This appeared in today's Jerusalem Post.... Execution in Arafat's compound - an eye-witness account By KHALED ABU TOAMEH RAMALLAH - It was just before 10.A.M. and the first ministers were beginning to arrive at the mukattah compound for an emergency cabinet meeting to be chaired by Yasser Arafat. The Israeli tanks, bulldozers and armored personnel carriers, which have been inside the mukattah for the past few weeks, pulled back a few hundred meters south of the compound to allow the meeting to take place. The journalists are told by some PA officials that the cabinet meeting is expected to last for a few hours. Some cameramen find shelter from the sun in the shade of a nearby building. Others, including myself, decide to take a look around the area. We walk a few meters south of Arafat's office and run into what was once the headquarters of the PA's mukhabarat, or General Intelligence. The building has been completely destroyed. We head further south and run into a group of young men, some armed with pistols and AK 47 rifles, sitting and chatting under a tree. Behind them is a small building surrounded with barbed wires. On top of the big green gate is a sign in Arabic which reads: "Ramallah Correctional Center." This is the prison where Palestinian inmates were held. Most were moved to secret locations after the IDF arrived. Suddenly two policemen in plainclothes emerge from the prison. One of them is "embracing" a young, bearded men dressed in jeans and a white T shirt. The young man's face is badly swollen and it looks as if he needs to see a dentist immediately. He passes by and looks me straight in the eye, as if he is trying to tell me something. Although he was not handcuffed, he did look like a suspect who was probably on his way to interrogation. None of the cameramen or reporters standing under Arafat's second floor office paid attention to the three as they passed by. In my heart I felt something was wrong. It must have been the strange look in the eyes of the young man. It's a look that will continue to haunt me for many years. I felt as if this young man with a pale face was begging for help. I decided to follow him and see where he is being taken. The two men took him to the back of a three story building north of Arafat's office. If Arafat was watching from the window, he would have seen it all. What happened next is hard to describe. The "suspect," in his early twenties, was blindfolded and made to stand against a wall. Three policemen standing about three meters away sprayed him with bullets from their rifles. He was hit in the head and chest and fell to the ground. One of the policemen then walked up to him and fired one more shot into his head. "Take him away," came the order from another police officer. I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing. The executioners did not notice that I was watching. When the rest of the journalists heard the shots they rushed towards the area to see what was happening. Some thought that Israeli soldiers had stormed the compound. Nervous policemen charged at the cameras and reporters and ordered them to leave the area. I asked a police officer what had happened and he replied, "A criminal has been executed. what's the big deal?" "What did he do?" I asked another police officer who was trying to block cameras with his hand. "He murdered two elderly women and raped his grandmother," he answered. "Was he ever tried?" I asked. "I don't know, but the President [Arafat] this morning approved the execution. An ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent that had been waiting nearby took the young man's body away before anyone had a chance to see it. As the ambulance was leaving, more ministers continued to arrive for the meeting in their black Mercedese and Audis. I asked three of them if they had heard about the execution which just took place a few meters away the hall where they were planning to meet, and all replied that they had no idea what I was talking about. A few hours later the PA confirmed that the execution did take place, identifying the victim as Bashir Attari. Palestinians described him as mentally r****ded. Klaus Lofgren, the Middle East correspondent for a Swedish TV station who was standing only a few meters away from the site, was still in shock even after we arrived back in Jerusalem. "This is a surrealistic experience," he said. "To execute someone in a place where the representatives of the world media are standing and where the cabinet is meeting is unprecedented. I have never heard of a case like this and it shows the cultural gap between the Palestinian society and most of the world."
I have never heard of a case like this and it shows the cultural gap between the Palestinian society and most of the world. Jeez, you think?
far be it for me to impose my imperialist western views....but i really like to see people get some form of a moderately fair trial before they're summarily executed.
I would too, but in the U.S. a guy's lawyer can sleep through the trial of the perp he's defending and the defendent still ends up on death row. The process just seems quicker their. Besides they said they didn't know if had a trial or not. He may have had a trial. But all in all I dont' think the guy should have been executed. I don't know what kind of trial he had, and I believe people are too fallable to make that decision over someone anyway.
Summary executions are not rare under Arafat's regime. People get executed for many reasons- including selling land to Jews.
Well that's definitely something that's not my idea of justice. Though I doubt those kinds of executions are very common. After all the Jews can take land from the Palestinians without paying a cent. In fact they will get paid by the Israeli govt. to do it. With that going on, why would they actually pay for land that a Palestinian owns.
Actually that's not a valid reason for getting executed by the Palestinian Authority. Terrorist groups obviously believe differently but that's seperate from 'legal' executions.
Actually public executions & lynchings are quite common. Arafat has used this as a tool to eliminate dissent within the PA ranks; the victims are labeled as "collaborators" with Israel, , the condemned is killed (sometimes shot, other times beaten to death) & his body is paraded through the streets & displayed publicly as a warning to other "collaborators". Here's some links to stories & pics: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=picture+israeli+collaborator+dead
I don't suppor those kind of executions, or any kind really. Yes 'collaborators' are dealt with harshly. I meant to address specifically the one crime. I meant specifically the executions of Palestinians who sold land to Jews, since Jews will get paid by the Israeli govt. to settle land that already belongs to Palestinians. I was only pointing out that they don't have to buy land since Israel will pay them to settle on it. The can actually turn a profit for stealing the land.
And some people around here think we can deal with these people in a civilized manner. PUUUUHHHHLLLLLEEEAAAASSSEEEE !!! DD
I've been looking all over the internet for proof that "Jews will get paid by the Israeli government to settle land that already belongs to Palestinians", but I can't find any. Do you have a link you can provide me that proves this to be true? Thanks!
Sure here a couple of links. http://www.intelbriefing.com/afi/afi020523.htm "Again, government subsidies allow better schools and teachers pay as well as allows health providers to provide their services at lower costs to the settler." They are paying people more money to do jobs in the settlements. http://www.peacenow.org/nia/briefs/Settlements0301.html Calls for new building in settlements based on "natural growth" ignore the fact that growth of settlement populations is not "natural;" rather in most settlements it is artificially encouraged by a wide range of government incentives, including highly subsidized mortgages, sizeable housing grants, a 7% income tax break, free schooling from the age of 3, free school busing, and grants for businesses in industry, agriculture, and tourism. http://mondediplo.com/focus/mideast/question-3-2-2 http://www.btselem.org/English/Publications/Summaries/Land_Grab_2002.asp#anchor-Migration "The Israeli governments have implemented a consistent and systematic policy intended to encourage Jewish citizens to migrate to the West Bank. One of the tools used to this end is to grant financial benefits and incentives to citizens - both directly and through the Jewish local authorities. The purpose of this support is to raise the standard of living of these citizens and to encourage migration to the West Bank" Not only this but, Israel has managed to steal the water from Palestinians and then charge them a higher rate to use it. http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/1095/9510013.htm The high price paid for tank truck water does not constitute the only economic exploitation of Palestinian water users. The prices charged Palestinians for piped water by the Israelis are four times higher than the subsidized prices paid by the Jewish settlers. In terms of ability to pay, the price of water for Palestinians is even more iniquitous. Israeli incomes are at least 10 times higher than those of Palestinians in the West Bank. The low price of water to the prosperous settlers simply subsidizes waste of the area's most precious resource. The Israeli insistence that any additional water for Palestinians not come out of the Israeli share of water removed from the West Bank ever since the 1967 military conquest is not only a violation of international law. It also displays complete callousness for pressing Palestinian needs. Seventy percent of Israeli consumption of water is for agriculture, an amount which is 175 percent higher than the Palestinian allocation. The water is sold to Israeli farmers at a highly subsidized price, less than one-third that paid by Israeli city dwellers. Israeli observers of the agricultural sector have pointed out that this subsidy for agriculture is tantamount to a $200 million annual subsidy for the agricultural produce exported to Europe. http://www.passia.org/palestine_facts/pdf/pdf2002/land.pdf There are more, but I think maybe it's getting to be too much. Maybe I'll start it on a different thread
While I am against the death penalty, I think the quote above is really a misstatement. A conviction can't be overturned in a case like you mention UNLESS it's clear from the record on appeal that the guy did not actually commit the crime. I know of one case where a guy's lawyer fell asleep and he was convicted...and the evidence against the guy was so overwhelming it was ridiculous. Think you'll get american style due process somewhere else in the world? good luck! And...it's not just all over at the trial level...in our country, the convicted are afforded countless appeals to overturn the verdict.
True, the guy may have been guilty. But when his lawyer sleeps through the trial, it's not exactly a fair trial. Yes there are appeals, in our system, but with it all there have been people on death row who were later proven to be innocent, because of DNA. I don't believe that is the case the majority of the time at all. I believe usually a guy that's found guilty turns out to really be guilty. But mistakes have been made, so the system obviously isn't perfect. The Palestinian system definitely doesn't seem too perfect, and Israel doesn't seem to have that good of a concept of Justice either. All in all I prefer the American Justice system, but of course would like some fine tuning.
