With each day that goes by the murder of Mohamed Abu Khdeir becomes ever more bestial. Haaretz reports (Hebrew print edition only so far) that before he was burned to death he was doused with gasoline and forced to drink the fluid. No doubt, the killers wanted him to burn from the outside and inside:
According to Palestinian public prosecutor, the findings of the autopsy were that Abu Khdeir was struck on the head and then burned to death: there were signs of ash in his lungs showing that he was alive when his body was incinerated. The police investigation determined that the youth was forced to drink the gasoline used to set his body alight.
A rabbi in a settlement in Samaria has even spoken for hanging the suspects for their crime. But that avoids the real heart of the problem: punishment isn’t the answer. Solving the root causes of the conflict with justice and compromise from both sides. That’s the way to end this insanity. Unfortunately, Israel and Palestine have become places that Martin Luther King said are blind and toothless: “The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”
Let us not allow Israel to get itself off the hook with pious platitudes and denunciations of the crime. That does not absolve them of guilt. This is a crime of the entire nation. Not just the lunatic killers. The entire nation should do teshuvah for this horrific act. If there isn’t massive soul-searching it will only confirm the inhumanity of both the nation and the Zionist nationalism on which it was founded.
I wrote a post two days ago that suggested that Abu Khdeir’s death was a martyrdom. He is a shahid (in Hebrew, a korban-literally “sacrifice”) in the finest sense of the term. No matter how scared and beaten down he was, his suffering makes him and his cause noble. His immolation purifies his soul and blackens those of his killers. There is only one way to understand this horrific crime. If we choose to see it in the terms his killers wanted, then we give them a moral victory. I will deny them that at all costs.
[comment deleted: yes, your Islamophobia is showing. This is a place for intelligent, if at time contentious discourse. A place where opinions are backed by evidence, sources and facts. If you’re here to spout those opinions devoid of proof, then you’re in the wrong place. Try a wrestling ring or Yisrael Medad. That’s more your style.]
[comment deleted–that’s it. You’ve been warned multiple times. Future comments will be moderated and ones that violate the comment rules will not be published. Future violations could lead to losing your commenting privileges entirely.]
They had the licence plate number and the video from day one and it took them 5 days to arrest people. Plus they spread rumours. Shameful.
Two videos in fact, and the one from Muhammad Abukheir’s father’s video surveillance clearly shows the faces of the two kidnappers. Palestinians gave all these informations, if not, those killers would never be found, I’m sure of that.
Two years ago a whole Palestinian family (small kids included) were severely burnt when settler thugs threw a Molotov through the open window of their car. The Israeli police traced the attack to Bat Ayin, a nearby settlement known for extremists elements, they took some teenagers off for interrogation, and that’s it. No one was killed but that’t purely luck.
And when thugs lynched a young Palestinian in Zion Square while dozens of bystanders applauded, and prevented the ambulance from arriving, the police ‘lost’ 8 hours of the filmed interrogation. The leader stated after being arrested that he didn’t care whether the Palestinian youth died or not. He was sentented to eight month if my memory is correct.
PS. Wikipedia has a page on the Zion Square assault (in fact it happened the same day as the molotov cocktail ‘incident’), Richard also wrote about it. http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion_Square_assault
Reading “hila”, “Sanych” and others reminds me of Gideon Levy who likes to say that the Israeli occupation is maybe not the worst in world history, but it is the only one where the occupiers/the oppressors firmly believe they are the real victims, and the only victims. God bless Gideon Levy !
As usual, you deliberately twist the meaning of what was said. Nobody – neither me nor anybody else – said that Israelis / Jews are the only victims in this conflict.
Side note – I should have signed my reply to you as “Hebron 1929”.
And I didn’t say you said… I said reading you and others reminded me of Gideon Levy’s words.
You really don’t know what “Deir Yassin” means to the Palestinians, do you ?
Listen to this, and look at the pictures: “The Ghosts of Deir Yassin” (the text is embedded too)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vJR3yss04M&hd=1
“They change the names on the signs
But it’s in our hearts these words are written
Of the children who don’t know their homes
They will walk the streets from which they are forbidden
You see that we are rising our day is surely coming
No longer in the shadows
Of the ghosts of Deir Yassin
Of the old ones now passed on
But it’s their blood our hearts are pumping
They will walk with us when we return to their towns
Whose names will live again”
PS. I don’t know if it’s true but I read the body of Muhammad Abu Khdreir was found close to the ruins of Deir Yassin, that is close to Yad Vashem too….
I do know about Deir Yassin. That’s why I mentioned Hebron 1929.
You are fast on accusations, but it is you who is ignorant…
@ sanych: You calling someone Deir Yassin “ignorant.” That’s a laugh!
shows character going ad hominum!
“I do know about Deir Yassin. ”
I didn’t say you don’t know about Deir Yassin. I said “You really don’t know what Deir Yassin means to the Palestinians”. Making an analogy between Hebron 1929 and Deir Yassin 1948 shows that you don’t understand the symbolism of Deir Yassin to the Palestinians.
You know there’s a mental hospital (Kfar Shaul) in the last remaining buildings of Deir Yassin, specialized in a particular frequent Israeli pathology, “the syndrom of the eternal victim” and patients have claimed ghosts appear late at night speaking to them in Arabic….
[More Islamophobia and Arabophobia–you simply won’t get published by repeating anti-Arab propaganda. The next time you do try to do so you will lose your comment privileges entirely.]
Thank you for confirming that you have no idea what Deir Yassin is symbolizing. And yeah, I know, “you” are different, better, much better than “us”. The ‘Pals’ really should take their camels and get off that land so it could be honored by your exclusive presence, shouldn’t they….
[comment deleted–stop arguing with being moderated and instead publish posts that respect the comment rules. Then they’ll be published.]
[comment deleted–Arabophobia/Islamophobia is not permitted and no such comments will be published here. Read the comment rules carefully and respect them if you choose to comment here again. If you don’t, you may be moderated.]
Shaids…. right. Go peddle your nonsense elswhere.
I agree with Mr. Silverstein that there is one fundamental issue that needs to be resolved. However, I disagree with jos perspective and don’t think it is the issue between Israelis and Palestinians.
The issue is that Arab/Muslim world cannot accept a Jewish state in its midst. Period. The rest is commentary.
jos – his.
@ sanych: I don’t understand why you’re here. Clearly, everything about this blog and 95% of those who comment here rejects summarily the idea that the problem is the Arab world rejects Israel. So why bother? Do you enjoy hitting your head against a brick wall?
There’s no reason the Arab world should accept a Jewish state. They should accept Israel, which is different (or should be). And so they have according to the Arab League peace plan.
Why am I here?
Tikkun Olam.
In practice, not just in words.
@ sanych: Don’t make me vomit. You’re a Jewish Islamophobe. You hate Arabs and that is NOT tikun olam.
[comment deleted: I’d say YOU are downright offensive and an insult to the world of reason and reality.]
“The entire nation should do teshuvah for this horrific act.” Stop blood libeling against me. I see from wikipedia that you were born in 1952. That means you were old enough to remember various vicious murderers who killed in the United States, such as Charles Manson, Ted Bundy and Jeffery Dahmer. Did you tell the people of the states in which those murderers killed that they need to do teshuvah? Or for that matter, have you told the Palestinians to make teshuvah for the countless of murders committed by the terrorists among them?
@ Oren: I’m glad you’ve compared Batzri and the Jewish terror cell to serial killers. Because they are alike in being a plague against society that must be uprooted at any cost. But the killers you mention murderered out of psychological defect. They were sociopaths beset by psychic demons and horrific abuse as children. The only abuse Batzri suffered was being ingrained with the hate that permeated his mind. His murder was motivated by racism and is a hate crime. That is not at all what motivated the serial killers you mention.
It’s not my business to tell Palestinians what to do. But I trust that if enough Jews and Israelis do the right thing, Palestinians will be empowered to do the same. If Israelis continue being as obdurate and hateful as you, there’s no hope.
Abuse the term “blood libel” again here & you’ll be moderated. Read the comment rules carefully.
@Oren Those are not good analogues as they were not nationalist racial crimes. A better analogy is Emmet Till, the black 14 year old who was beaten literally to a pulp by White racists in Mississippi because he foolishly whistled at a white woman! He was a Northern black visiting relatives in the South and really didn’t know much about the virulent racism of the deep South. It was an unbearable crime in 1955.
And Abu Khdier’s murder is unspeakable and unbearable coming, as it does, from the dark heart of racism not national politics, as such. No matter what — this murder REFLECTS Israel just as Till’s murder captured American racism. I am so ashamed of what these “Zionists” have done to others day in and day out over decades in the name of a phony baloney “people” and an idea that is dated and stupid. That they have murdered Zionism seems obvious, but they may also have mortally wounded Judaism. Maybe it’s for the best.
@David (July 7, 2014, 10:00 PM): I agree with your comment about the analogies. Just one small clarification about Emmet Till. He was accused of whistling at the white lady, but didn’t whistle at her to her face. He did it out of earshot of the white lady to a group of other African American guys who happened to be hanging around outside the store. The next day, one of those guys allegedly told the white lady’s husband that the ‘northern’ boy had whistled at her, which was untrue. But your comment is spot on.
Sanych is representative. The U.S. has poured billions down the rathole of a phony peace process only buying time to steal more land from Palestine. There are Arab peace plans on the table that could have straightened out the mess yesterday. I know this is hard for the Talmudically oriented, but try to imagine yourself in the shoes of Palestinians–would YOU put up with this type of treatment? Total bad faith on the part of Israel. It is very easy to get a few dupes or assets to set off rockets at convenient junctures so there is never peace. And as for the killing of Israeli teens, I hope the average Israeli is not so brain dead as to see problems with the official account and government response. The threats toward Palestine uttered by Netanyahu when they formed a unity government (necessary for peace) coupled with the precognition of the kidnapping by a Mossad spokesman a week earlier should give pause for thought. And the rockets…they seem to have little problem getting through impen etrable “Iron Dome”!
[comment deleted–off topic]
“It is very easy to get a few dupes or assets to set off rockets at convenient junctures so there is never peace.”
I am not so sure that you are right here. Hamas is not in complete control of everything that goes on in Gaza. Other groups send projectiles on their own. Are you saying that members of Hamas in Gaza are in Israel’s pocket, or that members of the other groups are?
You also say:
“And as for the killing of Israeli teens, I hope the average Israeli is not so brain dead as to see problems with the official account and government response. The threats toward Palestine uttered by Netanyahu when they formed a unity government (necessary for peace) coupled with the precognition of the kidnapping by a Mossad spokesman a week earlier should give pause for thought.”
When you mention ‘pre-recognition’, do you mean Israel abducted those teenagers and killed them, so they could root out Hamas in the West Bank and break the unity government? Or do you mean the Israeli’s allowed a certain group to do this, so they could root out Hamas etc.?
Your language is not too clear, but you do seem to make some assumptions.
Hello Sir, would you mind posting a link to the Haaretz article where you include the Hebrew text jpg in this thread please. I can’t seem to locate it in Hebrew or English.
Many thanks
That was from the print edition. I don’t have the link to it either in the Hebrew or English online version. If it was published online perhaps another reader may have it.
Revenge is an ancient animalistic habit which shows relics of the animalistic side of human beings.
It is ancient, because nowadays we have laws both for bad behaviour as for punishment. Some jewish people and not to forget americans (killing Bin Laden instantly) still live in the middle ages in which the old bible was the only rule……
Ignoring international laws of human rights is a criminal offence in itself
From the Noble Qur’an:
Indeed we gave the children of Israel the Book, and wisdom, and the prophecy, and we provided them with good things and favored them above all creation. (45:16)
O children of Israel, indeed we delivered you from your enemy and made a covenant with you on the right side of the mountain, and we sent down for you manna and quails. (20:80)
We made a covenant with you, that you not shed each others’ blood, nor evict each other from your homes. You agreed and bore witness. Yet it is you who are killing each other and evicting a group among you from their homes, supporting each other against them unlawfully and aggressively; and if they should come to you as captives you would ransom them– while evicting them was unlawful for you. Do you then believe in a part of the Book and disbelieve in the other? (Qur’an 2:84-85)
You have known those among you who violated the Sabbath, so we said to them: “Be despicable apes.” (Qur’an 2:65)
Say, “O people of the scripture, do you resent us because we believe in God, and in what was sent down to us, and in what was sent down before us, and because most of you are not righteous?” (Qur’an 5:59)
We sent down the Torah, in which there is guidance and light, by which the prophets who submitted judged the Jews, as did the rabbis and the priests, according to what they were required to observe of God’s Book, and thereunto were they witnesses. So do not fear people, but fear me, and do not sell my signs for minor gain. Whoever does not judge by what God has sent down are disbelievers. (Qur’an 5:44)
They are not all alike; among the people of the Book there is an upstanding community. They recite God’s revelations through the night, and they fall prostrate. They believe in God and the last day. They advocate good and forbid evil, and they hasten to do good works. These are among the righteous. Whatever good they do will not be denied. God
knows those who are reverent. (Qur’an 3:113-115).
Surely those who believe, those who are Jews, the Sabians, and the Christians, whoever believes in God and the last day and does good, has nothing to fear nor will they grieve. (Qur’an 5:69)
“Verily, Allah loves those who do good” (2:195).
“For verily, Allah loves those who are righteous” (3:76)
What a horrifying murder. The comparison to Emmett Till is most useful and constructive, I think.
You Israeli e’s are a bunch of barbarians. The US should boycott you