The lynching in Ramallah
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On October 12, 2000, two Israeli soldiers (Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami[1]), entered Ramallah and were arrested by the Palestinian Authority police. According the Israeli sources, the men were reservists, who on their way to reporting for duty entered Ramallah by mistake; Palestinian sources claimed that the men were armed and "dressed in civilian clothes, apparently on an undercover operation"[2], but their bodies in military uniform can be seen in photographs[3] and in video footage broadcast later on the TV. It was also reported that rumours were "circulating through the mob that the captives belonged to the feared and hated undercover units of the Israeli army which dress as Arabs" [4].
An agitated Palestinian mob stormed the police station, and together with the policemen beat the soldiers to death, and threw their mutilated bodies into the street. Then, the mob abused the bodies and dragged them in the street. The killings were captured on video by an Italian TV crew (Mediaset) and broadcast on TV; the famous picture of one of the lynchers waving his blood-stained hands from the window shocked and outraged many around the world, and became another iconic image. In response, Israel launched a series of retaliatory air strikes against the Palestinian Authority.
[edit] Footnotes and references
- ^ Vadim Nurzhitz, Russian: Вадим Нуржиц, Hebrew: ואדים נורז'יץ; Yossi Avrahami, Hebrew: יוסי אברהמי
- ^ CNN: Israel fires into Ramallah, seals Palestinian areas
- ^ Ramallah lynching photographs (the name of Vadim Nurzhitz is misspelled)
- ^ BBC: Lynch mob's brutal attack
