<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5">
<div dir="ltr" style="display: block;" id="reader-header"
class="header"> <small><small><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-honors-murderers-its-midst/14813"
id="reader-domain" class="domain"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-honors-murderers-its-midst/14813">https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-honors-murderers-its-midst/14813</a></a></small></small>
<h1 id="reader-title">How Israel honors the murderers in its
midst</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">
<div class="js--stickyParent">
<div class="sumud-region-main">
<article class="node-14813 node node-story view-mode-full
node-is-page image-landscape"
about="/content/how-israel-honors-murderers-its-midst/14813"
typeof="sioc:Item foaf:Document">
<header class="node__header">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/stanley-heller"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Stanley Heller</a></span></p>
</header>
</article>
</div>
</div>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2015-08-31T22:43:00+00:00">31 August 2015</span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="content">
<div style="display: block;" dir="ltr" id="moz-reader-content">
<div
xml:base="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-honors-murderers-its-midst/14813"
id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<article class="node-14813 node node-story view-mode-full
node-is-page image-landscape">
<figure class="file file-image file-image-jpeg"
id="file-31818"><source media="(min-width: 72rem)"><figcaption
class="group-caption field-group-html-element"><small
class="credit"><span class="field field-publisher"></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>Two days after Israeli settlers <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-israel-protects-its-settlers-who-burn-palestinian-children-alive">burned
to death</a> an 18-month-old baby earlier this summer,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/beta/.premium-1.669074">declared</a>:
“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
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/muhammad-abu-khudair">Muhammad
Abu Khudair</a>, another young Palestinian, was burned
to death.</p>
<p>Sadly, Ali’s father, Saad Dawabsha, <a
href="https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766921">died
from his injuries</a> in hospital. Ali’s mother and a
4-year-old brother are still fighting for their lives.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n01/letters">threw
grenades</a> in a failed effort to kill the the
passengers aboard a Palestinian bus. Today there are
streets <a
href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Shlomo_Ben-Yosef_Street,_Acre">named
after him</a> in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/akka">Akka</a>
and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/tel-aviv">Tel
Aviv</a>.</p>
<p>Ben-Yosef was part of the Irgun, the Zionist armed
group that was led by <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/menachem-begin">Menachem
Begin</a>, 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 <a
href="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">killed</a>
by the group.</p>
<p>The Irgun was <a
href="https://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948">denounced</a>
as “terrorist” by <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/albert-einstein">Albert
Einstein</a> and other luminaries in 1948.</p>
<h2>British brutality</h2>
<p>There are a number of memorials in present-day Israel
honoring <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/orde-wingate">Orde
Wingate</a>. He was an active duty British soldier who
served in Palestine; he was also a passionate <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/christian-zionism">Christian
Zionist</a>.</p>
<p>Wingate led raids against Palestinians in the 1930s
with squads from the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/haganah">Haganah</a>,
the largest Zionist militia. In 2004 <em>The Jewish
Daily Forward</em> <a
href="http://forward.com/news/5560/jewish-vets-gather-to-honor-christian-godfather-of/">wrote</a>
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.”</p>
<p>Israel’s national sport center, the <a
href="http://www.wingate.org.il/">Wingate Institute</a>,
was named after him. A square in the Talbiya
neighborhood of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jerusalem">Jerusalem</a>
also <a
href="http://jerusalem.com/articles/jerusalem/Jerusalem_Neighborhoods_-_Talbiya-a2113">bears
his name</a>, as does the <a
href="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">Yemin
Orde</a> youth village near <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/haifa">Haifa</a>.</p>
<p>Also honored in Israel is <a
href="http://www.etzel.org.il/english/people/hakim.htm">Eliyahu
Hakim</a>, who took part in the assassination of
Walter Guinness (better known as Lord Moyne), a senior
British politician, in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/cairo">Cairo</a>
in 1945.</p>
<p>A street is <a
href="http://institutfrancais-israel.com/blog/institut-francais-de-haifa-2/">named
after</a> Hakim in the French Carmel neighborhood of
Haifa.</p>
<p>Eliyahu Bet-Zuri <a
href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4051769,00.html">planned</a>
to assassinate Winston Churchill, according to files
from the British secret service MI5. He also took part
in the killing of Guinness.</p>
<p>Israel <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Olei_Hagardom&oldid=672962198">issued</a>
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 <a
href="http://www.israel-home.fr/productSaleMap/sold_102654114183092820/">street</a>
in a Jerusalem neighborhood is called Olei Hagardom.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/stern-gang">Stern
Gang</a>.</p>
<p>It was notorious for its many armed robberies, first of
British banks, then Jewish banks and apartment house
holdups.</p>
<p>Stern wanted to establish a Jewish kingdom over
Palestine and not even the Second World War and the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/holocaust">Holocaust</a>
brought a pause in his attacks on the British.
(Incredibly, he even sought aid from <a
href="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">Benito
Mussolini</a> and <a
href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/stern.html">Adolf
Hitler</a>.)</p>
<p>A memorial <a
href="http://mizrachi.org/memorial-held-avraham-yair-stern/">ceremony</a>
attended by Israeli politicians and government officials
is held each year at Stern’s grave in the Nahalat
Yitzhak cemetery in Givatayim.</p>
<p>In 1978, a postage stamp was <a
href="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">issued</a>
in his honor.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21601489-how-killing-head-stern-gang-echoes-down-years-making-martyr">become</a>
a place of pilgrimage for hard-right young Israelis.</p>
<h2>Death march</h2>
<p>We should also mention the first Israeli Prime Minister
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/david-ben-gurion">David
Ben-Gurion</a>. He was intimately involved in the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nakba">Nakba</a>,
the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ethnic-cleansing">ethnic
cleansing</a> of Palestinians from 1947 to 1950.</p>
<p>Historians including <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ilan-pappe">Ilan
Pappe</a> have <a
href="http://www.whale.to/b/Pappe,%20The%20Ethnic%20Cleansing%20of%20Palestine.pdf">documented</a>
how approximately 750,000 Palestinians were forced out
of their homes.</p>
<p>Many Palestinians were killed in notorious massacres,
including those at <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/deir-yassin">Deir
Yassin</a> and <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/sunbathing-crime-scene-israeli-resort-covers-massacre/14574">Tantura</a>.</p>
<p>Recently found <a
href="http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10298">mass
graves in Jaffa</a>, now part of Israel’s Tel Aviv
municipality, are a reminder that many of the crimes of
that period remain hidden.</p>
<p>Take one notorious incident. After conquering <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lydd">Lydd</a>,
Zionist forces <a
href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/21/lydda-1948">massacred</a>
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.</p>
<p>Numerous streets and Israel’s international airport
have been named in Ben-Gurion’s honor.</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/beta/this-week-in-haaretz-1955-marzouk-azar-executed-in-cairo-on-charges-of-spying-for-israel-1.340963">Moshe
Marzouk</a> 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.</p>
<p>There were no deaths caused by the bombings, though of
course the consequences for Egyptians could have been
grave if the US believed <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/egypt">Egypt</a>
was behind the attacks that came be be known as the <a
href="http://forward.com/opinion/198375/the-lessons-of-the-lavon-affair/">Lavon
Affair</a>.</p>
<p>Marzouk was executed by the Egyptian government. An
Israeli stamp has been <a
href="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">issued</a>
in his honor.</p>
<p>Moving ahead by several decades, Israel’s then Prime
Minister Menachem Begin ordered the 1982 invasion of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lebanon">Lebanon</a>
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 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/sabra-and-shatila-massacre">Sabra
and Shatila</a> refugee camps.</p>
<p>There are <a
href="https://www.hotelplanner.com/Hotels/156613/Reservations-Crowne-Plaza-Tel-Aviv-City-Center-Tel-Aviv-136-Menachem-Begin-Rd-67021">streets</a>
in Begin’s honor in Holon, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Petach
Tikva and Rehovot. There is a <a
href="http://begincenter.org.il/en/">Menachem Begin
Heritage Center</a> in Jerusalem.</p>
<h2>Terror tactics</h2>
<p>Yitzhak Shamir led Lehi after the British killed Stern.</p>
<p>In 1948, Lehi had <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/folke-bernadotte">Folke
Berndadotte</a>, a UN mediator in Palestine, <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2014/06/killing-count-20146282143931887.html">killed</a>.</p>
<p>By the time Lehi was disbanded in 1948 it had carried
out dozens of assassinations.</p>
<p>Lehi (and the Irgun) were responsible for the April
1948 massacre of Palestinians in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/deir-yassin">Deir
Yassin</a>, a village near Jerusalem. None of this
prevented Shamir from becoming Israeli prime minister.</p>
<p>Last year, Netanyahu <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-poses-greater-global-threat-than-is-pm-says/">officiated</a>
at a ceremony to name a Jerusalem highway as Yitzhak
Shamir Road.</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ariel-sharon">Ariel
Sharon</a> was <a
href="http://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/jps-articles/jps.2002.31.4.77.pdf">responsible</a>
for Unit 101 in the Israeli military, whose job was
“retaliation” — that is to say operations to terrify
Palestinians. His unit committed massacres in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-bureij-refugee-camp">al-Bureij
refugee camp</a> in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza">Gaza</a>
(50 dead) and Qibya in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jordan">Jordan</a>
(69 dead).</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/once-a-dump-sharon-park-officially-opens-near-tel-aviv/">Ariel
Sharon Park</a> east of Tel Aviv.</p>
<p>Last year, the Israeli military <a
href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/major-idf-base-to-be-named-after-ariel-sharon/">agreed</a>
that a base in the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/naqab">Naqab</a>
(Negev) desert should be named after Sharon.</p>
<p>Last, but certainly not least, there was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/baruch-goldstein">Baruch
Goldstein</a>. In 1994, he killed 29 Palestinians and
wounded 125 others inside the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ibrahimi-mosque">Ibrahimi
Mosque</a> in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hebron">Hebron</a>.
He didn’t stop until he was beaten to death.</p>
<p>A shrine was erected in Goldstein’s memory in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kiryat-arba">Kiryat
Arba</a>, an <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-settlements">Israeli
settlement</a> in the occupied <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/west-bank">West
Bank</a>.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/30/world/israel-destroys-shrine-to-mosque-gunman.html">maintained</a>.
The site continues to attract pilgrimage-like visits
from Israeli settlers.</p>
<figure class="file file-image file-image-jpeg"
id="file-31819"><source media="(min-width: 72rem)"><figcaption
class="group-caption field-group-html-element"><small
class="credit"><span class="field field-publisher"></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Netanyahu made his claim about how the Israeli
government goes after murderers and “pursues them til
the end” on 2 August.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><em>Stanley Heller is host of </em><a
href="http://www.thestruggle.org/">The Struggle</a><em>,
a TV program aired weekly since 2003.</em></p>
<br>
</article>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>