Aug. 29, 2002

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Four months after he was dragged to the main square in Ramallah and executed as a "collaborator," Ibrahim Abdo was declared a martyr Wednesday by the Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.

Abdo was kidnapped on April 22 by masked men who said they belonged to the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades. He and another man were then led to al-Manara Square, where they were shot at point-blank range. Their killers claimed the two helped the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield and ignored pleas from passersby to spare their lives. One of the bodies was later hanged by the legs from a monument.

Since the brutal killing, which was witnessed by several hundred people, Abdo's family has been campaigning to clear his name. The family contacted representatives of all the PLO factions in Ramallah and senior members of the security forces, asking for details about any charges brought against him.

Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian groups operating in the area told the family that they had nothing to do with the execution. The Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, which had initially claimed responsibility for the killing, issued an official statement denying that Abdo was a Shin Bet agent.

The family finally approached Arafat and asked him to intervene. The answer came yesterday.

PA officials gave the Abdos a number of documents exonerating their son. Some of them were signed by Arafat himself. The family was told that Ibrahim Abdo would be considered a shaheed, implying that he was a victim of the Israeli occupation.

Arafat also instructed the Ministry of Social Welfare to acknowledge Abdo's case and pay his family a monthly stipend.

This is not the first time that a Palestinian killed on suspicion of collaboration has later been found to be innocent. There are no statistics about the number, but some Palestinians estimate that there are many.

Abdo's murderers have never been caught, and there is doubt that they will ever be brought to justice. The PA's police and security forces in Ramallah are completely paralyzed, since the city has been under curfew for most of the last two months.

Ramallah Governor Mustafa Isa has also acquitted Abdo of the charges against him, saying the man was a victim of "unfounded rumors."

In Tulkarm, meanwhile, masked men hurled firebombs at the home of a Palestinian woman who was executed by Fatah gunmen last Saturday on charges of collaboration, her son told The Jerusalem Post yesterday.

Ikhlas Khouli, 36, was kidnapped from her one-room home by three Fatah members who later shot her and dumped her body in the street. The killers videotaped Khouli, a mother of seven, confessing that she had helped in the assassination of top Fatah leader Ziad Da'as two weeks ago.

"We went to visit relatives in the nearby village of Irtah and when we returned, we discovered that the masked men had tried to set the house on fire," said her 17-year-old son Baker.

"We are now afraid and we don't know what to do. We are seven children and we have been left without a father and mother. My father died eight months ago of an illness. We are afraid that they will come back and shoot at my younger brothers and sisters."

Members of the Aksa Martyrs' Brigades kidnapped Baker three days before his mother was killed. The killers claim that he confessed his mother was working for Israel. He said he made the confession only after his kidnappers tortured him.

-- Anonymous, August 29, 2002

Answers

idiots.

-- Anonymous, August 29, 2002