Palestinians Unite in Anger Against Israeli Attack

[Violet_Crumble]

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — It was a display of Palestinian unity rarely seen since the militant Islamic group Hamas seized power in Gaza last summer and left the rival pro-Fatah Palestinian Authority struggling to hold on to the West Bank.

As thousands of men and women crowded into Manger Square on Thursday to attend prayers and the funerals for four local militants killed by Israeli undercover forces in a raid the day before, a general strike was observed throughout this Muslim-Christian city of 30,000 people.

In the square, youths held flags representing the mainstream Fatah, Hamas, the smaller, more extreme Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The body of one of the victims, a local Islamic Jihad leader, Muhammad Shehada, was draped with the increasingly popular emblem of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

More than creating a temporary fusion of political and ideological divisions, though, the killings enraged Fatah advocates of negotiations with Israel, who posed questions about its commitment to peacemaking.

“The crime committed by Israel against our people aims to blow up the peace process,” said Muhammad Khalil al-Laham, a Fatah legislator who came to the square, and whose voice rose in fury as row upon row of Muslim mourners bowed down on the paving stones in silent prayer.

“Bethlehem was the calmest and most committed city,” Mr. Laham said, noting that Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, had planned an international investors’ conference to be held in the city in May under the slogan, “You can do business in Palestine.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/world/middleeast/14mideast.html?bl&ex=1205640000&en=941ef54c0cc557cd&ei=5087%0A

[Jim Sagle]

1. They weren't militants, they were war criminals.

And by unifying behind them, Palestinian society has condemned itself once again as uninterested in peace.

[Boojatta]

2. Maybe they were just ordinary civilians and neither militants nor war criminals.

This would then be an illustration of the government of Israeli targeting civilians and of Hamas' principled opposition to the targeting of civilians.

[plantwomyn]

3. Read Boojatta Read

"The body of one of the victims, a local Islamic Jihad leader, Muhammad Shehada, was draped with the increasingly popular emblem of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah."
Just because they aren't wearing a uniform doesn't make them "ordinary civilians".

[Boojatta]

4. Should I have written, "As far as I know they were militants, but..."?

[azurnoir]

7. Which "they" are you referring to?

The militants that were killed or the protesters, or do you not see a difference?

[subsuelo]

6. There are plenty of war criminals on both sides

Breaking a ceasefire is the issue, in case you haven't been paying attention.

[MaryCeleste]

5. The last large public display was the dancing in the streets after the attack in a seminary

in a part of Jerusalem that has been Jewish since the beginning