Israel Matzav

Utter barbarism

I don't think anyone who has seen it can forget the haunting images of the lynching of IDF soldiers Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz HY"D (May God Avenge their blood) on October 12, 2000. Now, due to a civil lawsuit filed by their families, information has become public about the lynching that was not previously known.

Yedioth Aharonoth has published transcripts of the terrorists' interrogations, and they show utter barbarism and contempt for human life. There's a summary of the interrogations here.

But first, let's go to the videotape.

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.

"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," he claimed. 

The terrorist cop took the soldiers to the second floor of the station. "I took a length of iron pipe - about 25 centimeters or so - and went into the room where there were two reservists."
"I saw the soldier was alive and on his feet. I went over to the Russian soldier, and beat him with the tube I was holding in my hands. I then punched him in the head until the soldier began making gurgling noises."

PA policeman Tariq Tabesh also participated in the murder. "I saw a soldier on the floor, laying facedown, crying and saying things in Hebrew that I couldn't understand," he told investigators. "I hit him on the back three times." 

Salha told investigators that he entered the fray after seeing a car with an Israeli license plate parked outside the police station. Israeli cars bear yellow license plates; PA cars bear white plates. 

Salha alleged that the crowd encouraged him to enter the station. "I saw an Israeli soldier laying there, on his stomach," he stated. 

"I approached him and I saw a knife in his back right shoulder," he continued. "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," he recounted.

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

Read the whole thing.  I just want to point out one final detail.

Aziz Salha was released in 2011, as part of the terrorist exchange orchestrated between the PA and Israel for Gilad Shalit.

And we're releasing more terrorists on Sunday....

Labels: Palestinian terrorism, Ramallah lynch

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:57 PM