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The funeral of Essam Joudah: Israel
declares war!
Palestinian
farmer Essam Joudah was last seen picking olives from the olive groove he
owns on October, 9th. An Israeli army jeep and Jewish settlers van were
seen following him. On October, 10, his body was found near his house. His
body was mutilated. Signs of torture were numerous. Burns to his face and
eyes.*
He was
lynched in cold blood.
*Here is a link to a
site showing the pictures of the post mortem of Essam. We would strongly
advise that children should not view this site. The pictures are very
disturbing. the link
The family
of Joudah was very distraught. The funeral was dated for October, 12th.
During the funeral
feelings were high. Not only because of the horrific killing of Essam,
Palestinian lost 88 lives by Israeli fire in the last twelve days, many
were children. As mourners marched towards the Martyrs cemetery, some
teenagers noticed some of the mourners wearing Israeli army boots. The
teenagers realized that those mourners are the "Snatchers".
The
Snatchers (al-Mosta'ariboon) are a unit in the Israeli army. Their duty is
to mingle in the midst of Palestinians and participate in stone throwing.
Then they snatch one of the stone throwers and take him for
"interrogation". The demonstrator will be beaten and
"punished". "Snatchers" are known for their
ruthlessness. Frequently, they would panic and kill demonstrators around them
before escaping towards the Israeli army. No wonder that the Palestinian
population despised the members of this unit.
Naturally, the
mourners started beating the panicked Snatchers. The Palestinian Police
managed to get to them and take them to the "safety" of Ram-Allah
Police station.
Israeli
media is clearly lying about the facts of the story. Western media is
failing in exploring the truth. When the incident was first reported in CNN
website. It was mentioned that four Israeli soldiers were captured in
Ram-Allah.* CNN then reported the killing of all of the reservists. Israel
still did not clarify why it was only two "reservists" who got
killed. It is failing to elaborate on why it reported four missing in the
beginning. It seems that one of the four managed to escape. The remaining
three were caught in Ram-Allah. Israel
claims that the soldiers were lost. It is very unlikely that the soldiers
passed through four check points without anyone notifying them of their
destination. The other fact is that pictures clearly show the Israeli
soldiers in civilian clothing.
* Intifada.com had a CNN
link that showed the article of the four missing. Since then CNN
"mysteriously" took the article off its website. We will be happy
to be informed of any websites which reported the news of the four missing.
In Intifada.com we publish the
picture of one of the Israeli soldiers being led by Palestinian Police. The
man is wearing the traditional Palestinian scarf and he is attempting to
cover his face. This man is one of the four Israelis who were missing in
Ram-Allah.
A crowd
started to gather in front of Ram-Allah police station. The news of the
capture spread like fire in the town. Israeli TV was broadcasting live the capture of the
soldiers. Mobs started attacking Palestinian Policemen guarding the
station. They were led by none other than Essam’s brother. There were few
policemen in the station, because the rest were trying to control
demonstrators on the edges of the city. Soon the mob succeeded in forcing
their way through the Police, beaten own police and injured scores of them.
When they reached the "Snatchers", they beaten two of them to
death. They even threw one of the dead out of a window. It was an ugly
exhibition of hate to Israeli occupation.
The third
"Snatcher" was smuggled out of the station during the chaos with
the help of the Palestinian Police. The mob continued beating and kicking
the two bodies. Soon the Police took control and handed the two bodies and
the lucky survivor to the Israeli army. The Palestinian Authority condemned
the killing of the two soldiers and ordered the arrest of people who
committed the crime.
The
Palestinians and Israel
are officially in a state of "Peace". The "Snatchers"
are in Palestinian populated areas intent on kidnaping Palestinians. They
were in a funeral of a Palestinian lynched by the Israeli army. The police
attempted to protect them but only managed to save one. President Arafat
condemned the crime and ordered the arrest of people responsible. This move
by President Arafat at such time, damaged his position in front of the
Palestinian people. Yet he was prepared to do all in his ability to calm
the situation.
Israel was not
interested.
Immediately,
Israel
ordered the closure of the Palestinian civilian airport. All roads were
closed to Palestinian motorists. Then, helicopter gun ships started to fly
over Ram-Allah. In the mean time, battleships appeared on Gaza
coast. Soon missiles blew up the Police station, Palestinian
president Yasser Arafat two houses in Ram-Allah and Gaza
and several other targets. Israel
declared that the killing of its two soldiers would not be let go  "unanswered".
Israel reactions are by
no mean civilised and only helped to escalate the situation further. The
Palestinian leadership considered the attack a declaration of war. It is
inexcusable for any country to behave the way Israel
did.
Video of the attack on
Arafat house: QuickTime
Movie,
Real
&Windows media, from CNN.
To read the story "The killing of an Israeli soldier of
Palestinian origin", click here
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