2000 Ramallah lynching

Aziz Salha, one of the lynchers, waving his blood-stained hands from the police station window. Salha was later arrested by Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released in 2011 as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

The 2000 Ramallah lynching was a violent incident in October 2000 at the beginning of the Second Intifada in which a Palestinian mob killed and mutilated the bodies of two Israel Defense Forces reservists, Vadim Nurzhitz (sometimes spelled as Norzhich) and Yossi Avrahami (or Yosef Avrahami),[1] who had accidentally entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Ramallah in the West Bank and were taken into custody by PA policemen to the local police station.

Incident

On October 12, 2000, just after the funeral of Halil Zahran, a Palestinian killed by Israeli forces two days earlier, two Israel Defense Forces soldiers,[2] reservists serving as drivers, Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami, mistakenly passed an Israeli checkpoint and entered Ramallah. Reaching a Palestinian Authority roadblock, where previously Israeli soldiers were turned back, the reservists were detained by PA policemen and taken to the local police station. Rumors spread that Israeli undercover agents were in the building, and an angry crowd of more than 1,000 Palestinian mourners gathered at the station,[2] calling for the death of the Israelis. Within fifteen minutes, word that two soldiers were held in a Ramallah police station reached Israel. The IDF itself thought initially that the two must have been "undercover agents".[2] Both Haaretz and Maariv reported that approximately 13 Palestinian policemen were injured while attempting to stop the lynching.[2] According to the Ramallah station chief, the 21 Palestinians in the building were mainly cooks and administrative personnel, since active policemen had been dispersed throughout the city to control the crowd during the funeral.[2] The IDF decided against a rescue operation. Soon after, Palestinian rioters stormed the building, overcame the Palestinian police and murdered and mutilated both soldiers.

The Israeli reservists were beaten, stabbed, had their eyes gouged out, and were disemboweled. At this point, a Palestinian (later identified as Aziz Salha), appeared at the police station window, displaying his blood-stained hands to the crowd, which erupted into cheers. The crowd clapped and cheered as one of the soldier's bodies was then thrown out the window and stamped and beaten by the frenzied mob. One of the bodies was set on fire. Soon after, the mob dragged the two mutilated bodies to Al-Manara Square in the city center as the crowd began an impromptu victory celebration. Palestinian policemen did not prevent, and in some cases actually took part in, the lynching.[3][4][5][6] The Palestinian Authority however claimed that thirteen policemen were injured trying to protect the Israelis.[3]

Reactions and military response

The brutality of the murders shocked the Israeli public,[7] intensifying Israeli distrust of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. Notably, the event also deeply damaged the Israeli left-wing's faith in the peace process. Amoz Oz, the Israeli author and "authoritative voice of Israel's peace camp," stated, "Without any doubt, I blame the Palestinian leadership. They clearly did not want to sign an agreement at Camp David. Maybe Arafat prefers to be Che Guevara than Fidel Castro. If he becomes the president of Palestine, he'll be the leader of a rough, Third World country and have to deal with sewage in Hebron, drugs in Gaza, and the corruption in his own government."[8][9]

In response, the Israeli military launched a series of retaliatory strikes against Palestinian Authority targets in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces sealed off Palestinian cities as troops, tanks, and armored vehicles massed. Israeli helicopters fired rockets at two police stations in Ramallah (the police station where the lynching took place was destroyed); the Beit Lahia headquarters of Tanzim, the armed wing of Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction; and buildings near Arafat's headquarters in Gaza City. Israeli Navy gunboats were seen offshore. Six Palestinian Authority naval boats were destroyed. Later in the day, Israeli helicopters destroyed the Voice of Palestine radio station in Ramallah. According to Palestinian sources, a total of 27 people were injured in the attacks.[3][10] Israeli authorities claim that the PA was warned before the attacks, and that a warning shot was fired before every attack, in order to empty the buildings about to be attacked.[11]

Media coverage

An Italian film crew, later learned to be employees of Mediaset, Italy's largest private television station, captured footage of the lynching.[12]

British photographer Mark Seager attempted to photograph the event but the mob physically assaulted him and destroyed his camera. After the event, he stated, "It [the lynching] was the most horrible thing that I have ever seen and I have reported from Congo, Kosovo, many bad places.... I know they [Palestinians] 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."[13]

An ABC News team also attempted to record the incident but the mob also prevented them from doing so. ABC News producer Nasser Atta said that when the crew began filming the lynching, "youths came to us and they stopped us with some knives, with some beating."[14]

RAI Scandal

Following the lynching on October 16, 2000, Riccardo Cristiano, the deputy head of the Jerusalem bureau of Italy's state television channel RAI, published a letter (see text) in Al-Hayat al-Jadida, the official daily newspaper of the Palestinian Authority (PA). In the letter (entitled "Special Clarification by the Italian Representative of RAI, the Official Italian Television Station"), Cristiano denies that RAI had any involvement with the filming of the incident and that one of the station's Italian competitors was responsible for the footage. He wrote, "We [RAI] emphasize to all of you that the events did not happen this way, because we always respect (will continue to respect) the journalistic procedures with the Palestinian Authority for (journalistic) work in Palestine and we are credible in our precise work." The Italian correspondent also praised the PA, declaring, "We congratulate you [the PA] and think that it is our duty to put you in the picture (of the events) of what happened on October 12 in Ramallah.... We thank you for your trust, and you can be sure that this is not our way of acting. We do not (will not) do such a thing."[4]

As a result of the letter, the Israeli Government Press Office suspended Cristiano's press card. The Israeli Foreign Ministry stated, "His letter implies that he will never again film events which are liable to cast a negative light on the PA, such as the recent lynching of IDF reservists in Ramallah.... The State of Israel, as a democratic society, welcomes the foreign journalists working here and invests considerable effort in both assuring freedom of the press and assisting journalists in their work. All that we ask from foreign journalists is that they abide by the rules of press ethics as is accepted in democratic societies."[4]

Cristiano's letter, which effectively identified Mediaset as being responsible for the footage, necessitated Mediaset to withdraw its staff out of fear of Palestinian revenge attacks. In response, Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi, whose family holding company controls Mediaset, said, "The letter is indicative of an anti-semitic attitude in elements of the Italian left." The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera declared it a shameful day for Italian journalism.[12]

For its part, RAI disowned the letter and recalled Cristiano, stating, "He will no longer work from Jerusalem. Rai had no knowledge of the letter and its content." Regarding Cristiano's motives for the letter, RAI asserted that the journalist had recently been injured while covering other Palestinian riots and he wished to dispel rumors that RAI was responsible for the footage.[12]

Claims of Palestinian censorship

In relation to media coverage of the event, the Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Palestinian broadcasting stations of making "every effort to hide the horrible pictures which were shown around the world." The ministry further asserted that "according to reporters' evidence on the scene," the Palestinian police attempted to prevent foreign journalists from entering the area in order to obstruct reporting of the incident.[4]

Arrests of lynching suspects

After he assumed office, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the Israeli security services to find and arrest the lynchers. Israel subsequently tracked down those responsible:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Vadim Nurzhitz, Russian: Вадим Нуржиц, Hebrew: ואדים נורז'יץ‎; Yossi Avrahami, Hebrew: יוסי אברהמי‎
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Daniel Dor, Intifada Hits the Headlines: How the Israeli Press Misreported the Outbreak of the Second Palestinian Uprising, Indiana University Press, 2004 pp.123-128.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Philps, Alan (2000-10-13). "A day of rage, revenge and bloodshed". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Coverage of Oct 12 Lynch in Ramallah by Italian TV Station RAI". Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2000-10-17. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-02.
  5. ↑ "Lynch mob's brutal attack". BBC News. 2000-10-13. Retrieved 2006-09-03.
  6. ↑ Whitaker, Raymond (2000-10-14). "A strange voice said: I just killed your husband". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2009-10-16.
  7. ↑ Feldman, Shai (November 2000). "The October Violence: An Interim Assessment". Strategic Assessment 3 (3). Retrieved 2009-07-03. The [Israeli] public was shocked by lynching in Ramallah, it was enraged at the enticements to violence continuously aired on Palestinian television and it was astonished at the reaction of the Israeli Arabs (see below) to the Palestinian-Israeli clashes
  8. ↑ Greenberg, Joel (2000-10-13). "Whose Holy Land?: The Israelis; As Dreams of Peace Take Flight, Many Angry Fingers Point Toward Arafat". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
  9. ↑ Silver, Eric (2000-10-13). "Left-wing have their faith in peace blown away". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2009-10-16.
  10. ↑ "Israeli copters retaliate for soldiers' deaths". USA Today. 2000-11-08. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
  11. ↑ "The missiles were fired at the windows of which were thrown the bodies of soldiers". The Israeli Air Force Journal. 2000-11-01. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Carroll, Rory (2000-10-20). "TV row over mob footage 'betrayal'". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2009-07-05.
  13. ↑ `I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life,' photographer says
  14. ↑ "Barak Calls for Emergency Government". ABC News. 2000-10-12. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 "Arrest of Fatah Tanzim Terrorists from Ramallah". Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2002-04-22. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  16. ↑ Philps, Alan (2001-06-26). "Lynch mob suspects held by Israelis". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  17. ↑ "Man jailed over Ramallah lynching". BBC News. 2004-11-22. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  18. ↑ "Palestinian man gets life sentence for killing Israeli soldier". ABC News. 2004-11-23. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  19. ↑ Chaim Levinson (16 October 2011). "Shalit deal to set free perpetrators of 2000 lynching of IDF reservists". Haaretz. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  20. ↑ "Ramallah lynch suspect arrested". Ynetnews. 2005-03-08. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 IDF court convicts Palestinian of lynching Israeli soldier in 2000 - Haaretz - 10 August 2012
  22. ↑ Katz, Yaakov (2007-09-26). "Last member of Ramallah lynch caught". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
  23. ↑ Yaakov Lappin (9 August 2012). "Shin Bet arrests two suspects for Ramallah lynch". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
  24. ↑ Yoav Zitun (9 August 2012). "2 Ramallah lynch perpetrators arrested". Yedioth Ahronot. Retrieved 13 August 2012.