Arrests in Itamar Murders
Two Palestinians, 18-year-old high school student Hakim Maazan Niad Awad and 19-year-old Amjad Mahmud Fauzi Awad (both "affiliated with" the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP), have been arrested for the murders on March 11 of five members of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itamar. (The suspects are not related.) They are from the village of Awarta, which is a little over a mile from Itamar. They appear to have received a great deal of assistance from friends and family after the murders, and several accomplices have also been arrested.
The suspects have confessed to and reenacted the crime, which was premeditated. Neither has expressed remorse.
Several new details have come to light since the lifting of the gag order: the two sleeping boys (4-year-old Elad and 11-year-old Yoav) were killed first, then the parents, both of whom apparently attempted to fight off the attackers. The suspects then left the house, but one of them went back to decapitate the baby girl, Hadas (three months). According to Israel Radio, Amjad said he had not known there were two other children in the house. Had he known, he said, he would have killed them too.
UPDATE: Here are a few more details about one of the alleged killers. The 18-year-old, Hakim Awad, stabbed several "youths" in October 2010 in a personal feud. His father, Maazan, a member of the PFLP, served five years in jail for murdering a female cousin and burning her body. His uncle, Jibril Awad, also a member of the PFLP, transported a terrorist to Itamar -- the same settlement where the Fogel massacre was committed -- in 2002, where he shot to death the wife and three children of Itamar security officer Boaz Shevo. (Jibril has since died in a gun battle with the IDF.)
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Jan '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
I'm told that there are wonderful Muslims, peaceful and respectful of others' religions, but I can't hear them, I can't see them, there's no way for me to tell that they even exist. I see thousands of Muslims cheering 9/11 and other terrors committed in Islam's name, but no protesters. The silence confirms for me that Islam must be a religion of death to those who think differently from them. It shows me that Muslims believe that terror is Allah directed. Changing that would require a conversion of faith. Does any rational person really believe that Islam can tolerate, even honor other faiths; that such a mass reformation is even remotely possible?
Sadly, Muslims must be intransigent - must be faithful to their dogma and must battle infidels. Moreover, without some religious leaders of Islam taking strong and meaningful action to moderate the convictions of their fanatical brethren, there is little non-Muslims can do to stem the shift of controlling forces in this world - apart from taking unthinkable destructive actions which would pale any previous holocaust. And numbers and strength of faith argue against the success of even that horrific option.
So, what now?
Apr '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
It is easy to become overwhelmed by this. A wave of nausea washed over me when I read it. Such evil in 18 and 19 year old children. But today is Palm Sunday. I have to believe in a good and merciful God. Sanity will prevail.
Sep '10
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
All I can see is Jimmy Carter in their eyes.
May '10
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
I wonder if capital punishment will ever gain traction in Israel. Sadly, I think not. Only Eichman has been hanged in 60+ years of independence.
These young men will be in prison and hailed as heros when they arrive. May they become some monster's [expletive].
Edited on Apr 17, 2011 at 8:47amMar '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
It's small comfort, but at least Justice will be done.
It does make you despair of human nature, or the evil side of it, at least.
Feb '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
... and again after they are exchanged for a hostage, even after thirty years when they will not yet be fifty.
Mar '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
The sheer barbarism of their act is the salient fact. Negotiation and accommodation with such people is not possible.
Nov '10
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
It’s hard to fathom those who oppose the death penalty for such acts of evil except to observe that those who feel sympathy for guilt will grant none to innocence.
May '10
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
What an example of barbarity and true wickedness, and yet many Arabs have hailed them as heroes.
A simple sentence of life imprisonment, solitary confinement with no minimum term, and no deal for prisoner exchange at any time in the future. This will need to be extended to those that supported and aided such vile individuals, including members of their dangerous families. I suggest bulldozing their supporters' houses, and businesses, as a symbolic punishment for aiding them.
Apr '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
If ever a religion needed its own Martin Luther, it would be Islam. Unfortunately, this analogy does not hold up well when applied to Islam. When Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Church, he wasn't trying to reform Christianity itself, or for that matter the Bible; rather, he was trying to change the practices and abuses of the Church. Simply put, he was trying to change the messenger and not the message, undo that which Man had implemented and perverted, not God. If you want to implement reforms to Islam, you would need to address many areas of the Qur'an itself. Since Muslims believe that the Qur'an is the direct word of God, this is blasphemy. The best you can hope for is for modern Muslims to ignore the "problematic" parts of the Qur'an. A lot of the social behavior in the Muslim world is easier to change because it is more tied to Arab culture than Islamic culture. Arab culture constantly changes like any other. Check out the university graduation photos of women in Egypt from the 1950s and the women look very western. Change is not impossible, but it will be terribly difficult.
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
When you and Claire were reporting on these murders, Judith, I never posted any comments; the reason, I confess, was that I simply couldn't process what had happened. The decapitation of an infant? How does one even begin to take that in?
The photos you posted of these two Palestinian teenagers almost makes matters worse. They look normal. Staggering.
What will happen next, Judith? How quickly is the trial likely to take place? Will it become a political event--a pretext for protests? Where do Israeli Arabs stand on this?
Feb '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
Israeli Arabs by and large say they think it's a bad thing, because it damages the Arab cause. (How many actually think even that is another matter.) Some will say "all violence is bad," as though that's sufficient.
Mar '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
Under different circumstances those boys would be considered my peers. It seems like the most abominable atrocities are always committed by someone very young (impressionable) and normal looking. Those boys were brought up to become what they are today, but I wonder if their age didn't contribute in some way to the violence of the crimes.
Are young men just more violent?
Dec '10
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
David Williamson: "It's small comfort, but at least Justice will be done." No, Justice will neither be done nor be seen to have been done. Israel reserves capital punishment solely for crimes against humanity (i.e., acts committed during the Holocaust) and for treason. Israel already demonstrated a willingness to trade a live murderer of similar depravity for just the remains of two murdered IDF soldiers. These two creatures will now become more leverage for terrorists committing future abductions and demanding the release of these murderers as ransom.
Apr '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
Well, that's the trick of it, isn't it? Say you have a real peace agreement tomorrow, two state solution and everything, you still have to deal with the effects of a multi-generational indoctrination of martyrism, vengeance and hate towards Jews and Israel. This is not something that will or can undo itself overnight. If there is ever a solution to this matter, it will only be the beginning of a new struggle for Palestinians.
Jul '10
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
Going back to behead a baby?
I realize I should be cautious here, but one cannot help but notice that there seems to be a pervasive sadistic streak in Muslim culture. It's not just within the Arab world and it's not directed solely towards infidels. I recall reading about the honor-killing of a teenage girl in Detroit, where her mother stood on her throat while her father and brothers beat and stabbed her. Or the young rape victim in Bangladesh who died after 70 lashes of the whip.
The atrocities visited upon the Armenian people were so rankly sadistic that if you had locked me in a room for a hundred years and told me to imagine novel tortures, I couldn't have conjured up the things that were done. If you want to know how things will go against Christians in the Muslim world once the thin veneer of civility is stripped away, read The Burning Tigris, a history of that genocide.
One would have hoped that this sickening crime would have provoked an outcry among decent Muslims. Instead, it was celebrated with sweets and public ululation.
Edited on Apr 17, 2011 at 11:02amRe: Arrests in Itamar Murders
No, alas. It won't.
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
Judith, I'm not commenting much on this, because it's just too emotional for me--I was as you know in Itamar, the people who live there aren't just a "news story" to me but completely real in my mind (because I met them, saw their homes, saw the magnets on their refrigerator, saw the kids' pajamas hanging on the clothes line, and saw how perfectly normal they were) than most "people in the news" usually are to me. I still have nightmares about it. I have to distance myself a bit from this story or it will eat me alive, which does no one any good. But I'm grateful you're making people aware of these developments.
It breaks me in two when people conclude "Well, the murderers represent Islam," because Muslims, too, are as real to me as they are--they are my dearest friends and neighbors.
Please, Ricochet, I'm begging you--don't. There is a civil war going on in the Islamic world. There are very brave Muslims who are fighting with their entire beings agains these monsters. Believe in them and give them your support.
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
Peter, I don't know how quickly the trial will take place. The arrests will almost certainly be politicized; remember the (disgusting) moral equivalence drawn in much of the foreign press at the time of the murders between the killers and their victims. Israeli Arabs are (as far as I know) keeping their counsel, but West Bank Palestinians are not only not applauding the arrests but are loudly claiming that they were illegitimate, and that the methods of the Israeli police, the IDF and the Shin Bet -- who, in order to gather information, detained many from a community that has been shown to have aided and abetted the criminals -- constituted "collective punishment".
The killers will be convicted. We will be condemned for our audacity in convicting them. And eventually, as Israel P. says, they will probably be traded back to their people for one or two Israelis, alive or dead. And at every step of the way, they will be showered with praise.
Edited on Apr 17, 2011 at 12:10pmFeb '11
Re: Arrests in Itamar Murders
I think you speak of individuals, Claire. OK, good for them. But in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't count for much. If there are more than individuals, they sure aren't making much progress. In fact, words like "clandestine" and "underground" may be generous.