Conflicting Communities

Conflicting Communities

"I would like to express my outrage and that of the citizens of Israel over the reprehensible murder of your son."
"We acted immediately to apprehend the murderers. We will bring them to trial and they will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law. We denounce all brutal behaviour; the murder of your son is abhorrent and cannot be countenanced by any human being."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to Hussein Abu Khdeir, father of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, from East Jerusalem

Getty images -- Hussein Abu Khdeir meeting with Mahmoud Abbass in Ramallah, 7 July 2014

"We will not allow extremists, it doesn't matter from which side, to inflame the region and cause bloodshed. Murder is murder, incitement is incitement, and we will respond aggressively to both."
Benjamin Netanyahu

"I don't have any peace in my heart, even if they captured who they say killed my son. They're only going to ask them questions and then release them. What's the point?"
"They need to treat them the way they treat us. They need to demolish their homes and round them up, the way they do it to our children."
Suha Abu Khdeir

No sooner had the funeral of three abducted Jewish Israeli teens been buried after their bodies had been discovered buried under rocks in the West Bank, the victim of Hamas functionaries who had joyously celebrated their murder before fleeing authorities, than Jewish fundamentalist youth had taken their revenge by forcefully abducting another boy innocent of anything but being a vulnerable child just as the Jewish teens had been, to inflict on that 16-year-old a dreadful atrocity.

Autopsy results appear to show that Mohammed Abu Khdeir was burnt alive, likely while in an unconscious state. Which begs the question; how depraved must human beings be to behave so abominably toward other human beings? The Palestinian Israeli boy's dreadful death was the incitement to mass violence in the neighbourhood where he lived, and beyond. Reports that Palestinians had celebrated the death of the three Jewish Israeli teens found a counterpart.

Jewish extremists had, through his murder, more than adequately demonstrated that they were as fully capable of committing atrocities against other humans as were Islamist fanatics. The difference being that while Palestinian authorities commit themselves to celebrating what they term acts of "resistance", and glorify their suicidist-murderers as martyrs, naming streets after them, paying benefits to their families, Israel does no such thing, but deplores this measure of inhumanity.

Three of the six arrested suspects in the July 2 kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Khdeir who lost his life through a revenge killing have made a confession of having committed the unspeakable crime. They led investigators to the scene, re-enacted the burning and dumping of the boy's body in the Jerusalem forest, according to Israeli media. The suspects, from Jerusalem and the near area have been charged under the law for suspected terrorists, to remain in custody for 8 days.

It seems there had been a prior attempt in the neighbourhood to kidnap a 9-year-old boy by Jewish extremists that took place in the same Shuafat neighbourhood the day before. Yet no one in that boy's family had filed a police report, and so the incident had been unknown to authorities, although it seems that the neighbourhood itself was aware of what had taken place.

On Sunday, Yishai Fraenkel, the uncle of Naftali Fraenkel, one of the three Israeli Jewish teens who were kidnapped and murdered, spoke by telephone with Hussein Abu Khdeir, and it was reported that the two bereaved men comforted one another. In the kind of reciprocity that may to some degree help to heal the dreadful rift and rage that has erupted between the two communities, Palestinians from the Hebron area are said to have paid a visit of condolence to the Fraenkel household on Sunday.

Now, if only those decent and compassionate Arabs and Jews could somehow prevail over the fanatics in their communities, some manner of acceptance within their societies could result, with each tolerant of the presence of the other, learning to accommodate themselves to each others' presence and to become neighbours capable of complementing one another.

Of such hopes are dreams made of.

Cabinet minister Jacob Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet security agency, met with Arab leaders in northern Israel to calm tensions while President Shimon Peres was also in contact with Arab leaders for the very same purpose.

Tarek Abu Khdeir following his injuries. (Photo provided and published with consent from the Abu Khdeir family)

One searches in vain for an adequate explanation for a 15-year-old boy being beaten by security forces, and all that comes to mind is a confusion of incomprehensible rancour played out against the afflicted.