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Where Do Murderers
of Jews Go?
(Continued from p.3)
patrol on July 19, 1994, in which Lieutenant Guy
Ovadiah was killed. Both currently serve in the Palestinian
police in Gaza.
Imad al-Din Aqi, from Gaza, who was one of
the assistants of the "Engineer," Yihya Ayyash, took part
in shooting attacks on IDF patrols thoughout 1994. He
currently serves in the Palestinian GSS."
Shaked observes that the list of prisoners
released from Palestinian jails in the last half-year
includes the names of arch-terrorists who, in any properly ordered
system of governance, would have spent many years behind bars:
"Mohammed Kawajah, from Gaza, a leading
figure in Islamic Jihad, who planned the attack at Beit Lid
in January 1995.
Nabil Sharihi, an Islamic Jihad member,
who helped prepare the explosive device for the attack at
Kfar Darom in April 1995 in which seven Israelis and an
American were killed.
Mohamed Badran, an Islamic Jihad member,
took part in the shooting attack outside Beidiya village
in Samaria in which Police Sergeant Meir Alush was killed.
Shahadi Abed al-Rahim Kahlout, an Islamic
Jihad member from Gaza, was intended to be the third
suicide bomber in the Beit Lid attack in January 1995.
Iyad Ali Hasani, from Gaza, a senior Islamic Jihad
member who was responsible for the Dizengoff
Center bombing in March 1996 in which 14 people were killed.
In February 1997 the Palestinian Authority permitted him
to leave for the Id al-Fitr festival. He did not return,
and has not been returned to jail.
The colleagues of Hassan Salameh, the
terrorist who planned and launched the suicide attacks on the
18 bus route in Jerusalem were also arrested, and have
also been freed, among them Arafat Khawasme, Nabil
Natshe and Jihad Sawiti, who have also served as aides
to Mouhadin Sharif, the second 'Engineer,' and who
were involved in the attempted kidnap of an Israeli soldier
in Jerusalem in May 1996.
Imjad Hinawi, a Hamas member, who took
part in the murder of soldier David Boim in Beit-El in May 1996.
In February 1997 he was granted leave for the Id
al-Fitr holiday, and did not return to jail."
While Shaked does not mention this, the casual
release of David Boim's killer gives special poignancy to
the efforts of Boim's parents to obtain so much as an
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expression of interest on the part of Israel's government
in the punishment of their son's murderer. Under the
leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu (the supposed
anti-terror champion!), Israel refused even to request the
extradition of Hinawi. (Presumably the knowledge that no
more would come of such a demand than had come of all
the previous ones--Palestine National Council member
Hanan Ashrawi has said flatly that extradition is
unthinkable--makes the Israeli government reluctant to add to
its embarassment by lengthening the list of spurned
extradition requests.) Boim's parents had to resort to
court action to obtain a court order forcing the government
to file for the arrest and "hand-over" of Hanawi. Said
the Boims of their experience: "It was a strange feeling
that we had to go to court to get our own government to
file for the arrest of our son's murderer. It was a strange
feeling to be told last July [1996] by the IDF commander
of the central region that the IDF had indeed identified
and located the whereabouts of David's killer and that all
is being done to bring him to trial and then to be told by
the Israel Minister of Justice in March 1997 that he
knows nothing about it."
There is no prison operated by the Palestinian
Authority from which terrorists cannot "walk away"
with the greatest of ease. Writes Shaked: "Hebron jail is
known as one of the prisons from which escape is impossible.
This is a guarded and reinforced prsion, whose cell
windows are especially small with wide bars installed.
The prison building is located inside a fenced Palestinian army
installation, the gate under a permanent guard. But even
the doors of Hebron jail do not stand firm on their hinges.
On July 2, 1997, the commander of the Kfar Zureif cell of
Hamas' Izz a-Din al--Kassam, Abd-a-Rahman Ganimath,
'escaped' from Hebron jail. Members of this cell
murdered Sharon Edri, carried out the Apropos Cafe
bombing in Tel Aviv, murdered the Ungers, three members
of the Munk family, IDF Dr. Oz Tivon and Sergeant
Yaniv Shmil. Only after heavy Israeli pressure on Jibril
Rajoub was Ganimath 'convinced' to turn himself in and return
to prison.
Another murderer, no less dangerous, is Abd
al-Nasr Kisi, a member of the Popular Front, who
participated in the murder of Ita Tzur and her son, from
the Beit-El settlement, on December 11, 1996. He was
tried by the Palestinian Authority's night court and
sentenced to life imprisonment. Six months later, in June 1997,
he was brought to a Jericho hospital for medical
treatment for leg pains. The pains did not prevent him from
jumping from the window of his room and easily walking
away to his freedom.
Had the Nablus jail's 'revolving door' been
closed in September 1996, the attacks on Mahane Yehuda
market and Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem
might have been prevented. The four human bombs were
in the Palestinian prison in Nablus. Their families said
they would come to the prison and take their imprisoned
sons on walks though the city, meals at restaurants, and
visits to relatives. The four had not even been arrested. In
August 1996, they turned themselves in after
negotiations with the Palestinian GSS. In September 1996, Israel
(Continued on p.10)
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