Majdi Makawi had alerted Israeli agents to the movements of four Fatah guerrillas who were then shot to death in their car by Israeli snipers, said an Arab observer. Asked about the justice of executing collaborators, PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Medein claimed the PA was not to blame. So Israeli assassinations and Palestinian executions are now linked, publicly and painfully. Last Saturday, a PA national security court in Bethlehem sentenced to death two more Palestinian collaborators who allegedly had a hand in Israeli assassinations. Palestinian officials say scores of collaborators have been rounded up lately, especially in Hebron.
Every Arab country executes collaborators.
Another failure, he says, was that in at least one case, that of Tulkarm dentist and local Fatah leader Dr. Thabet Thabet, it wasn't certain that the target really was involved in violence against Israelis. The third sin, Pa'il says, was that in some cases, innocent bystanders had been killed along with the guerrillas. The human rights organization B'tselem says at least 15 Palestinians have been assassinated, and that six were innocent bystanders. The liquidation policy was instituted on November 9 when an IDF helicopter fired a missile at a pick-up truck in Beit Sahur, killing its target, Hussein Abayat, a Fatah guerrilla who had been one of the key operatives in the shooting attacks on Gilo. However, two Palestinian women in their 50s who had been walking by were killed as well.