Executions in Bethlehem: 'I Came, I Saw, I Destroyed!'

[ProgressiveMuslim]

By Uri Avnery

What happened this week is so infuriating, so impertinent, that it stands out even in our familiar landscape of governmental irresponsibility.

On the near horizon, a de facto suspension of hostilities was taking shape. The Egyptians had made great efforts to turn it into an official cease-fire. The flame was already burning visibly lower. The launching of Qassams and Grads from the Gaza Strip into Israel had fallen from dozens a day to two or three.

And then something happened that turned the flame up high again: undercover soldiers of the Israeli army killed four Palestinians militants in Bethlehem. A fifth was killed in a village near Tulkarm.

The modus operandi left no doubt about the intention.

As usual, the official version was mendacious. (When the army spokesman speaks the truth, he is ashamed and immediately hurries on to the next lie.) The four, it was said, drew their weapons and endangered the life of the soldiers, who only wanted to arrest them, so they were compelled to open fire.

Anyone with half a brain knows that this is a lie. The four were in a small car on the main street of Bethlehem, the road that has joined Jerusalem and Hebron since British (or Turkish) times. They were indeed armed, but they had no chance at all of drawing their weapons. The car was simply sprayed with dozens of bullets.

That was not an attempt to make an arrest. That was an execution, pure and simple, one of those summary executions in which the Shin Bet fulfils the roles of prosecutor, judge and executioner.

This time no effort was even made to pretend that the four were about to carry out a murderous attack. It was not claimed, for example, that they had anything to do with last week's attack on the Mercaz Harav seminary, the flagship of the settlers' fleet. Actually, no such pretense could be put forward, because the most important of the four had recently given interviews to the Israeli media and announced that he was availing himself of the Israeli "pardon scheme" - a Shin Bet program under which "wanted" militants give up their arms and undertake to cease resistance to the occupation. He was also a candidate in the last Palestinian elections.

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=13589

[subsuelo]

1. somebody needs to tell Uri

"ceasefire" is only supposed to apply to the Palestinian side. Israeli Occupation forces can continue killing as they see fit.

[bemildred]

2. That's not it.

This was (probably) done to make sure the cease-fire did not take hold. Or, of course, one can subscribe to the coincidence theory version which says it's just a coincidence that these outrages tend to occur when there is serious talk of halting the violence. Of course the smart thing for the Palestinians to do would be to talk even more vigorously about peace and getting along and love for their Jewish neighbors, but some of them seem to be too pissed off to handle that sort of dissembling.

[subsuelo]

3. "This was (probably) done to make sure the cease-fire did not take hold."

Yes, exactly. This is understood. There is an expectation that the Israeli side is under no obligation to commit to any cease-fire, whereas the Palestinian side would be held to that.

Imagine 4 Israeli soldiers killed by Palestinians. No matter the reasoning behind it. We would see non-stop coverage and analysis about how they break cease-fires, cannot be trusted, leading to further justifications for Israel's continued invasions and assaults on Palestinians over the years.

But 4 Palestinians killed, and this is somehow supposed to be acceptable. I am seeing very little analysis now, other than Uri Avnery here, which calls Israel to task for doing this.

[azurnoir]

4. With the added stipulation

the "cease fire" was with Hamas in Gaza and did not apparently apply to the West Bank, where the executions took place. Hence it could be claimed that Hamas broke the cease fire, after all what in the world do the West Bank and Gaza have to do with each other?. This is why the desperation to "keep them separated"as it were, the endless ability to make an "agreement" with on side do on to the other side (only in self defense of course) and when one or both strike back, claim once again "they started it".

[Scurrilous]

5. B'Tselem: IDF broke law by killing wanted Palestinians

Human rights group asks attorney general, chief military advocate general to investigate killing of Muhammad Shahade, three other terror suspects in Bethlehem earlier March, claiming they were killed without resisting arrest, should have been brought to trial

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3524193,00.html

<snip>

"B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has asked Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and Chief Military Advocate General, Brig.-Gen. Avi Mandelblit, to launch a criminal investigation into the killing of four wanted Palestinian suspects by IDF forces in Bethlehem earlier in March.

The men in question are Muhammad Shahade, Ahmad Balbul, Imad al-Kamal and Issa Marzouk Zawahara. According to the IDF, the four, who were killed in a raid on March 12, have been involved in planning and perpetrating terror attacks against Israel.

B'Tselem claims that the IDF acted in violation of a High Court ruling, which states that suspects must not be killed when it is possible to arrest them and bring them to trial.

The group requested that Mazuz and Mandelblit also examine the involvement of the chief of staff, the Central Command chief and commander of the Judea and Samaria Division in planning and authorizing the operation."

[Vegasaurus]

6. Then we'd hear the cries of the "too many Palestinian prisoners"

too bad that the prisons in Israel are filled with militants, potential suicide bombers, and so many whose sole purpose in life is planning and carrying out terror attacks.