MER - 4/20/98: Jabril Rajoub, the thuggish and much-feared tyrant in charge of Arafat's Palestinian "Security" forces and the main point-of-contact with the American CIA and Israeli intelligence killed "The Engineer II" writes Professor Tanya Reinhart. This article is expanded and updated from one that first appeared in Hebrew on 4/14/98 in Yediot Aharonot. This quick translation provided by the author whose primary language is Hebrew.
 
 

THE A-SHERIF AFFAIR IS SYMPTOMATIC TO THE TYRANNY OF ARAFAT'S RULING SYSTEM. IT IS POSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND THE SILENCE OF THE PALESTINIAN OPPONENTS OF OCCUPATION.  BUT THE ISRAELI LEFT IS OBLIGED TO SPEAK UP.

"...under the tyrannic rule that Arafat and his gang have established in the territories, anything goes. Every attempt to reach the truth is silenced brutally." 

The story of the end of the terrorist Muhi A-din A-Sherif exposes the way the PA operates, and its relations with the Israeli secret  services. Their cooperation on A-Sherif's case has started at the end of December 1997. Roni Shaked reports in "Yediot" that at that time, the Israeli security forces arrested Abdalla al-Bakri, in whose home in Al-Bira A-Sherif was hiding. The information obtained in his interrogation, was passed on to the Palestinian forces, who raided the house. But A-Sherif has managed to escape before they arrived (1).

This cooperation is in the spirit of the security agreement between Israel and the Palestinian authority, signed in the 17th of December 1997, under the auspices of the head of the Tel Aviv station of the CIA, Stan Muskovitz. The agreement commits the PA to take active care of the security of Israel - to fight "the terrorists, the terrorist base, and the environmental conditions leading to support of terror" in cooperation with Israel, including "mutual exchange of information, ideas, and military cooperation" (clause 1). The PA is committed also "to take all necessary security steps to penetrate the terror organizations and act to destroy them from the inside" (clause 13)(2).

Based on many pieces of information that appeared in the Israeli media, it is possible to obtain a pretty clear picture of what has happened next (though most reporters do not draw the conclusions from the facts they report): In the end of March, Gibril Rajub's "preventive security" forces have finally managed to arrested A-Sherif. They interrogated him, most likely using heavy torture. Then they shot him. To cover up the traces, they staged, on Sunday, 29.3 at 9 pm, an explosion in a garage near Ramallah, where his body was then found.  Based on the information obtained in his interrogation, they arrested that same day several Hamas activists who have been in touch with him, including Rasan Adasi, a student of Beir Zeit University. There is no evidence that Israeli forces were physically involved at any stage of this operation (though they were involved in the investigation of the explosion- see (7)).

In Israel, the event was warmly greeted. In a meeting with Arafat, on Friday, 3.4, Ami Ayalon, the head of the Israeli shabak (secret service) has publicly thanked Arafat for his help in preventing terrorist bombings (3). In the government meeting on Sunday 5.4, Ayalon announced that "Arafat is doing his job - he is fighting terror and puts all his weight against the Hamas" (4). However, in the occupied territories, news about the PA's role could be explosive, particularly if the truth comes out about murdering a detainee after interrogation. It seems that the original intention was to present the event as an accident which took place while preparing explosives.  This is the common cover-up used in previous Israeli-PA "elimination" operations, as in the case of Kamal Kahil, killed in an explosion in Sheik-Raduan in Gaza, in April 1995. But things got out of hand when the PA pathologist Dr Jalal Jaabri told the family of A-Sherif that he found bullets in his body, which indicate that he was killed prior to the explosion. For a day or two, while working on an
alternative cover-up, Rajub was spreading rumors that it was Israeli security forces who killed A-Sherif, and then brought his body to the garage in Ramallah.

Finally, Rajub has found a solution, familiar from colonel-ruled banana republics. In a press conference on Monday, 6.4, he announced that it was A-Sherif's own organization (Az-a-din al-Kassem - the military wing of the Hamas) who killed him. The specific version for that day (destined to change many times since) was that the murderer is Aadel Awdalla, head of the organization in the west bank, and his motive was power conflict over leadership. Rajub even provided as "evidence" a written confession of Rasan Adasi (detained the day of the explosion), who presumably took part in the planning, and eye-witnessed the whole things, together with two other Hamas activists who, miraculously, were also detained the same day (5). We probably won't know if 19 years old Adasi was tortured, as Hamas sources say, or he agreed to a deal to save himself from a fate similar to A-Sherif's. (His lawyer is still not allowed to meet him). In any case, his written confession is the only evidence for this absurd plot. As several Palestinian sources have pointed out, it is indeed a record that Rajub's forces have managed to arrest three of the four suspects at the very day of the crime, of which they presumably knew nothing before 9 that night, when the explosion took place. (The PA insists that they did not even know it was A-Sherif's body when they found it.)  In the days to come, the major suspect has changed (from Aadel Awdalla, to his brother, Imad, who got arrested) and the motives as well keep changing daily.

Israeli security sources first expressed skepticism towards this new development -- the seams looked too shaky, and it looked like the story could not be possibly sold in even a semi free society. "The PA is taking a dangerous move. Tomorrow someone would want to talk to the detainee that confessed, and to verify his version" - said a source to "haaretz" (6). "Haaretz" also pointed out that in the history of Hamas, there has never been internal executions over any conflict, (except for those accused of collaboration). The security sources recommended sticking to the original version of an explosive- accident. As for the devastating evidence of the pathologist, they proposed that there were bullets in the exploded car, so they could have accidentally flied straight to A-Sherif's chest during the explosion (7). Bullets, at least, can't talk.

But under the tyrannic rule that Arafat and his gang have established in the territories, anything goes. Every attempt to reach the truth is silenced brutally. Dr Jaabri, the official pathologist of the PA, was fired, arrested, and released a statement denying his previous findings (before it was decided they could be useful again in the
new plot) (8). The Hamas leader Dr Rantisi, who hinted in an interview with 'Jerusalem Post' at the role of Rajub in the affair, was called for investigation (before he was permanently arrested, on April 9th.) The Palestinian journalist who interviewed him was forced to publish a denial, like in Stalin's days. For quite a while now, the
Palestinian press can only print what the PA approves of, and to make sure nothing undesirable leaks to foreign press, Reuters agency in Gaza was closed for 3 months, and the five Palestinian reporters of Reuters were detained until they signed an obligation "not to cause fanatic unrest"(9). 

Now that all is under control, the road is open for a wave of arrests of leaders of the political wing of Hamas, which has started this week. Israeli "security sources" have changed their tune. Now they are calling on Arafat to expand his oppression of the civil sections of the Hamas, and remind him of the clause in the security agreement that requires destroying the "environmental conditions", i.e. the social infra structure and the political opposition, and not just the military sections. "I am pleased with the process that started" said defence minister Mordechai - "The only thing that bothers me is how long and how intensive it would continue" (10)

Faced with the blatant daily violations of civil rights, and the corruption of Arafat's ruling system, the opponents of the occupation find themselves in a dilemma: The PA does not consist only of the corrupt rulers and the various security forces. The elected Palestinian council, which operates under endless restrictions, is the only representative political framework that the Palestinian people still have. Without it, all that is left is the brutality of the combined security forces. On the one hand, those who denounce the corruption of Arafat's rule find themselves in the same camp as the Israeli government that demands to restrict even further political freedom in the territories. On the other, if we keep silent, the combined security forces will continue to destroy the social basis for political resistance, thus establishing the autonomy plan we have always dreaded: Brutal occupation aided by 'village councils' that leaves the land and the economy at the hand of the occupiers, and frees them from the burden of policing the camps of the occupied.

The Palestinians opponents of occupation have taken an oath of silence and restraint towards the PA. This is so, since political resistance is extremely difficult, given the tyranny of Arafat's rule, and a militant struggle may lead to the next holocaust of the Palestinian people - a civil war in which the nation slaughters itself. The Palestinians pursue their long-lived strategy of 'zumud'. It has helped them survive the Israeli rulers. Now it applies to the new brand of local oppressors.

But this oath does not commit the Israeli opponents of occupation.   The Israeli left is obliged to speak up. What enables the horrors of Arafat's rule is only the Israeli occupation. Without it, the Palestinians would have replaced Arafat in a democratic process.  The Israeli left should declare day and night that Arafat, Rajub, and their oppressive ruling arms are not our partners in the struggle against occupation.

* Professor Tanya Reinhart teaches Linguistics at Tel Aviv University and is on the Advisory Committee of The Committee On The Middle East (COME).

=====Notes=====
(1) Roni Shaked, "The escape route of the murderers" 
Yediot Aharonot's weekend supplement, 3.4.98.
(2) Translated from the Hebrew text, 'haaretz' 25.12.1997.
(3) "Yediot Aharonot" 5.4.98
(4) "Haaretz, 6.4.98, p. A4
(5) "Haaretz, 7.4.98, p. A2
(6) "Haaretz", 7.4.98 p. A1-2.
(7) Danni Rubinstein "A mystery that did not exist" Haaretz, 3.4.98.
(8) "Haaretz", 7.4.98, P. A2
(9) According to Basam Id, "Haaretz", 12.4.98, p. A8.
(10) "Haaretz" 14.4. 98 p. A10.