Lynching in Ramallah

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One of the lynchers waving his blood-stained hands from the window
One of the lynchers waving his blood-stained hands from the window

On October 12, 2000, two Israeli soldiers (Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami)[1] entered Ramallah and were arrested by the Palestinian Authority police. According to Israeli sources, the men were reservists on their way to report for duty, who had 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 clearly 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, beat the soldiers to death, and threw their mutilated bodies from a window. The mob then abused the bodies and dragged them through the street. The killings were captured on video by an Italian TV crew (Mediaset) and broadcast on TV. The 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. The brutality of the killings shocked the Israeli public[5] and were condemned by Palestinian leaders; Marwan Barghouti described them as "an unbelievable act, which should be condemned by everybody." Mark Seager, a British photographer who was the only journalist to witness the lynchings stated "I know they are not all like this and I'm a very forgiving person but I'll never forget this. It was murder of the most barbaric kind. When I think about it, I see that man's head, all smashed. I know that I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life."[6] The BBC stated "the brutal death of these men - in full glare of TV - will have a lasting impact on the Israeli population and abroad."[7] In response, Israel launched a series of retaliatory air strikes against the Palestinian Authority. Israel subsequently began to individually pursue the Ramallah lynchers, and on September 26, 2007, it captured the last of the six murderers. Haiman Zabin, 36-years old and one of the key perpetrators of a new Tanzim plot, was captured and later identified as the last of the 6 involved in the lynching. This marks the conclusion of the chase of the 6 perpetrators of the lynching.

[edit] Footnotes and references

  1. ^ Vadim Nurzhitz, Russian: Вадим Нуржиц, Hebrew: ואדים נורז'יץ‎; Yossi Avrahami, Hebrew: יוסי אברהמי‎
  2. ^ CNN: Israel fires into Ramallah, seals Palestinian areas
  3. ^ Ramallah lynching photographs (the name of Vadim Nurzhitz is misspelled)
  4. ^ BBC: Lynch mob's brutal attack
  5. ^ Feldman, Shai. The October Violence: An Interim Assessment, Jaffes Center for Strategic Studies, Strategic Assessment, Vol. 3 No. 3, November 2000.
  6. ^ Seager, Mark. I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life, The Daily Telegraph, 15/10/2000.
  7. ^ Asser, Martin. "Lynch mob's brutal attack", BBC News, October 13, 2000. Retrieved on 2006-09-03. 

[edit] External links