Never found out what happened to them.
"Israeli youths arrested in connection with taxi bombing; Six Palestinians hurt; act labeled ‘terrorist attack’" by Karin Brulliard |
Washington Post, August 27, 2012
JERUSALEM — Three Israeli adolescents from a West Bank settlement
were arrested Sunday in connection with the recent firebombing of a
Palestinian taxi, Israeli police said, fueling a debate in Israel about
ethnic prejudice among youths.
The suspects, all age 12 or 13, were to appear in a Jerusalem court
Sunday evening, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. The attack,
which injured six Palestinians, took place hours before several
Palestinian youths were beaten by a mob in central Jerusalem.
Police arrested seven Israeli teenagers, the youngest 13, in
connection with that attack, which witnesses described as a
near-lynching.
Both incidents were denounced as ‘‘terrorist attacks’’ by Deputy
Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, who said they ‘‘constitute first and
foremost an educational and moral failure.’’
Not a crime?
The youths arrested Sunday are from the small settlement of Bat Ayin,
which sits atop a hill not far from the road where the taxi bombing
took place Aug. 16. Rosenfeld said police are investigating the
suspects’ motives, but security officials said after the attack that
they suspected Jewish extremists.
Yair Goldsmith, the head of the Bat Ayin local committee, declined to comment.
Human rights organizations and the United Nations report a rising
number of crimes by radical Jewish settlers against Palestinians and
their property in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which both Arabs and
Jews claim as rightfully theirs.
Settlers who have asserted responsibility for several of those
attacks, as well as recent assaults on the Israeli military, call their
actions part of a ‘‘price tag’’ campaign of retaliation against Israeli
policies and Palestinian violence.
That's terrorism!
Settlers rarely face prosecution for such crimes, human rights activists say.
The firebombing left the four adults and two children inside the taxi
with burns, some severe. Five of the victims remained hospitalized late
last week, and one, the father of the children, was in intensive care.
Osama Shakarneh, council head in Nahalin, the Palestinian village
where the victims are from, expressed doubt Sunday night about whether
Israeli police had arrested all the perpetrators, or whether they would
be punished.
‘‘We have to wait,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t have much faith in the
Israeli judicial system. This could be just a public relations stunt.’’
In a separate development Sunday, Israeli authorities refused about
100 pro-Palestinian activists, including three Americans, permission to
cross overland to the West Bank from Jordan, the Associated Press
reported, citing the leader of the activist group.
French organizer Olivia Zemor of the ‘‘Welcome to Palestine’’
campaign said Israeli authorities asked no questions and stamped ‘‘entry
denied’’ into their passports without an explanation.
Israel’s Defense Ministry denounced the protesters as ‘‘provocateurs and known troublemakers.’’
Earlier, Zemor told reporters in the Jordanian capital of Amman that
the group aimed to deliver 1 ton of school supplies to Palestinian
children in refugee camps in Bethlehem.
In a statement Sunday, the Israeli Defense Ministry called the effort
a ‘‘failed publicity stunt.’’ It said Israel exercised its right to
deny them entry.
‘‘There are no restrictions whatsoever on bringing in school
supplies,’’ the statement said. ‘‘If these activists sincerely wanted to
bring in school supplies, they had countless options to do so. There
are no shortages of school supplies in the West Bank.’’
Zemor said the activists want Israel to grant freedom of movement to
the Palestinians and their visitors. Some also demand the lifting of an
Israeli blockade on Gaza. She said the group was peaceful and unarmed.
She said a few of the protesters tried crossing the bridge but were
ordered back to Jordan. She said buses ferrying the protesters were
escorted in the direction of Amman by Jordanian antiriot police and
other security personnel.
--more--"
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