OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — When the names of the people you write about have to remain hidden, you know things are bad. The following story is a part of the Palestinian tragedy that is seldom discussed.
As 75-year-old Hajja Amina (not her real name) slowly crossed the busy street towards her home, she heard two gunshots ring out. When she turned around to see what had happened, she saw one man lying in a pool of blood and another running away. A few minutes later, already in the safety of her home, she heard a few more shorts. The two men who were shot were brothers; the shooter, a member of one of the most notorious crime families in Palestine.
As I was sitting with her and her two oldest sons in her living room, Jamil, her eldest, showed me photos of another killing carried out by members of the same crime family. A mother, her two sons and their uncle, who was a doctor, were all killed. Two of them tried to escape to the West Bank and were killed there. The Palestinian Authority apprehended the shooters and handed them over to the Israeli authorities.
In both cases, the police had the shooters in custody for a short time and then released them. The weapons used in the murders, the same type of semi-automatic rifles used by the Israeli military, were likely sold to them by Israeli military personnel.
No one knows just how large an arsenal these Palestinian crime families possess, but it is clear that it is dangerously large. It is also clear that had these weapons been used to kill Jewish Israelis, or as part of the Palestinian fight against Zionism, the Israeli authorities would have confiscated them long ago. As it is, “Arabs killing Arabs” is not viewed by the Israeli authorities as a problem.
Annual increase
According to a January 2021 report published in Hebrew in Ynet, close to 120 Palestinian citizens of Israel were murdered in 2020. According to the Jerusalem Post, in 2019 71% of the 125 homicide victims in Israel were Palestinian citizens of Israel. In fact, there has been a 100% increase in the number of Palestinian citizens of Israel killed in the past six years. The number of Jewish Israeli homicide victims during that same period has remained consistent and far lower, at around 35 victims per year.
The Jerusalem Post report quotes Dr. Walid Haddad, a criminologist who teaches at the Western Galilee College in Akka and who served in Israeli law enforcement for 15 years. Haddad said that the state does not arrest criminals who have illegal weapons, “even if it identifies them, because these criminals provide the police with information.”
Quid pro quo
Hajja Amina’s sons confirmed this. The police rarely intervene and, if they do, suspects are immediately released. “The crime families have immunity because they act as collaborators.” The Israeli intelligence service, the Shabak, is happy to give immunity to killers and drug dealers. These crime families have no problem providing information about other Palestinians to Israeli authorities. In fact, a sort of Zionist mafia, which makes up the State of Israel and Palestinian crime families, are working together to destroy Palestinian society.
Haddad further alleges that police distinguish between “security weapons” and “criminal weapons,” a distinction that has led to weapons proliferation. Again, Amina’s sons concur. If any of the victims were Jewish, the police and other defense agencies would be all over it and the weapons would be confiscated in no time. In fact, the same Israeli police have been able to fight crime in Jewish Israeli society very effectively.
Right now, Hajja Amina’s sons told me, you can purchase an M-16 assault rifle in broad daylight for $200 and, as long as the killing remains within the Palestinian communities, there is nothing to worry about from the authorities. There is payback and revenge that will go on for generations.
The sources of the weapons are known. Although some come from the West Bank, the majority come from within Israel. Only the Israeli military has possession of assault weapons and caches large enough to allow missing weapons to go unnoticed.
Israeli soldiers are given a weapon upon their conscription and that weapon remains with them even when they go on leave. Even though every soldier is warned to protect their weapon from theft, and that the penalty for theft is severe, these weapons make their way to the crime families.
Where there’s a will…
Over the last few weeks, Palestine was thrown into chaos by the misadventures of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He and his gangs of terror correctly expected that violence would help to cement his chances of remaining in office. Palestinians responded in self-defense everywhere from Gaza Prison to the cities of Lydd, Ramle, Yafa, Haifa and Jerusalem. The violence was instigated wholly by Israeli civilian gangs, police and the Shabak, and the Palestinians who were defending themselves naturally suffered the lion’s share of the violence.
In the end, countless Palestinians were beaten by the authorities, detained, and had indictments brought against them. In some cases, Palestinians were charged with “security” offenses. This permitted the Israeli authorities to keep the “suspects” in detention and interrogate them without the ability to see a lawyer. Authorities fear that a lawyer might ruin their chances of getting a confession from a 14- or 15-year-old Palestinian who is being terrorized by his or her interrogators.
The arrests over the last few weeks were fast and efficient. In many cases, the authorities were able to extend the defendant’s detention for more than a week. In some cases, the charges included terrorism and being part of a terrorist organization, even though the Palestinians were the subjects of terror and acting in self-defense.
This goes to show that the Israeli authorities have no problem arresting, detaining and questioning suspects when they decide it is expedient to do so. But in the case of the crime families operating among the Palestinian citizens of Israel, it is clearly not expedient. Israeli police look on as members of the community are terrorized by criminals armed by Israel. Thankfully, this time Hajja Amina was fortunate and she and her family were not hurt by the violence around them.
Feature photo | Tens of thousands of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, joined by Jewish activists, marched in the Palestinian city of Umm al Fahm to protest against Israeli police violence and organized crime, March 5, 2021. Oren Ziv | Activestill
Miko Peled is MintPress News contributing writer, published author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. His latest books are”The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”
