Retribution

The quote below is from a Feb. 26 AFP report:

"Palestinian wanted by Israel found dead in Bulgaria

Sofia (AFP) - A Palestinian activist wanted by Israel over the killing of a Jewish settler 30 years ago was found dead Friday in Bulgaria, local police and the Palestinian Authority said. Omar Nayef Zayed, 51, was discovered in the courtyard of the Palestinian embassy in Sofia, police said. Bulgarian radio reported that he had fallen from the fourth floor...

The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), of which Nayef was a member, cited in a statement his family as calling his death an "assassination". It said that Nayef, originally from Jenin in the West Bank, had sought refuge in the Palestinian embassy in Sofia two months ago and had "received threats"...

Nayef was convicted in 1986 over a murder case but escaped in 1990 during a visit to a Bethlehem hospital. He fled to Bulgaria in 1994 and married a local woman with whom he had three children.

Late last year Bulgarian authorities agreed to examine an Israeli extradition request, but a December 14 hearing was postponed because Nayef was not at his address, the Bulgarian interior ministry said. His death came a day after Prime Minister Boyko Borisov returned from a trip to Israel. Borisov said he discussed Nayef with both Israeli and Palestinian officials during the visit."

Please mention how the the ATP describes Zayed's victim as "Jewish settler", as if rationalizing the murder. Al Jazeera, in a March 2 report, gives more details: "Zayed was sentenced by an Israeli court to life in prison after being charged with killing a yeshiva student in occupied East Jerusalem in 1986. Four years into his sentence, he managed to escape Israeli custody during a hospital visit. He ended up in Sofia in 1994, and was granted residency, starting a family. Zayed's quiet life running a grocery store with his wife and three children turned upside down a couple of months ago, when the Israeli embassy in Sofia requested that the Bulgarian government extradite him on December 15."

I had to to turn to an Israeli source to find the victim's name: Eliyahu Amedi.

Zayed's family, the PFLP and the Palestinian community in Sofia are praising him as hero and demanding "the truth" about his death. Bulgarian sources are more elaborate about these reactions than English-language media, but I prefer not to translate. This support of a murderer is just pathetic and paints a nihilistic picture of the human race. These arrogant, despicable Palestinians should be thankful that we in Europe do not follow Mr. Zayed's example and do not rush to murder "settlers" whom we do not like.

Most commentators suspect that Mossad is responsible for Zayed's death. However, I would not exclude the Palestinians themselves from suspicion. According to Al Jazeera, "neither Zayed's family, nor the PFLP, spared the Palestinian Authority from blame. Besides failing to save his life, they claim Omar was under pressure from within the Palestinian embassy to leave its premises." The fugitive was clearly a liability for the embassy, exposing the true face of "Palestine" as a terror organization rather than a state, complicating their relations with Bulgaria and using their coffee, toothpaste, blankets, shower etc. So I find it quite possible that someone in the embassy decided to get rid of him in the same manner as the Islamic State deals with suspected gays. 

Al Jazeera also reports that "a few dozen Palestinians protested outside the Bulgarian Representative office in Ramallah amid a heavy security presence. The protesters held a banner threatening that "the crime of assassinating Al Nayef (Zayed) won't go unpunished"..."We came here to deliver a clear message to the Bulgarian representative; that they are responsible for this heinous crime," Ahmad Zayed, Omar's brother told Al Jazeera." (This brother was an accomplice in the 1986 murder.) I find it possible that our authorities turned a blind eye, but I don't think they assassinated Zayed - they are usually not so proactive.

Anyway, whoever did it, I like this ending of the case.

I wish to live in a world in which the life of each human being is valued by all others, and murder is never considered by anyone as a solution to any problem.

But, because I am not granted this, I want the next best thing: a world in which murder brings retribution.

I hope that Eliyahu Amedi's parents are alive and have heard the good news.