Collaborator Killings Are War Crimes by Bruce S. Ticker Jul 12, '04 / 23 Tammuz 5764
Mohammed Rafiq Daraghmeh molested both his daughters. "What should his sentence be?" asked a gunman as he turned to a crowd of 500 watching Daraghmeh's street trial in the West Bank town of Qabatiya.
"Execution! Kill him, kill him!" the mob chanted.
The militants who had captured the 45-year-old Daraghmeh pushed him to the ground and machine-gunned him to death.
Credit the Palestinians for finally bringing a child abuser to justice. I never heard of anything like that.
Oh, did I mention that he was also on trial, if you want to call it that, for collaborating with the Israelis? That could have been the real reason for doing him in.
The killing of Israeli collaborators has been reported in the past, but it took this incident on Friday, July 2, for the meaning of this to gel in my head: This is a war crime.
What else can it be? First, Israel and the Arabs are engaged in a formally undeclared war, which Gaza and West Bank Arabs initiated nearly four years ago.
The militants who seized Daraghmeh and dragged him to the town square are not part of any sovereign government and at this time there is no operational legal system in Israel's territories. Even when there was a legal system, its officers bowed to this kind of vigilante justice.
And so, this illegitimate group - known as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades - brought Daraghmeh to the town square and shot him in cold blood.
They took the law into their own hands during wartime. That makes it a war crime.
Daraghmeh is among at least 30 people murdered by Palestinian groups who accused the victims of serving as informers for the Israeli government. Palestinian informers do this for a variety of reasons - bribes, use of Israeli services, early release of imprisoned relatives. It should be no surprise if some help Israel to battle other families and clans in blood feuds.
Though they may not do this out of any great love for Israelis, I have to wonder if some do this simply because they are subjugated by Palestinian leaders who are in control and tyrannizing their own people. After all, this war is not only between Israel and the Palestinians, but also between ordinary Palestinians who have been cheated by corrupt Arab officials. They stand to lose the most so long as Yasser Arafat and his minions remain in power.
In a disingenuous remark, Local Government Minister Jamal Shobaki of the Palestinian Authority told reporters, "We want every act to be carried out via legal channels and oppose anyone who behaves otherwise. However, we are incapable of enforcing law and order in Palestinian areas (subject to) occupation."
The PA was "incapable of enforcing law and order" long before this.
I recall two incidents. During a trial for a suspected collaborator in Gaza, a crowd observing the trial abruptly rushed forward and killed the defendant. On another occasion, a group of Palestinians broke into a prison, dragged a convicted collaborator from his cell and murdered him. Police felt powerless in both instances.
If this is a preview of a future Palestinian state's legal system… make up your own jokes.
