Wine, Blood And Gasoline
Jesus turned water into wine. Netanyahu is turning water into gasoline and pouring it on the flames.
Uri Avnery
KAFR
KANNA, a village near Nazareth, is probably the place where
Jesus—according to the New Testament—turned water into wine. Now it is
the Arab village where the Israeli police is turning stones into blood.
On the fateful day, the police was confronting a group of young Arabs
protesting against the Israeli efforts to change the status quo on the
Temple Mount (known to Muslims as "the Noble Sanctuary"). Such
demonstrations were taking place that day in many Arab towns and
villages all over Israel, and especially in occupied East Jerusalem.
According to the first police statement, the 22-year old Arab, Kheir
a-Din Hamdan, attacked the police with a knife. In self defence, they
had no choice but to shoot and kill him.
As so often with police reports, this was a pack of lies.
UNFORTUNATELY (for the police), the incident was recorded by security
cameras. The pictures clearly showed Hamdan approaching a police car and
beating on its windows with something, possibly a knife. When he saw
that this had no effect, Hamdan turned around and started to walk away.
At that moment, the policemen got out of the car and immediately
started to shoot at the back of Hamdan, who was hit and fell to the
ground. The officers surrounded him and, after some hesitation,
obviously a consultation between them, started to drag the wounded
youngster on the ground towards the patrol car, as if he were a sack of
potatoes. They dumped him on the floor of the car and drove away (to a
hospital, it appears), with their feet on or near the dying man.
The pictures show clearly, for everyone to see, that the policemen
violated the standing police orders for opening fire: they were in no
immediate mortal danger, they did not shout a warning, they did not
shoot first in the air, they did not aim at the lower part of his body.
They did not call an ambulance. The youngster bled to death. It was a
cold-blooded execution.
There was an outcry. Arab citizens rioted in many places. Under
pressure, the Police Investigation board (which belongs to the Ministry
of Justice) started an investigation. The first investigation already
uncovered several facts which put an even more severe face on the
incident.
It appeared that before the cameras caught the scene, the police had
arrested Hamdan's cousin and put him into the car. Obviously, Kheir
a-Din wanted to release the cousin and therefore beat on the car. The
cousin saw him being shot and dumped on the floor of the car in which he
was sitting.
The first reaction of the police command was to justify the behaviour
of the policemen, whose names and faces were withheld. They were
spirited away to some other police unit.
I DESCRIBE the incident at length, not because it is unique but on the
contrary—because it is so typical. What was special about it was only
the unnoticed presence of the camera.
Several cabinet ministers lauded the exemplary behaviour of the police
in this incident. This can be dismissed as the publicity-hunting of
extreme right-wing demagogues, who believe that their voters approve of
all and any shooting of Arabs. They should know.
However, one statement cannot be ignored: the one made by the Minister of Home Security.
A few days before the incident, Minister Yitzhak Aharonowitz, a protégé
of Avigdor Lieberman and himself a former police officer, declared
publicly that he did not want any terrorist to survive after an attack.
That is a manifestly illegal statement. Indeed, it is a call for
crimes. Under the law, policemen are not allowed to shoot "terrorists"
or anybody else after they are taken prisoner, especially when they are
wounded and do not present any "mortal danger".
Aharonowitz always seems a nice guy. He has a knack of popping up
before the cameras after every newsworthy incident—whether a severe road
accident, a political crime or a fire. God knows how he manages that.
In actual fact, the Minister for Home Security (formerly known as
Minister of Police) has practically no function. Since the days of the
British Mandate, the commander of the police force has been the
Inspector General, a uniformed professional officer. The sole police
function of the minister is to recommend to the government the
appointment of a new commander.
But for ordinary policemen, a statement by the minister sounds like an
order. Quite probably, the irresponsible utterance of the minister was a
direct incitement to the crime of Kafr Kanna. Especially since neither
the Inspector General nor the Prime Minister denounced it.
All this reminds one of the fateful 1984 utterance of then Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who also declared that no terrorist should stay
alive after an attack. The direct result was the "Bus Line 300" affair,
in which four Arab boys, without any weapons, hijacked an Israeli bus.
They were stopped, two were shot during the recapture, and two were
taken alive. One of them was murdered by the chief of the Shin Bet
himself, Avraham Shalom, who crushed his skull with a rock. When the
pictures were published (first by me), Shalom and his colleagues were
pardoned. Shamir denied any responsibility.
BACK TO today's events. Is this the long-awaited Third Intifada? Yes? No?
Army and police officers, politicians and especially media commentators
are busy trying to answer this question. (Intifada means literally
"shaking off".)
This is not just a mere semantic game. The definition carries with it operational consequences.
As a matter of fact, the entire country is now aflame. East Jerusalem
is already a war zone, with daily demonstrations, riots and bloodshed.
In Israel proper, since the Kafr Kanna killing Arab citizens are also
mounting daily strikes and demonstrations. In the West Bank, there were
some demonstrations and a fatal stabbing, after which an Arab was shot
and killed.
Mahmoud Abbas is doing everything in his power to prevent a general
uprising, which might quite well endanger his regime. But pressure from
below is mounting. Abbas refused to meet Netanyahu in Amman.
Popular wisdom in Israel has already found a name for the situation:
"Intifada of Individuals". For the Israeli security chiefs, that is a
nightmare. They are ready for an organized Intifada. They know how to
quash it by force, and, if necessary, by more force. But what to do with
an Intifada which is entirely made by isolated individuals, with no
orders from any organization, with no grouping that can be infiltrated
by the collaborators of the Shin Bet net of informers?
An individual Arab listens to the news, is incensed by the latest
outrage against the Holy Shrines and drives his car into the nearest
group of Israeli soldiers or civilians. Or takes a knife from the
kitchen of the Israeli restaurant where he washes the dishes and stabs
people in the street. No prior information. No network to be
infiltrated. Quite frustrating.
The centre of the storm is the Temple Mount. The al-Aqsa ("far away")
Mosque, the third holiest place of Islam, is under siege. At one point,
Israeli soldiers entered the mosque (with their boots on) in pursuit of
stone-throwing demonstrators.
WHERE ARE we going?
For decades now, a group of Israeli zealots has been busy planning for a
new Jewish Temple to be built in place of the al-Aqsa and the
magnificent Dome of the Rock. They are stitching garments for priests
and making the necessary preparations for animal sacrifices.
Until recently, they were considered simply a curiosity. Not anymore.
Several cabinet ministers and Knesset members have entered the holy
enclosure to pray, contrary to the status quo. Throughout the Islamic
world, this has aroused alarm. Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West
Bank, the Gaza Strip and in Israel proper are furious.
Netanyahu promised King Abdallah II to restore quiet. But he is doing the opposite.
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