The Shin Bet appears to have gone on a tear in arresting Israeli Palestinians over the past few weeks. There are now at least four who’ve been arrested, the last three under gag. I reported on the first arrest, of Dr. Eyad Jawhari of Majdal Shams earlier this month. He is still imprisoned at Kishon prison after being moved from there to Shikma and back again. Though he was arrested at the end of June, the security services have refused to allow him to consult either with his attorney or to speak with his family. He has been incommunicado for three weeks, standard operating procedure for the Israeli secret police. Though there was an initial gag concerning his arrest, shortly after I broke the story the Shin Bet partially removed the gag. Now they may report the detainee’s name, though there is no official word on the charges against him.
In the short space of the past few days, three more Israeli Palestinians have been secretly detained. They are:
Abdul Basset Zo’abi of northern Israel (no further information known as of this time)
Salman Hassan Safadi: his arrest reported by the Golani Arabic language news service, Baladee, which notes that the Shin Bet “turned his house upside down” and confiscated mobile phones & computers. Like Jawhari, I’ve confirmed he is a resident of Majdal Shams, though neither Jawhari’s lawyer or family know if there is any connection between the two arrests.
Musa Khatib, a resident of the divided (Lebanese-Israeli) village of Ghajar, whose residents are largely Alawite, the same Muslim sect as Syria’s ruler, Bashar al-Assad. He is currently in Shikma Prison, outside Ashkelon.
Though I do not know the charges against these individuals, the fact that they were arrested by the Shin Bet under gag indicates a strong likelihood they were arrested on security charges. This, of course doesn’t mean they endangered the security of Israel. Far more likely they were engaged in political or nationalist activism, which is viewed as subversion by Israeli authorities.
Compare this treatment to that accorded to Jack Teitel, a Jewish settler terrorist who bombed other Israeli Jews, Christians and Palestinians, killing a number and severely wounding others. He even murdered two Israeli policemen. Only recently, years after his killing spree began, did the court accept a plea bargain by which Teitel admitted killing two Palestinians, though the court still has not formally convicted him or even found him criminally liable. There appears to have been some struggle about whether to declare him insane and so be rid of a criminal trial (a tactic often used by the authorities to avoid sending Jewish terrorists to prison). At any rate, he’s still officially in possession of his faculties, and free.
Another example of this sort of laxity concerns Dor Oved, who repeatedly vandalized the offices of Peace Now, the home of Hagit Ofran and cars of her neighbors, and other public property. He e-mailed death threats and scrawled them in graffiti messages on the walls of building housing Peace Now and at Ofran’s home. After a new round of this nonsense, the police have finally arrested him and charged him with some of these acts. But he was first arrested last November and sent home to his parents, where he promptly reoffended by sending out the e mail death threats.
The worst thing about this story is that Oved’s name is under gag not because of any serious security danger, but because both his parents work for the security apparatus, he for the Shin Bet and she for the police. When a photographer took the father’s picture at the court house, he assaulted the photographer warning that she should know who he was. Despite the incorrigible nature of this Arab and Jew hater, his identity and that of his parents are still forbidden for Israelis to know (unless they read this blog).
So there you have it: four Israeli Palestinians about whom we know almost nothing, including what they’re charged with. They have had no contact with lawyers or family and their names are under gag so that no one can rally to their support. As opposed to Dor Oved, coddled by the State, afforded the finest lawyers, sent home by the court to his parents, where he promptly continued his campaign of hate. His identity is protected by an arbitrary use of power on the part of the state security police. This is “democracy,” Israel-style.
Since these Palestinians are not citizens of Israel (yet within Israel’s borders and ancestrally with empirical evidence to support it), Israel can still be considered a beacon of democracy…. right?? Right?!?!?!?!
So what if they’re subject to checkpoints and have their entire economic sphere controlled by their real keepers, the ones who don’t “occupy”, don’t “settle”, and are the only civilized part of a primitive, dog-eat-dog world? They are not Israeli! So, when you count just the “Israelis”, you can see: voila, beacon of democracy, right? Well, the count should be N-1 since one individual BURNED HIMSELF.
You can call it any -ISM you want. It’s all the same in various countries that continue to baffle the world with their warmongering stances against Iran, and continue to repeat the same lies about their nuclear program to level sanctions against Iran analogous to the ones leveled against Iraq that proved to kill MANY babies. All of these countries have a strong Zionist influence and the grip is financial.
Of course, the caveats: no generalizations against Judaism here. Is it far fetched that Judaism also has its own extremist version of “Al Qaeda”? Is it possible this one started centuries ago right around the French Revolution? The continuity of the Andrew Jackson battle versus the centralized bank and his reappearance on the $20 bill 70 years later would prove it. The people who generalize and try to associate Zionism with Judaism do not do the world Jewry, who is largely innocent and also pulled by their noses in many regards like the rest of the world, justice. Generally speaking, anyone who is a humanitarian can see some light in Israel. Of course, the obvious question: what did they do to all the Arabs living on the land before that? The Balfour Declaration specifically warned not to hurt them, and suddenly, they disappeared. Further, they are being slowly disintegrated in mainstream environments in America with Presidential hopefuls like Gingrich declaring their entire existence to be a fraud.
So, do we count the Palestinians in when rendering a description of Israel or do we control the conversation with the typical race card exploitations?
Ghajar is not on the border between Lebanon and Israel but between Lebanon and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. It might have an influence on what citizenship Musa Khatib has.
And I think talking about Israeli Palestinians in this context isn’t very precise. As far as I can see only one of them, Zoabi, is an Israeli Palestinian.
The others are not Palestinians but rather two Druze from the Syrian occupied Golan Heights and an Alawite from Lebanon or Syria. I tried to find further informations whether they are Israeli citizens or not, but didn’t find anything.
My impression is – but maybe I’m wrong – that only Druze who have kept their Syrian citizenship (a large majority of the Golani Druze) are allowed to study in Syria, in which case Dr Jawhari isn’t an Israeli citizen. Again, maybe I’m wrong.
Sorry. I remembered there was something particular about citizenship in Ghajar: Basically the Syrian side has Israeli citizenship, and the Lebanese side often Lebanese and Israeli. Wikipedia has some futher informations and a good map of Ghajar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghajar
The name Safadi indicates his family’s origin was in or near Tzfat, though he now lives in Majdal Shams. That might mean that he is Israeli Palestinian. The prisoner from Ghajar being Alawite, my designation of him as Israeli Palestinian was wrong. Jawhari is Druze and lives in occupied Golan, so that term is wrong for him as well. I put the post together quickly and tried to use a single term to incorporate all the detainees. My error.
“Though I do not know the charges against these individuals, the fact that they were arrested by the Shin Bet under gag indicates a strong likelihood they were arrested on security charges. This, of course doesn’t mean they endangered the security of Israel.” – if you don’t know what are the charges why are you speculating?
One has to speculate because charges may not be brought against these individuals. Even if charges are finally brought, there is no harm in speculating based upon Shin Bet history, etc. As for “endangering the security of Israel”, there is much evidence to suggest that many such arrests serve political purposes (namely to terrorize) and are not based upon genuine security concerns. As this has been documented elsewhere, RS comments help readers understand what the news may MEAN, a responsibility of journalism all but abandoned by the MSM.
The rest of us know enough about the Shin Bet to understand that if they arrest an Arab they’re not doing it for the pleasure of it, but rather because the secret police believe they’re a threat. The only threat they could be is a security threat. Hence it’s a 99.5% chance that this is the reason. If you don’t believe it, find out what the charges are & report back to us if I’m wrong.
My bad it was suppose to be like that: ” Far more likely they were engaged in political or nationalist activism, which is viewed as subversion by Israeli authorities.” – if you don’t know why are you speculating?
I’m “speculating” based on years of covering precisely such arrests. The Shin Bet doesn’t change its spots. It follows the same routine, same charges, same results w. most security prisoners. Same old boring same-old.
Oh, and one more thing. Druze that lives in the Golan is not a Palestinian. I thinks that you should know that already.
Update: Apparently, some the abovenamed suspects nabbed by Shin Bet were ‘proper villains’! Ouch.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=280591
The operative word is “apparently” as in “allegedly.” In my country we presume someone innocent & force the state to prove their guilt. Israel apparently does things differently as they’re already guilty in your eyes & those of most other Israelis.
Either the suspects are guilty of smuggling explosives, or the explosives were planted on them by the Shin Bet.
Which do you think is the more likely scenario?
Sorry, it’s not an “either/or” situation. There could be 1,000 scenarios. But either one of the ones you mentioned might be true, plus many others. As for planting evidence, you aren’t seriously arguing the Shin Bet would never do such a thing, are you?