Instant Justice

If any single act speaks to the brutish mentality of the thugs who make up Hamas membership it has to be the photographs showing jubilant motorcyclists firing revolvers off into the air, driving down a street in Gaza City on Tuesday, after having summarily executed six men whom they accused of being spies for Israel. 

The brazen display of inflicting their rancid hatred of Israel by taking one of those murdered men and dragging his corpse, with the added insulting indignity of drawing down his trousers for full public display to disgrace and dishonour him, irremediably tainted the already murky reputation of those who are part of the Hamas terror group.

As a symbol of raw brutality, unconcern for humanity and the willingness to cleave to the abuse of those they believe are their enemies, this was as good a display as any. 

Gunmen on motorcycles drag the body of a man executed by Hamas's military wing, who was suspected of working for Israel, through Gaza City. (Pixelation by the Guardian). Photograph: Suhaib Salem/Reuters

 
As for the bystanders, they too distinguished themselves.  A gathering mob surrounded the bloodied corpses after the killing, many stamping on the dead, spitting on the bodies.  They represented despised spies for Israel.  Proof there was none, justice did not resemble anything a civilized society might recognize; they were declared to have been traitors and that accusation sealed their immediate fate.

 

As the sixth corpse was tied to a motorcyle then dragged through the streets, people screamed, "Spy!  Spy!"  Obviously it might never have occurred to any of them that they too might have shared that grisly fate for what was there to distinguish them from those accused and punished by the Hamas terrorists, after all.  This is tribal vengeance representing due process of law.

Those who accosted the van carrying the six suspected informers wore masks.  The wearing of face masks conveys an undeniable sinister threat, and carries another message as well, that those masked killers are on official duty and what they were about to carry off carried no penalty for them for they were merely dispatching men whom they deemed should die.

 

According to youthful onlookers, teen-age boys who were receiving a gruesome lesson in tribal power politics and base human nature insisting that what they were about to commit to was in honour of god, few people were about in the streets.  Once the act was committed, word got around quickly and people streamed out onto the street, not wanting to miss the excitement.

Whereupon they too became involved in meting out harsh street justice, kicking the heads of the dead, spitting their venomous disgust at them.  "They should have been killed in a more brutal fashion so others don't even think about working with the occupation [Israel]", said a 24-year-old onlooker.

Hamas usually does these things in a more formal atmosphere.  Executing those whom they declare traitors by firing squad after keeping them on 'death row' for awhile.  Although there have been instances of alleged informers found in garbage bins, others shot dead in the street.  

 

Hamas is proud of keeping civil order.