Today, June 11th marks the second anniversary of the murder of East Jerusalem Palestinian, Ziad Jilani. He was killed execution-style by Maxim Vinogradov of the Israeli Border Police on June 11, 2010 as he was driving home from Friday prayers to treat his American-born wife, Moira and his three children to dinner out. I’ve written extensively about Jilani’s murder in a number of posts here.
An East Jerusalem memorial took place a few hours ago attended by nearly 300 people. There will be a memorial tonight at the Israeli consulate in New York City at 800 2nd Avenue, near 42nd Street from 5-7PM (local time). In Los Angeles, there will be a memorial organized by the local Jewish Voice for Peace chapter and Ziad’s sister, Iman at the Israeli consulate, 11766 Wilshire Boulevard from 5-7PM. There was an event at the Israeli consulate in Toronto on June 9th. There will also be a memorial at the Israeli consulate in Helsinki.
Organizers are also seeking 3,000 signatures on a petition intended for Israel’s attorney general, asking him to reopen the criminal case against Vinogradov which was closed by a regional court “for lack of evidence.” It is urgent that you participate, as AG Weinstein will make his decision in the next nine days. Also, visit the website launched to memorialize Jilani and demand justice on his behalf at Killing Without Consequence. If you’re on Twitter, tweet #EndIsraeliImpunity as often as you can today to see if we can get it trending in memory of Ziad.
As I write this, Channel 2 news is airing a 2 1/2 minute segment on the murder.
The only IDF soldiers who’s ever been held accountable for killing a Palestinian have been non-Jewish (Druze in particular). No Jewish soldier has ever been charged in such crimes. We aim to change that and make all Israeli soldiers accountable.
Thank you, Richard. And thank you to everyone who pushes for accountability for the crimes committed against Palestinians and internationals by Israeli soldiers. Today was also the anniversary of the death of Tom Hurndall, who was shot to death by an Israeli soldier. Even though the soldier was tried and convicted, his sentence was very short. But in the cases of Palestinians, no Israeli soldier has ever been convicted or held responsible.
Yes, he was the Druze soldier I alluded to in this post who was imprisoned for murdering Tom.
He isn’t Druze.
No, Wahid Taysir Hayb is a Bedouin -even lower down the ethnocratic hierarchy – and thus a non-Jew. How come you didn’t mention that ? You wanted us to think he was a Jew ?
Richard’s main point stands: the distinction is between Jews and non-Jews.
Thank you for adding that additional information. I certainly did not mean to give the impression that this murderer was a Jew, just that he was not a Druze. Tom Hurndall’s killer, Taysir Hayb, is a Muslim. I appreciate your clearing up any confusion with regard to that fact.
You can be Muslim AND Druze, depending on how you consider youself. I know in Israel the ethnic-religious classification imposed by the State tend to distinguish (to divide ?) but the Druze religion – a off-spring from Shia-Islam – is considered Muslim by a major Fatwa by al-Azhar from back in the 1950’s. We’ve had the discussion here before, and I read a Druze forum at the time to see how Druze consider themselves. They all considered themselves to be Muslims whereas the ‘out-siders’ participating in the debate – mostly Lebanese and Syrians – were divided on that topic. Druze recite the ‘shahada’ at funerals for instance.
Bob, what difference does it make if he was a Druze or a Jew or whatever? He was an IOF soldier, that is the salient point here.
The distinction was made in the original blog post:
“The only IDF soldiers who’s ever been held accountable for killing a Palestinian have been non-Jewish (Druze in particular).”
This appeared to be a salient point, otherwise why include that paragraph?
I certainly think the ethnic-religious origin of the IDF-soldier is important and I think Richard is asking questions such as:
1. If Tom Hurndall hadn’t been an American citizen but a Palestinian, let’s say Ziad Jilani, would Wahid Taysir Hayb have been sentenced ?
2. If Tom Hurndall had been shot by an Israeli Jewish soldier, would that soldier have been sentenced equally as the Bedouin soldier
3. If Tom Hurndall had been a Palestinian, let’s say Ziad Jilani, and shot by an Israeli Jewish soldier would that soldier even have been to court ?
If Ziad Jilani had been a Jew, would he have been finished off with a bullet in his head lying on the ground ? Well, I think I know at least that answer – but then I’m a ‘petty mean anti-Israeli bigot’….:-D
I don’t know if there are any ‘good’ AGs around, but when I saw the name Weinstein, my heart sunk.
He’s the AG who refused to indict the Rabbis in Safed calling – combined with some pressure – on houseowners not to rent to Palestinian students.
He’s also the AG who dismissed a case against Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur, co-authors of ‘The King’s Torah’, a couple of weeks back.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-ag-closes-probe-into-authors-of-allegedly-racist-book-1.433041
I don’t condone the manner of the execution-style killing of Ziad Jilani and I’ve signed the petition calling for re-examination of the circumstances, However, the circumstances described by his wife Moira show that highly-apprehensive soldiers could reasonably have thought that he’d made a clumsy attempt to run down border guards – I very much doubt that this petition will succeed. But we still have to make the effort to ensure that Israel maintains the best standards of jurisprudence and behaviour.
The point is that it takes a thorough inquiry by objective persons and not those with political agendas or bigotry guiding them. I clearly recall the description of the events as related by Richard when he originally wrote of Ziad Jilani’s death. Sorry, but I don’t see where gunning down a clearly unarmed man who had voluntarily stopped his vehicle and gotten out is excusable, especially when border guards should not be “apprehensive” but professional in their demeanor. Who, at this point is going to “make the effort to ensure that Israel maintains the best standards of jurisprudence and behavior”? Are you seriously asking? Perhaps we could ask all the other dead Palestinians whose killers were never brought to justice. Another comes to mine – Bassem Abu Rahmeh of Bilin, who was shot in the chest with a tear gas canister by an Israeli soldier. The soldier was not charged with a crime even though video clearly captured him taking aim and firing directly at Bassem.
Ma’an has an article about Ziad Jilani and the Global Campaign.
Click on the photo: there are two more to come. The meeting in the theatre seems to be well attended:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=494710
The case against Maxim Vinongrad was closed, despite the evidence, which can be seen in a video here.
Campaign: Killing Without Consequence
http://palsolidarity.org/2012/05/campaign-killing-without-consequence/
Also, it may be too simplistic to say that punishment alone for Maxim should be sufficient. Israeli racism plays a part too. Like the bullied becoming a bully later on , so the discriminated against discriminates.
This ugly face of Israeli racism manifested itself recently in the African immigrant scandal. Though even that is too simplistic. So many Russians left Israel becaues they were discriminated against. If it isn’t Jew v Palestinian, it’s White v Black, and if it isn’t that, it’s Ashkenazi v Sefardi, and if it isn’t that, it West Europeans v East Europeans, or Western Jews v Russian Jews,
Why don’t they just make racism illegal? what is wrong with these boneheads. But even that doesn’t mean that all wouldn’t discriminate against Palestinians, or that even if it were, it would be in name only so as continue with the pretence of being a ‘democracy’.
Well, to make racism illegal would require that Israel have a constitution, which of course it doesn’t have.
And there is more than racism here. You have to look at the engine that is behind the racism, and that is Zionism. The worthlessness of Palestinian lives, in the eyes of the Israeli government, reminds us that the purpose of the engine is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.