from the American Chronicle
The body of the young Palestinian man shot to death while driving by Israeli Border Police temporarily deployed in a traffic circle at the entrance to a south-east Jerusalem village where a house demolition was taking place earlier this week, has still not been returned to his family for burial.
Notification was sent out to journalists on Friday that there would be a press conference in the afternoon, given by the family of 20-year-old Iyad Azmi Uweisat in their home in Jabel Mukaber. Israeli Border Police previously told journalists that Iyad had attacked them with his car at a temporary checkpoint they set up in the south-east Jerusalem village of Sur Bahir to protect other units who were demolishing part of the nearby family home of another Palestinian man who was also shot dead after he allegedly going on a rampage with the bulldozer he was operating in West Jerusalem in early July 2008.
The Uweisat family house is just feet away from a fence (in that area, it is a fence, and not a towering concrete Wall) that separates the West Bank from the expanded area of "greater municipal Jerusalem" as it was defined unilaterally by Israel following its victory in the June 1967 war.
A nine-yard high "Pillbox" concrete tower manned by Israeli soldiers stands at the turn of the road just below the Uweisat home. There is a check-point just on the West Bank side of the fence beside Uweisat house, manned by soldiers in a control booth checking the Israeli ID cards of residents of the houses that are just steps away, but now on the other side of the "border", in the fenced-off West Bank.
Over the past year, in five prior separate incidents -- labeled as terror attacks -- Israelis have been killed or wounded in East Jerusalem by Palestinians. The first attack, in March 2008, involved an apparently indiscriminate shooting attack in a religious seminary close to the settler movement. The other attacks all involved Palestinians driving vehicles. Four of the Palestinian men who were accused -- and killed on the spot -- are from this same area of southern East Jerusalem. (The last attack was attributed to a Palestinian resident of Beit Hanina, in northern East Jerusalem.)
A mourning tent was set up at the entrance to the Uweisat family house, and a big video camera on a tripod was set up on a balcony just next to the house.
Azmi Uweisat, the father of the dead 20 year old Iyad, was visibly distressed and grieving, was surrounded by six other men offering their support as he took a microphone linked to the camera. A neighbor who was acting as moderator said that Iyad's body had still not been returned for burial. Azmi Uweisat then said that his son had not attacked the soldiers -- and that he was killed "for no reason", "for no reason". He broke down, and could not speak further. Several of the other men at the table then made statements.
In a brief interview with this reporter a few minutes later, the angry father said that his son had gone off, on the morning he was killed, to get money for him from the post office in Sur Bahir.
He was not married, the father said. He had been working, but not as an employee, only as a contract worker for a company owned by another man. Ma'an news agency had reported that Iyad was "a cleaning worker at [Israel's] Hadassa Hospital" [in West Jerusalem].
Azmi Uweisat said his son had not attacked the Israeli soldiers. But, they began shooting -- and there was a lot of shooting. He said that his son´s body was taken to Abu Kabir Forensic Institute [in south Tel Aviv], and that the police had come to the house to ask questions, but they gave no information, no explanation. He did not know when his son's body would be returned for burial.
Iyad's brother, who had been standing silently during the first part of the interview with his father, then added that his brother was shot while driving his car -- and many shots were fired, all at the head and chest. After Iyad was wounded, his brother said, one of the soldiers came up and fired shots into his head – either to finish him off, or to make sure he was dead. The Israeli forces took all Iyad's clothes off [there was no remote-controlled robot involved, as there usually is, if a terror attack is suspected], and the body lay in the street, unclothed, for two-and-a-half hours, his brother said.
Haaretz reported that "locals called the incident a traffic accident and said police were too quick to shoot. 'They killed the fellow in cold blood, and I stand behind my word', said Sur Baher community leader Zuhir Hamdan. Police are conducting an investigation to determine whether the officers at the scene adhered to regulations".
However, this same Haaretz story also reported that "Noam Shavit, 31, the Border Police officer who commanded the force deployed in Sur Baher, said security forces had been warned that riots could break out. 'We were deployed in the square in order to prevent riots as a result of the destruction of the home', he said. 'We had warnings and intelligence information that villagers may try to attack us'. Shavit said the incident was clearly a terrorist attack". The Haaretz report can be read in full here.
According to a separate report in Haaretz, the alleged car attack on soldiers by Iyad Uweisat provides proof that there are severe terror threats against Israel during the current Passover holiday, thus justifiying the heightened security alert that was imposed for the holiday. But, the security alert went into effect the evening before the house demolition, and the death of Iyad.
Haaretz reported that "Police officials say the motivation of terror organizations to carry out an attack during the holiday is 'on the rise'. Law enforcement officials pointed to numerous foiled and successful attacks in recent weeks, including the attempt to run over soldiers in East Jerusalem Tuesday … They said the trend is expected to last for at least several weeks. Beginning on Passover Eve tonight, security will be raised to Level 3, the second-highest level. Most of the country's synagogues will be guarded by Civil Guard volunteers during holiday services, and thousands of police officers will be deployed in major population centers and on the roads. Stationary and "flying" checkpoints will be set up at the entrances to cities". This security estimate can be read in full here .
The New York Times' Isabel Kershner reported on 7 April that "Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said that the motorist 'attempted to run over' three officers operating the roadblock, and that all three suffered leg injuries. One of the officers opened fire and killed the motorist, whom Palestinians identified as Iyad Aweisat, 22, a resident of an adjacent East Jerusalem neighborhood, Jebel Mukaber. Mr. Rosenfeld said the police were checking into whether there was any connection between the roadblock attack and the house demolition that was taking place less than a mile away".
Kershner also wrote, in her story, that "Mahmoud Atur, 26, a resident of Sur Baher, said he witnessed the shooting of Mr. Aweisat, the motorist, at the roadblock on Tuesday morning. 'He let his wife out at the clinic nearby and continued driving', Mr. Atur recounted. 'He was driving a little fast, and they opened fire'. Mr. Atur said he did not believe that Mr. Aweisat had intended to run down the police officers. Rioting broke out in Sur Baher immediately after the demolition and the shooting. By the afternoon, a tense calm prevailed". Kershner's story, in the NYTimes, can be read in full here. However, as noted above, Iyad's father said he was not married.
Haaretz reported, in yet another story, that " The driver's body was laid out on the street under a white plastic sheet. The windshield of his white Seat car was shattered by about 20 bullet holes. 'One terrorist who was driving a vehicle attempted to run over a number of border police', said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. 'The three border police were lightly wounded on the legs when the vehicle hit them, they opened fire and shot and killed the terrorist at the scene'' ... The demolition of 30-year-old Hussam Dwayat's house in an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem was carried out under heavy security and police had set up a roadblock about one kilometer from the site to secure the area, Rosenfeld said ... 'I didn't see in the past that they demolished a house of any Israeli who killed a Palestinian', Tayssir Dwayat, the attacker's father, said, standing in front of the house as the wrecking crew worked ... Peace Now, meanwhile, called on Defense Minister Ehud Barak Tuesday to also destroy the monument in Kiryat Arba to Baruch Goldstein, who in 1994 massacred 29 Arab worshipers in Hebron. 'If the security establishment is so sure that the demolition of terrorists' homes is effective and a deterrent, it must also apply this to Jewish attackers', said Peace Now chief Yariv Oppenheimer". This Haaretz article can be read in full here.
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