tried to pressure Raheeq not to return to America. Raheeq decided in the end to return to her husband, with whom she had spoken only a few times during her trip home. In one conversation, he promised her that he would allow her to learn to drive, if only she would come back.
Raheeq was scheduled to return to San Francisco on Sunday, October 23, together with her mother, who planned to stay with her there for about a month. The husband’s family in America sent the tickets.
On October 19, the last day of her life, Raheeq woke up in her father’s home. She went out to the drugstore, and returned to her mother’s house and told her she was going to Ramallah to do some shopping for the trip and to get some documents. Raheeq traveled by shared taxi from Asira to Nablus, where she boarded another minibus to Ramallah.
The mother’s face is full of tears. She sighs: “May God punish the wicked.”
At about 11 A.M., Zahra’s neighbor, who works in Palestinian intelligence, called and asked whether the Palestinian police had come to her house. When Zahra, perplexed, wondered why he was asking that, what the problem was – the neighbor quickly hung up. Minutes later Shajia, her estranged husband, called from his place of work in Taibeh and said his wife had told him that she heard that something bad had happened to Raheeq.
He said that his new wife had tried to call Raheeq, and an unfamiliar voice answered her. Shajia asked Zahra to contact the Israeli-Palestinian coordination headquarters to find out what happened to their daughter, but Zahra, helpless, didn’t know where to call.
Once again she mutters to herself and weeps silently. She goes on to say that meanwhile, her brother called and told her that there were rumors that Raheeq was killed at the Tapuah Junction. She says now that she started shouting and crying. People began to gather around the house and then she understood that the rumors were true. Since then Zahra hasn’t had a moment’s peace.
IDF soldiers arrived the next day at the home of Raheeq’s father, confiscated his Israeli work permit and warned the family that if there were demonstrations, they would demolish their house. Aqeed, Raheeq’s bereaved brother, the son of Zahra and Shajia, was detained this week by the Palestinian security forces, Israel’s security contractors and executors, after a post on Facebook by a young man from the town of Tamun mentioned that he was planning to avenge his sister’s killing. Aqeed has not yet been released.
Raheeq was shot at the Tapuah checkpoint by Border Police after she allegedly pulled out a knife and approached them. A video clip showed her lying on the road, with the echoes of repeated shots being fired in the background. The Border Police told Haaretz that the incident is under investigation, but nevertheless stated that, “from the moment that the terrorist was neutralized, the fighters stopped firing.”
An internal investigation by the IDF that was published last week noted four cases in recent weeks in which Palestinians were killed or wounded, during which soldiers and Border Police acted improperly. The investigation revealed that in all four instances, those forces could even have refrained from shooting altogether. One of the cases covered in the report was that of the killing of Raheeq Birawi. The report notes that the border policemen fired over 30 bullets at her after she pulled out the knife and walked toward them.
Zahra has not seen the video posted online in which the policemen are seen emptying their magazines on her daughter, even as Raheeq lies in the road. Zahra only saw the picture of her daughter’s body and her blurred face. The mother adds that in the picture there’s a knife in her daughter’s right hand, but notes that she was left-handed. Zahra finds it difficult to believe that her daughter pulled out a knife, and even less that she wanted either to kill herself or harm any soldiers. “Maybe they fired at her because she was the prettiest one in the taxi,” she says.
Israel has retained possession of her daughter’s body, in accordance with the despicable practice of preventing funerals that could escalate into riots. Zahra wants her daughter to have a proper burial, but has no idea how to go about asking for the body.
Is it possible that Raheeq wanted to die in order not to return to her husband in America? “No,” Zahra asserts. “She loved life. And she was a believer, even in America. She continued to pray to God. There’s no chance that she wanted to die.”
Just two weeks before she was killed, Raheeq celebrated her 19th birthday.
Her husband didn’t come to Asira after his wife was killed, and he and his family didn’t even speak to the bereaved mother by phone when she was mourning. And once again she mumbles: “God, punish the wicked, punish the wicked.”
lauantai 5. marraskuuta 2016
Israel Funds Group That 'Saves Jewish Girls' From Marrying Arabs
The Social Services Ministry doubled its funding since 2012 for a shelter for young Jewish women 'rescued' from Arab villages. 'We have been cooperating with a racist group for a decade,' a source in the ministry says.
Israel's welfare agency has recently expanded its cooperation with an organization that seeks to "save Jewish girls" from marrying Arabs, Haaretz has learned.
The Social Affairs and Social Services Ministry has increased funding for a young women's shelter run by Hemla, a group headed by figures associated with the radical right. According to the organization, the shelter is geared toward "female youths from broken homes who are at risk of shmad" – a Hebrew term that denotes coerced conversion to another religion.
In a promotional flyer released two years ago, the head of Hemla, Elyakim Neiman, described intermarriage between Jewish women and Arab men as a "national plague."
"We are doing our best to save these girls before they reach [Arab] villages and give birth to 'Ahmad Ben Moshe,'" he said. "We provide for the girls' physical and spiritual needs."
According to the brochure, the young women receive mental and social assistance until they "return to the path of healthy Jewish life, as is appropriate for the daughter of a king."
Another promotional leaflet for the shelter boasted that the woman who runs it, Rachel Baranes, has dedicated her life to "saving the daughters of Israel from the claws of the Ishmaelites," a term referring to Arabs. An article published in 2009 in "Eretz Israel Shelanu" (Our Land of Israel), a newsletter associated with the radical right, describes Hemla's boardinghouse as the only shelter for Jewish girls "rescued" from Arab villages.
The boardinghouse's operations cost 2.6 million shekels a year ($685,000). The Social Services Ministry has recently agreed to increase funding for the institution to 1.3 million shekels a year, up from 800,000 shekels in 2013-2015 and 650,000 shekels in 2012. The agreements between the NGO and the government agency have been repeatedly extended without issuing public tenders. The ministry's funding and cooperation legitimizes the group and allows it to expand its operations.
"For a decade, we have been cooperating with a racist organization that has officially declared that one of its goals is to save Jewish girls from the danger of" converting out of Judaism, a source in the ministry told Haaretz.
Hemla has in the past been closely linked to Lehava, a radical rightist organization known for its efforts to prevent marriage between Jews and Arabs. Lahava Chairman Bentzi Gopstein was a member of Hemla for years, until leaving in 2014. That year, Hemla paid Gopstein's wife, Anat, 66,000 shekels ($17,300) for "seeking out girls" for the shelter, according to documents from the NGO registrar. In an audit from 2014, the registrar notes the ties between the two groups were severed that year but notes that due to possible illegal activity on Lehava's part, the connection should be reexamined in the future.
The Social Affairs Ministry has responded by saying that Hemla is recognized by NGO registrar, and that the decision to raise the funding is meant to allow the group to expand the shelter, which is meant for ultra-Orthodox and newly religious teens who are in severe distress.
Neiman, Hemla's chairman, said that the group's activity has been fully coordinated with the ministry and that it has received praise for its work.
In his comment for this article, Gopstein, the chairman of Lehava, suggested that "Haaretz, which is funded by German money, should conduct investigations into Peace Now and B'Tselem and not try to undermine the activity of organizations and groups that work for the People of Israel's benefit."
Full disclosure: As part of an investigative report conducted by Haaretz in 2011, journalists Uri Blau and Shai Greenberg entered the shelter and were accused of trespassing by the state prosecutor. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein later suspended the proceeding and the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court closed the case.
lauantai 3. syyskuuta 2016
KOLME DAREEN TATOURIN RUNOA SUOMEKSI
KOLME DAREEN TATOURIN RUNOA SUOMEKSI
Dareen Tatour(33) on palestiinalainen runoilija, jonka Israel vangitsi ja asetti sitten kotiarestiin odottamaan tuomiota oikeudenkäynnissä, jossa häntä syytetään 'yllyttämisestä' runollaan VASTUSTA KANSANI, VASTUSTA HEITÄ jonka hän julkaisi Facebookissa.
Hänen kohtelunsa Israelin käsissä on herättänyt (epätavallisesti) jonkin verran huomiota maailmalla, koska henkilö joka on joutunut poliittisen vainon kohteeksi ja jonka sananvapautta pyritään rajoittamaan on tällä kertaa kirjailija.
Sadoittain palestiinalaisia on pidätetty sosiaaliseen mediaan tehtyjen kirjoitusten johdosta Israelin toimesta Vihreän linjan molemmin puolin; Tatourin tapaus on ensimmäisiä, joka on saanut vähääkään suurempaa huomiota.
Tässä on käännöksen käännöksinä kolme hänen runoaan, joiden taiteellinen arvo näin käännettynä on tietenkin hyvin alhainen, mutta niiden tarkoituksena onkin antaa käsitys hänen runoistaan, etenkin runosta VASTUSTA KANSANI, VASTUSTA HEITÄ jonka vuoksi hän on ollut ensin vangittuna ja nyt kotiarestissa odottamassa tuomiota sen johdosta nostetussa oikeudenkäynnissä.
VASTUSTA, KANSANI, VASTUSTA HEITÄ on suomennettu Tariq al-Haydarin englanninkielisestä käännöksestä: https://arablit.org/…/the-poem-for-which-dareen-tatours-un…/
UNOHDAN SEN, KUTEN TAHDOT ja MINÄ EN LÄHDE on suomennettu Jonathan Wrightin englanninkielisistä käännöksistä:http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/?p=14810
VASTUSTA, KANSANI, VASTUSTA HEITÄ
Vastusta, kansani, vastusta heitä.
Jerusalemissa minä sidoin haavani ja hengitin suruni
ja kannoin kämmenelläni
arabialaisen Palestiinan sielua.
En vajoa "rauhanomaiseen ratkaisuun",
en koskaan laske lippujani
kunnes ajan heidät pois minun maastani.
Heitän heidät syrjään tulevaksi ajaksi.
Vastusta, kansani, vastusta heitä.
Vastusta siirtokuntalaisen ryöstelyä
ja seuraa marttyyrien karavaania.
Revi häpeällinen perustuslaki
mikä määräsi alennustilan ja nöyryytyksen,
ja esti meitä palauttamasta oikeutta.
He polttivat syyttömiä lapsia;
ja mitä tulee Hadiliin, he ampuivat hänet julkisesti,
tappoivat hänet kirkkaassa päivänvalossa.
Vastusta, kansani, vastusta heitä.
Vastusta kolonialistin päällekarkausta.
Älä kiinnitä huomiota hänen vakoojiinsa keskuudessamme,
jotka kahlitsevat meidät rauhanomaisella harhalla.
Älä pelkää epäileviä kieliä;
totuus sydämessäsi on voimakkaampi,
niin kauan kuin vastustat maassa
mikä on elänyt läpi ryöstöretkien ja voiton.
Niin Ali kutsui haudastaan:
Vastustakaa, kapinoiva kansani.
Kirjoita minut sanoina sydänpuuhun;
jäännöksilläni on sinut vastauksenaan.
Vastusta, kansani, vastusta heitä.
Vastusta kansani, vastusta heitä.
UNOHDAN SEN, KUTEN TAHDOT
Kuten tahdot,
minä unohdan sen,
tarinan meistä joka on nyt osa menneisyyttä
ja unelmat, jotka kerran olivat sydäntemme täyte.
Olisimme halunneet toteuttaa ne,
mutta me tapoimme ne.
Unohdan asiat, oi elämäni rakkaus,
asiat jotka me sanoimme,
runot jotka me kirjoitimme sydämiemme seinämiin
ja piirsimme väreissä,
puut joiden alla istuimme hetken,
ja nimet jotka me kaiversimme.
Unohdan ne,
kuten tahdot,
joten älä ole vihainen.
MINÄ EN LÄHDE
He allekirjoittivat minun puolestani
ja tekivät minusta
asiakirjan, unohdetun
kuten tupakantumpit.
Koti-ikävä repi minut hajalle.
Ja omassa maassani minä päädyin
siirtolaiseksi.
Hylkäsin nuo kynät
nyyhkyttääkseni mustepullojen
surujen vuoksi.
He hylkäsivät minun asiani ja unelmani
hautausmaan porteilla,
ja tuo henkilö joka odottaa,
valittaa kohtaloaan
elämän kulkiessa ohi.
Piiritä minut, räjäytä minut,
salamurhaa minut, vangitse minut.
Kun kysymyksessä on minun maani,
ei ole perääntymisen mahdollisuutta.
sunnuntai 1. toukokuuta 2016
Why Wasn't the Hurt Palestinian Assailant Treated? A Look at the Scene, From All the Angles
Why Wasn't the Hurt Palestinian Assailant Treated? A Look at the Scene, From All the Angles
In November 2005, a historic event was held in Geneva in the presence of the head of Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue service, his Palestinian counterpart, the Swiss foreign minister and the illusionist Uri Geller. In a short but emotionally charged ceremony, the representatives of the Israeli organization and its counterpart the Palestinian Red Crescent signed a memorandum of understanding that earned them both official recognition by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – a status the MDA had been seeking since its foundation 58 years earlier. The agreement formalized the cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian organizations, and it called for closer ties between them, while ensuring the creation of joint projects.
In her moving comments, the Swiss minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, who later served as her country’s president, thanked the representatives of the organizations, the mediators and also Geller. She noted that Geller did more than “just help break the ice with the skills that have made him famous – a considerable number of bent spoons line the road that led to this agreement.”
But before joint projects could get underway, it turned out that the memorandum of understanding included clauses in which MDA recognized the fact that the areas conquered by Israel in 1967’s Six-Day War are Palestinian territory, and that the Red Crescent possessed national authority over them. By signing the memorandum, MDA also agreed that as a member of the federation of the International Red Cross, it had no authority outside Israel’s borders as they are recognized by the international community, and that every operation it conducted in the occupied territories had to be coordinated with Red Crescent.
Both the Red Cross in Israel and MDA have kept the details of their contacts secret. Nor are they willing to provide information about the implementation and enforcement of the memorandum’s clauses. However, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the negotiating process was provided by Geller in an interview he gave Jonathan Margolis, the author of the most recent biography of the magician, “The Secret Life of Uri Geller: CIA Masterspy?” According to Geller, who was president of the International Friends of MDA, on the eve of the signing ceremony, the Israeli Foreign Ministry almost stopped the process when it discovered that MDA would not even be able to operate in East Jerusalem. Geller revealed that an urgent late-night phone call to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon solved the problem.
After signing the memorandum, MDA formally stopped operating in the West Bank. It did so secretly and in stages, and today its presence there and in East Jerusalem is mostly covert. Whereas MDA stations within the 1967 borders are financed directly by the organization, which is responsible for its own budget, its units in the settlements get half their budget directly from the Health Ministry, with the rest coming from donations and the settlements themselves.
The ambulances that operate in the territories no longer belong to MDA, even though most of them bear the organization’s logo and sometimes also its name. The same goes for field volunteers in the territories, who get their training from MDA, but do not formally belong to it. They operate within the framework of Hatzalah Yehuda & Shomron (literally, Judea and Samaria Rescue) – an independent organization founded by the settlements’ security officers during the second intifada. Its president is Rabbi Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba, who gave his imprimatur to a book about the religious precepts for killing gentiles (“The King’s Torah”), and who ruled, during the current wave of terror attacks, that “it is permitted to strike a terrorist even if he has already been subdued.”
Every stage in MDA’s disengagement from the West Bank drew furious protests from the settlers and the Israeli right. In August 2011, for example, MDA set about removing the red Stars of David from the ambulances in the settlements, in accordance with their commitment. The Yesha Council of settlements demanded a stop to this. Then-MK Arieh Eldad (National Union) termed the action “a disgraceful surrender to the dictates of the Arabs and assent to the notion that the areas of Judea and Samaria are occupied territories.” He added that the MDA’s move conflicted with the position of the Israeli government, “which views them as territories in dispute.”
For a few days in June 2013, MDA volunteers in the West Bank were required to wear medical vests that didn’t carry the organization’s logo. According to media reports, the directive was issued ahead of a visit by ICRC representatives to check the implementation of the understandings. Yesha Council chairman Avi Roeh termed this “an attempt to create separation between populations in the State of Israel.” He called on the MDA “not to surrender to anti-Israeli elements and not differentiate blood from blood.”
The truth cannot be bent like a spoon, and the state’s attempt to simultaneously admit and deny that an occupation exists has created an impossible situation for the MDA during the present wave of violence. Video footage showing wounded Palestinian terrorists not receiving potentially lifesaving aid from medical teams present at the scene – like the shooting of a wounded terrorist in Hebron last month – are liable to place the MDA in an embarrassing situation with the international institutions. Such behavior conflicts with the international conventions to which the MDA is committed, as are the medical teams that bear the organization’s symbols – even if there is no formal connection between it and Hatzalah Yehuda & Shomron.
For example, last October, Saad Muhammad Youssef al-Atrash, 19, was shot and seriously wounded in the wake of a stabbing attempt by him adjacent to the Jewish Avraham Avinu neighborhood in Hebron. He was filmed lying on the ground, as he bled to death over the course of some minutes, while the civilian and military medical teams at the site did nothing. A month later, at the Al-Fawwar junction near Hebron, a soldier was wounded in a stabbing attack and was treated by several medical teams that arrived on the scene, before being taken to hospital. Video footage uploaded to the Internet show the assailant, Mohammed al-Shubaki, lying on the ground for some time, dying of his gunshot wounds. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
In February, Yasmin a-Tamimi, a 14-year-old girl, was shot after trying to stab a Border Policeman near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. She, too, was filmed lying on the road for minutes, bleeding and receiving no medical aid. She died of her wounds after being taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem. The event was widely publicized because of another video clip filmed at the site, which showed a Border Policeman kicking an elderly man and knocking him out of his wheelchair. The invalid, together with other Palestinians seen in the video, had tried to get to the girl either to help her or to demand that she be given medical aid.
That incident was also documented from another angle – via the telephone of an ambulance driver named Ofer Ohana, from the Jewish settlement in Hebron. In the video, which was posted on social media sites by an organization called Friends in Need, Ohana’s voice is heard describing the scene as he films the wounded girl, who is bleeding profusely. Next to Ohana is a paramedic wearing blue gloves, who stands around doing nothing.
Besides being an ambulance driver, amateur photographer who reports from the field and the founder of Friends in Need, Ohana is also the director of the Gutnick Center for tourists in Hebron and of a local clubhouse for soldiers there. Ohana made the news in 2009, when he played Hasidic music at a high volume, in an effort to drown out the local muezzins’ calls to prayer. He is now one of the Hebron Jewish community’s most prominent figures.
Almost every soldier who does a stint in Hebron encounters him – either in the rest station or when they’re on guard duty at night, when he brings them snacks and hot drinks. According to his Facebook page, Ohana maintains warm relations with soldiers and senior officers, including former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
By the same token, Ohana is also a familiar figure to left-wing activists who visit Hebron. He’s been documented several times attacking activists from human rights organization B’Tselem and the Breaking the Silence organization verbally, sometimes even physically. A friend of Ohana’s relates that he knows of at least one instance in which soldiers at a checkpoint text-messaged Ohana to inform him that a tour group of one of the organizations was on its way to Hebron.
In the videos he posts online depicting the terror attacks, Ohana always sounds like the dominant voice. He’s often seen giving instructions to soldiers or police, warning them about threats, managing the rescue teams and interrogating Palestinians. In some cases, he seems to be taking charge of events and telling the security forces what to do. In most of the videos, he can also be heard cursing wounded and subdued assailants. He is not seen giving them medical aid in any of the footage.
Ohana declined to comment or be interviewed for this article, but the video footage indicates that his behavior is systematic. Some of his colleagues on Hebron-based rescue teams have declared that they will not treat Palestinian terrorists. According to a Hebron resident who wished to remain anonymous, this approach “is the heritage of Dr. Baruch Goldstein.” Goldstein was a physician from the settlement of Kiryat Arba adjacent to Hebron, who murdered 29 Muslim worshippers in a mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1994. He “was known for not being willing to treat terrorists,” this source says, adding that, like Goldstein, “Hebron ambulance crews assist and evacuate [Palestinian] people injured in road accidents, women about to give birth – Arabs who didn’t do anything. But in no case will they agree to treat terrorists.”
Ohana also arrived at the scene of the headline-making incident in Hebron on March 24. An edited version of the various clips of the event, edited by Haaretz, allows one to view, in chronological order, segments filmed from different angles, showing the actions of the Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria, and hear the voices around him just before he fired his fatal shot into the head of the wounded Palestinian, Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif. This version also makes clear the significant part played by Ohana as events unfolded.¨
The specially edited video shows Ohana arriving at the scene in the first ambulance. He then quickly removes a number of white cartons from it, although MDA procedure strictly prohibits the use of emergency vehicles for private deliveries. However, this is not the main problem with Ohana’s behavior at the site.
Haaretz exclusive: Shooting of wounded Palestinian assailant - as seen from every angle
The impression created by the first two minutes of the edited video, prior to Ohana’s arrival, is of a relatively calm atmosphere. Even though the army forces did not cordon off the site, as required, the situation appears to be under the control of the two squad commanders and, afterward, the company commander at the scene. At this stage, some of the soldiers are seen milling about in civilian attire, or in uniform, without bulletproof vests, helmets or other forms of protection. Settlers, too, are walking about freely, some taking pictures while cursing the wounded Palestinian.
Viewing the footage from the scene intercut chronologically shows clearly how the atmosphere changes when Ohana arrives. With panicky shouts, the ambulance driver takes command of the evacuation of the wounded soldier, while simultaneously filming the event with his mobile phone and commenting on the unfolding developments for his social media followers. At every available opportunity, he is seen inflaming the atmosphere. Ohana is the one who shouts, “That terrorist is still alive, that dog.” But instead of giving him medical assistance, he adds, “He’s alive, c’mere, someone should do something.” In the last video he uploaded from the scene, he is heard mocking a volunteer from the Zaka rescue unit who, together with soldiers, is carrying a stretcher with the body of one of the Palestinians. “My dream is to be a municipal worker, to collect garbage,” Ohana says. “Whoever comes to kill Jews, let them burn him in the fire of hell today. What are you evacuating him for? There are full garbage bins here. Let the dogs eat him. [He’s] a dog and the son of a dog.”
The debriefing carried out by Central Command states that there were two soldiers at the scene who were trained as paramedics. One of them was Azaria, who shot the wounded Palestinian. In addition, two ambulances arrived quickly from the Jewish settlement in Hebron, along with at least three volunteer civilians from Hatzalah Yehuda & Shomron. In the edited video, they are seen treating the wounded soldier until he is taken away in an ambulance. He receives devoted care: All the medical teams present came to the aid of one lightly wounded soldier. Accordingly, the medical section of the Central Command report stated (this was before the B’Tselem video went viral), “The incident was handled successfully.”
But it was, of course, a very limited success. The debriefing did not take into account the fact that for 11 minutes – from the moment he was shot the first time, until he was shot to death – Sharif lay on the ground, seriously wounded, without any of the paramedics checking his condition or treating him. It is clear from the edited video that this was also the situation even before anyone raised the suspicion that there might be an explosive device or called for a bomb disposal expert to be summoned.
MDA director-general Eli Bin responded scathingly to what he saw in the videos documenting Ohana’s actions and the footage of the Hebron event. “It is completely unacceptable,” he told Haaretz mid-month, adding, “The procedures will be improved in the wake of what happened. This week, I plan to make the rounds of all the medical teams operating in the sector and personally make things clear. Anyone who dares to violate these procedures and refrains from giving appropriate medical assistance to every person, irrespective of his identity or deeds, will find himself outside the organization.
“My first responsibility is, above all, for human life. Accordingly, the instructions to all the medical teams are not to approach terrorists at the site before the security forces confirm that this can be done,” continued Bin, adding, “Henceforth, the medical teams will be instructed to be active in this regard. They need to strive to treat the wounded and to demand that the security forces carry out an orderly clearance process [of suspects].”
The IDF, however, is far less willing to consider any criticism of its medical teams’ performance during terror attacks. According to a senior source in Central Command, “In the current wave of attacks, Central Command medical teams have treated about 400 casualties, of whom some 200 were Palestinians.” He added that the message that Palestinian casualties must be treated without reservation is conveyed to the field units, and some scenarios in exercises carried out by the medical teams include the simulation of wounded Palestinians. In light of the legal proceedings underway against Azaria, who has been charged with manslaughter, the source and others in the IDF were unwilling to comment on that specific event, including the performance of the paramedics at the scene.
In the wake of Ohana’s behavior in the Hebron incident, the IDF spokesperson lodged an unofficial complaint with the MDA. The MDA is not saying what action will be taken against Ohana, but people in the latter’s circle say he has already been forced to resign his position as an ambulance driver. He can still visit sites of terror attacks and inflame the situation in one of his other official capacities, however.
In November 2005, a historic event was held in Geneva in the presence of the head of Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue service, his Palestinian counterpart, the Swiss foreign minister and the illusionist Uri Geller. In a short but emotionally charged ceremony, the representatives of the Israeli organization and its counterpart the Palestinian Red Crescent signed a memorandum of understanding that earned them both official recognition by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – a status the MDA had been seeking since its foundation 58 years earlier. The agreement formalized the cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian organizations, and it called for closer ties between them, while ensuring the creation of joint projects.
In her moving comments, the Swiss minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, who later served as her country’s president, thanked the representatives of the organizations, the mediators and also Geller. She noted that Geller did more than “just help break the ice with the skills that have made him famous – a considerable number of bent spoons line the road that led to this agreement.”
But before joint projects could get underway, it turned out that the memorandum of understanding included clauses in which MDA recognized the fact that the areas conquered by Israel in 1967’s Six-Day War are Palestinian territory, and that the Red Crescent possessed national authority over them. By signing the memorandum, MDA also agreed that as a member of the federation of the International Red Cross, it had no authority outside Israel’s borders as they are recognized by the international community, and that every operation it conducted in the occupied territories had to be coordinated with Red Crescent.
Both the Red Cross in Israel and MDA have kept the details of their contacts secret. Nor are they willing to provide information about the implementation and enforcement of the memorandum’s clauses. However, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the negotiating process was provided by Geller in an interview he gave Jonathan Margolis, the author of the most recent biography of the magician, “The Secret Life of Uri Geller: CIA Masterspy?” According to Geller, who was president of the International Friends of MDA, on the eve of the signing ceremony, the Israeli Foreign Ministry almost stopped the process when it discovered that MDA would not even be able to operate in East Jerusalem. Geller revealed that an urgent late-night phone call to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon solved the problem.
After signing the memorandum, MDA formally stopped operating in the West Bank. It did so secretly and in stages, and today its presence there and in East Jerusalem is mostly covert. Whereas MDA stations within the 1967 borders are financed directly by the organization, which is responsible for its own budget, its units in the settlements get half their budget directly from the Health Ministry, with the rest coming from donations and the settlements themselves.
The ambulances that operate in the territories no longer belong to MDA, even though most of them bear the organization’s logo and sometimes also its name. The same goes for field volunteers in the territories, who get their training from MDA, but do not formally belong to it. They operate within the framework of Hatzalah Yehuda & Shomron (literally, Judea and Samaria Rescue) – an independent organization founded by the settlements’ security officers during the second intifada. Its president is Rabbi Dov Lior, the chief rabbi of Hebron and Kiryat Arba, who gave his imprimatur to a book about the religious precepts for killing gentiles (“The King’s Torah”), and who ruled, during the current wave of terror attacks, that “it is permitted to strike a terrorist even if he has already been subdued.”
Every stage in MDA’s disengagement from the West Bank drew furious protests from the settlers and the Israeli right. In August 2011, for example, MDA set about removing the red Stars of David from the ambulances in the settlements, in accordance with their commitment. The Yesha Council of settlements demanded a stop to this. Then-MK Arieh Eldad (National Union) termed the action “a disgraceful surrender to the dictates of the Arabs and assent to the notion that the areas of Judea and Samaria are occupied territories.” He added that the MDA’s move conflicted with the position of the Israeli government, “which views them as territories in dispute.”
For a few days in June 2013, MDA volunteers in the West Bank were required to wear medical vests that didn’t carry the organization’s logo. According to media reports, the directive was issued ahead of a visit by ICRC representatives to check the implementation of the understandings. Yesha Council chairman Avi Roeh termed this “an attempt to create separation between populations in the State of Israel.” He called on the MDA “not to surrender to anti-Israeli elements and not differentiate blood from blood.”
The truth cannot be bent like a spoon, and the state’s attempt to simultaneously admit and deny that an occupation exists has created an impossible situation for the MDA during the present wave of violence. Video footage showing wounded Palestinian terrorists not receiving potentially lifesaving aid from medical teams present at the scene – like the shooting of a wounded terrorist in Hebron last month – are liable to place the MDA in an embarrassing situation with the international institutions. Such behavior conflicts with the international conventions to which the MDA is committed, as are the medical teams that bear the organization’s symbols – even if there is no formal connection between it and Hatzalah Yehuda & Shomron.
For example, last October, Saad Muhammad Youssef al-Atrash, 19, was shot and seriously wounded in the wake of a stabbing attempt by him adjacent to the Jewish Avraham Avinu neighborhood in Hebron. He was filmed lying on the ground, as he bled to death over the course of some minutes, while the civilian and military medical teams at the site did nothing. A month later, at the Al-Fawwar junction near Hebron, a soldier was wounded in a stabbing attack and was treated by several medical teams that arrived on the scene, before being taken to hospital. Video footage uploaded to the Internet show the assailant, Mohammed al-Shubaki, lying on the ground for some time, dying of his gunshot wounds. He was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
In February, Yasmin a-Tamimi, a 14-year-old girl, was shot after trying to stab a Border Policeman near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. She, too, was filmed lying on the road for minutes, bleeding and receiving no medical aid. She died of her wounds after being taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem. The event was widely publicized because of another video clip filmed at the site, which showed a Border Policeman kicking an elderly man and knocking him out of his wheelchair. The invalid, together with other Palestinians seen in the video, had tried to get to the girl either to help her or to demand that she be given medical aid.
That incident was also documented from another angle – via the telephone of an ambulance driver named Ofer Ohana, from the Jewish settlement in Hebron. In the video, which was posted on social media sites by an organization called Friends in Need, Ohana’s voice is heard describing the scene as he films the wounded girl, who is bleeding profusely. Next to Ohana is a paramedic wearing blue gloves, who stands around doing nothing.
Besides being an ambulance driver, amateur photographer who reports from the field and the founder of Friends in Need, Ohana is also the director of the Gutnick Center for tourists in Hebron and of a local clubhouse for soldiers there. Ohana made the news in 2009, when he played Hasidic music at a high volume, in an effort to drown out the local muezzins’ calls to prayer. He is now one of the Hebron Jewish community’s most prominent figures.
Almost every soldier who does a stint in Hebron encounters him – either in the rest station or when they’re on guard duty at night, when he brings them snacks and hot drinks. According to his Facebook page, Ohana maintains warm relations with soldiers and senior officers, including former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.
By the same token, Ohana is also a familiar figure to left-wing activists who visit Hebron. He’s been documented several times attacking activists from human rights organization B’Tselem and the Breaking the Silence organization verbally, sometimes even physically. A friend of Ohana’s relates that he knows of at least one instance in which soldiers at a checkpoint text-messaged Ohana to inform him that a tour group of one of the organizations was on its way to Hebron.
In the videos he posts online depicting the terror attacks, Ohana always sounds like the dominant voice. He’s often seen giving instructions to soldiers or police, warning them about threats, managing the rescue teams and interrogating Palestinians. In some cases, he seems to be taking charge of events and telling the security forces what to do. In most of the videos, he can also be heard cursing wounded and subdued assailants. He is not seen giving them medical aid in any of the footage.
Ohana declined to comment or be interviewed for this article, but the video footage indicates that his behavior is systematic. Some of his colleagues on Hebron-based rescue teams have declared that they will not treat Palestinian terrorists. According to a Hebron resident who wished to remain anonymous, this approach “is the heritage of Dr. Baruch Goldstein.” Goldstein was a physician from the settlement of Kiryat Arba adjacent to Hebron, who murdered 29 Muslim worshippers in a mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1994. He “was known for not being willing to treat terrorists,” this source says, adding that, like Goldstein, “Hebron ambulance crews assist and evacuate [Palestinian] people injured in road accidents, women about to give birth – Arabs who didn’t do anything. But in no case will they agree to treat terrorists.”
Ohana also arrived at the scene of the headline-making incident in Hebron on March 24. An edited version of the various clips of the event, edited by Haaretz, allows one to view, in chronological order, segments filmed from different angles, showing the actions of the Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria, and hear the voices around him just before he fired his fatal shot into the head of the wounded Palestinian, Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif. This version also makes clear the significant part played by Ohana as events unfolded.¨
The specially edited video shows Ohana arriving at the scene in the first ambulance. He then quickly removes a number of white cartons from it, although MDA procedure strictly prohibits the use of emergency vehicles for private deliveries. However, this is not the main problem with Ohana’s behavior at the site.
Haaretz exclusive: Shooting of wounded Palestinian assailant - as seen from every angle
The impression created by the first two minutes of the edited video, prior to Ohana’s arrival, is of a relatively calm atmosphere. Even though the army forces did not cordon off the site, as required, the situation appears to be under the control of the two squad commanders and, afterward, the company commander at the scene. At this stage, some of the soldiers are seen milling about in civilian attire, or in uniform, without bulletproof vests, helmets or other forms of protection. Settlers, too, are walking about freely, some taking pictures while cursing the wounded Palestinian.
Viewing the footage from the scene intercut chronologically shows clearly how the atmosphere changes when Ohana arrives. With panicky shouts, the ambulance driver takes command of the evacuation of the wounded soldier, while simultaneously filming the event with his mobile phone and commenting on the unfolding developments for his social media followers. At every available opportunity, he is seen inflaming the atmosphere. Ohana is the one who shouts, “That terrorist is still alive, that dog.” But instead of giving him medical assistance, he adds, “He’s alive, c’mere, someone should do something.” In the last video he uploaded from the scene, he is heard mocking a volunteer from the Zaka rescue unit who, together with soldiers, is carrying a stretcher with the body of one of the Palestinians. “My dream is to be a municipal worker, to collect garbage,” Ohana says. “Whoever comes to kill Jews, let them burn him in the fire of hell today. What are you evacuating him for? There are full garbage bins here. Let the dogs eat him. [He’s] a dog and the son of a dog.”
The debriefing carried out by Central Command states that there were two soldiers at the scene who were trained as paramedics. One of them was Azaria, who shot the wounded Palestinian. In addition, two ambulances arrived quickly from the Jewish settlement in Hebron, along with at least three volunteer civilians from Hatzalah Yehuda & Shomron. In the edited video, they are seen treating the wounded soldier until he is taken away in an ambulance. He receives devoted care: All the medical teams present came to the aid of one lightly wounded soldier. Accordingly, the medical section of the Central Command report stated (this was before the B’Tselem video went viral), “The incident was handled successfully.”
But it was, of course, a very limited success. The debriefing did not take into account the fact that for 11 minutes – from the moment he was shot the first time, until he was shot to death – Sharif lay on the ground, seriously wounded, without any of the paramedics checking his condition or treating him. It is clear from the edited video that this was also the situation even before anyone raised the suspicion that there might be an explosive device or called for a bomb disposal expert to be summoned.
MDA director-general Eli Bin responded scathingly to what he saw in the videos documenting Ohana’s actions and the footage of the Hebron event. “It is completely unacceptable,” he told Haaretz mid-month, adding, “The procedures will be improved in the wake of what happened. This week, I plan to make the rounds of all the medical teams operating in the sector and personally make things clear. Anyone who dares to violate these procedures and refrains from giving appropriate medical assistance to every person, irrespective of his identity or deeds, will find himself outside the organization.
“My first responsibility is, above all, for human life. Accordingly, the instructions to all the medical teams are not to approach terrorists at the site before the security forces confirm that this can be done,” continued Bin, adding, “Henceforth, the medical teams will be instructed to be active in this regard. They need to strive to treat the wounded and to demand that the security forces carry out an orderly clearance process [of suspects].”
The IDF, however, is far less willing to consider any criticism of its medical teams’ performance during terror attacks. According to a senior source in Central Command, “In the current wave of attacks, Central Command medical teams have treated about 400 casualties, of whom some 200 were Palestinians.” He added that the message that Palestinian casualties must be treated without reservation is conveyed to the field units, and some scenarios in exercises carried out by the medical teams include the simulation of wounded Palestinians. In light of the legal proceedings underway against Azaria, who has been charged with manslaughter, the source and others in the IDF were unwilling to comment on that specific event, including the performance of the paramedics at the scene.
In the wake of Ohana’s behavior in the Hebron incident, the IDF spokesperson lodged an unofficial complaint with the MDA. The MDA is not saying what action will be taken against Ohana, but people in the latter’s circle say he has already been forced to resign his position as an ambulance driver. He can still visit sites of terror attacks and inflame the situation in one of his other official capacities, however.
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