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Anger at opening of riots probe The first day of public hearings by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry headed by Supreme Court Justice Theodore Or into riots that left 13 Israeli Arabs dead last fall erupted into violence yesterday, when the father and brother of one of the victims punched a border policeman suspected of killing him. The committee, comprising Or, Nazareth District Court Deputy President Sahal Jara, and Tel Aviv University Prof. Shimon Shamir, began the hearings in the Supreme Court building with an investigation of the events of October 1, when 21-year-old Rami Jara was shot in the eye and killed by a rubber bullet during riots in the village of Jatt. When border policeman Murshad Rashad took the stand, Jara's mother started screaming and his father and brother rushed up to the podium and began beating him. Court- appointed security officers rushed into the hall and spirited Rashad out of the auditorium while others dragged the two men away. Jara's mother collapsed and was carried off to an ambulance. A few moments earlier, Jara's sister hurled the earphones she was using to hear a simultaneous translation at another border policeman, when he told the commission he had not fired his rifle at the rioters. The commission members hurried out of the auditorium and the proceedings were halted for almost two hours. Arab activists complained afterward that the commission should allow lawyers representing the families to cross-examine the witnesses and charged that its members were too soft in their questioning of the policemen. 'The families will only calm down when they can question the witnesses themselves,' said MK Azmi Bishara (National Democratic Union). Jara was killed two days after the outbreak of the 'Aksa intifada.' A group of about eight border policemen was dispatched to Jatt after rioters had burned tires and blocked the main highway. According to the border policemen who testified yesterday, they had been rushed back and forth during the day from one Arab settlement to another, including nearby Baka el-Garbiya and Umm el-Fahm. When they arrived in Jatt, most of the border policemen remained at the junction of the main highway and the road leading into the village, while the commander of the unit, Sa'id Abu Rish, sent Rashad and Alexander Shavtchinski ahead toward the rioters. Testimony sharply differed as to what Abu Rish ordered them to do and about their actions during the next few moments. According to the first witness, border policeman Avraham Bar, Abu Rish sent Rashad and Shavtchinski to 'shoot one of the demonstrators' in order to disperse the others. In response to a question by Shamir, Bar said that Abu Rish did not mean to kill anyone. 'To shoot someone could mean to hit him in the leg,' said Bar. Rashad and Shavtchinski told the commission that Abu Rish had ordered them to approach the rioters and make an arrest. Abu Rish said he had told the men to push the rioters back and had authorized them to fire rubber bullets if they were in danger. The border policemen also differed in their description of the shooting incident. According to Bar, Rashad shot Jara at a distance of about 15-20 meters. Rashad acknowledged that he had fired rubber bullets, but said he was about 70 meters away when he opened fire. He said he did so because he had been spotted and attacked with stones. There were also differences of opinion about the situation in Jatt that day. Abu Rish testified that cars were driving along the main highway and that their occupants and his policemen were endangered by the rioters. Jatt witnesses, including Muhammad Watad and Muhsan Ahmed, testified that the road was closed and that the only ones throwing stones were children. Arab leaders and members of the families of the victims were critical of the proceedings and pessimistic about the outcome of the investigation. 'We don't have much hope,' said Jamileh Asla, whose 17-year-old son, Asil, was killed in Arabeh on October 2. 'But we are trying as hard as we can, which is difficult after our loss, to do what we can for our children so that these things will never happen again.' Mahmoud Yazbak, the chairman of the association of bereaved families, said commission members left many questions unasked. 'After hearing the contradiction between the testimony of Bar and the other border policemen, they should have grilled Abu Rish to find out exactly what instructions he gave them,' said Yazbak. As for Abu Rish's claim that the lives of his men were in danger, Yazbak added, they should have asked him whether any of them were injured and how far away the rioters were standing. 'We hoped for more from the commission,' said Hassan Jabarin, an attorney for the Arab human-rights organization Adalah, which collected testimony on behalf of the commission. Jabarin demanded that the commission arrest or suspend the suspects in the shooting incidents. He said Or should have accepted the request of the Arab witnesses to testify in Arabic instead of Hebrew, and of the bereaved families to begin hearings at 11 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. so that they could reach Jerusalem from their homes in the North on time.
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