October 17, 2000

Dear friends,

Last Friday evening I sat at home watching the Israeli news coverage of the day's events. Amidst a variety of scenes - mostly peaceful demonstrations and Muslims at Friday prayers - came a scene from near the US Consulate in East Jerusalem. There were about 12 - 15 people in a crowd, throwing stones toward the corner police booth by the Consulate. Tear gas was fired and the crowd started to run back. All of a sudden three men begin to grab other men who were running away. They proceeded to beat the people they caught, as the ones doing the beating pulled black hoods over their faces. One man on the ground looked seriously injured and was being dragged by one of the hooded men. The police came in and assisted the hooded men, arresting and dragging away the injured. One of the hooded men put a Israeli police hat on his head as they were gathering up the beaten men.

The use of undercover agents among Palestinian groups (maybe it happens among Israeli groups too) is common. So, unfortunately, it wasn't a surprising scene. But, the twist came on Sunday morning.

Listening to the English broadcast of the Voice of Israel, the report came that the men beaten by the Israeli undercover police on Friday, which had been captured on Israeli television, were also Israeli undercover agents - only of a different division - the ones beaten were from the Israeli Border Police. One of the men was seriously injured and remained in hospital.

Wanting to confirm this, we scoured the English press, both the Jerusalem Post and the Ha'aretz for news of this event. Nothing appeared in either Sunday or today's paper. So, I wrote to B'tselem, the Israeli Human Rights Organization to ask what they knew. But, before I could hear back from them, one of the Palestinian staff found the story in the Al-Quds paper, reporting the story as it was covered in the Hebrew Press in Ma'ariv on Sunday.

The report says that the head of the Border Police had called the Israeli police to tell them the undercover agents would be among the crowd and to be 'careful' how they dealt with the demonstrators. The Border Police are 'not happy' about this incident and have 'called for an investigation', because it thwarted their plans to arrest Palestinian demonstrators.

Upon reflection, a few questions come to my mind:

One is the obvious ones about the physical beating of the men, which would have been a question whether they were Palestinian or Israeli.

Two, in a group of about 12 - 15 people (as seen on the TV screen), it seems that at least nine of them were Israeli undercover agents. So, who exactly was throwing stones at the US Consulate? Israeli police?

Three, exactly what were they doing? Trying to get a melee of stones thrown at the Consulate, trying to get a group to 'attack' the consulate so they could arrest people?

Fourth, why did neither of the English press papers here cover this story? And if the scene was shown on international news, will anyone go back and report that the stone throwers were Israeli police and not Palestinians?

I leave you to ask your own questions as we await word from Sharm el-Sheik....

Sandra

Letter from the Rev. Sandra Olewine, United Methodist Liaison - Jerusalem, 9/28/2000