Grieving and Hoping for the Future

"The Druze all pray for peace and we pray for recovery of all the injured, and send strength to their families."
"We are proud of our sons who act fearlessly in the face of terrorist attacks. This is a black day for Israeli society and the State of Israel, when its citizens are murdered just for being Jewish."
"The Druze community condemns with revulsion the act of terrorism in which a Palestinian terrorist massacred and slaughtered innocent civilians. Such a situation, in which the country’s citizens are murdered on a daily basis, cannot continue."
Sheikh Muafik Tarif, Israeli citizen, spiritual leader of Druze community

Jerusalem synagogue attack. Israel Police officer Zidan Sayif. Photo: Family.
 

Once again, an Israeli Druze police officer has died in the line of duty, defending Israel and Israelis from terror attacks. Druze Israeli Police Officer Zidan Sayif, 27, died of his wounds late Tuesday, hours after a terror attack at a Jerusalem synagogue. He and a colleague were the first responders in the horrific attack that left four Israeli rabbis dead at the hands of two Palestinian men who entered their Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue at 7:00 a.m., opening fire and striking worshippers with knives and a meat cleaver.

Members of Zidan Sayif's extended family, and his friends waiting at his bedside in the hope that his catastrophic wounds might somehow still permit him to be saved, were proud, they said, that he was the first to appear at the bloody scene unfolding in the early morning hours in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighbourhood of orthodox Judaism. Many members of the Druze community serve in the security forces: as police, in the Israel Defence Forces and with Shin Bet – Israel Security Agency.

Police Officer Zidan along with a companion police officer managed to shoot and kill the attackers soon after the event had commenced in the religious complex at the west end of the capital. Mr. Zidan's family is a clan from the western Galilee village of Yanuh-Jatt. Despite their mourning, they say that they are filled with pride, viewing their relative as a hero who managed to help halt the atrocity that killed four rabbis and wounded eight worshippers.

Police Officer Zidan leaves behind his bereaved wife and a seven-month old child, a little girl who will never know the joys and comforts to be had in the care of a loving father. His uncle, Sheikh Mahmound Sayif said before his nephew succumbed that "One bullet hit him in the nose and the bullet entered his brain, and it can't be removed yet. We're praying that he will recover, in spite of what I have seen; his situation is critical ... his whole family and many from the village came down here to support the family."

"I hope he will be the last of the wounded in this situation, and particularly in Jerusalem. It is impossible to live like this; we must find a solution because this way leads to no solution for our side or the other. The solution can only be through discussions at the negotiating table", Sheikh Sayif said before his nephew died: "I hope he’s the last casualty."

That is a fond hope, one never to be relinquished, that antagonism and belligerence and violence may some day surrender to accommodation and the fulfillment of that hope. Unfortunately, that view is not one universally shared by some of Israel's citizens. Among some Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, there is wild celebration at the success of the attack, humbling the 'occupier' whom Palestinians are urged by their leaders to continue their efforts to 'resist', a codeword readily understood by all.

A masked Palestinian distributes sweets in Rafah as he celebrates with others an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue on Nov. 18. Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

It is a legitimate question: Can one negotiate for peace with people who celebrate death?