Letters to the editor

...at least three police officers struggled with Salah, held him face down and pulled off his shirt and pants. A bomb squad expert arrived and tried to defuse the explosive, but Salah rolled around trying to press the trigger button on his stomach against the cement, according to police.

Finally, the officers shot Salah in the head. Palestinian activists accused the officers of executing him in cold blood, saying he was under control when he was shot.

Israeli police, however, said the officers fired because they feared he would ignite the explosives. They argued that police hope to capture suspected bombers alive to assist their investigations.

A prosecutor's inquiry found no wrongdoing and the case was closed, according to Gil Kleiman, a national police spokesman."

Editor's note: the version immediately above is disputed by LAW, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, which has the following to say about the incident:

11 March 2002 --- Last Friday afternoon, 8 March 2002, 22-year-old Mahmoud Salah from Beit Wazan near Nablus was shot in the head by Israeli police in Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighborhood in occupied east Jerusalem. After being shot the young man was left to bleed to death. The press (the Arabic electronic page of the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot) reported that police officers at the scene had acted under direct instructions of Jerusalem Police chief Mickey Levy.

In order to justify the killing, Israeli police sources claimed that Mahmoud Salah had resisted arrest and stopped a sapper from defusing explosives. In its Arabic internet edition, Yediot Ahronot reported as follows:

Upon arrival of police officers including police chief Mickey Levy, and when the sapper stated that he could not control the Palestinian and that there was a threat that an explosive device might blow up, Mickey Levy ordered the killing of the Palestinian. A police officer drew his gun and shot the Palestinian in the head at close range. A high-ranking police officer said that the killing was unavoidable "since there was a threat to the police officers".

However, accounts by eyewitnesses contradict the version given by the Israeli police. According to France Press, 12 Palestinians witnessed the incident from their homes. They asserted that Mahmoud Salah was handcuffed when he was killed. An eyewitness reported to LAW as follows:

On Friday, 8 March 2002, at 4 p.m., I heard noises outside the building where I live, which is Project 3 of the Nusseibeh Buildings in Beit Hanina. I looked out of the window that overlooks the road in front of the building; the road is only about 8 meters away. I saw how a military jeep stopped the two men. One of them was a guy I know; his name is Randy Audi; he is from Beit Hanina. I did not know the other man but I later learnt that his name was Mahmoud Salah.

Randy was taken at 4.15 p.m. in a military jeep to an unknown destination. Mahmoud was forced to lie flat on his face and had his hands cuffed behind his back. The special [police] unit tore down Mahmoud's clothes. He was wearing a light navy blue jacket and a yellow shirt and a dark yellow cotton pair of pants.

I didn't see any bags with Mahmoud as Israelis claim. I heard how he was questioned about his name and the place of residence. I understood that he was from Nablus and that his name was Mahmoud. There were three members of the special [police] unit surrounding the guy on the ground; they were dressed in dark gray. One of them placed his foot on the guy's head and another was holding his feet and a third was sitting on his knees pointing a gun at him from a distance of approximately 1.5 -2 meters.

At around 4.30 p.m., the third member shot the guy eight or nine times in the head. Then they left the place and left the guy bleeding. The guy was trying to move and to stand up. At around 5.15 p.m. he stopped moving.

At around 5.20 p.m. Israeli police brought a robot, which drew a black belt. The strange thing is that I did not see that belt when the police tore down the guy's clothes before he was killed.

I would like to point out that the soldiers imposed a curfew on the neighborhood and said several times that [people] must not look out of the windows. However, we kept looking out of the windows. When the corps was turned, the right side of the head was open due to the shots. The victim's fingerprints were then taken and photos of the corps were taken. An Israeli ambulance took the victim away from the scene of the incident.

LAW is extremely concerned about eyewitness reports indicating that the killing of Mahmoud Salah was in fact an extra judicial execution and calls for an immediate, through and impartial investigation into the circumstances of his death.

LAW believes that the implementation of policies which amount to war crimes, such as Israel's policy of state assassinations, as well as the lack of investigations into killings by the security forces and the failure to prosecute those responsible for unlawful killings has created a climate of appalling disrespect for the right to life, which is one of the most fundamental human rights.

LAW believes that respect for human rights and humanitarian law is one of the basic conditions for lasting peace and stability in the region, and that any attempts to negotiate rights away and to design solutions, which are based on "political realities" but not on human rights and international law, are doomed to fail, as did the Oslo Process.

LAW therefore calls on the international community to stop subordinating their political and economic interests to their moral and legal obligations and to take effective measures in order to protect the rights and lives of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories including East Jerusalem.

LAW calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to comply with their obligations to ensure respect for the Convention.

In view of Israel's ongoing and escalating violations of humanitarian law and human rights, LAW calls on the European Union, which is a vital trading partner for Israel, to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel as a means of pressuring Israel into compliance with basic norms of international law.

Dear Secretary General Annan,

It has become easy to criticize Israel and the Jewish people in the present Middle East crisis. People who have rarely encountered Jews, now turn on Jews like rabid dogs because the Arabs promote a false image of Israeli recalcitrance in dealing with the Palestinians. Mr. Annan, you know this image in unfair because you have been dealing with all the countries involved in your capacity as UN Secretary General. You are fully aware that just 18 months ago the Israeli's offered Arafat everything the Palestinian asked for, including 97% of the land they asked for and they were willing to throw in another 3% for the guarantee of peace. You know the Palestinians refused their offer --- that Arafat walked away from the table because he refused the Israeli condition that they remove language from the Palestinian charter that calls for the elimination of Israel and the Jews. Our media coverage is as pro-Palestinian as European press coverage, but that news was too big to suppress. Even so, the media managed to make a peace token from Israel look like more Palestinian persecution.

I am intimately familiar with persecution. It was not so long ago that in my own country, being black made me an enticing target for any white thug with a taste for bullied blood. My own streets are somewhat safer now, but should I depart my corner of the world, now I risk getting attacked for being Jewish anywhere my passport will carry me.

Europeans host rallies of screaming protestors as they condemn a minority that (gathered together from the world over) comprises barely enough people to fill an average-size US state. These are the same European countries that acquiesced, abetted or stood idle while the Nazis slaughtered their Jewish neighbors. And when the truth of the Holocaust was shown to the world, the grandparents of the present generation of anti-Semites professed ignorance, or beat their breasts claiming, "I didn't do anything." If Germans and Italians and French, and Danes and all these other 'innocent' European countries were not Nazi sympathizers, where did their grandchildren learn to hate Jews? There are hardly enough of them left in Europe on which to form an opinion. And where is the single European country with the memory and the conscience to declare that killing Jews for being Jews is wrong! That exiling Jews from their homeland is wrong! That a moral high ground cannot rest on terrorist acts. That if we stand by and hope the Jews succumb to terrorism and tyranny, we strengthen tyrants and terrorists to our own expense.

Where are the Africans and South Americans and Asians to defend the Jewish people who have never enslaved them, raped their natural resources, occupied their countries or made war on their citizens as so many other countries have? I have heard none of their voices asserting Israel's right to peaceful existence.

The world stands against the Jewish underdog and feels profoundly smug about being with the 'in crowd' --- the big bad world against one tiny nation on a huge blue globe. No matter how many countries imprison or slaughter their citizens, no matter how many countries oppress their women, exploit and terrorize their pheasants and opponents, steal from their treasuries, allow the export of drugs, and let their children starve, none of this is as important as demonizing one of the teeniest nations on the face of the earth.

Because this despised people (who may be indistinguishable from your next door neighbor, except for our enduring belief in descent from a common ancestor, Abraham, who admonished his children and their children after them to believe in one God period --- forever!) because this brainlessly despised people has the temerity to want to exist instead of submitting to global pressure to commit national suicide.

In the American western the good guys are always outnumbered by the tyrannical mob, as townspeople cower behind their windows. Good always triumphs. But it is only when the outcome is obvious, that the townspeople are emboldened to fight with the decent men. However, once I'd seen the town's cowardice, no late stage heroics could change my impression. I know global politics are not a Hollywood western, but the morality at the heart of the western plot is applicable. Ride with the mob, hide with the town people, or stand up for justice, Mr. Annan. If you're lost look for me, I'm the natural black woman in the white cowboy hat out in front with the vastly outnumbered good guys and cow girls.

Ariel Sharon is a Nazi, a war criminal and a tyrant.

As the Prime Minister of the current State of Israel, this man is doing more damage to the credibility and future survival of the Jewish people than any other individual in Israel's long history of oppression, dispersion and exclusion.

During their recent attack and assault on the nation and people of Palestine, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) engaged in house to house searches, the summary execution of suspected Palestinian "terrorists," the burning and looting of homes and villages, the bombing, targeting and killing of innocent civilians, and the arrest, numbering, detention and torture of detainees --- all practices the Nazis used during their assault on the Jewish people 50+ years ago in World War 2.

They have enforced curfews, shot people on sight, murdered journalists trying to cover the war crimes being committed and kept medical ambulances, doctors and nurses from retrieving and treating the wounded in the streets.

These and other atrocities are not conducive of a "free" and "democratic" society, they are the pillars of a fascist military dictatorship not fit to be part of a civilized 21st century world community of nations.

The entire world now stands against the nation of Israel for the international war crimes it has willfully committed against Palestine and the Palestinian people.

Ariel Sharon is an indicted war criminal for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres he ordered in Lebanon in the early 1980s, in which thousands of innocent refugee camp civilians were ruthlessly slaughtered.

The failure of the International Community to arrest and prosecute this Mass Murderer has now resulted in the deliberate massacre and death of thousands, and the displacement and injuring of tens of thousands, of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza during Israel's recent Invasion.

It is now up to the American Jewish community and the citizens of the State of Israel to bring down this butcher by any and all means necessary and to repair, reinstate and restore the humanity, care and compassion of the Jewish people to the world community.

Failure to do so will only lead to World War 3 in the region.

I thought you might want to hear about the rally at which I spoke at Stanford. When I got there, there were two separate groups, one of peace activists some of whom were holding Palestinians flags, and the other of "pro-Israel" activists (standing about 30 feet behind and quite separate from the other group) holding Israeli flags. The first speaker was Joel Beinin, and I thought he made a very smart analysis of the current situation. The "pro-Israel" activists, however, did their best to drown him out by singing "haveinu shalom aleychem" and otherwise ignoring his talk. Then, it was my turn.

The first thing I did was to say that the choreography of the situation reproduced the very problem we were here to address. So I asked the "pro-Israel" group to come closer and join the other group, because, as I pointed out, we were all human beings, there was no danger of violence, and we should be able to stand together. I then asked the peace demonstrators to turn and face the pro-Israel group and invite them to join. That didn't happen, but there was a visible melting of tensions.

Next, I began to give my talk. My first point was that I was there as a "pro-Israel" speaker, and that it was simply not true or fair to think that those who opposed Ariel Sharon's current policies were not "pro-Israel," because some of us are. That point, though, does not really resonate, unless it is followed by something deeper. So then, I proceeded to explain that both sides are really wrong, both sides have co-created the current mess, and that we need to make demands on both sides. That began to reach some of the people who were previosuly trying to drown out the peace rally. And then I read the message on the back cover of the May/June issue of TIKKUN: starting first with our "NO Mr. Arafat" side in which we strongly critique Palesitnian violence. By that point, people in the "pro-Israel" side were not only listening but applauding. So then, they continued to listen to the next part where I read our "NO Mr. Sharon" message and why the Occupation is destructive to Judaism, to the Jewish people, generates anti-Semitism, and is immoral and oppressive to the Palestinian people. Then I put forward the TIKKUN COMMUNITY perspective on what needs to be done: UN forces to separate and protect both sides, an international conference to IMPOSE a settlement that includes security for Israel, an End to the Occupation, evacuation of settlements (but funds to help them resettle in Israel), reparations for Palestinian refugees, sharing Jerusalem, and recognition by other Arab states of Israel.

Immediately after I finished bunches of people from the"pro-Israel" side started to approach me, many of them telling me that they had been surprised to find that they really agreed with what I was saying, had grave doubts about the Occupation, but had felt scared at the tone of anti-Jewish sentiment that seems to accompany pro-Palesitnian demonstrations and talk. The way I had talked made them feel safer, they told me. Since this included at least thirty people coming to me, I asked them why they hadn't tried to approach the organizers of the demonstration and present their views. They said that they had felt ignored and when they heard of this, they automatically assumed it would be very anti-Israel and they wanted a pro-israel presence. So I approached the organizers and asked if one of the people could speak. By that point, the time for ending had been reached, and they said "no." So I then suggested that we instead try to sing some peace songs togher and that was accepted, and so the "pro-Israel" group moved forward, merged with the pro-peace forces, and began to sing "ode yavoe shalom aleynu" led by the "pro-Israel" group. The feelings were very positive, and yet more people from the pro-Israel group approached me to thank me for having changed the tone of the rally. Organizers of the pro-peace demo told me that this had been beyond their wildest positive visions, and that nothing like this had happened before, and they felt that the particular way I talked made a huge difference.

I'm reporting this not to get credit, but to say that we could all talk in a way that would provide a lot of reassurance for Jews who are concerned about Israel's survival, and that doing so might then make it possible for at least some of them to hear and even join with us in promoting our message of the need to End the Occupation and provide reparations for Palestinian refugees and safety for Israel.

Blessings to all who fight for peace, justice and a world of love, open-heartedness and generosity.

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