The lack of trust the Palestinians feel toward the Israeli government additionally complicates matters, and their distrust is not unwarranted. After the massacre in Herbron, the Israeli government announced on Friday that the settlement in Kiryat Arba would be put under curfew. Despite the announcement, however, the settlers were free to move about, according to the commander of an Israeli army patrol.
Furthermore, Palestinians find it hard to trust the soldiers who are supposed to provide security. Goldstein should have been forced by the guards to remove his ammunition, as is usually required before entering the mosque; however, he walked in with three cartridges with 35 bullets each.
It took the Israeli guards watching the incident from TV cameras a considerable amount of time to get to the scene. There were also allegations that some of the soldiers were involved in the shooting. The Israeli army replied by stating that there were 111 shells found in the prayer room and assured the media that it is possible for one individual to fire 111 bullets in 30 seconds. The videotapes of the incident from the monitoring cameras have not been released.
In addition to being unable to trust the security forces, the more militant settlers are a cause of anxiety for many Arabs living in the region. The reaction to the massacre by some in the Israeli settlements is, to say the least, disturbing. Despite the Israeli government's condemnation of the act, many settlers and rabbis voiced a different opinion.
Rabbis in the Nir seminary referred to Goldstein as "a hero, a holy man, a righteous man" in front of a thousand mourners, further adding that he would spend eternity in the company of Israel's bravest men and renowned sages. And one of the speakers (apparently not satisfied with the praises) added, "you are at a higher level than us...you did it for the sake of heaven."
It is one thing to have a few extremists voicing such an opinion, but it is quite another story when religious leaders start praising the killing of people kneeling down in prayer.
The Palestinians are also discouraged by the fact that United States usually gives Israel over $4 billion in aid annually. That amount is more than the sum of all US foreign aid to East Asia, the Pacific, the Western Hemisphere, and Africa. Some of this aid money undoubtedly fuels the Israeli military, and some of it goes to building new settlements, and supporting old ones.
At Goldstein's funeral the rabbi expressed his feeling by saying, "one million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail." And Goldstein was buried as a hero. So what was Goldstein? Was he a hero, a murderer, a militant or a terrorist? It seems there is no consensus, especially not among the Israeli settlers and Jewish religious leaders. And in the West, a media that is always ready to label Muslims as terrorist is hesitating now.
The Financial Times headlined an article on the massacre, "Killer `was the kindest man--he wouldn't hurt a cat...'" Someone looking through headlines would at least see that Palestinians in the West have been elevated in status from a fingernail to cat.
Omar Maabreh '94 is president of the Harvard Islamic Society. Rami A. Thabet '97 is a member of the Harvard Islamic Society.