Israel Matzav

Eitan Demands Investigation into Nazareth Incident's Spin

As many of you probably know already, on Friday night a 44-year old Israeli Jew caused a riot by lighting off firecrackers in the Basilica of the Anunciation in Nazareth.

[Haim Eliyahu] Havivi, a 44-year-old Jewish resident of Jerusalem, carried out the attack in the presence of his 40-year-old Christian wife, Violet, and their 20-year-old daughter, Odelia, although it was unclear if the two women participated, a spokeswoman said. All three were taken to Tiberias Magistrate's Court on Saturday night and remanded in custody for 15 days.

"I have nothing against Christians or Muslims," a lightly wounded Havivi said at the hearing. "All I want is my children who were taken away from me by the state."

Welfare authorities had placed two of his younger children into foster care. According to police, he may have had a history of mental illness.

"It's nothing to do with him being right-wing or left-wing," a police spokesman said. "We know from the initial investigation that he has financial problems and we are looking at whether he has psychological problems."

Arutz Sheva is reporting that MK Michael Eitan (Likud) wants to know, "How did the human tragedy in Nazareth become a campaign of hatred and incitement against the Jewish People?"

Eitan has asked Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to immediately appoint a committee, headed by a judge, to investigate the chain of events following the weekend firecracker incident in Nazareth. "How did it happen," Eitan wants to know, "that a human tragedy [involving] a Jewish man and a Christian woman so easily became an incitement campaign against the Jewish People and the State of Israel?"

MK Eitan says that the police and the media had a major part in the above developments. "The police and press reported the incident as if it were a religious-based terrorist attack by Jews," Eitan said. "This message is that which gave the incident, in its first hours, a political and inter-religious character, and contributed to the fanning of the flames at the protest rally in Nazareth."

Eitan has also turned to the Knesset Ethics Committee, asking that it look into the statements by Israeli-Arab MKs. "Did their statements not also contribute to the atmosphere of incitement?" he asked, "and did they not abuse their rights and immunity as Knesset Members?"

If the 'Supreme Court' will uphold an Israeli-Arab MK sharing a platform with Hezbullah's Sheikh Nasrallah (which it has), I don't know what good investigating the MKs' actions will bring. Stay tuned....

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:17 PM