Ramallah lynching victim's brother: Israel's gov'ts have let us down
"[Former prime minister] Ehud Barak promised us personally that we will be well looked after, but all we received was a slap in the face."
By ALEX WINSTONThe coffin of Vadim Norzhich, draped in an Israeli flag, is lowered to his grave in Or Akiva ,October 13, 2000(photo credit: HL/WS/REUTERS)
Twenty years after the Ramallah lynching that helped contribute to the start of the Second Intifada, Michal Norzhich, brother of victim Vadim Norzhich, said that he and his family feel repeatedly let down by successive Israeli governments.Speaking at a special meeting of the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus (KIVC) titled “20 Years Since the Ramallah Lynchings: What lessons have been learned?” Norzhich said, “[Former prime minister] Ehud Barak promised us personally that we will be well looked after, but all we received was a slap in the face.“The Schalit deal was a terrible agreement that hurt us deeply because it returned 1,000 terrorists to the cycle of violence,” he said. “Even today, the government and Supreme Court try and prevent us from seeking financial compensation from the Palestinian Authority, which was and remains responsible for the incitement and hate that leads to such attacks. There is no justice or logic to this.”The 2011 deal that freed IDF soldier Gilad Schalit from years of captivity under Hamas in Gaza released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including Aziz Salha.Salha became infamous throughout the world after media coverage of the Ramallah lynching showed him appearing at the window of el-Bireh police station with bloodied hands; he was later convicted of murdering Norzhich.Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer, chairman of the KIVC, said at the event that “violent Palestinian rejectionism is alive and kicking. Twenty years later, they continue to broadcast the same hate and incitement as they did in the days leading up to the lynching.“We cannot continue letting the Palestinian Authority (PA) carry on with their hate, rejectionism and incitement and expect that they will give up their war aims against us,” he said.Blue and White MK Michal Cotler-Wunsh also spoke about the contribution of incitement to the lynching, saying that, “on the 20th anniversary of the Ramallah lynching, it is imperative that we take this moment of remembrance to honor those brutally murdered and to take action in order to ensure that such incidents never occur again.”Norzhich and Yossi Avrahami, both IDF reservists, were driving in a civilian car to join up with their IDF unit near Beit El on October 12, 2000, when they mistakenly entered the PA-controlled city of Ramallah and were arrested by PA police. They were taken into custody at el-Bireh police station. Rumors spread that the two were in fact undercover Israeli agents and a mob stormed the building, murdering and mutilating the two, while the incident was filmed by several media outlets.The incident is one of several throughout September and October 2000 that is said to have contributed to the outbreak of violence known as the Second Intifada, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians.
