"The Hamas activists executed him with smiles"

[Sirotnikov]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/812598.html

The battle within
By Avi Issacharoff


RAMALLAH - Sufian Abu Zeida's blue eyes are tired and lifeless. He cannot get the battle in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza last Thursday out of his head. Hamas militants killed his neighbor and fellow Fatah member Mohammed Gharib, head of Preventive Security in the Gaza Strip, in a raid on his home. The same force also blew up Abu Zeida's home. After a week of battles in Gaza, the likelihood of peace with the Israelis appears greater than reconciliation with his neighbors in Hamas.

"Our future is black," Abu Zeida, a senior Fatah official and former Palestinian Authority cabinet minister, told Haaretz this week in an interview in Ramallah. "We have no way out. In one day my world turned upside down. My wife and children no longer sleep at home, I don't know if I'll ever be able to return to my work. Mohammed Gharib had been my friend since childhood, he was in the class below me in school. But I tell myself I can't complain - compared to Mohammed, I'm fortunate. All they did was blow up my house. The Hamas activists executed him with smiles, with pleasure. They laughed and joked among themselves and then shot him to death. Afterwards they tied up his nephew and held him for several hours, a boy of 16. At one point he asked for water. They returned a few minutes later with a suspicious-looking liquid and the boy understood that he shouldn't drink it. Then they poured it on his hands. Do you know what it was? Acid. Do you understand the depths of the hatred?" Abu Zeida asked.

"Who would have believed," asks his friend Salim Abu Safiya, a senior Fatah official and the head of border crossings for the PA, "that of all people Hamas would try to kill Sufian, who is so well known for his nationalist struggle. Allah and I rescued him from death," he says. That day the father of a mutual friend, businessman Ihab al-Ashkar, died after a long battle with cancer.


"I told Sufian he had to come with me that afternoon to pay a condolence call, because it's not safe to be on the streets after dark. He agreed. We went to Ihab's house. As soon as we arrived we heard about the fighting," Abu Safiya related.

"My wife called and said there was shooting and that I shouldn't come home," Abu Zeida picks up the story. "She was under fire for six hours, she hid on the floor," he continued. "In the end they burst into the house. They wanted to kidnap my son, but the neighbors came and demanded that they leave him alone. Afterward, they put a bomb in the house that I'm building and blew it up."

"You have to understand," Abu Safiya said, "The people who wanted to kill Sufian are 18, maybe 20 years old, whereas he was in prison for 12 years. Who behaves like that? Even the Israelis who arrest a suicide bomber treat him with respect compared to what Hamas did to Gharib."

Barzilai

Five Palestinians, all Fatah members, are hospitalized at Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center. Four have leg injuries. The fifth is in intensive care, in a coma. The Hamas men who attacked Gharib's house were responsible. The fifth was inside the house at the time. The victims' descriptions resemble those of Third World executions.

"At about 3 P.M. on Wednesday [January 3 - A.I.], a car carrying three of Mohammed Gharib's bodyguards was stopped by a Hamas Executive Force roadblock," A., one of the wounded, related in a telephone interview to Haaretz. "They wanted to arrest one of the passengers but they resisted. One escaped, the second was caught and the third was shot when he tried to flee and then arrested. In response, relatives of ours [the Gharib family - A.I.] abducted a member of the Executive Force in a counter-operation, and then men from the Popular Front stepped in to mediate. The abductees from both sides were released, and we thought the whole affair was behind us," A. said. He is breathing heavily. A. was scheduled to undergo another operation on his wounded legs yesterday.

"But the next day the battles erupted again," A. continues. "At 2 P.M. a van carrying Executive Force militants pulled up next to our home. They fired at the building and the guards returned fire." One of the Hamas men was killed, and the response was not long in coming. "They called in dozens of armed men to the site," A. says. "Not only from Jabalya but from Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and other places. In less than an hour there were about 100 gunmen surrounding the house. Hamas militants began setting up roadblocks all over the northern Gaza Strip and in Gaza City to prevent the arrival of reinforcements from Fatah or from the Preventive Security forces. First, they surrounded the family's two houses, then the nearby homes, and then they started isolating the entire arena - the neighborhood. At about 3 P.M. the massive firing at the houses began."

According to R., another survivor of the attack, "they fired about 50 RPG missiles [shoulder-launched rockets] at the big house, and then they started on the small house. Mohammed Gharib hid in the small house. They fired about 20 missiles at it. We couldn't see or breathe. The entire room was full of smoke and fire. We kept trying to call for help, but they blocked us, kept anyone from reaching the area, even ambulances."

G., a member of Gharib's family, joined one of the processions of unarmed civilians that was organized in an attempt to create a human barrier between the Hamas gunmen and the house. When the gunmen opened fire at the marchers, wounding dozens, he managed to escape into the surrounded building. "I went in and went upstairs, where everyone was. There were about 50 people there, in two rooms. The firing continued, and after each explosion another part of the wall or the ceiling fell," G. related.

"At the same time negotiations for surrender to the Hamas men began," G. continued. "We didn't believe they would let us surrender without harming us but they swore on the Koran and on Allah. They demanded that we go out with our hands up, in groups of five. I was together with Mohammed Gharib in the first group of five. We came out, with our hands up like they wanted, to the roof, where several of them were waiting, masked and armed. They tied up everyone and hit us. They shouted that they were from Iz al-Din al-Qassam [the Hamas military wing], that would never be defeated. One got a phone call; he answered and then hung up. 'Where is Mohammed Gharib?' he asked. Gharib stood up and said: 'That's me. Do what you want with me, just leave the shabab [young people] alone.' They asked everyone to remove our jackets, to make sure we were unarmed, and then three of them pushed Gharib into the wall and shot him in the legs, before our eyes.

"We thought they would stop shooting, since presenting him as a captive could be considered an achievement for them," G. continued. "But the three went away and three more came. They approached Gharib and shot him in the legs again. He shouted, 'I haven't done anything to you, I've never harmed anyone,' and then he began to recite the Shahada [the Muslim confession of faith, "There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet," which is recited before death - A.I.]. The ritual was repeated a third time: Another group approached Gharib and shot at his legs," G. continued. "At this point he was still alive. They took Thar, the teenaged nephew who used to escort him around, sat him next to his Uncle Mohammed, who was still conscious, and shot Thar dead."

"The Hamas militants didn't let up," G. said. "They insulted Gharib, laughing and joking among themselves. 'Aren't you ashamed to say the Shahada? You're a heretic, shame on you.' They didn't look angry or hateful, simply bored. Gharib was slowly dying, after they had fired dozens of bullets into his legs. But in the end they shot him in the head and the back and killed him. Afterward they asked for Khaled Gharib, and took him too and shot him, too. But he lived, and now he's in intensive care," G. concluded.

At that point, the other occupants of the house began to surrender as well. The gunmen waited for them outside, and each young man who emerged was shot in the knees. Some were taken for a "walk" in Gaza City and then thrown, bleeding, into the street. Two Fatah men - Hussein Abu Khalil and Ihab Al-Mabhouh - were killed in the course of the battle. After the fact it turned out that one of the Hamas gunmen who shot Ihab was his brother. Both were masked and were unaware that they were shooting at one another.

Fatah returns

A few days after the incident in Jabalya, Fatah held the largest rally in its history, in Gaza City. In many ways the assault on Gharib's house backfired on Hamas. Perhaps the aggressive message got through, but the shocking images from the house that was raided, and above all the interview with Gharib, broadcast live on Palestinian television just minutes before his death, with missiles exploding in the background, provoked strong criticism of Hamas.

There is a sense on the street that the Islamic organization which always drew its strength from the grassroots is abandoning it to focus on its faithful supporters only. Hamas may have decided that this is a culture war that cannot be resolved by peaceful means.

"About a quarter of a million people attended the rally," Abu Zeida and Abu Safiya claim. "Not all were Fatah members, on the contrary. Many were ordinary civilians who have reached the conclusion that they are fed up. The attack made people realize they are all in danger of death; today it's Gharib, tomorrow it's me. The cruelty overflowed into inhumane behavior, and Gazans understand that. Nobody can agree to remain silent after such a crime, to applaud Hamas and to speak again about national unity." "There are two policy paths, and only one can survive," Abu Safiya says. "A solution? There's none on the horizon."

[SlowwHand]

Grim.

[chequita guevara]

Are you Israelis happy with your handiwork?

[SlowwHand]

What an ass.

[chequita guevara]

I know you are.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Are you Israelis happy with your handiwork?

[chequita guevara]

They funded and natured Hamas in the 1970s and 80s to build them up to be an alternative to Fatah. Now the two groups are fighting a civil war. This is Israel's baby as much as it is the Palestinians.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
They funded and natured Hamas in the 1970s and 80s to build them up to be an alternative to Fatah. Now the two groups are fighting a civil war. This is Israel's baby as much as it is the Palestinians.

Tired old anti-semitic myth. Not surprised that Che buys into it.

[chequita guevara]

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8449

"Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years. Israel 'aided Hamas directly – the Israelis wanted to use it as a counterbalance to the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization),' said Tony Cordesman, Middle East analyst for the Center for Strategic [and International] Studies. Israel's support for Hamas 'was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,' said a former senior CIA official."

[Edan]

How does one fund Hamas in the 70s, if...

December 1987: First Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupts, and Yassin founds Hamas as an Islamic resistance movement against Israel.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...timeline_x.htm

[Sirotnikov]

ROFL @ ANTIWAR.COM
Justin Raymondo is an unemployed loon.
His site has been also claiming sh!t about 9/11 and the US creating Al-Qaeda. Also if you actually bother to check his sources (he does link A LOT), you see a policy of misquotes, mis-appropriation of quotes and all sorts of propoganda methods.

What now, chegitz? You're going to quote a fortune teller?


Israel did finance religious centers and schools, as part of an investment in culture in the 70s and 80s, in hopes of creating a peaceful atmosphere, and promoting prosperity in the territories. Of course Israel wanted to dilute support for the secular PLO. But investments in what then was peaceful introverted religious movements, is certainly NOT a direct investment in Hamas.

In the 70s and 80s - the Islamic movements were all peaceful and intro-verted. Sheik Yassin and his organizations first came up in the 80s and were highly unpopular and small. His movement was regarded as a joke, until the middle of the intifada. The PIJ was the first Palestnian Islamic movement to put resistance to Israel on the agenda, and they were certainly very small, and mostly insignificant, until they began receiving Iranian backing and training.

Israeli policy towards Yassin was always the same.
He was arrested for plotting terrorist attacks and propoganda in the early 80s, and later was exiled to Lebanon in 1985, as part of the Ahmed Jibril deal. He was part of about 2000 then unimportant prisoners released in exchange for 3 Israeli soldiers.

You can misquote lots of stuff to "prove" Israel supported terrorism.

Israel created and funded all 6 palestinian universities. Universities are certainly places which create political and religious turmoil. Since the 70s, they were the main breeding ground for secular anti-Israeli Fateh activists, most of whom we know today. Since the late 90s universities the main recruitment hub for Hamas leaders and activists.


I'm very sorry Chegitz, but your sources are worth crap, and your ideas are silly too.

[SlowwHand]

Don't be sorry, hell. It's not your fault his references suck.

[Jaguar]

Poor chegitz.

[aneeshm]

Actually, I'd support Israel even more if they were responsible. Both Hamas and Fatah are terrorists, and terrorists killing each other leaves less of them trying to kill you. This is, in fact, the ideal situation - let them kill of each other and move in at the end to mop up the last, weakened and half-dead guy left on the battlefield.



Bheda

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Edan
How does one fund Hamas in the 70s, if...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2...timeline_x.htm

Hamas is the military arm of the Islamic Association (not he Islamic Association for/of Palestine, which was an American organization), which was founded in the 1976.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/c...litancy_202704
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2002/06/08/1320881.php (a United Press article, though it was written after the take over by the Moonies).
http://www.counterpunch.org/hanania01182003.html

Also:

According to Charles Freeman, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, “Israel started Hamas. It was a project of Shin Bet, which had a feeling that they could use it to hem in the PLO.”

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Jaguar
Poor chegitz.

Poor me

[Straybow]

Ho hum. Licensing a religious organization in 1973 (or 1978, depending on the source) is hardly "funding Hamas."

Israel does nothing to turn men into barbarians. They do that all by themselves.

[Barnabas]

Cant palestinians accept israel if they are given complete and total authority over that muslim temple of theirs in Jerusalem?

[Pekka]

Well, if you give me money, and I'll turn into a jerk, it's me being a jerk.

[Combat Ingrid]

I read the title as "...smileys"

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Cant palestinians accept israel if they are given complete and total authority over that muslim temple of theirs in Jerusalem?

Probably not. Neither side really wants peace.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
They funded and natured Hamas in the 1970s and 80s to build them up to be an alternative to Fatah. Now the two groups are fighting a civil war. This is Israel's baby as much as it is the Palestinians.

considering that the Muslim Brotherhood in Eqypt was generally non-violent, certainly not terrorist in its approach to politics, and Hamas originated out of that tradition, there was no particular reason for Israel to have expected them to be like this. Once Israel found out what they were, they opposed them, and throughout the 90s called on Fatah and the PA to disarm them. Arafat refused, and funded and used Hamas, knowing full well what they were.

Israel, painfully, learned their mistake. Now, Fatah seems to have finally learned their mistake.

Now is not the time to blame Israel OR Fatah. Now is the time to see Hamas beaten, so that Israelis and Palestinians can both move on to a brighter future.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
Cant palestinians accept israel if they are given complete and total authority over that muslim temple of theirs in Jerusalem?

That is one issue that needs to be resolved - soveriegnty over the temple mount. I think its resolvable between Israelis like Peretz and Olmert on the one hand, and Abbas and Erekat on the other.

The problem right now isnt the gap between the govt of Israel and the Presidency of the PA, so much as its the death struggle between Fatah and Hamas.

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Hamas is the military arm of the Islamic Association (not he Islamic Association for/of Palestine, which was an American organization), which was founded in the 1976.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/c...litancy_202704
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2002/06/08/1320881.php (a United Press article, though it was written after the take over by the Moonies).
http://www.counterpunch.org/hanania01182003.html

Also:

According to Charles Freeman, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, “Israel started Hamas. It was a project of Shin Bet, which had a feeling that they could use it to hem in the PLO.”

As for your sources:

The Hanania article is filled with facts but it does a great job of weaving a non-existant picture, from tons of details, constantly making jumps from one subject to another, and from one period to another.

The constant jumps between 1979 (Sheikh Yassin sets up shop) and 1994 (supposedly first suicide bombing) and then 2004, and then back to the 70s, are made to confuse you. Why not present a single streamlined time scale?

This causes people to lose focus and see non existing connections.

For instance take this purposeful tying up of unrelated facts:

Begin and Shamir understood exactly what they had created. Knesset Member Avraham Poraz (Shinui) was among a litany of Israeli leaders who blamed Likud for Hamas. "The Likud has got Hamas on its hands because it refused to talk to the PLO," he said.

It is supposed that Poraz made that statement, blaming Begin and Shamir for creating the PLO. Yet this is impossible. Poraz could only talk about Hamas in the 90s, when its existance name became common knowledge.

Dovish Poraz was most probably blaming Likud's "inaction" in the peace process vis-a-vis the palestinians, for "getting Hamas on its hands". Blaming no advancement in the peace process leading to the extremization of Palestinian society is no where near "blaming likud for creating Hamas".

This article merely tries to mask the actual reality.

The Mujamma al Islami is presented as the great Israeli scheme of destabilising the PLO. However this is false.

This organization was one of hundreds of local religious charities that dealt with improving palestinian social life. Not only was it one of hundreds - it was, as the article later concedes - totally non violent for a long period of time.

What this article fails to mention, is that the organization was then disbanded by Israel in 1983, under a Likud govt. and all its members jailed for planning terrorism. Yassin was released as part of a prison-swap deal in 1985, and later jailed again in 1989 after it became clear he was the leader of Hamas, and held in prison until Israel was forced to give him up in 1997.

How does that support a policy of Israel "supporting" Hamas?


The cooperative research link does not appear valid.

Indybay sure sounds trust worthy, quoting about 4 unnamed Israeli / US intelligence and foreign office sources. We know how those unnamed sources like to talk to indy press


Che, you gotta stop checking third rate sites for your news. I know it is 'cool' and revolutionary, but it is as dumb as sh*t.

[Sirotnikov]

Che you're performing a giant leap of faith from a true fact:

Israel supported peaceful Islamic charities in the 70s, hoping to stabilize the area.

to a false fact:
Israel intentionally financed Hamas to be a future political rival to Arafat and an obstacle to peace.

The fact that one charity eventually grew to become Hamas does not prove that Israel planned this or financed it. On the contrary - once the Mujamma Islami started to grow and collect weapons - Israel cracked down on it, putting everyone in jail.

Your friends' idiotic claim doesn't hold water.

True: Every palestinian born in the 70s probably had some sort of contact with Israel or received aid / services / whatever, from Israeli governing authorities. That is because... Israel was the local government. (duh!)

True: Some palestinians eventually became terrorists and arch terrorists.

Silly Conclusion: Israel financed its own worst enemies, in order to block any chance of peace!!!!

[Sirotnikov]

Hamas is the military arm of the Islamic Association (not he Islamic Association for/of Palestine, which was an American organization), which was founded in the 1976.

the Islamic Association ceased existing in 1983, when it was banned by Israel and its members jailed.

Hamas can, if one really wants to stretch it, be called a military wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. (It has strong ties with it).

The muslim brotherhood was created in egypt. It was accepted as a legitimate political body in Jordan.

False conclusion: Egypt and Jordan created Hamas!!!

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov

Che, you gotta stop checking third rate sites for your news. I know it is 'cool' and revolutionary, but it is as dumb as sh*t.

Hes too busy making music.

http://www.israel-music.com/sheygetz/stop_eating_cakes/

[Sirotnikov]

Sadly this is going on quite a lot, and the soldiers have no policing authority against fu*kwad Israelis.

What I do find surprising, is the idiotic response by Peretz.
Instead of trying to reveal and treat the phenomena, he is talking about publicity. This proves once again, that Peretz is an utter idiot, a loser a$$hole, who has a cabbage for a brain. I hope he dies.

taken from: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...352098,00.html

video can be seen there.

Olmert on settler violence: I am ashamed

(VIDEO) Prime minister watches video clip published in Ynet in which Jewish woman settler in Hebron attacks Arab family: 'This is brutality, arrogance, and contempt that can't be come to terms with.'
Settler doesn't show for interrogation, summoned again for Monday. Jewish neighborhood in Hebron returns fire, starts arming women and youth with cameras.

Ronny Sofer


VIDEO - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded for the first time Sunday to the incident in the Tel Rumeida section of Hebron in which a settler woman verbally attacked an Arab family. A video clip of the incident, filmed by the Palestinian family, was published last week in Ynet .


"I saw it and I was simply ashamed," responded Olmert. "This is evil and provocation for its own sake."

Jewish settler woman caught on tape verbally attacking her neighbor

In the video clip, which was passed on to Ynet by the human rights organization B'tselem, the Abu-Aisha family is seen being harassed by their Jewish neighbors in the Jewish neighborhood of Hebron. According to the family, this has been going on for some time.

The film was taken by Raja'a Abu-Aisha, 16, and documents an argument between two neighbors living in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Yishai. The argument quickly deteriorates into name-calling, and the Jewish neighbor continually calls her neighbor "whore." The Abu-Aisha claim that this is only one example of the daily suffering they endure.

Police Perspective
Police official: Hebron incident reflects reality / Efrat Weiss
(VIDEO) Senior official in West Bank Police responds to video clip revealed in Ynet showing settler cursing Palestinian family. Settler summoned for police investigation, but doesn't show. B'Tselem, of all groups, asks not to turn her into scapegoat
Full Story

In the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, Olmert responded to the video. "I expect from everyone, including the settlement leaders, to disagree with this.

"This puts out a bad name for all of this population. This is brutality, arrogance, and contempt that can't be come to terms with, and I am speaking in the name of the entire government," Olmert said.

Following the publication of these images from Hebron, Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered a thorough and immediate investigation of the issue a day after the event took place. He instructed Central Command Chief Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh to carry out an immediate investigation of the entire event, which in his words embarrasses the State of Israel.

The defense minister also said that images such as those seen in the video "turn into material for incitement against Israel all over the world."

The settler woman shown in the video, Ifat Elkobi, was summoned to the West Bank police for investigation last week, but didn't show. She was sent an addition summons for Monday.

The police said to Ynet that she promised to show up this time for investigation. However, the police also noted that if she fails to show again, a subpoena will be issued against her.

Following the incident, the Jewish settlement in Hebron decided to arm women and youth to document future incidents in which Jews are attacked in the city. A campaign to raise money for this endeavor was embarked upon recently.

Chairman of the board of the Jewish community in Hebron Noam Arnon said that women and youth will be trained to video "while taking shelter, and to distinguish between left-wing organizations who are carrying out provocations together with Fatah families in the city."

According to him, the events that will necessitate filming are throwing stones or Molotov cocktails and shooting at Jews. Arnon also said, "The cameras will be equipped with long-range lenses for security reasons so that while the Arabs aren't afraid of approached the Jews, Jews will manage when faced with terrorist elements."

Efrat Weiss contributed to this report

[Az]

What I do find surprising, is the idiotic response by Peretz.
Instead of trying to reveal and treat the phenomena, he is talking about publicity. This proves once again, that Peretz is an utter idiot, a loser a$$hole, who has a cabbage for a brain. I hope he dies.

wtf?!

this is actually, the completely correct thing to do. "reveal and treat the phenomena"? what's to reveal? that jews and arabs in hebron hate each other's guts? and how, pray tell, do you propose treating this situation, without a complete solution to the conflict?