Bil'in Protest Coordinator Arrested

Mohammed Khatib, coordinator of West Bank Coordination Committee arrested

Posted on: January 28, 2010

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee
28 January 2010

Khatib during a speaking his speaking tour in Canada last year. Photo Credit: Tadamon!

At a quarter to two AM tonight, Mohammed Khatib, his wife Lamia and their four young children were woken up by Israeli soldiers storming their home, which was surrounded by a large military force. Once inside the house, the soldiers arrested Khatib, conducted a quick search and left the house.

Roughly half an hour after leaving the house, five military jeeps surrounded the house again, and six soldiers forced their way into the house again, where Khatib’s children sat in terror, and conducted another, very thorough search of the premises, without showing a search warrant. During the search, Khatib’s phone and many documents were seized, including papers from Bil’in’s legal procedures in the Israel High Court.

The soldiers exited an hour and a half later, leaving a note saying that documents suspected as “incitement materials” were seized. International activists who tried to enter the house to be with the family during the search were aggressively denied entry.

Mohammed Khatib was previously arrested during the ongoing wave of arrests and repression on Augst 3rd, 2009 with charges of incitement and stone throwing. After two weeks of detention, a military judge ruled that evidence against him was falsified and ordered his release, after it was proven that Khatib was abroad at the time the army alleged he was photographed throwing stones during a demonstration.

International activist detained during the night raid and arrest of Mohammed Khatib in Bil'lin. Photo Credit: Ma'an News Agency

Khatib’s arrest today is the most severe escalation in a recent wave of repression again the Palestinian popular struggle and its leadership. Khatib is the 35th resident of Bil’in to be arrested on suspicions related to anti-Wall protest since June 23rd, 2009.

The recent wave of arrests is largely an assault on the members of the Popular Committees – the leadership of the popular struggle – who are then charged with incitement when arrested. The charge of incitement, defined under Israeli military law as “an attempt, whether verbally or otherwise, to influence public opinion in the Area in a way that may disturb the public peace or public order,” is a cynical attempt to punish grassroots organizing with a hefty charge and lengthy imprisonments. Such indictments are part of the army’s strategy of using legal persecution as a means to quash the popular movement.

Similar raids have also been conducted in the village of alMaasara, south of Bethlehem, and in the village of Ni’ilin – where 110 residents have been arrested over the last year and half, as well as in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.

Among those arrested in the recent campaign are three members of the Ni’ilin Popular Committee, Sa’id Yakin of the Palestinian National Committee Against the Wall, and five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee – all suspected of incitement.

Prominent grassroots activists Jamal Jum’a (East Jerusalem) and Mohammed Othman (Jayyous) of the Stop the Wall NGO, involved in anti-Wall and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigning, have recently been released from detention after being incarcerated for long periods based on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.

Free Wa’el Al-Faqeeh

15 January 2010

On the night of December 9th 2009, over 200 Israeli soldiers entered the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Their mission: to round up local grassroots activists, whose promotion of popular struggle Israel had no answer for. Amongst those taken was 45 year old Wa’el Al-Faqeeh. Fifty soldiers stormed his home, pointing their weapons at him and his family as though the man they had come to arrest embodied a formidable threat. But those who know Al Faqeeh know that he worked tirelessly – and on a largely voluntary basis – in defense of human rights and the promotion of the strategies and philosophy of Palestinian non-violent resistance.

Political prisoner Wa’el Al-Faqeeh has been detained without charge by Israeli authorities for over a month, and is now facing trial in a military court scheduled to begin on the 19th of January. The abduction of Al-Faqeeh from his home, along with 4 other activists in the Nablus region, marked the beginning of the recent surge in Israel’s targeting of leaders of Palestinian popular resistance.

We call on you to take effective and public action to end the arrest, detention and mistreatment of Palestinian human rights activists such as Wa’el Al-Faqeeh. Deprived of his liberty and his voice, we ask you to join us in exercising our freedom of speech where he can not by calling for the release of Wa’el Al-Faqeeh and all political prisoners inside Israel’s jails.

What you can do to help:

* Contact your representatives asking them to exert pressure on Israeli officials to release Wa’el Al-Faqeeh and to end the unlawful imprisonment of human rights defenders. Click here to send a letter to Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union. Click here to send a letter to the American consulate in Jerusalem, or use the sample letter here to send to your respective representative. You can find a list of embassies and their contact information here.

* Host an event, or hold a demonstration or action in your area to raise awareness, support – and even funds – for Al-Faqeeh and all political prisoners. You could organise a film night, street projection, “Free the Prisoners” party, or a demonstration outside an Israeli embassy or consulate in your country. Organisers can contact palreports@gmail.com for media support.

* Wa’el Al-Faqeeh faces military court on the January 19. His legal defence comes at a high price and contributions to his legal fund support both Al-Faqeeh and his family. You can make a donation to the Free Wa’el fund here.

You can follow updates on Al-Faqeeh’s case and get in touch with his supporters by joining the Free Wa’el Facebook group here.

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for more information visit:

Grassroots activist Wa’el Al-Faqeeh to stand trial January 19

Demonstration outside Jelemeh prison in solidarity with arrested Palestinian grassroots activist

Demonstrators to protest arrest of prominent grassroots activist Wa’el Al Faqeeh Abu As Sabe

Ma'an: Army targets ISM volunteer in Ramallah incursion

Foreign activist deported after Israeli night raid
12/01/2010 13:47

Bethlehem – Ma'an – Israel deported a Czech national on Tuesday, 24 hours after she was seized by the Israeli military during a late-night raid in the central West Bank city of Ramallah's city center, Ma'an has learned.

Eva Nováková, 28, the International Solidarity Movement's media coordinator, was taken from her Manara apartment at 3am Monday.

She was deported at 6am on Tuesday to Prague from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, where she was taken late Monday night. Supporters failed to get an emergency injunction against the deportation, which came just one day after the raid.

Sources at the Representative Office of the Czech Republic in Ramallah said they were familiar with the case, but refused to comment further. Calls to the country's embassy in Tel Aviv went unanswered.

During Monday's night raid, soldiers deployed on rooftops adjacent to the Palestinian Authority police headquarters, while three APVs patrolled the central urban area. Onlookers counted at least 20 soldiers participating in the operation, which lasted less than half an hour.

Also participating were forces belonging to Israel's special "Oz" immigration task force, according to Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, among others. Pollak said immigration police broke down Nováková's door, checked her passport, and took her away. "I don't know why it would be worthwhile for them to do that," he told Ma'an. "It's really alarming because she wasn't charged with anything."

An Israeli military spokesman insisted it was the army that carried out the raid, described as aimed at apprehending an individual who was "residing illegally in Ramallah." He said the detainee was transferred to civilian police custody following the operation.

Her attorney, Omer Shatz, said Israel's alleged use of its special "Oz" unit was illegal. "This arrest is part of the continued and illegal use of the immigration police against activists, for political purposes," Shatz said in an ISM statement. Immigration police, in general, work under the authority of the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, Shatz added, and thus would have no business operating in Palestinian cities.

PA security sources said they were familiar with the case, but did not believe it represented a precedent as Nováková's Israeli-issued visa had expired. Israel controls all the entrances to the West Bank, and is at present the sole issuer of visas for Czech citizens.

It was not immediately clear if the Israeli government now considers Ramallah, the de facto capital of the PA, off-limits to foreign-passport holders. But the city would be to Israeli forces even by their own government's understanding of the limits placed on such activity in the occupied West Bank. Ramallah, a city in Area A, has supposedly been under full PA security control since 2008.

While raids targeting Palestinians in outlying districts are nightly events, the detention of Nováková was unusual because Israeli forces tend only to enter PA-controlled areas for the purpose of capturing Palestinians on their "wanted" list, and usually for alleged security grounds. One such incursion was in December, when Israeli forces assassinated three Fatah operatives in their Nablus homes.

Last week, President Mahmoud Abbas said the PA was considering scaling back security ties with Israel on operations in certain Area A sites such as Ramallah. "If the coordination does not lead to a halt in the incursions and the provocations, we will think anew," Abbas said.

Monday's raid follows an arrest wave targeting activists and organizers throughout the West Bank. In the hours since Nováková's arrest on Monday, Israeli forces detained two Palestinians in Nil'in and another in Bil'in. At least 12 were detained overnight, military sources said.

In the past month, since 16 December, the army staged 11 night incursions into Ni'lin. Since May 2008, when anti-wall demonstrations began in the village, 94 residents have been arrested in connection to the protests. Similar raids were conducted in the village of Bil'in, where 34 residents were arrested in the past six months, and in the cities of Nablus, Ramallah and East Jerusalem.

Among those arrested in the recent campaign were five members of the Bil'in Popular Committee, all suspected of incitement, including Adeeb Abu Rahmah, already in detention for almost six months, and Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the Bil'in Popular Committee coordinator.

Nablus activist Wael Al-Faqeeh, as well as Stop the Wall organizers Jamal Juma of East Jerusalem and Mohammed Othman of Jayyous, were also arrested recently. Activists said the detentions were likely linked to involvement in anti-wall and boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigning. All three were being held based on secret evidence and with no charges brought against them.

Nováková's deportation also amid recent Israeli measures to control the flow of foreign-passport holders in the occupied territories. Over the summer, authorities began issuing "PA-only" visas to foreign nationals, in apparent violation of the Oslo Accords. In practice, the stamp bars holders of foreign passports from entering Jerusalem, areas west of the separation wall, or Green Line Israel.

During the holidays, Israeli security officials temporarily prevented internationals from using a key West Bank bus line between Bethlehem and East Jerusalem, redirecting them to a military checkpoint. The decision was eventually reversed, although not permanently.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
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ISM: "Israel stages night-time Ramallah raid to arrest an international solidarity activist"

ISM: "West Bank Popular Leader Arrested in Ni’ilin"

Abdallah Abu Rahmah: No army, no prison and no wall can stop us

Posted on: January 6, 2010

Free Abdallah Abu Rahmah

January 6, 2010

To all our friends,

I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope.

I know that Israel’s military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our non-violent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel′s leaders do not understand is that popular struggle cannot be stopped by our imprisonment.

Whether we are confined in the open-air prison that Gaza has been transformed into, in military prisons in the West Bank, or in our own villages surrounded by the Apartheid Wall, arrests and persecution do not weaken us. They only strengthen our commitment to turning 2010 into a year of liberation through unarmed grassroots resistance to the occupation.

The price I and many others pay in freedom does not deter us. I wish that my two young daughters and baby son would not have to pay this price together with me. But for my son and daughters, for their future, we must continue our struggle for freedom.

This year, the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee will expand on the achievements of 2009, a year in which you amplified our popular demonstrations in Palestine with international boycott campaigns and international legal actions under universal jurisdiction.

In my village, Bil’in, Israeli tycoon, Lev Leviev and Africa-Israel, the corporation he controls, are implicated in illegal construction of settlements on our stolen land, as well as the lands of many other Palestinian villages and cities. Adalah-NY is leading an international campaign to show Leviev that war crimes have their price.

Our village has sued two Canadian companies for their role in the construction and marketing of new settlement units on village land cut off by Israel’s Apartheid Wall. The legal proceedings in this precedent-setting case began in the Canadian courts last summer and are ongoing.

Bil’in has become the graveyard of Israeli real estate empires. One after another, these companies are approaching bankruptcy as the costs of building on stolen Palestinian land are driven higher than the profits.

Unlike Israel, we have no nuclear weapons or army, but we do not need them. The justness of our cause earns us your support. No army, no prison and no wall can stop us.

Yours,

Abdallah Abu Rahmah
From the Ofer Military Detention Camp

This letter from Bil′in′s Abdallah Abu Rahmah was conveyed from his prison cell by his lawyers. Please circulate widely.

Haitham Sabbah: "Crossing the borders of solidarity"

06/01/2010 15:11

Activists for Palestine must have the same goal as Palestinians – the liberation of Palestine. They must not be diverted from this objective or interfere with a greater geopolitical situation that may have consequences none of us can predict and which can cancel for a long time our hopes for liberation and return.

Our fear is legitimate. We fear the emergence of the Zionist ultimate project, "Greater Israel" in the ashes of the destruction of Arab unity, which is not a lofty ideal, but present in the Arab masses and is a source that must be tapped into, and the Zionist project can be accomplished if we are not vigilant in all we do and if we shift our rage away from Israel and weaken the Arab masses. I shall explain.

Taking on Egypt

Let's assume that the Egyptian government was replaced with new democratically elected one, what do you think would happen? The answer seems vague, but believe me, it is very simple. Remember what happened in Occupied Palestine four years ago? Hamas was elected and the entire world witnessed real democracy in action. What happened next? The entire world, including most Arab countries, refused to accept Hamas as the new official government and nearly all of them decided to cut relations and aid to the new Palestinian government. The tag was ready for all of them to push off to the ears of the world, "Hamas is a terrorist organization. Full Stop!"

Now, we are not arguing here whether Hamas was a good choice or not for and from the Palestinians. It was their choice in fair elections and it must be respected by anyone who believes in democracy.

Back to Egypt. Who can guarantee that the newly elected government and its president will not be the same as the previous regime? If we are very optimistic and think that activists and Egyptians could succeed in changing the existing regime and a truly elected system was in place, why should anyone believe that it would not face the same ending like the Hamas government did? Could we guarantee that the Egyptians would not shortly end in a situation similar to that the Palestinians are suffering?

This reality would be disastrous. It will not only affect Egypt, but the Arab world in general and Palestinians in particular, especially the Palestinians of Gaza. Israel will not stop to think before they rushed to occupy Gazan borders again, this time without the Palestinian and Egyptian proxies. In fact, I believe that in a situation like this, the Zionists will find it the moment of history when they can establish their dream of Greater Israel. They might not only occupy Sinai, but invade Egypt across the Red Sea until Israel reaches the Nile. What may happen next is another story.

So what we have today is extremely bad, but in a certain viewpoint of realpolitik and understanding exactly how Israel operates, it may be better than what could happen. Even Hamas understands this and they know that what they have for now is more than what they can dream of having in a day or two until Israel reacts. Hamas knows very well that Israel is closing the borders, not Egypt.

Forgetting Palestine

It seems to me that the world has forgotten the word 'Palestine', and how can anyone blame them? These days we only hear the words Gaza and West Bank. In fact, if you watch the mainstream media you will even hardly hear 'West Bank'. Everyone has forgotten that part of Occupied Palestine. Some activists even forgot that the Map of Palestine is from the River to the Sea (Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea). Anyway…

The West Bank is not in better shape than Gaza. Yes, our brothers and sisters in Gaza are suffering from the siege and a high level of poverty due to this siege, but Palestinians in the West Bank are not in much better conditions at all. All the checkpoints (more than 700) are in the West Bank. The Israeli Apartheid Wall is cutting the West Bank into tiny pieces. No one is allowed to enter Jerusalem. Kidnapping and assassinations are around every corner. Add to it the corrupted Palestinian Authority. So the question remains, where are our friends and activists when it comes to the West Bank? Why don't they try to break the Walls and remove the checkpoints and open its borders with the Arab world? If you think a Palestinian or non-Palestinian can travel from Jordan to the West Bank without the Israeli permission and passing through Israeli immigration offices, you are wrong. So, the West Bank is still under Israeli occupation.

We have to keep in mind that big picture. Over sixty years ago we were fighting for all of Palestine. Since Oslo, we started to talk only about the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. Now activism is mostly focusing on food and aid to one part of Palestine, Gaza. In other words, putting a band-aid on a deep wound. In a few years’ time we will be demonstrating just to know or hear if there is anyone still alive on this land!

Where to focus

First and foremost, we need to realign and look at the big picture again. The whole of Palestine is occupied, not Gaza and the West Bank only.

Second, the Right of Return is a divine right for all Palestinians. If the two states solution is not going to guarantee the return of those who want to return (and it will not guarantee it) then to hell with this solution! Jews are welcome like all other religious and non-religious people to live side by side with Christian and Muslim Arabs and Palestinians in One State. No special conditions for Jews.

Third, we are not fighting to break the siege only in one part, but in all of Palestine, once and for good.

Fourth, our enemy is not the messenger, but the real occupier and whoever supports them.

Now, you ask me where to go!

Your Borders and Israeli Borders

One can't really say that there aren't a lot of great, dedicated people around the world, devoted to the cause of Palestine's freedom, and they deserve a lot of credit for putting their time and energy to the cause. We can question their timing, methods and even their overall goals, which might not go as far as many Palestinians would desire, but their good faith seems to be beyond doubt. However, to not lose an important opportunity not only for activists to really do something concrete as well as for them to make tidal wave of support happen, strategy does count, because lives are on the line and Palestinians pay for every day that the occupation drags on. There were several movements that acted in these days, and one day we will be able to draw the sums of their effectiveness.

In spite that fact of the 1,400 activists (a very small number) who went to Cairo for the Gaza Freedom March (GFM), which didn't happen (other than the 100 who were permitted to go to Gaza). In the end, they came up with a document that has many good points which can be brought back to their countries to add to their strategy planning, and this is no bad thing. We can also look at the Viva Palestina (VP) convoy which traveled from one continent to another (and now crossing the sea) driving those useless brand new cars they bought to "aid" Gazans; in the meantime gaining a lot of publicity and that, in itself is not always a bad thing.

But again, the question begs, because it must: how effective were these movements? Personally, I think it was a big failure, and despite all the human and economic resources invested in it, didn't achieve much, however grateful we might be that something was done. But what we ask of them is something much simpler, yet doubtlessly more effective.

In each country around this world, there is a US embassy, UK embassy, etc. Why don't you gather in your own countries in front of these embassies and demonstrate? What's wrong with Washington, the White House and the Congress? What's wrong with Number 10, Downing Street? At least your numbers will be much greater, no harassment from US/Israeli proxy Arabian dictatorship and much more effective. Eventually and slowly, the mainstream media will notice you whether they like it or not, and CHANGE, real change (not what Obama promised in Cairo) for a just resolution of the Palestinian/Arab/Israeli conflict will become reality.

Another way, which is so far hardly used, are the Israeli borders themselves. Why don't the freedom marchers travel to the "democratic Israel" and gather at the occupation internal borders? The ISM is doing an amazing job inside the West Bank and the weekly demonstrations in Nil'in and Bil'in are amazing, but are they enough? NO! What we need are more activists on the other side of the Wall. No, Peace Now is not good enough, however we thank them.

Several activists were killed while they were protecting Palestinians or trying to help them save their properties and lives, and to them go our deepest thanks, love and respect. However, true activism is not only shouting slogans here and there without actions, serious actions, which no one can guarantee anyone’s safety. So, if you are not ready for the risk of being killed by the Israelis, which is a real risk, stay home and do what you can there, not in Cairo or surrounding occupation proxies. I'm not asking you to commit suicide, but your governments and media need to see the real enemy and you need to wake up your nations. We need you to educate your country's citizens and pressure your official for real and lasting peace, not to demonstrate in the streets of Cairo and give a chance for the regime to describe you as hooligans and coup promoters.

Successful attempts

My friends, Free Gaza Movement was a good example of the above. Their plans, actions, risks and effectiveness are beyond all what GFM and VP tried to do in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the way GFM and VP was run and ended has served no one but to smear Egyptians (as a nation, the regimes will still get their cheque) and let the criminals run away with their crimes on the first anniversary of Israeli War Crimes against Gaza, Palestine. This is a mistake in judgment that we should not have afforded. The opportunity for Palestinians to express their pain and remember their dead was missed. The focus was on Egypt. Free Gaza Movement not only really broke the siege on Gaza time after time, but they risked their lives in the last trip that sailed to Gaza and the Israeli marine ships tried to sink their ship, not to mention the attention of the media on the victims in Gaza, Palestine. I stand to salute all this group of activists who set an example of real activism to free Palestine.

In the future, activists have to take either of two routes. Going in and through Israel itself to break the walls, checkpoints, crossings and borders, or by sea, where you need no one's permission but are entitled to demand their protection. However, please don't ask for protection from Egypt or Arabs, but from your Western greater powers. If you are coming from the US, ask Obama to protect you. If you are coming from the UK, ask Gordon Brown to protect you. If you are coming from France ask Sarkozy to protect you, and so on.

Haitham Sabbah is an uprooted Palestinian blogger. He is the webmaster and editor of Palestine Blogs, also webmaster and co-editor of Palestine Think Tank. His personal blog is Sabbah Report: http://sabbah.biz/

Haaretz: "Orders were to capture militants alive - so why were they killed?"

Nablus: funeral for the three palestinian men, assassinated by israeli troops

01/01/2010
By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel

The orders prepared by the Judea and Samaria Division for the IDF operation in Nablus last week by a Duvdevan commando unit stated clearly that the unit "was to carry out a raid and capture the wanted men." This wording of the order was passed on to the unit with the approval of GOC Central Command. It was received on Friday December 25, several hours before the raid on the homes of the three suspects in the murder of Rabbi Meir Hai the previous day near Shavei Shomron.

The orders did not include instructions to kill any of the three wanted men. The senior officers who spoke with Haaretz stressed that the soldiers were not given any verbal instructions that were different from those in writing.

An evaluation of the testimonies of family members and the IDF officers suggests that this was not an operation to assassinate. However, the three, Adnan Subuh, Raad Sarkaji and Ghassan Abu Shreikh, were killed by the soldiers, even though two of them were not armed, and it does not even appear that they were trying to escape - a fact that the IDF does not dispute.

Family members of the dead are alleging that the three were executed, and say that the Israeli claims that the three were involved in the killing of Rabbi Hai, 32 hours prior to the incident, are lies. The weapon that the security establishment in Israel says were used to kill the rabbi was found in the home of the third wanted man, Subuh. A ballistic examination proved it was the weapon.

But it is difficult not to wonder how two unarmed men, nearly 40 years old, sleeping in bed near their children and not behaving as wanted men, were killed without even having attempted to escape. It appears that, like in many other operations of this sort, the reality on the ground, and especially early intelligence on the three suspects, predetermined the result of the operation.

The Duvdevan commandos were told that the suspects might be armed and that they murdered Rabbi Hai.

Nablus: funeral for the three palestinian men, assassinated by israeli troops

Sources in the IDF argue that the information on the role of the three in the murder was "certain." In such case, any unnecessary movement by one of the "targets" may be life-threatening because it might mean they are going for a weapon. Indeed, an examination of the testimonies of the families and the IDF officers involved in the details of the operation suggests that the two wanted men hesitated in surrendering to the soldiers who came to arrest them, and did move suspiciously, which in turn led to the opening of lethal fire against them.

"We did not murder or assassinate," one of the IDF officers said. "In such instances the security of our forces precedes the security of the enemy."

The Abu Shreikh home

A huge poster of the elder brother, Nayef, was at the top of the stairs in the Abu Shreikh home. He was one of the leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades at the start of the second intifada and was killed by the IDF. Another brother, Nihad, has been in an Israeli prison for the past three years.

The mother of Ghassan, Umm Nayef, says that during the night she heard sounds in the street, and at 2 A.M. she heard a blast. "They blew up the entrance to the inner yard and there was a lot of shouting and smoke. I shouted at them that I was old and told my family 'the Jews, the Jews.' Jihad, my son, went down first, and then his wife and their children. The soldiers beat them and asked them where Ghassan was."

"We all came down and Ghassan was last. But when he was coming downstairs, when he reached the last step, they shot and killed him. They did not say anything, they did not warn - they just shot him. They claimed that there is another person in the house, but we explained that there is no one. They searched the house, turned it over and found no weapons," she continued.

"Ghassan was never a wanted man and had never been arrested," his mother insisted. "He had no connection with the [Palestinian] factions. All his life he was a car electrician. Now his child has nightmares, wakes up shouting 'father, father.' What do you think he will do when he grows up?"

The IDF officers' version is that "the brother came down first. He came slowly, as he had been told to do, and turned before the soldier in order to show that he had nothing under his shirt. The rest of the family did the same except for the wanted man. After a few minutes delay, two stun grenades were thrown in, and the wanted man came out running down the stairs. The soldiers called out in Arabic for him to stop but he continued running. When he came within 2.5 meters away from one of the soldiers, there was no choice but to shoot him."

The run down the staircase may suggest that he was trying to escape through the yard, without realizing that the soldiers had surrounded it. "You must understand that once we surprised the wanted man, each minute that passes he could be surprising us," one of the officers explained.

The Sarkaji home

Raad Sarkaji opened a business selling refrigerators recently. He had been released less than a year ago from an Israeli prison after a seven-year sentence. His wife, Thani, is pregnant in her fifth month. She still wears the blood-soaked nightgown she wore that night. "These are his brains," she says, pointing to the bloodstained wall.

"A little before 3 A.M., I heard a huge blast. We were in bed and said that it must be the army. I heard them speaking Hebrew, and the shooting began before they said a thing. We got to the first door and Raad shouted in Hebrew 'wait, wait.' We went outside, he in front, and the minute he passed the door they shot and killed him. I was injured in the leg and fell backward, and he fell into my arms. I shouted 'Raad, Raad,' and then all his brain fell onto my hands," she recounts.

"Seven soldiers jumped in, and one of them walked up to him and shot him a few times. I shouted that I am pregnant, and to leave me. They began searching the house and told me to call the children, who were in their grandmother's house on the other side."

Walid, a 10-year-old, says that the officer "asked me in Arabic where is my father's weapon and I told him that he had none."

In this case too, the IDF version is different. "The wanted man came out of the room and realized that it was the army, and rushed back inside," an officer who was on the scene says. "The force commander called to his soldiers to make sure he did not have a weapon. Several minutes later he came out again, behind his wife. His hands were hidden. The soldiers called out to him repeatedly, in Arabic, to lift his hands, and he did not do so. There was little choice. The threat to the soldiers was just too great."

Haaretz: "Israel's 10 worst errors of the decade"

By Bradley Burston

In the Mideast, dreams can only end badly. Not because messianic messages are, in and of themselves, bad dreams, but because of the nature of this place, the history which is as much imagination as it is record, as much sacred hallucination as it is shared memory. And because the dreamers of this place fail again and again because they are under the illusion that they are realists

The decade just passing is one in which Middle East dreams came to die. It began, appropriately, with an Israeli leader who saw his place in history as dependent on imposing a peace plan on the entire Arab world, and a Palestinian icon who saw his place in history as dependent on saying no.

In no decade of the modern Middle East has the roll of failure been so democratic. The titans Arafat and Sharon fought their battle to the death, and both lost. Bill Clinton, Ehud Barak, Hassan Nasrallah, Ahmed Yassin, hilltop youth, Al Aqsa Martyrs, Yossi Beilin, the Yesha Council, even Jimmy Carter - all dreamed Icarus dreams and realized, only too late, that in the brilliant sun of the Holy Land, wings of feathers and wax reveal their true selves, which is to say, nothing more than feathers and wax.

It was a decade framed by a fundamentalist Palestinian belief in salvation through suicide and a fundamentalist Israeli belief in salvation through brutality.

The decade ends as it began, clueless, hopeless, exhausted. For having lived through this, we are, all of us, somehow much more than 10 years older, yet none the wiser. In fact, what passed for our wisdom had died with our dreams. Socialist collectivism, rabid Revisionism, Reagan-Thatcher neo-conservatism, none of them has anything to teach us.

The Palestinians are ideological orphans as well. Ten years ago, they were promised that the armed struggle would cause the Jewish state to collapse like a spider's web. Ten years ago, they might have had a state of their own. Now they can barely breathe.

For both peoples, the lessons of this decade are unbearable. No Greater Israel, no Peace Now, no Wholly Palestinian Palestine, no Two State solution. Perhaps this is truly what the messiah has decided to settle for: a situation in which every single inhabitant of the land is unhappy to the same extent.

In this regard, there is perhaps no better time than this to review Israel's 10 Worst Mistakes of the Last 10 Years:

1. The Siege of Gaza - The stated goal of the siege was to undermine Hamas and to goad Gazans into rejecting Hamas rule. The effect of the siege has been to focus and intensify Palestinian anger against Israel, increase Gazans' dependency on Hamas social welfare arms, enrich Hamas coffers through tunnel taxation and foreign donations, and sap Palestinian support for Fatah, which, through its back-channel encouragement for the siege, is seen as a betrayer and a boot-licker in the eyes of many Palestinians.

2. The Siege of Gaza - The blockade was ostensibly a means to stem the influx of weaponry into Gaza. In practice, with shipments the size of automobiles flowing through the tunnels, the Hamas arsenal has grown ever more sophisticated, now believed to include Iranian-manufactured rockets capable of striking Tel Aviv and Ben-Gurion Airport from the Strip.

3. The Siege of Gaza - In the eyes of the world community, the overwhelming collective punishment - and the relative silence of Israelis in response - has gutted Israeli claims to the moral high ground. It has undercut sympathy for Israelis living within Qassam range. It has kept open the moral wounds of the Gaza War, cramping rebuilding efforts, enshrining universal unemployment, and ensuring agonizing homelessness as the coastal winter gathers full force. Israeli officials have quietly take steps of astounding insensitivity, arbitrarily barring such goods as school supplies.

4. The Siege of Gaza - The siege has been presented in the past as a means of pressing Hamas to release Gilad Shalit. Not only does he remain captive, the terms of a prospective deal appear not to include lifting the siege. The siege has been presented in the past as a means of pressuring Gazans to end rocket fire. But rocket fire only increased after the siege was put in place. Finally, Cast Lead, the Gaza war a year ago, might have been prevented altogether, had Israel adhered more closely to the Egyptian-brokered Hamas-Israel truce agreement of June, 2008, and lifted the siege more completely in response to a drop in rocket fire.

5. The Siege of Gaza - The siege works to the detriment of U.S. support for Israel. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signaled anger at Israel over obstacles to humanitarian aid entering the strip. The message came soon after Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, visiting Gaza, learned that Israel had blocked shipments of pasta, ruling it off the list of permitted humanitarian aid items.

6. The Siege of Gaza - The fact that the siege has failed so completely in achieving its stated aims, reinforces the impression that its real purpose is punitive.

7. The Siege of Gaza - The siege places Israeli officials in jeopardy of being charged with violating the Fourth Geneva Convention and other international codes, as outlined in detail in the Goldstone Report. Referring to the siege, paragraph 1335 of the report states that: "From the facts available to it, the Mission is of the view that some of the actions of the Government of Israel might justify a competent court finding that crimes against humanity have been committed."

8. The Siege of Gaza - With the siege under the direct aegis of Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his deputy, Matan Vilnai, the moral failings of the siege could prove the coup de grace to an already foundering Labor Party.

9. The Siege of Gaza - The siege threatens to destabilize the rule of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, posing a potential threat to Israeli-Egyptian peace and Israeli security.

10. The Siege of Gaza - The siege corrupts the moral values of all Israelis, who, whether or not they are aware of what is being done to the people of Gaza, bear ultimate responsibility for all acts being carried out in their name.