2000 Ramallah lynching

2000 Ramallah lynching.

The 2000 Ramallah lynching was a violent gruesome attack that took place on October 12, 2000 – early in the Al-Aqsa Intifada – at the el-Bireh "Palestinian" police station in Ramallah under Yasser Arafat reign, where a mass of Arab Palestinian crowd with help from some official Palestinian police killed and mutilated the bodies of two Israelis (in plain clothes who were redressed with IDF uniforms by the lynchers). It continued on in public square. Openly. With cries of 'Allah akbar'. The bragging about, cheerfully waving with blooded hand, exposed animalistism.

Perpetrators: Aziz Salha - one of the lynchers, waving his blood-stained hands from the police station window - has schocked Israel., Muhammad Howara, Ziad Hamdada, Mohamed Abu Ida, Wisam Radi, Haiman Zabam, Marwan Ibrahim Tawfik Maadi, and Yasser Ibrahim Mohammed Khatab.

The two Israelis lost their way, being unfamiliar, entered an Arab Palestinian area.

The Palestinian police forced them at gun point into the station. After brutally beating and stabbing them, the policemen opened the front doors, letting the raging mob in.^[1]

Soon an angry crowd of more than 1,000 Palestinians gathered in front of the station calling for the death of the Israelis. Word that two soldiers were held in a Ramallah police station reached Israel within 15 minutes. 

The Israelis were beaten and stabbed. At this point, a Palestinian (later identified as Aziz Salha), appeared at the window, displaying his blood-soaked hands to the crowd, which erupted into cheers. The crowd clapped and cheered as one of the soldier's bodies was then thrown out the window and stamped and beaten by the frenzied crowd. One of the two was shot and set on fire, and his head was beaten to a pulp.^[2]

Witness: I got out of the car to see what was happening and saw that they were dragging something behind them. Within moments they were in front of me and, to my horror, I saw that it was a body, a man they were dragging by the feet. The lower part of his body was on fire and the upper part had been shot at, and the head beaten so badly that it was a pulp, like red jelly.' I thought he was a soldier because I could see the remains of the khaki trousers and boots. My God, I thought, they've killed this guy. He was dead, he must have been dead, but they were still beating him, madly, kicking his head. They were like animals.

They were just a few feet in front of me and I could see everything. Instinctively, I reached for my camera. I was composing the picture when I was punched in the face by a Palestinian. Another Palestinian pointed right at me shouting 'no picture, no picture!', while another guy hit me in the face and said 'give me your film!'

I tried to get the film out but they were all grabbing me and the one guy just pulled the camera off me and smashed it to the floor. I knew I had lost the chance to take the photograph that would have made me famous and I had lost my favourite lens that I'd used all over the world, but I didn't care. I was scared for my life.

At the same time, the guy that looked like a soldier was being beaten and the crowd was getting angrier and angrier, shouting 'Allah akbar' - God is great. They were dragging the dead man around the street like a cat toying with a mouse. It was the most horrible thing that I have ever seen and I have reported from Congo, Kosovo, many bad places. In Kosovo, I saw Serbs beating an Albanian but it wasn't like this. There was such hatred, such unbelievable hatred and anger distorting their faces. ^[3]

According to reporters' evidence on the scene, not only did the Palestinian police not protect the two men slaughtered while in their custody in the Ramallah police station, but they also tried to prevent foreign journalists in the area around the building from filming the incident.

Despite the attempts to distance reports, an Italian television crew managed to film several scenes.^[4] Soon after, the crowd dragged the two mutilated bodies to Al-Manara Square in the city center and began an impromptu victory celebration.

Description^[5]:

The rioters seized the two soldiers and violently began to assault them. They used anything they could grab inside the station, including their bare hands.

They strangled, clubbed, stabbed and kicked the Israelis so badly there was barely anything left.

Proudly the murderers flung open the windows of the room infamously displaying their blood-drenched hands to the cheering crowds of rioters outside.

With the scent of Jewish blood in the air, the frenzied mob demanded that they too should get a piece of the Israeli bodies and so the killers on the second floor obliged.

They threw the lifeless bodies of Norzhich and Avrahami out of the window to the courtyard below. The street assembly now joined in the lynching, further bludgeoning and ripping the dead Israelis apart, before setting one on fire.

Police officers tried to confiscate footage from reporters.^[3]

Ra'ad A-Sheikh, a Ramallah cop spotted a red Ford Sierra approaching the station. He asked the soldiers what they were doing in the city. Testimony show utter barbarism:^[6] The terrorist cop:

"They told me they lost their way and they need to get to Beth-El," he said. Beth-El is close to Ramallah and is home to several central army bases in control of the Judea and Samaria region.

"I led the soldiers into the police station, after the crowds outside the station began pressuring me"...

One of the lynchers:

"I approached him and I saw a knife in his back right shoulder" ... "I took the knife from the back of the soldier and stabbed him in the back two or three times, and left the knife in his back. Others in the room continued to hit the soldier in the legs."

"After stabbing the soldier, I put my hand over his mouth to strangle him. I saw that my hands were stained with blood and my shirt covered in blood at the bottom, then went to the window and I waved my hands to people in the yard," ..

"Then I returned from the window and saw the other soldier lying on his stomach in one corner of the room."

"We were in a craze to see blood. I entered the room… I saw an Israeli soldier sprawled on the floor in front of the door,” said 32-year-old Aziz Salha..^[7]

Jamal Tirawi, the Palestinian Intelligence chief at the Mukata'a nearby, only intervened hours after the second soldier lay dying.^[8]

When Chana Avrahami called her husband, one of the killers answered the phone. "I slaughtered your husband a few minutes ago," he told her in Hebrew and hung up.^[1][9]

In 2018, the official Palestinian Authority TV has praised attackers.^[10] An official Palestinian Authority television program recently honored three Palestinians who took part in the vicious lynching of a pair of Israeli reservists at the start of the Second Intifada. The butchers honored as "heroic." ^[11]

In July 2019, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the Palestinian Authority holds responsibility for the brutal attack and must pay compensation to the victims' families. ^[1]

In the wake of this horrific lynch, contrast with the way of radical "liberal" anti-Israel Haaretz "journalists" conduct, a distinguished journalist, Nachum Barnea published the idea of the 'Lynch Test.' Stating that did not pass and are still not able to criticize the Arab-Palestinians, Arab terrorism. He identified Haaretz journalists: Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, and Akiva Eldar as not passing the lynch test.^[12][13][14]

The aftermath of the filming of the infamous Ramallah lynching last October, revealed mass intimidation into self-censorship.^[15] First was noted the situation in general:

Journalists and the Palestinian Authority have what might euphemistically be called a strained relationship. The independent Committee to Protect Journalists, which monitors abuses against the press and promotes press freedom around the world, reports: "In the nearly seven years since the Palestinian National Authority assumed control over parts of the West Bank and Gaza, Chairman Yasser Arafat and his multi-layered security apparatus have muzzled local press critics via arbitrary arrests, threats, physical abuse and the closure of media outlets. Over the years, the Arafat regime has managed to frighten most Palestinian journalists into self-censorship."

There's no reason to suspect that foreign correspondents — who were notoriously hounded in Beirut 20 years ago by the PNA's forerunner, the PLO — are not exercising the same kind of self-censorship today, compromising fair and objective coverage of the current situation.

Still, the most effective clamp on the truth is the peer group — the homogenized ideology of the press corps where independent thinking continues to require courage and fortitude. In a region where the media has in many ways shaped the conflict, the combination of fear and lockstep thinking on the part of its protagonists does not bode well for its resolution.

Then the great worsening after the lynch:

Ramallah: never the same

The lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah last October proved to be a watershed in coverage of the new intifada. Up until that point, most Western journalists traveled wherever they wanted to in their quest to convey the essence of Arab violence and Israeli reaction. Sky TV News reporter Chris Roberts says that at the outset of the violence, the PA welcomed reporters with open arms.

"They wanted us to show 12-year-olds being killed," he explains. But after the lynch, when PA operatives did their best to confiscate and destroy tape of the grisly event and Israel Defense Forces used the images to target and arrest the perpetrators, Palestinians have sometimes vented their hostility toward the U.S by harassing and intimidating Western correspondents.

"Post-Ramallah, where all goodwill was lost, I'm a lot more sensitive about going places," Roberts admits.

Even people like Ahmed Budeiri, a bright, 20-something Arab stringer for ABC-TV, acknowledges that Ramallah was "really dangerous for foreigners," after the lynch.

According to firsthand reports, a Polish television crew was surrounded by Palestinian security forces, beaten and relieved of their film of the lynching. But most of the TV cameramen were Palestinians. Given PA intimidation of Palestinian journalists, it's not surprising that almost all of them, except for one working for the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera and another shooter for the independent Italian station, RTI, meekly handed over their film.

Nasser Atta, a Palestinian producer with the ABC News network, was outside the Ramallah police station with a camera crew as the bloody scene unfolded. Appearing the next day on ABC's "Nightline," he told host Ted Koppel that crowd members had assaulted his team to stop them from filming the action. "I saw how the youth tried to prevented [sic] — prevented my crew from shooting this footage. My cameraman was beaten," Atta said.

A British photographer, Mark Seager wrote in London's Sunday Telegraph Oct. 22: "I was composing the picture when I was punched in the face by a Palestinian. Another Palestinian pointed right at me, shouting 'no picture, no pictures,' while another guy hit me in the face and said, 'Give me your film.' One guy just pulled the camera from me and smashed it to the floor."

Most reporters acknowledge that the PA openly confiscated TV footage and still photos of the lynching. But some, like Canadian Broadcasting Company's Neil Macdonald, asked PA Security chief Jibril Rajoub about the matter and were told that no tape was seized.

Others, like the New York Times' William Orme, came to their own conclusion that while the mob that attacked journalists did include some uniformed Palestinian police officers, "no one is suggesting that it was PA policy. It was not an official order."

The film that did escape the clutches of the PA police made its way to TV screens around the world in an unorthodox way. According to Gideon Meir, deputy director general for public affairs at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Israeli Embassy in Rome was able to secure the video from the independent Italian RTI TV station, and within six hours of the gruesome event, the images were received in Jerusalem. The Italians released it without charge, said Meir.

TVNewsweb, a website for TV editors and correspondents, reported the transmission of the footage a little differently.

"Two tapes are spirited away and reappear in Jerusalem one hour later. Al-Jazeera's tape is offered for sale at US$1,000 per minute, but it's shot shakily from far away and lacks impact. The RTI tape is extremely graphic.

"RTI's Israeli tape editor, who was at the scene, gives her eyewitness account at a Jerusalem press conference organized by the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Government Press Office. RTI eventually makes the tape available to the agencies in Italy and the gruesome pictures lead most evening newscasts.

So alarmed was a cameraman that he might be mistaken by the PA for having been involved in filming the Ramallah lynching, he placed a notice in the official PA newspaper.^[16][4]

• The Palestinian Atrocity in Ramallah, 2000, and The Ongoing Repercussions

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Ramallah Lynch - Today 20 Years Ago (Thursday, October 12, 2000). Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center Premiered Oct 13, 2020. Clip.

   Today we mark 20 years to the brutal Ramallah lynching. On the morning of Thursday, October 12, 2000, two weeks after the outbreak of the second intifada, reservists Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Norzhich made their way towards their unit's assembly point near Beit El. The two were unfamiliar with the roads in the area and accidentally headed straight into the Ramallah. The yellow Israeli license plate indicated they were not locals, and within minutes, they became targets. Palestinian mob surrounded the car and started rocking it violently, as others threw blocks at the passengers. Two Palestinian policemen who arrived at the scene pulled the two men out of the vehicle, pointing guns to their heads, and dragged them to the Ramallah police station for interrogation. An agitated crowd began gathering outside the station, screaming at the policemen inside, demanding they kill the two Israelis. Avrahami and Norzhich begged for their lives, but they didn't stand a chance.

   After brutally beating and stabbing them, the policemen opened the front doors, letting the raging mob in.

   Norzhich was beaten with metal pipes and then thrown out of the window. Avrahami was tossed through the front doors into the rioting crowd outside.

   When Chana Avrahami called her husband, one of the killers answered the phone. "I slaughtered your husband a few minutes ago," he told her in Hebrew and hung up.

   Fifteen minutes later, the mob dragged the two to the main square, where their bodies were mutilated.

   The unbelievable cruelty of the murders is as shocking today as it was twenty years ago. The image of Aziz Salha's blood-soaked hands will forever remain a traumatic national memory. We will never forget. We do not forgive.

   Attorney Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, president of the Shurat HaDin, represented the bereaved families in the first-ever lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority. In July 2019, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the Palestinian Authority holds responsibility for the brutal attack and must pay compensation to the victims' families. Shurat HaDin stands by the grieving families as we await the final ruling.

2. ↑ "'I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life,' photographer says". Chicago Sun-Tribune. October 22, 2000.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Philips, Alan, “A Day of Rage, Revenge and Bloodshed,” The Telegraph, October 13, 2000. Terrorism Against Israel: Eyewitness to Ramallah Lynching. (October 12, 2000) - JVL [1][2]
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} "Coverage of Oct 12 Lynch in Ramallah by Italian TV Station RAI", MFA, Oct 17, 2000.
5. ↑ The Ramallah lynching was our warning of what was to come, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Ynet, Oct 19, 2020. The dark suspicion, separation and iron hand that categorizes Israel's relationship with the Palestinians today can all be traced back to the brutal murder of two IDF reservists in a West Bank police stations exactly 20 years ago.
6. ↑ Details of 2000 Ramallah Lynch Revealed, Tova Dvorin, INN, Dec 24 , 2013. Transcripts from the interrogations of terrorists who killed Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz released, show utter barbarism.
7. ↑ [3] 'We were in a craze to see blood'], Adiv Sterman, TOI, 25 Dec 25, 2013. Court releases testimonies of Palestinians who were involved in the brutal Ramallah lynching of two IDF soldiers in 2000
8. ↑ Hillel Frisch, The Palestinian Military: Between Militias and Armies, pp.96–97
9. ↑ Whitaker, Raymond (2000-10-14). "A strange voice said: I just killed your husband". The Independent. London].
10. ↑ PA TV praises attackers from 2000 Ramallah lynching — watchdog TOI Staff, July 6, 2018
11. ↑ TV calls terrorists who helped murder two Israeli soldiers in 2000 ‘heroic’ Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik. JNS, July 6, 2018. Since their arrest, the Palestinian Authority has paid the three men salaries reaching a combined total of NIS 2,023,600 ($583,606).
12. ↑ Shame on 'Haaretz', Isi Leibler. JPost, Nov 6, 2007.

    Nahum Barnea, the distinguished Yediot Aharonot columnist, went so far as to describe senior Haaretz journalists Gideon Levy, Amira Haas and Akiva Eldar as failing to pass the "lynch test" - i.e., even failing to condemn Palestinians when they murdered two Israelis in a lynch mob in Ramallah at the onset of the second intifada. More recently, consistent with frequent Haaretz depictions of Israel as a racist entity, the paper's chief Arab affairs expert, Danny Rubinstein, told a UN body that Israel was indeed an apartheid state. Of course, behind this torrid situation stands the publisher of Haaretz, Amos Schocken, who is personally convinced that Israel does indeed practice apartheid. BUT IT was only recently that Landau threw away all semblance of journalistic integrity and publicly confessed to crossing the ultimate red line that distinguishes reputable journalism from propaganda...

13. ↑ Seliktar, Ofira (2009). Doomed to Failure?: The Politics and Intelligence of the Oslo Peace Process. ABC-CLIO. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-313-36617-8.
14. ↑ Levin, Kenneth (2005). The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege. Smith and Kraus. p. 444. ISBN 978-1-57525-417-3.
15. ↑ "Media frightened into self-censorship: How Palestinians intimidate the press into suppressing unfavorable coverage." by Judith Lash Balint. WND Staff. March 5, 2001.
16. ↑ Leslie Stein (2014). Israel Since the Six-Day War: Tears of Joy, Tears of Sorrow John Wiley & Sons.