[News] How Israel honors the murderers in its midst

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-honors-murderers-its-midst/14813 



  How Israel honors the murderers in its midst

Stanley Heller <https://electronicintifada.net/people/stanley-heller>

31 August 2015

Two days after Israeli settlers burned to death 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-israel-protects-its-settlers-who-burn-palestinian-children-alive> 
an 18-month-old baby earlier this summer, Prime Minister Benjamin 
Netanyahu declared <http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.669074>: 
“What distinguishes us from our neighbors is that we denounce and 
condemn murderers in our midst and pursue them until the end, while they 
name public squares after child murderers.” He made the same claim last 
year after Muhammad Abu Khudair 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/muhammad-abu-khudair>, another 
young Palestinian, was burned to death.

Sadly, Ali’s father, Saad Dawabsha, died from his injuries 
<https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766921> in hospital. Ali’s 
mother and a 4-year-old brother are still fighting for their lives.

Deliberate killing of civilians and glorification of the killers is 
disgusting. Yet is it true that the Israeli government denounces and 
condemns all terrorists and war criminals?

Let’s start small. Take the example of Shlomo Ben-Yosef. He was hanged 
by the British administrators of Palestine in 1938. He and others threw 
grenades <http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n01/letters> in a failed effort to 
kill the the passengers aboard a Palestinian bus. Today there are 
streets named after him 
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Shlomo_Ben-Yosef_Street,_Acre> 
in Akka <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/akka> and Tel Aviv 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/tel-aviv>.

Ben-Yosef was part of the Irgun, the Zionist armed group that was led by 
Menachem Begin <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/menachem-begin>, 
later Israel’s prime minister. The first Irgun attacks began around 
April 1936 and by the start of the Second World War, as many as 250 
Palestinians had been killed 
<https://books.google.com/books?id=-wwPNjSnxcYC&pg=PA334&lpg=PA334&dq=arabs+killed+by+irgun&source=bl&ots=rqOGTE3lk_&sig=J_lZO7_O8eDqEiLDwFh-nQygkwE&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=arabs%20killed%20by%20irgun&f=false> 
by the group.

The Irgun was denounced 
<https://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948> 
as “terrorist” by Albert Einstein 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/albert-einstein> and other 
luminaries in 1948.


    British brutality

There are a number of memorials in present-day Israel honoring Orde 
Wingate <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/orde-wingate>. He was an 
active duty British soldier who served in Palestine; he was also a 
passionate Christian Zionist 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/christian-zionism>.

Wingate led raids against Palestinians in the 1930s with squads from the 
Haganah <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/haganah>, the largest 
Zionist militia. In 2004 /The Jewish Daily Forward/ wrote 
<http://forward.com/news/5560/jewish-vets-gather-to-honor-christian-godfather-of/> 
this about him: “Most disturbing, and most vehemently debated by 
Wingate’s former colleagues and supporters, is evidence regarding 
Wingate’s brutality and cruelty. New research alleges that the officer 
on occasion struck his soldiers and led retribution raids into Arab 
villages, killing innocent civilians and terrorizing others.”

Israel’s national sport center, the Wingate Institute 
<http://www.wingate.org.il/>, was named after him. A square in the 
Talbiya neighborhood of Jerusalem 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jerusalem> also bears his name 
<http://jerusalem.com/articles/jerusalem/Jerusalem_Neighborhoods_-_Talbiya-a2113>, 
as does the Yemin Orde 
<https://www.yeminorde.org/index.php/2012-01-28-09-38-50/230-yemin-orde-celebrates-60-years-of-transforming-lives-of-israels-at-risk-children> 
youth village near Haifa <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/haifa>.

Also honored in Israel is Eliyahu Hakim 
<http://www.etzel.org.il/english/people/hakim.htm>, who took part in the 
assassination of Walter Guinness (better known as Lord Moyne), a senior 
British politician, in Cairo <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/cairo> 
in 1945.

A street is named after 
<http://institutfrancais-israel.com/blog/institut-francais-de-haifa-2/> 
Hakim in the French Carmel neighborhood of Haifa.

Eliyahu Bet-Zuri planned 
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4051769,00.html> to 
assassinate Winston Churchill, according to files from the British 
secret service MI5. He also took part in the killing of Guinness.

Israel issued 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olei_Hagardom&oldid=672962198> 
a postage stamp in his honor as it did for all the so-called “Olei 
Hagardom,” those executed by the British for what the British considered 
terrorism. A street 
<http://www.israel-home.fr/productSaleMap/sold_102654114183092820/> in a 
Jerusalem neighborhood is called Olei Hagardom.

Hakim and Bet-Zuri were part of Lehi, the Hebrew acronym for a militia 
called “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel.” The commander of Lehi was 
Avraham Stern and the group was more commonly known as the Stern Gang 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/stern-gang>.

It was notorious for its many armed robberies, first of British banks, 
then Jewish banks and apartment house holdups.

Stern wanted to establish a Jewish kingdom over Palestine and not even 
the Second World War and the Holocaust 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/holocaust> brought a pause in his 
attacks on the British. (Incredibly, he even sought aid from Benito 
Mussolini 
<https://books.google.com/books?id=GTtFAV-fIEAC&pg=PA78&dq=Stern+Gang+mussolini&hl=nl&sa=X&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAGoVChMIxcuirs2ZxwIVUAiSCh0dRQEY#v=onepage&q=Stern%20Gang%20mussolini&f=false> 
and Adolf Hitler 
<https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/stern.html>.)

A memorial ceremony 
<http://mizrachi.org/memorial-held-avraham-yair-stern/> attended by 
Israeli politicians and government officials is held each year at 
Stern’s grave in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery in Givatayim.

In 1978, a postage stamp was issued 
<https://books.google.com/books?id=rZcpBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=Avraham+stern+postage+stamp+1978&source=bl&ots=l-kz6b4YLB&sig=dn9GKXgaPc76yu3Bf8zxv_x7-yQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC4Q6AEwA2oVChMIoPu48MeUxwIVQvNyCh269w7s#v=onepage&q=Avraham%20stern%20postage%20stamp%201978&f=false> 
in his honor.

In 1981, the new town of Kochav Yair (“Yair’s Star”) was named after 
Stern’s nickname. The place where he was shot dead by British forces has 
become 
<http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21601489-how-killing-head-stern-gang-echoes-down-years-making-martyr> 
a place of pilgrimage for hard-right young Israelis.


    Death march

We should also mention the first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/david-ben-gurion>. He was 
intimately involved in the Nakba 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba>, the ethnic cleansing 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ethnic-cleansing> of Palestinians 
from 1947 to 1950.

Historians including Ilan Pappe 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ilan-pappe> have documented 
<http://www.whale.to/b/Pappe,%20The%20Ethnic%20Cleansing%20of%20Palestine.pdf> 
how approximately 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes.

Many Palestinians were killed in notorious massacres, including those at 
Deir Yassin <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/deir-yassin> and 
Tantura 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/sunbathing-crime-scene-israeli-resort-covers-massacre/14574>.

Recently found mass graves in Jaffa 
<http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10298>, 
now part of Israel’s Tel Aviv municipality, are a reminder that many of 
the crimes of that period remain hidden.

Take one notorious incident. After conquering Lydd 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lydd>, Zionist forces massacred 
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/21/lydda-1948> 250 people 
inside a mosque. Tens of thousands fled the city in what has been called 
the Lydd Death March. Those who strayed off the path were shot.

Numerous streets and Israel’s international airport have been named in 
Ben-Gurion’s honor.

Moshe Marzouk 
<http://www.haaretz.com/beta/this-week-in-haaretz-1955-marzouk-azar-executed-in-cairo-on-charges-of-spying-for-israel-1.340963> 
was a Jewish-Egyptian surgeon. He was involved in 1955 in a series of 
false-flag terrorist bombings of American and British targets in Egypt 
that were intended to be mistaken for the work of Egyptian nationalists.

There were no deaths caused by the bombings, though of course the 
consequences for Egyptians could have been grave if the US believed 
Egypt <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/egypt> was behind the attacks 
that came be be known as the Lavon Affair 
<http://forward.com/opinion/198375/the-lessons-of-the-lavon-affair/>.

Marzouk was executed by the Egyptian government. An Israeli stamp has 
been issued 
<https://books.google.com/books?id=yqXXD_74yAEC&pg=PA248&lpg=PA248&dq=moshe+marzouk+street&source=bl&ots=osGZhGqRzW&sig=-nsI3L1WY8iqCTQl-LWcROtXgzs&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=moshe%20marzouk%20street&f=false> 
in his honor.

Moving ahead by several decades, Israel’s then Prime Minister Menachem 
Begin ordered the 1982 invasion of Lebanon 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lebanon> that resulted in 15,000 to 
20,000 Palestinian and Lebanese deaths, mostly civilian. His forces 
watched an allied Lebanese militia butcher Palestinians in the Sabra and 
Shatila <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/sabra-and-shatila-massacre> 
refugee camps.

There are streets 
<https://www.hotelplanner.com/Hotels/156613/Reservations-Crowne-Plaza-Tel-Aviv-City-Center-Tel-Aviv-136-Menachem-Begin-Rd-67021> 
in Begin’s honor in Holon, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Petach Tikva and 
Rehovot. There is a Menachem Begin Heritage Center 
<http://begincenter.org.il/en/> in Jerusalem.


    Terror tactics

Yitzhak Shamir led Lehi after the British killed Stern.

In 1948, Lehi had Folke Berndadotte 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/folke-bernadotte>, a UN mediator in 
Palestine, killed 
<http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2014/06/killing-count-20146282143931887.html>.

By the time Lehi was disbanded in 1948 it had carried out dozens of 
assassinations.

Lehi (and the Irgun) were responsible for the April 1948 massacre of 
Palestinians in Deir Yassin 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/deir-yassin>, a village near 
Jerusalem. None of this prevented Shamir from becoming Israeli prime 
minister.

Last year, Netanyahu officiated 
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-poses-greater-global-threat-than-is-pm-says/> 
at a ceremony to name a Jerusalem highway as Yitzhak Shamir Road.

Ariel Sharon <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ariel-sharon> was 
responsible 
<http://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jps-articles/jps.2002.31.4.77.pdf> 
for Unit 101 in the Israeli military, whose job was “retaliation” — that 
is to say operations to terrify Palestinians. His unit committed 
massacres in al-Bureij refugee camp 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-bureij-refugee-camp> in Gaza 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza> (50 dead) and Qibya in Jordan 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jordan> (69 dead).

Sharon was Israel’s defense minister during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon 
and was removed from his post after the Sabra and Shatila massacre. 
There is an Ariel Sharon Park 
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/once-a-dump-sharon-park-officially-opens-near-tel-aviv/> 
east of Tel Aviv.

Last year, the Israeli military agreed 
<http://www.timesofisrael.com/major-idf-base-to-be-named-after-ariel-sharon/> 
that a base in the Naqab <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/naqab> 
(Negev) desert should be named after Sharon.

Last, but certainly not least, there was Baruch Goldstein 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/baruch-goldstein>. In 1994, he 
killed 29 Palestinians and wounded 125 others inside the Ibrahimi Mosque 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ibrahimi-mosque> in Hebron 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hebron>. He didn’t stop until he 
was beaten to death.

A shrine was erected in Goldstein’s memory in Kiryat Arba 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kiryat-arba>, an Israeli settlement 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-settlements> in the 
occupied West Bank <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/west-bank>.

In 1999, the shrine was demolished by the Israeli military. Yet the 
tombstone and epitaph — describing Goldstein as someone with “clean 
hands and a pure heart” — were maintained 
<http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/30/world/israel-destroys-shrine-to-mosque-gunman.html>. 
The site continues to attract pilgrimage-like visits from Israeli settlers.

So Netanyahu’s attempt to prettify his government in its attitude 
towards Israeli violence fails. The Israeli authorities have named more 
than a few public places after terrorists and criminals.

Netanyahu made his claim about how the Israeli government goes after 
murderers and “pursues them til the end” on 2 August.

Yet no one has been arrested for the attack that killed baby Ali 
Dawabsha. Israel put one or two Jewish extremists in administrative 
detention after the attack, but no one has been charged in the murders.

Eyewitnesses saw suspects running to a nearby settlement. Yet it does 
not appear that that settlement or any other suffered the kind of 
roundups, mass interrogation or ransacking Israel routinely inflicts on 
Palestinians, as it did after the abduction of three Israeli youths in 
June 2014.

After Muhammad Abu Khudair was killed last July, several Israeli 
suspects were arrested within days and were actually put on trial, 
though the process is proceeding at a glacial pace.

A month has gone by since the attack on the Dawabsha family and there is 
little indication they will get justice, despite Netanyahu’s grand 
declarations.

/Stanley Heller is host of /The Struggle <http://www.thestruggle.org/>/, 
a TV program aired weekly since 2003./


-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
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