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href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/jerusalems-palestinians-punished-after-shooting-attack">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/jerusalems-palestinians-punished-after-shooting-attack</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Jerusalem's Palestinians punished after
shooting attack</h1>
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<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Maureen Clare Murphy</a></span>
-<span class="field field-blog"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label
skos:prefLabel" datatype=""></a></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime"
content="2016-10-10T22:54:55+00:00">10 October 2016</span></span>
</p>
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<article class="node-18181 node node-blog view-mode-full
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<p>Israel launched a crackdown following a shooting attack
in Jerusalem on Sunday that left two Israelis and the
Palestinian gunman dead.</p>
<p>Though a gag order prevents Israeli media from
publishing the name of the slain attacker, Palestinian
outlets identified him as Misbah Abu Sbeih, a
39-year-old from Silwan, a neighborhood near the Old
City of Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The shooting <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.746607">began
Sunday morning at a light rail stop</a> across from
Israeli police headquarters near Ammunition Hill in
occupied East Jerusalem. An Israeli woman, Levanah
Malichi, 60, was critically wounded and later died from
her injuries, and a man was moderately wounded.</p>
<p>“Another victim was then shot and moderately wounded at
the nearby Clermont-Ganneau Street intersection. The
assailant then fled to Sheikh Jarrah, where two Israel
Police officers were wounded, one critically and one
moderately,” the Tel Aviv newspaper <em>Haaretz</em>
reported.</p>
<p>One of the officers, Yosef Kirme, 29, died of his
injuries. Kirme was a <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.746742">member</a>
of Yasam, a militarized unit of Israel’s police force.</p>
<p>A video of the scene shows Israeli forces shooting at
Abu Sbeih’s car:
</p>
<h2>Prominent Jerusalem activist</h2>
<p>Abu Sbeih was a prominent figure in Jerusalem, and was
<a href="http://www.qudsn.ps/article/102193">part of a
group of volunteer defenders</a> of the al-Aqsa mosque
compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, the site of frequent
incursions by Israeli settlers and right-wing
provocateurs. Known as the murabitoun, the volunteer
formation has been <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.675329">outlawed
by Israel</a>.</p>
<p>On Saturday, Abu Sbeih <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773482">told
the Ma’an News Agency</a>, a Palestinian media outlet,
that he was planning to turn himself in to Israeli
authorities the next day to serve a four-month prison
sentence for allegedly assaulting a police officer in
2013.</p>
<p>Ma’an reported that Abu Sbeih had spent a year in
prison on separate charges of “incitement” over posts he
had made on Facebook.</p>
<p>“Among the posts he was imprisoned for were: ‘We
sacrifice our souls and our blood for you al-Aqsa,’ and,
‘we sacrifice our children for al-Aqsa,’” Ma’an
reported.</p>
<p>Abu Sbeih <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773496">told
Ma’an</a> on Saturday that he had been repeatedly
detained over the previous two weeks. He was most
recently released from detention <a
href="http://www.qudsn.ps/article/102193">only 15 days
before his attack</a>.</p>
<p>In early October Abu Sbeih was banned from East
Jerusalem for one month, and he was previously hit with
a travel ban and forbidden from entering al-Aqsa mosque
for six months.</p>
<h2>Jerusalem</h2>
<p>Abu Sbeih is one of approximately 250 Palestinians
killed since October 2015, when a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/year-atrocities-palestine">new
phase in violent confrontation</a> with Israeli forces
emerged. More than 30 Israelis have been killed by
Palestinians during that time, as well as two US
citizens.</p>
<p>Most of those Palestinians were killed during alleged,
attempted or actual attacks against Israeli soldiers,
police and civilians. Palestinian attackers acted alone,
or in small groups, and independent of command from
armed factions. Their weapons were mainly kitchen knives
and cars; in only a small fraction of the incidents did
Palestinians open fire on Israelis.</p>
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<p>In a handful of cases, Palestinians used pistols and
improvised firearms. Abu Sbeih is the first attacker
over the past year to use a standard assault rifle – an
M-16 – <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.746686">according
to <em>Haaretz</em></a>.</p>
<p>Also in contrast to previous incidents, the Hamas
resistance group’s West Bank branch <a
href="http://hamas.ps/ar/post/6233/%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D8%AA%D8%B2%D9%81-%D8%B4%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%87%D8%A7-%D8%A3%D8%A8%D9%88-%D8%B5%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AD-%D9%85%D9%86%D9%81%D8%B0-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3">claimed</a>
Abu Sbeih as one of their own. Hamas noted that the
Jerusalem shooting came on the anniversary of the 1990
al-Aqsa mosque massacre.</p>
<p>On 8 October that year, approximately 20 Palestinians
were killed by Israeli forces following provocation by
Temple Movement activists who <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/destruction-jerusalems-al-aqsa-mosque-israeli-groups-ultimate-goal">seek
to destroy al-Aqsa mosque and replace it with a third
Jewish temple</a>.</p>
<p>The alignment of the Jerusalem shootings and the
massacre anniversary is “an indication that the
Palestinian people cannot forget or disregard any crime
against their holy city,” Hamas <a
href="http://hamas.ps/ar/post/6233/%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3-%D8%AA%D8%B2%D9%81-%D8%B4%D9%87%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%87%D8%A7-%D8%A3%D8%A8%D9%88-%D8%B5%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%AD-%D9%85%D9%86%D9%81%D8%B0-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3">stated</a>.</p>
<p>Hamas leaders Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniyeh also <a
href="https://www.nasr-news.com/%D9%85%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A9-%D8%AE%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%B4%D8%B9%D9%84-%D9%88-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%84-%D9%87%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%A6%D9%84%D8%A9/">phoned
Abu Sbeih’s family</a> and offered their condolences
and saluted what they called his martyrdom.</p>
<p>Fatah, the Hamas party’s bitter rival which controls
the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, declared a
day of mourning following Abu Sbeih’s death, Ma’an <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773493">reported</a>.</p>
<h2>Facebook blamed</h2>
<p>Israel’s public security minister Gilad Erdan blamed
Facebook and other social media platforms for Sunday’s
attack. “It is scandalous that Facebook reopened Hamas’
pages last week in the wake of pressure from the
Palestinian street,” he said, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.746607">according
to</a> <em>Haaretz</em>.</p>
<p>Israel and Facebook have <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/12/facebook-israel-monitor-posts-incite-violence-social-media">agreed
to work together</a> to remove “incitement” from the
social media platform, an Israeli cabinet minister has
previously claimed. Facebook has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/facebook-apologizes-disabling-palestinian-journalists-accounts">downplayed</a>
its cooperation with the Israeli government.</p>
<p>Following Sunday’s attack the deputy mayor of Jerusalem
<a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.746987">vowed
to “punish”</a> residents of East Jerusalem, accusing
them of “animal behavior.”</p>
<p>“Let’s put all the cards on the table. The people in
East Jerusalem want to kill us and destroy us. Why do we
need to give them a new chance every day?” Deputy Mayor
Meir Turgeman, who chairs the municipality’s planning
and building board, said during a radio interview.</p>
<p>“We have to take responsibility here. And I am going to
give an example. I took all the construction plans
related to East Jerusalem off the agenda. I shelved all
of the plans. They say carrots and sticks. There are no
carrots left, only sticks,” he added.</p>
<h2>Raids and arrests</h2>
<p>Israel launched a series of punitive measures following
Sunday’s attack.</p>
<p>Israeli forces stormed the Jerusalem-area town of
al-Ram on Monday morning and detained Abu Sbeih’s
17-year-old daughter Iman, <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773493">according
to Ma’an</a>. Relatives told the news agency that
soldiers questioned the girl and Abu Sbeih’s wife before
taking the teenager into custody.</p>
<p>On Monday, Iman Abu Sbeih <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/alrayps/videos/598150230310253/">made
a video statement</a> that went viral on social media,
in which she praises her father’s attack and describes
their close relationship.</p>
<p>Seven Palestinians were injured after confrontations
erupted when Israeli forces raided al-Ram on Sunday,
Ma’an <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773487">reported</a>.</p>
<p>A photographer with the Associated Press was lightly
injured by Israeli forces while covering the
confrontations.</p>
<p>The photographer, Majdi Mohammed, <a
href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/ap-photographer-wounded-israeli-fire-while-covering-clash-191124785.html">told
the news agency</a> that “one of the Israelis cursed
him and ordered him to leave. He said that as he turned
around to leave, he was shot from close range in the
back of his shoulder, an area that was not covered by
his protective vest.”</p>
<p>The Foreign Press Association stated that the incident
was “the latest in a string of attacks by Israeli border
police on journalists.”</p>
<p>Two Israeli soldiers were injured by stones thrown by
residents.</p>
<p>Another home belonging to the Abu Sbeih family in the
town of Kufr Aqab was raided on Sunday.</p>
<p>During the raids on the homes in Kufr Aqab and al-Ram,
army engineers measured the houses in preparation for
demolishing them, relatives of Abu Sbeih <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773496">told
Ma’an</a>. Soldiers removed posters, flags and
photographs of Abu Sbeih which had been displayed in
al-Ram.</p>
<p>Israel has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israels-high-court-champions-revenge-against-palestinian-families">demolished
homes</a> belonging to the families of Palestinian
attackers and suspected attackers over the past year.</p>
<p>More than 50 Palestinians were <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=773504">detained</a>
during overnight raids in the West Bank, more than half
of them in the Jerusalem area.</p>
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