Jewish Terrorist Group Murders Arab and Vandalizes Israeli Homes

By Emile S. Siman

When 20-year-old Yousef Al-Shawish was shot and killed at close range last April 10 near East Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate, a little-known underground organization claimed responsibility for the cold-blooded murder. An anonymous caller told an Israeli newspaper that the killing of the Arab was carried out in retaliation for stoning Jews at their holiest shrine, the Western Wall, three days before. "Jewish blood will not be spilled in vain, and for each Jewish eye, we will take out 20 Arab eyes," the unidentified man told the daily Yediot Ahronot.

The organization that executed the Palestinian and wounded three of his companions as they were relaxing following the break of the day-long Ramadan fast, is sikrikirn, which is a throwback to and namesake of the Sicarites, who mounted resistance against the Roman government of ancient Judea, during the period A.D. 6-73. The name is derived from the Latin "sicarii," or those armed with curved daggers.

The sikrikirn, as they are known in Hebrew, used short daggers, concealed in their clothing, to murder their victims, usually at religious festivals. The Sicarii also terrorized Jews who openly cooperated with the Romans and their methods were said to be quite effective.

Today, the sikrikim are by no means alone in a place which abounds with right-wing extremist, militant Jewish groups. No less than 20 Palestinians have been killed at the hands of Israeli settlers in the 17-month intifada, and the leader of the Gush Emunim, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, has been charged with manslaughter following the shooting of a Hebron shopkeeper. Moreover, two right-wing parties with five Knesset seats—Moledet and Thomet—have openly called for "the transfer of Arabs" from the occupied territories. "Transfer" is a euphemism for forced deportation or expulsion of Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied territories. As championed by American-born Rabbi Meir Kahane and his Kach extremists, it would also expel Christian and Muslim Palestinians living within Israeli borders and holding Israeli citizenship. It does not preclude the use of violence if "friendly persuasion" fails.

Significantly, the clandestine sikrikim has also leveled threats against leftwing Israelis who have either called for redressing Palestinian grievances in the occupied territories or who have met with PLO representatives outside Israel. Among their Israeli targets have been Maparn Knesset member Yair Tsaban, poet Dan Almagor, journalist Dan Margalit, pollster Mena Tsemach, and the publisher of the Israeli left-leaning Haaretz, Amos Shuken. Although there have been no attempts on the lives of these Israelis, their homes or property have been firebombed or vandalized.

On May 4, the sikrikim passed a death sentence on French Foreign Minister Roland Duman and uprooted a tree he had planted in Jerusalem in memory of his father. The sikrikirn were protesting the French government's reception of Arafat in Paris. The gesture was also seen as a warning against widely reported French plans to assume an intermediary role in the peace process involving the PLO and Israelis.

The actions and threats of the sikrikim are not likely to have a far-reaching impact on the Palestinian intifada, now in its 17th month and still going strong. Nor, for that matter, will it succeed in intimidating most of the Israelis it has targeted, since they are accustomed to defying extremists within the Israeli government. But the danger lies in the condoning by Israeli government authorities of increasing vigilante acts by armed Jewish settlers, and in appeals by right-wing government leaders to give the Israeli residents a free hand in "defending" themselves or "retaliating" against stone-throwers.

Emile S Siman is a Washington DC-based journalist who writes frequently on Middle East Affairs.