This went down a few blocks from my father's house:
Unidentified assailants in a passing car shot and killed a man walking along a street in the French Hill neighborhood in Jerusalem on Friday evening. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the shooting.The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is the official terrorist wing of Yassir Arafat's Fatah party.
Yassir Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
UPDATE: Dad e-mails:
We're all right, but one of our neighbors was killed by a drive-by shooter while jogging about 100 meters from here. He was George Elias Houri, one of the numerous Arab university students and young professionals whose residence in this neighborhoo demonstrate that Israel is not an apartheid society. He was a student at the university. A faction of Yassir Arafat's PLO claimed credit for the deed.
It's not the first time killers seem to have stuck the wrong ethnic group. It may not matter to them. Muslim fanatics may take credit for there being one less Christian in Palestine, and concepts of terror put a greater emphasis creating insecurity than accuracy. We still haven't decided whether or not to continue walking the dog and ourselves around the neighborhood after dark, or at all. If we give it up, it will surrender one of the benefits of this location.
The Arab who filled my tank at the gas station on the border of French Hill (Jewish) and Isawea (Arab) was not his usual cheerful self this morning. Security investigators probably worked through the night, and their interrogations are not likely to be pleasant.
We filled up on the way to Park Brittania. It's the end of the rainy season, and wild flowers are at their best. Not all is violent in the Promised Land.
turns outit was an arab, and the al-aksa brigade is calling him a martyr...now you don't even have to kill yourself to become a martyr--they'll do it for you.
Posted by: gerry schor on March 20, 2004 08:19 AM"Arafat's office telephoned Elias Khouri on Saturday morning, Army Radio reported, to condemn the attack and ask permission to attend the funeral for his son. "
How's that for chutzpah?
Posted by: Barry on March 20, 2004 11:07 AMTHERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT ONE SHRED OF HOPE FOR PALESTINIANS "A militant group offered an unusual apology Saturday for mistakenly killing an Arab college student in a drive-by shooting in a Jewish neighborhood, calling his family to offer their condolences and declaring him a "martyr." Zacariyya Zubeidi, head of an Al Aqsa cell in the West Bank town of Jenin and one of Israel's most wanted men, said Khoury was a martyr, a distinction normally reserved for Palestinians killed in the conflict with Israel, including bombers and gunmen on suicide missions.
"The family remained angry, and it's their right to be angry, but we consider him one of the many martyrs that fall every day," Zubeidi told The Associated Press. "This is a war between us and Israel and it is natural for there to be accidental victims."
For the slain man's father, Elias Khoury, the killing brought back memories of his father Daoud, who was also killed by Palestinian militants in an attack in downtown Jerusalem's Zion Square in 1975
George Khoury was a second-year student of economics and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In high school, he participated in several international gatherings on religious tolerance, his father said.
I am glad your father is ok, Stefan. I am also sad that any man has to die by the hand's of terrorist, whether being Arab or Israeli. My prayers go out to all in Israel.
Posted by: Kevin P. on March 21, 2004 08:15 AM"It's not the first time killers seem to have struck the wrong ethnic group."
Wrong, from their perspective.
This exposes the true nature of the conflict: it's a religious and racist war (by the regional Arabs) not a territorial dispute.
If I were an Israeli I would be married to my M-4 carbine.
Posted by: Bill K. on March 22, 2004 09:53 PMBill K.,
LOL!
Stefan, your father is right about Park Brittania. Was there some 3 weeks ago for the first picnic of the season. It was my first time ever there. A Positively lovely place. Kids loved it as well.
Posted by: Amos on March 25, 2004 04:15 PM