No Case Against Israeli Police

Citing a lack of evidence, Israeli authorities said Sunday that they would not file charges against any police officers in the killings of 13 Arabs shot during rioting five years ago.

The announcement angered relatives of the victims as well as Israeli Arab leaders and rights activists, who charged that the government’s decision was evidence of their second-class status in the Jewish state.

“They are saying a crime was committed. There are victims, but no person to be blamed,” said Hassan Jabareen, general director of Adalah, an advocacy group that works on behalf of Arabs in Israel. “Of course there’s discriminatory policy. They didn’t take the investigation seriously.”

Arab leaders called for demonstrations and general strikes to protest the government’s decision not to issue indictments in the shootings, which happened over more than a week in northern Israel starting Oct. 1, 2000.

The clashes occurred after thousands of Israeli Arabs poured into the streets, blocking traffic and hurling stones in scattered locations to show their support for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip at the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising.

A Jewish motorist was killed by a thrown rock during the unrest. In the government’s attempt to disperse the protesters, Israeli police officers fired rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition into the crowds.

Herzel Sheviro, who heads the Justice Ministry’s internal-affairs unit, said authorities were hobbled by thin evidence and difficulty determining which police officers had fired which shots.

The investigation was complicated by the passage of years and by the refusal of some victims’ families to allow autopsies, Sheviro said. He defended the inquiry, whose findings were detailed in an 80-page report, saying the internal-affairs unit had a record of prosecuting officers accused of abuse against Arabs.

“I know that people will try to hitch a ride on this. Public figures and all sorts of politicians will try to hitch a ride on our findings and conclusions and will try to make them part of the Arab sector’s deprivation claim,” Sheviro said.

Sunday’s decision came two years after an Israeli inquiry commission sharply criticized police for using excessive force, including sniper fire, to quell the protests. Twelve of those slain during the unrest were Israeli Arabs; one was a Palestinian.

That panel, called the Or Commission, blamed the government of then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak for not paying enough attention to rising discontent among the nation’s more than 1 million Israeli Arabs, who have long complained of discrimination.

The 2003 report called for criminal investigations and recommended sanctions against some officials, but did not name anyone for possible prosecution. The commission also accused Israeli Arab leaders of inciting violence.

Mahmoud Yazbak, whose 26-year-old nephew, Wisam, was fatally shot Oct. 8, 2000, in Nazareth, said he found it “absurd” that Israeli authorities could not determine from whose gun the deadly bullet was fired.

“If they wanted to know, they could have known to whom this bullet is linked,” said Yazbak, a professor at Haifa University. “This is the great Israel.”

In other developments, Palestinian officials said Sunday that they had sealed the zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, ending a days-long free-for-all as thousands of Gazans and Egyptians swarmed back and forth across the frontier following Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

Palestinian security officials said they had closed big openings in the border barrier and stationed more than 2,000 officers along the Egyptian border in Rafah, where Gazans were pouring freely into Egypt to shop and visit relatives. Israeli and Palestinian officials said they feared that some weapons were also smuggled into Gaza.

In New York, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he planned to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Oct. 2, Reuters reported.