Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Executed without a trial

Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 5:20 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION Nov. 1 - 2, 2003

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

THE KILLING OF PALESTINIANS by other Palestinians has been a fact of life and death for several years. Because of the videotaping of the victims and the method of execution, two recent killings have received much publicity.

A New York Times report from Jerusalem on Oct. 23 told readers: "Masked Palestinian gunmen carried out execution-style killings on Thursday of two Palestinians suspected of being informants for Israel and placed their bodies in the central square of the Tulkarm refugee camp in the West Bank.

"Palestinian militants have killed dozens of suspected informers or collaborators over the past three years of fighting. Such attacks often draw little attention, but the gunmen responsible for this shooting sought to publicize their deed both beforehand and afterward."

These reported executions aren't a surprise for anybody who has been close to the scene during the past several years. It reminds me of the fear I saw in the Arab shopkeeper's eyes when he told me he wouldn't be open the next day. It happened in the Old City of Jerusalem during the intifada that started in late 1987. I wanted to come back and make a purchase, but Arafat's enforcers had told him that all shops would be closed that day. Other shop owners hadn't abided by their demands and were burned out and beaten up.

During the first couple of years of what some of us called the "intrafada," almost 300 Palestinians were murdered by other Palestinians. In 1989 I wrote that the greatest number of internecine Palestinian killings in 1988 was four during the month of October. At least 16 Arabs were killed each of the three summer months of 1989, and 18 were murdered by fellow Palestinians in September of that year. The people killed were suspected of cooperating with Israeli government authorities.

A 1989 television interview of 17-year-old Jaber Hawash of Nablus, who served as the number two man of a terrorist squad, was especially chilling. He told the interviewer he preferred "killing with his hands." Here's part of that interview:

Q: Give me an example of one person you interrogated. Give me an example of the interrogation of a person who cooperated with the authorities.

A: I interrogated about 40 people who cooperated with the authorities. We ask several questions. In the end we employ violence and he tells everything.

Q: Do you wound him with a knife?

A: Of course, what do you think?

Q: How many people have you killed with your own hands?

A: Eight.

Q: Do you remember them?

A: Umm Barakat, Azam al-Qadi. I also participated in the murder of Jamil Abu Elfawares, Sabah Kena'an and the mukhatar of Kafr Salem. We shot at Doctor Said Tahashubad at the Injili Hospital. We shot him but he did not die.

Q: How did you choose the candidates for execution? Give me an example of one person you decided to murder. Umm Barakat. Let's see how you carried out the action. Did you go alone?

A: No, there was someone with me. I told him something or other, let's kill Umm Barakat. He said, Why not? We went to her house. I went up to the roof of the house and opened the door facing the street. We went inside, I knocked on the door. She woke up of course, we had our faces covered, and were wearing Khaki uniforms and so on. She came down with us. I didn't ask her anything until she had come down with us. I led her out to the street, to the place where I intended to murder her. I tied her up, I covered her eyes and beat her with a hatchet on the head.

Q: She was your cousin?

A: Yes, my cousin.

Q: Why did you murder her?

A: Because she stained my reputation. We have a blood connection. Therefore, I was forced to kill her.

Q: The son of the mukhatar of Awarta?

A: He cooperated with intelligence. I told you that if I have a gun with one bullet and I see a Jew and an Arab and I can kill them both, I'll kill the Arab, because the Jew has not harmed me the way the Arab has. The Jew does not know what I do, where I am, he does not know what I do in my home, like the Arab.

If he is still alive, Jaber Hawash is now 31 years of age. Palestinian schools have been teaching hate during those same years. Just imagine the even greater number of terrorists now carrying out executions. Never has there been a court conviction of the killers. Arafat and other leaders treat the killers as heroes. Those who kill Jewish civilians are treated in the same manner. Sometimes, because of political publicity and outside pressure, the killers of Jews are sent to jail and almost immediately let out the back door to kill and maim again.