Anatomy of an execution
Khaled Abu Toameh
Original link: "Anatomy of an execution" (Khaled Abu Toameh, The Jerusalem Post, 2002/08/08)It is just before 10 a.m. and the first Palestinian Authority ministers are beginning to arrive at Chairman Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound for an emergency cabinet meeting.
The IDF tanks, bulldozers, and armored personnel carriers, which have been inside the compound for the past few weeks, pulled back a few hundred meters to allow the meeting to take place.
The assembled journalists are told by some PA officials that the cabinet meeting is expected to last a few hours. Some cameramen find shelter from the sun in the shade of a nearby building. Others, including myself, decide to take a look around the area. We walk a few meters south of Arafat's office and run into a group of young men, some armed with pistols and assault rifles, sitting and chatting under a tree.
Behind them is a small building surrounded with barbed wire. On top of the gate is a sign: "Ramallah Correctional Center."
Suddenly a tall, dark man, flanked by two tough-looking bodyguards, emerges from a car and makes his way toward the group sitting outside. This is Zuhair Manasreh, the former governor of Jenin, who was appointed last month as head of the PA Preventive Security Service.
Manasreh gives a brief interview to a TV correspondent. As he is talking, two plainclothes policemen emerge from the prison. One is "embracing" a young, bearded man whose face is badly swollen.
He looks me straight in the eye, as if he is trying to tell me something. Although he is not handcuffed, he looks like a suspect on his way to interrogation.
In my heart I feel something is wrong. It must have been the strange look in his eyes, a look that will haunt me for many years. I feel as if this young man is begging for help. I decide to follow him and see where he is being taken. The two men take him to the back of a building north of Arafat's office.
What happened next is hard to describe. The man was blindfolded and made to stand against a wall. Three policemen, standing about three meters away, sprayed him with bullets from their rifles. He was hit in the head and chest and fell to the ground.
One of the policemen then walked up to him and fired one more shot into his head. "Take him away," came the order from another police officer.
I couldn't believe my eyes. The executioners did not notice that I was watching. When the rest of the journalists heard the shots, they rushed to see what was happening. Nervous policemen charged at the reporters and ordered them to leave the area.
I asked a police officer what happened and he replied, "A criminal has been executed. What's the big deal?"
"What did he do?" I asked another police officer who was trying to block cameras with his hand.
"He murdered two elderly women and raped his grandmother," he answered.
"Was he ever tried?"
"I don't know, but the president this morning approved the execution."
An ambulance that had been waiting nearby took the body away before anyone else had a chance to see it. As it was leaving, ministers continued to arrive. I asked three of them if they had heard about the execution which just took place a few meters away, and all replied that they had no idea what I was talking about.
A few hours later the PA confirmed that the execution did take place, identifying the victim as Bashir Attari. Palestinians described him as mentally retarded.
[Posted 2004/04/30]
Copyright © Watch 2001-2006.
Copyrights of quoted materials belong to their respective owners.
"When
people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent.
The term is not a slur; it is a technical label."
Articles
of the week
"Losing the Enlightenment" (Victor Davis Hanson, OpinionJournal, 2006/11/29)
"Allah’s England?" (Daniel Johnson, Commentary. November 2006)
"'Sex in the Park': The latest doings of the Danish imams" (Henrik Bering, The Weekly Standard, 2006/11/18)
"Narcissism on Stilts" (Harold Evans, New York Sun, 2006/11/16)
"Terrorists are recruiting in our schools, says MI5 boss" (Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph, 2006/11/10)
›
AOTW Archive
From the archives
Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P.
"The Rage, the Pride and the Doubt" (Oriana Fallaci, The Wall Street Journal, 2003/03/13)
"How the West Was Won and How It Will Be Lost" (Oriana Fallaci, The American Enterprise, from the January/February 2003 issue)
"On Jew-hatred in Europe" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2002/04/13)
"Anger and Pride" (Oriana Fallaci, dennisprager.com, 2001/12/19)
Weekly archive
2006/12/04
- 2006/12/10
2006/11/27 - 2006/12/03
2006/11/20 - 2006/11/26
2006/11/13
- 2006/11/19
2006/11/06
- 2006/11/12
2006/10/30
- 2006/11/05
›
From
2001/09/11 -
Monthly
index
December
2006
November
2006
October
2006
September
2006
August
2006
July
2006
›
From
September 2001 -
Author index
›
Ajami,
Fouad - Johnson, Paul
›
Kagan,
Robert - Ye'or, Bat
Support
Watch
Please
feel free to donate if you enjoy the daily content and links Watch provides:
Contact Watch
Email:
watch-at-windsofchange.net
