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The Yediot Aharonot newspaper revealed Tuesday new details of the brutal murders of reservists Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz (z"l). The soldiers were lynched in Ramallah in October 2000.
The soldiers lost their way to their base on October 12, 2000, ending up in the Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled city of Ramallah by mistake. PA police forces took the two into custody.
Word reached local PA residents that undercover Israeli agents were being held in the building; some 1000 rioters reportedly gathered outside. THE IDF DECLINED TO TAKE ACTION TO RESCUE THE SOLDIERS; THEY WERE EVENTUALLY STORMED BY THE RIOTERS.
One PA terrorist, Aziz Salha, got to the soldiers first, where he brutally murdered them - stabbing, beating, and dismembering them along with other rioters. He famously then stuck his bloodstained hands out of the window of the room where the two were held, eliciting cheers from the crowd.
The crowd then dragged the bodies to a central square, beating them further before setting up a victory celebration. PA POLICE FORCES DID NOT ATTEMPT TO INTERVENE AND IN SOME CASES, PARTICIPATED IN THE BARBARISM.
A few weeks after the murder, the victims families filed a claim valuing 64 million shekels against the PA to the Jerusalem District Court. The victims were represented by attorneys Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Roy Kochavi.
Now, transcripts of the terrorists' remarks recorded during those proceedings have been released for the first time.
Ra'ad A-Sheikh, a Ramallah cop spotted a red Ford Sierra approaching the station. He asked the soldiers what they were doing in the city.
"They told me they lost their way and they need to get to Beth-El," he said. Beth-El is close to Ramallah and is home to several central army bases in control of the Judea and Samaria region.
"I led the soldiers into the police station, after the crowds outside the station began pressuring me," he claimed.
The terrorist cop took the soldiers to the second floor of the station. "I took a length of iron pipe - about 25 centimeters or so - and went into the room where there were two reservists."
"I saw the soldier was alive and on his feet. I went over to the Russian soldier, and beat him with the tube I was holding in my hands. I then punched him in the head until the soldier began making gurgling noises."
PA policeman Tariq Tabesh also participated in the murder. "I saw a soldier on the floor, laying facedown, crying and saying things in Hebrew that I couldn't understand," he told investigators. "I hit him on the back three times."
Salha told investigators that he entered the fray after seeing a car with an Israeli license plate parked outside the police station. Israeli cars bear yellow license plates; PA cars bear white plates.
Salha alleged that the crowd encouraged him to enter the station. "I saw an Israeli soldier laying there, on his stomach," he stated.
"I approached him and I saw a knife in his back right shoulder," he continued. "I took the knife from the back of the soldier and stabbed him in the back two or three times, and left the knife in his back. Others in the room continued to hit the soldier in the legs."
"After stabbing the soldier, I put my hand over his mouth to strangle him.
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Aziz Salha proudly holds up his bloody hands
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I saw that my hands were stained with blood and my shirt covered in blood at the bottom, then went to the window and I waved my hands to people in the yard," he recounted.
"Then I returned from the window and saw the other soldier lying on his stomach in one corner of the room."
The trial against the terrorists is apparently still going, enraging the victims' families after over 13 years of waiting. Michael Nurzhitz, Vadim's brother, stated to the daily, "If I could sue the legal system [for taking so long], I would."
"As if it's not enough that the people who did this have not been punished for all that they did."
Aziz Salha was released in 2011, as part of the terrorist exchange orchestrated between the PA and Israel for Gilad Shalit.
Given the large number of people involved in the lynching, several of the participants have never been caught for the murders - or have been tried in court proceedings that have dragged on for equally as long.
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner decried the length of the proceedings. "The Palestinian Authority has been exploiting its rights to a fair trial in order to conduct long discussions over nothing," she stated.
via israelnn.com
VirtualJerusalem.com Editor's Note:
I was living in Israel when this happened. When the news of the lynch was released, and aired on the TV (video below), the people in Israel collectively stopped. That is the only word for it. We surrounded the TV screens, watching the news in what was only disbelief. Even a country that is used to constant terror never expected such a thing.
They were two men who took a wrong turn in their own country, and what happened next will never be accurately portrayed by words. Cpl. Yosef Avrahami and First Sgt. Vadim Norzhich, both 33 years old, both men with families, were tortured and killed. At least, that's what was reported by the mainstream media.
What the mainstream international news neglected to mention at that time, was the actual story, and the fact that they were murdered in the center of the city to the delight of the chanting, cheering crowds. The fact that they had gone to Palestinian police for PROTECTION and were given this. The news also failed to report that their bodies were ripped open and hundreds of pairs of hands dug their fingers through these men's bodies, raising their bloody fingers with pride and enjoyment. Most horrifically, you were not told that children were not only present and watching, but encouraged to participate.
As the morbid spectacle continued to escalate, an RAI Italian news team that was onsite captured images of one of the soldier's heads being ripped off his body and tossed around like a soccer ball. (Not seen in the attached video.)
The footage was televised in Israel, which changed the already mournful atmosphere to one of bleak depression and utter hopelessness. You could see it in the eyes of every Israeli. Those weren't just our boys who were mutilated. We were mutilated right there with them.
Of course, these graphic images were not shown by a large portion of the world media, some choosing not to air it, simply because they were uncertain as to whether or not the viewing public could stomach it. Others bowed down to pressure, not wanting to paint the Palestinians in such a "negative" light. Later the option of airing it at all was removed entirely because of threats issued by the Palestinian terrorists. Horror and terrorism was given a generic label of 'lynch' and covered for two minutes in the evening news before moving on to some vapid entertainment story.
This happened 13 years ago. And still today, when I am around Israelis, be it in the States, or in Europe, or in Israel, and the word "lynch" comes up, we exchange a look. The atmosphere changes. Those of us who were there, who saw it, who felt what it did to Israel as a nation, now forever know what that word really means.
Please note that the terrorist in the gruesome photo above was released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner deal. He was welcomed back with open arms, celebrations and honor.
He will of course, do this again.
Meanwhile, the world screams to boycott Israel. The word "apartheid" is thrown around as if its meaning is understood. It is perhaps easy for people who did not grow up watching such monsters, to point fingers at the country that has to live with these nightmares all the time.
Next time you are in a social setting, and someone is trying to paint Israel as a black oppressor, please share with them the story of Yosef and Vadim. Please share with them the testimony above from the mouth of the terrorist himself. Someone who proudly beats, murders, and dismembers a crying man on the floor who will never see his family again, but whose family will get to see his head thrown around like a soccer ball. This is the reality Israelis live with, and have lived with for a very long time.
PALESTINES LYNCH ISRAELIS
THE RAMALLAH LYNCH
After airing this twice, Italian TV apologized to the public, and removed it.
The Hebrew reel in the video goes over the details of the lynch mentioned above, and shares some images of the families of the soldiers.
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