Four Arab Israelis shot dead by a soldier opposed to the closure of the Gaza Strip settlements are not victims of ”terror” because their killer was Jewish, Israel’s Defence Ministry has ruled, and so their families are not entitled to the usual compensation for life.
The ministry concluded that the law only recognises terrorism as committed by ”organisations hostile to Israel”, even though Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described the killings by Private Eden Nathan Zaada (19) as ”a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist”. He shot dead four people on a bus in the Arab Israeli town of Shfaram on August 4 and was then lynched by a mob.
Arab Israeli leaders have condemned the decision. Mohammed Barakeh, an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, said: ”The decision raises a strong scent of racism, which distinguishes between a Jewish terrorist and an Arab terrorist.”
The Defence Ministry proposes to pay the families of the Shfaram victims an undisclosed lump sum instead of a lifelong monthly amount.
But Barakeh says that denies the dead their recognition as victims of terrorism. He noted that Arabs who had committed individual attacks but were not members of armed organisations had still been branded by the Israeli government as terrorists.
Barakeh has proposed an amendment to the law, recognising anyone harmed by ”hostile activities by a terrorist organisation” as a victim of terror and therefore entitled to full compensation. — Â