CINA

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While the official Germany marks the anniversary of Wannsee Conference (Spiegel, 1.20), when - 70 years ago - senior Nazi leaders coordinated plans for the Holocaust, i.e the complete annihilation of the European Jewish population...

 
...a new study by a German parliament-appointed commission shows 20% of Germans harbor "latent" anti-Semitism, but anti-Jewish crimes are almost exclusively committed by the far right.

The 188-page report – which draws on several different surveys and other research – puts Germans in the middle of the pack in Europe, with a German university survey showing more latent anti-Semitism in countries such as Poland, Hungary and Portugal, and less in Italy, Britain, the Netherlands and France.

The study released y'day said the surveys show that about one-fifth of Germans agree with anti-Semitic statements, such as "Jews have too much power in business."

 Desecrated Jewish cemetery in Germany

The study also showed that 90% of anti-Semitic crimes are committed by right-wing extremists, who number about 26,000 according to official estimates.

It recommends better coordination of local, state and federal strategies to combat anti-Semitism.

The report makes reference to "a wider acceptance in mainstream society of day-to-day anti-Jewish tirades and actions".

“Anti-Semitism in our society is based on widespread prejudices, deeply rooted clichés and on sheer ignorance about Jews and Judaism," stated one of the report’s authors, Dr. Peter Longerich of the University of London, Holocaust Research Center.

The report cites the Internet as a contributing factor to the spread of anti-Semitic thought.

"With regard to modern forms of communication - we point to the Internet in particular - it is virtually impossible to prevent the spread of such thinking," Longerich continued...(*)

      Anti-Semitism during the weekly (east)German football league...     

* Related article in German:
☞ Antisemitismus in Deutschland fest verankert (Spiegel, 1.23)
 

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 Distress signals from Syria (2011.4.27.afternoon.local times):

 Deraa is Dying!! We, the People of Dara are calling for stopping the planned mass murder! Deraa now is under a blockade were the Security forces bombed water tanks, burned bakeries, broke and stole pharmacies... There is no milk for children and we are starving... The armed forces prevent injuries of having medical treatment... And the reinforcement arrived to Deraa, more than 30 tanks... Please, please be with us, we need your support to stop the the planned massacre...

Related news:
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said today it had collected the names of at least 453 civilians killed during almost six weeks of pro-democracy protests in Syria. Asked who killed them, Observatory director Rami Abdelrahman said: "It does not require a comment. The names we have are from Deraa, Damascus, rural Damascus and the coast." (source: Reuters)

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Yesterday's Haaretz wrote: If Assad does not use the same murderous force against the protesters that his father Hafez Assad used against tens of thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Hama 30 years ago, he will not survive...

But today it seems that the Syrian dictator exactly want to smash the protest movement/popular uprising in the same way...

THE DICTATORSHIP STRIKES BACK!

Following weeks of protests, the Syrian regime appears to planning major "security" operation; all land border crossings with neighboring Jordan closed.

Since the early morning hours the Syrian army backed by tanks advance into the restive city of Deraa, in an apparent escalation of a crackdown on the protest movement.
More deaths have been reported in Syria where thousands of troops backed by tanks and heavy armour have swept into the town of Deraa in the south of the country, the large Damascus suburb of Douma and several other cities across the country. "Security" forces also continued a crackdown in the coastal town of Jableh for a second day.

Suhair al-Atassi, a Syrian human rights campaigner, says the Syrian authorities have launched a war against the country's peaceful pro-democracy movement by attacking three cities. Atassi said in a statement sent to Reuters in the early afternoon(local times): "This is a savage war designed to annihilate Syria's democrats. [...] President Bashar al-Assad's intentions have been clear since he came out publicly saying he is 'prepared for war' in his speech on March 30. I am at my home in Dummar suburb of Damascus. Come and arrest me."

Earlier today Reuters reported the following:

Syrian writers issued a declaration on Monday denouncing a bloody crackdown on protesters, a sign of outrage surging through the intellectual elite as violence has escalated dramatically in recent days.

 
Security forces and gunmen loyal to President Bashar Assad stormed the large Damascus suburb of Douma early on Monday, shooting at unarmed civilians and arresting residents, rights campaigners said.

 
"There are injured people. Scores have been arrested. The security are repeating the same pattern in all the centers of the democratic uprising. They want to put down the revolution using the utmost brutality," the rights campaigner told Reuters from Damascus.

 
Residents in the southern town of Deraa, where the protest movement first erupted last month, said security forces backed by armoured vehicles had entered the town overnight and were shooting.

An eyewitness told The Associated Press that he saw at least five corpses after security forces fired on a car... 

 
Also Monday, a senior diplomat in Amman said Syria had closed all its land border crossings with Jordan, following the deployment of Syrian army tanks in Deraa. An official told Reuters the "timing is related to what appears to be a major security operation that is taking place right now".

 
Rights groups say security forces have killed more than 350 civilians since unrest began last month. A third of the victims were killed in the past three days as the scale and breadth of a popular revolt against President Bashar Assad intensified...

 
In some of the latest violence, activists said government troops and gunmen loyal to Assad shot dead at least nine civilians on Sunday in the Mediterranean coastal town of Jabla, where troops deployed following a protest the previous night.

Rights campaigners said they feared Assad's forces were preparing for an attack on the town of Nawa after reports of bulldozers and military vehicles heading there. Thousands of people in the town called for the overthrow of Assad on Sunday at a funeral for protesters killed by security forces.

 
Electricity and communications were cut off in parts of Nawa by the evening and residents, some armed, erected barriers in the streets in preparation to defend against attack.

 
"Long live Syria. Down with Bashar!" mourners chanted during the funeral in Nawa, 25 km north of Deraa.
 

"Leave, leave! The people want the overthrow of the regime."

 
In Banias, south of Jabla, protest leaders said they would cut the main coastal highway unless the siege on Jabla was lifted. Jabla is home to large numbers of members of Assad's Alawite Shi'ite minority who had generally stayed away from protests in the past.

 
Mourning 'martyrs of uprising'

 
Monday's declaration was signed by 102 writers and journalists, in Syria and in exile, representing all the country's main sects, a sign that shock at the violence is crossing Syria's lines of sectarian division.

It called on Syrian intellectuals "who have not broken the barrier of fear to make a clear stand.

 
"We condemn the violent, oppressive practices of the Syrian regime against the protesters and mourn the martyrs of the uprising."

 
Signatories included Alawite figures such as former political prisoner Loay Hussein; female writers Samar Yazbek and Hala Mohammad; Souad Jarrous, correspondent for al-Sharq al-Awsat pan-Arab daily; writer and former political prisoner Yassin al-Haj Saleh and filmmaker Mohammad Ali al-Attassi.

Mansour al-Ali, a prominent Alawite figure from the city of Homs, was arrested in his home city after he spoke out against the shooting of protesters, an activist in Homs said.

 
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4060331,00.html

Related news reports:
☞ Syrian army 'attacks protest city of Deraa' (BBC, 4.25)
☞ Syria sends tanks onto streets (Al-Jazeera, 4.25)
☞ Witnesses: Syrian army crackdown sparks panic (CNN, 4.25)
☞ Syrian tanks and troops move into Deraa (Guardian, 4.25)


 

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The Syrian...

 "Good Friday Massacre"

4.01: The Canadian Labour Congress joins the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in calling on the Syrian authorities to respect fundamental rights and freedoms, including the right to form and join genuine trade unions to represent their interests. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime must immediately stop its violent repression, open a dialogue with its opponents, and allow the development of legitimate civil society organizations.

4.12: London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported that the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad expressed his "regrets over the death of protestors during a Sunday anti-regime demonstration"...

4.21: Already 200 demonstators/activists were killed since the beginning of the protests... And Bashir Al-Assad suspended the 'Emegency Law', to "protect the human and political rights of the Syrian people"...

4.22: The STATE TERROR gets worse... Until midnight more than hundred protesters were killed by 'security' forces!!

4.24: Secret police raided homes near Damascus overnight, rights campaigners said today, as popular opposition to authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad mounted following the bloodiest attacks on pro-democracy protesters.

Until last night, 12 people were confirmed dead in the towns of Moadamiya, Douma and Alabadi, and the Damascus suburb of Saqba-Gota, said Wissam Tarif, who heads a Syrian human rights organization. On the previous day, already dubbed Great Friday by some Syrians, 109 people died and many more were injured, he said. According to the German 'left-alternative' newspaper die tageszeitung at least 120 people were killed during the so-called Good Friday Massacre.
The death toll rose to around 350, with scores of missing, since the demonstrations broke out on March 18, rights campaigners said.
 
But the (f*cking) Assad - possibly he'll do whatever he wants - but he'll not be successful...
Today's Haaretz wrote the following: If Assad does not use the same murderous force against the protesters that his father Hafez Assad used against tens of thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the city of Hama 30 years ago, he will not survive.

Related articles:
☞ 3 prominent Syrians resign in protest against deadly crackdown (WaPo, 4.24)
☞ Assad regime is indeed threatened by Syria protests (Haaretz, 4.24)
☞ Outrage follows Syria security crackdown (Al-Jazeera, 4.23)


 

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While currently tens of thousands of Syrians are taking almost daily the streets to demand democracy and social justice(*), the North Korean "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il (aka the "Sun of the 21st Century"...) used the anniversary of Syria's "Independence Day" to declare his (surprise, surprise!!) solidarity with the 'ruling' dictatorship (i.e. Assad's state terror against the protest movement)...

Last Saturday's KCNA published the following:

General Secretary Kim Jong Il Saturday sent a message of greetings to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the independence of Syria.

The message reads as follows:

I extend warm congratulations to you and the friendly government and people of Syria on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of independence, the auspicious national holiday of your people.

After the independence the Syrian people registered a great success in the struggle to protect the sovereignty of the country and the nation and build modern Syria under the correct leadership of the Baath Arab Socialist Party.

Our people extend full support to you and the Syrian people in the just cause for the peace, stability, development and prosperity of the country and impartial and comprehensive settlement of the Mideast issue.

I, availing myself of this opportunity, express belief that the good friendly and cooperative relations between our two countries will grow stronger, sincerely wishing you good health and happiness and greater success in your responsible work for the country and people.

* Related news you'll check out here:
☞ Syrian security forces open fire on sit-in protest (AP, 4.19)
☞ Libya, Syria and Middle East unrest - live coverage (Guardian, 4.19)
☞ Syria Unrest (Al-Jazeera's special section, daily updated)


 

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Yesterday's Guardian(UK) reported the following about the current stage of the gov't controlled TERROR CAMPAIGN against the democratic mass movement:

Bahrain braced for new wave of repression

Arrests and troop movements signal another government crackdown on protests in the tiny Gulf state

Bahrain is braced for a fresh bout of violent repression as new arrests and the alleged death of a female student fuel the tensions in the tiny Gulf state.

Armoured vehicles and security forces were reported to be gathering in the streets of the capital, Manama, and in surrounding suburbs and villages.

Meanwhile, evidence has emerged that Saudi forces have been involved in violence against the opposition in the mainly Shia villages and suburbs around Manama. In a graphic eyewitness account of the repression given to the Observer, a Bahraini who has been caught up in the violence claimed that officers with Saudi accents, in plainclothes but armed with automatic weapons, had led attacks on members of the Shia opposition on several occasions over the past month.

When Saudi and UAE troops from the Gulf Peninsula Shield force entered the kingdom at the request of the government last month, it was said that they were there to guard strategic buildings and infrastructure.

Reports from the city said that a young woman – beaten up last month by government supporters at Bahrain University – had died. A family member confirmed her death but the circumstances remained unclear. Arrests of lawyers and doctors working for the opposition continued.

Protesters, who were brutally removed from their peaceful anti-government site at Manama's Pearl roundabout last month, claim that there has since been a systematic campaign of repression by Sunni Bahraini security forces, backed by forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Human Rights Watch says that four people have died in custody over the past month, out of 430 who were arrested. Opposition sources say that the true figure is 720 arrested with 210 missing.

Tensions were high after another day of mourning, for Karim Fakhrawi, a Shia businessman who died in police detention, allegedly after being tortured. The mourning also coincided with an important Shia festival, the commemoration of the death of Fatima al-Zahra, the wife of the Prophet Muhammad. This is traditionally marked by three days of religious observance, including marches, which are now banned under Bahrain's month-old state of emergency.

Meanwhile, Mohammed al-Tajer, a lawyer who represented detainees held during the protests, was reportedly arrested along with a doctor accused of treating injured demonstrators. Doctors and medical facilities have been singled out in the repression, with the main hospital in Manama, Salimanya, under military occupation for the past month.

The government says that it is acting to maintain security after what it describes as an "attempted revolution" by mainly Shia protesters last month. It says hospitals were being used as organisation centres for the protests.

The government appears to be backing down from a plan to outlaw the leading opposition parties, Al Wefaq and Islamic Action, after protests from America and Britain. But a suppression of media reporting continues. Last week a correspondent from the Financial Times was denied entry at the airport. No reason was given.

Frank Gardner, the BBC's security correspondent, was detained at the airport for three hours before being allowed into the country. Other journalists reported increasing difficulties in obtaining visas.

Bell Pottinger, a British public relations company that advised the Bahraini crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, and which was assisting with media visas, has had its government contracts suspended during the period of martial law.

Prince Salman is regarded as a moderate, but the failure of his offers of "dialogue" with the protesters has handed power to Sunni hardliners, led by the prime minister, Prince Khalifa, who has been in office since 1971.

The protests are seen as a threat to security across the whole Gulf region. There have been further protests in Iran in support of the mainly Shia Bahraini opposition, and Tehran recently warned Pakistan against sending any more "mercenaries" to join the crackdown.

Many Bahrain police officers are hired in Sunni countries such as Pakistan and Jordan (so we can call them mercenaries!!).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/16/bahrain-arrests-repression

Related articles/reports:
☞ The Bahrain Revolt (Huffington Post, 4.15)
☞ EU in a bind over Bahrain (Asia Times, 4.15)
☞ Bahrain cracks down on protesting footballers (Al-Jazeera, 4.15)
☞ A chilling account of the brutal clampdown... (Guardian, 4.16)


 

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Today's Asia Times(HK) published the following remarkable analysis:

Libya: Ceasefire or bust 

The so-called Libya contact group - that euphemism defining the minute Western/Gulf emirates "coalition of the willing" - meets (today) in Doha, Qatar, ahead of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ministerial meetings in Berlin, amid an atmosphere of downright farce.

Former Libyan foreign minister and current defector to Britain Moussa Koussa is a stalwart of the Qatar meeting, trying to convince the "rebels" of the Interim National Council (INC) that the only possible solution for the moment implies Colonel Muammar Gaddafi remaining in power.

That also happens to be exactly what mediator Turkey is saying. No wonder the "rebels" and their sponsors - the dashing Arab liberator Anglo-French couple President Nicolas Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron - are fuming, and puzzled.

The head of the African Union (AU) mission to Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma - whose country is the only member of the BRICS group that supported United Nations Security Council resolution 1973 (Brazil, Russia, India and China abstained) - was convinced that Gaddafi had embraced the AU road map, which started with a ceasefire. But there has been no ceasefire so far. The wall of mistrust between Gaddafi and the rebels/NATO tandem has reached Himalayan proportions. NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen keeps stressing Gaddafi "does not keep his promises". Gaddafi is not fool enough to stop fighting while NATO may keep on bombing.

As for the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - who along with her Amazon warriors, envoy to the UN Susan Rice and National Security Council aide Samantha Power, forced this sorry adventure on a reluctant White House - now also stress a ceasefire (but always with inbuilt "regime change").

It's quite useful to compare the AU approach - developed by South Africa, Uganda, Mali, Mauritania and Congo-Brazzaville - with NATO's. Once there's a ceasefire respected by both sides, there's the establishment of humanitarian corridors; civilians, local and foreigners (especially African migrant workers) can be protected; and a national political dialogue may start, meeting "the legitimate aspirations of the Libyan people for democracy".

The INC is in no position to dictate its terms to Gaddafi. There's certainly a risk of a ceasefire reached after the current stalemate crystallizing a balkanization of Libya - east and west. But virtually no Libyans seem to want to embrace that possibility. The AU is simply being pragmatic. Libya - along with Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa - finances 75% of the AU budget.

Gaddafi is friendly with the majority of the 53-member AU; Mauritania, Mali and Congo-Brazzaville, for instance, benefited from a lot of Libyan investment (in fact, no less than 31 African countries did).

On top of it the mediators are Africans - not neo-colonial Europeans. South Africa's Zuma would be the first to viscerally repudiate an Anglo-French-dominated Libya. There was ample suspicion about Zuma's motives when South Africa voted for UN resolution 1973. Anyway, the fact is now Zuma says what the top four BRICS plus Germany were saying before the vote; this Anglo-French-drafted resolution is open-ended. And it opens the door to the West just deposing any African leader they fancy, whenever they want it.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has also been instrumental in this mediation. He considers Gaddafi a true nationalist - and as most of his African peers, not to mention in the Middle East and across the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the developing world, they all favor nationalists compared to foreign puppets a la INC.

Community values

 
The AU mediation finally shatters the myth of the "international community" fighting the same old demonized "evil dictator" figure in Libya. Unless one considers the "international community" as comprised of seven members among the 28-member NATO (France, Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Canada and the US), plus those two paragons of democracy in the Persian Gulf, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"Regime change" (which is not part of the UN resolution) does have support; but only in Washington, London, Paris and Benghazi.

Now compare the realism of the AU position - similar to Turkey's - with the pathetic squabbling between the Anglo-French and NATO. London and Paris want NATO to go on a mad bombing spree - as if NATO bombs could be programmed to only decimate pro-Gaddafi Libyans.

Coming from two political midgets such as British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, that's no surprise. For its part, NATO's Brigadier-General Mark van Uhm tried to spin it in Brussels, warning - correctly - that Gaddafi's forces adapted to the air strikes by favoring "hit-and-run tactics by motorized columns of pickup trucks to wear out opposition forces psychologically rather than gain ground".

So NATO acknowledges it just can't shock and awe the enemy without provoking a genocide. And the grown ups in the picture are the Africans - who have come up with a plausible endgame. Only Paris, Rome and Doha have recognized the INC as the de facto Libyan government (can't resist the comparison with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the UAE being the only ones to recognize the Taliban.)

It's telling that Washington at least has been more realistic. Now it's up to the Central Intelligence Agency-infested, opportunist-laden, marginally al-Qaeda-linked "rebels", and their Anglo-French sponsors, to wake up and smell the Arabica coffee.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD14Ak01.html

Related news/reports:
☞ Contact group urges Libya action (Al-Jazeera, 4.13)
☞ The blame game is on in Libya (AToL, 4.13)
☞ Libya - live coverage (Guardian, 4.13)


 

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Syria: Mass Protests, Massacres and Resistance

Today's (London-based Arabic-language) newspaper Al-Hayat reported that the Syrian ruler Bashar Assad expressed his "regrets over the death of protestors during a Sunday anti-regime demonstration"...

But for the resisting masses the lession is clear:
 

Why? Because of the f*cking reality!! Despide Assad's repeated promises to "reform" the Syrian political system, his "security forces" yesterday - once again - went crazy...: ☞ Students rally in Syria's capital over deaths (source: Al-Jazeera), ☞ Student killed as Syria protest turns violent (source: Yedioth Ahronoth)

Related article:
☞ Syrian human rights watchdog: Death toll in protests reaches 200 (Haaretz, 4.12)

 

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AFTER THE CRACKDOWN: STATE TERROR AGAINST WORKERS, MEDIA AND POLITICAL ACTIVISTS

Latest news:

Bahraini firms have fired hundreds of mostly Shi'ite workers who went on strike to support pro-democracy protesters, part of a government crackdown, an opposition group said on yesterday.

Bahrain's unions called a general strike on March 13 to support pro-democracy protesters against the (Sunni-led) government who for weeks occupied a square in the capital until "security forces" moved in on March 16. The strike was called off on March 22.

Officials at Batelco, Gulf Air, Bahrain Airport Services and APM Terminals Bahrain said they had laid off more than 200 workers due to absence during the strike...

Bahrain's main opposition group, Wefaq, said it estimated that more than 1,000 workers had been laid off and that most were Shi'ites.

More lay-offs are expected at Bahrain Petroleum (Bapco) which has fired the head of its workers' union. Workers fear that hundreds could be fired at the company after parliament launched an investigation headed by a Sunni hardline deputy.

"Everybody is afraid," a worker who did not wish to be named told Reuters.

Bahrain has increased its arrests of bloggers, activists and Shi'ites, with more than 300 detained and dozens missing since last month's crackdown on the pro-democracy protests.

Bahrain has seen the worst clashes between its Shi'ite majority population (but supported by hundreds of Sunnis, mostly "ordinary" workers) and the Sunni-ruled security forces since the 1990s after pro-democracy protesters, inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, took to the streets in February.

The "security forces" have killed at least 13 protesters during days of pro-democracy protests and prompted Bahrain to declare martial law and invite troops by Sunni Gulf neighbors... Saudi Arabia and the UAE, members of the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) sent thousands of troops and riot  cops to smash the pro-democracy movement.

After "security forces", supported by the GCC occupation forces, crushed the protests, the government launched a crackdown on opposition activists, Shi'ite villages and media such as the only opposition newspaper, Al-Wasat...

Some related articles:
☞ Dangerous change rattles Bahrain (Asia Times, 4.06)
☞ Bahrain's hospital of ghosts (Al-Jazeera, 4.06)
☞ The Arab counter-revolution is winning (AToL, 3.18)


 

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Juliano Mer-Khamis, the founder of The Freedom Theater in Jenin, was murdered yesterday by unknown assailants. He was shot five times near the theater he founded with former Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade military leader Zakariya Zubeidi. From Israeli and Palestinian heritage, the Nazareth-born Mer-Khamis was famous for his art and activism, clashing with traditional society and the Israeli occupation.

Yesterday's Haaretz reported the following:

Israeli actor Juliano Mer-Khamis shot dead in Jenin

 
Israeli actor and political activist Juliano Mer-Khamis, 52, was shot dead on Monday outside a theater which he founded in a refugee camp in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Jenin police chief Mohammed Tayyim said Mer-Khamis was shot five times by masked Palestinian militants, but that Israeli security forces were still investigating the circumstances of his murder. A Palestinian ambulance took his body to a nearby checkpoint to be transferred into Israel.

Mer-Khamis' mother, Arna Mer, was an Israeli Jewish activist for Palestinian rights. His father, Saliba Khamis, was a Christian Palestinian. Mer-Khamis was born and raised in Nazareth.

Mer-Khamis was well-known as an actor for his film and theater roles, both in Israel and abroad, and had made a name for himself as a director and a political activist, as well.

Based in Israel, Mer-Khamis was affiliated with the local theater in Jenin, established by his mother in the 1980s. In 2006, Mer-Khamis opened the Freedom Theater in Jenin, along with Zakariya Zubeidi, the former military leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades in that West Bank city.

Zubeidi was appointed co-theater director in an attempt to subdue the ongoing threats voiced against both the institution and Mer-Khamis. The theater itself was torched twice in the past, and the threats persisted despite Zubeidei's appointment.

Some of the criticism focused on the fact that the theater offered co-ed activities, despite prohibition in the Islamic moral code.

Objectors were also outraged when Mer-Khamis staged the play "Animal Farm", in which the young actors played the part of a pig, which Islam considers an impure animal.

Mer Khamis said he had planned to stage The Lieutenant of Inishmore, a satire of armed resistance, but shelved the idea after someone smashed the window of his car.

Jenin governor Qadura Moussa called Mer Khamis a great supporter of the Palestinian people. He said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told him to bring those responsible for his death to justice.

Michael Handesaltz, senior editor and theater critic for Haaretz, described Mer-Khamis as a "great actor, an extraordinary human being whose life-story is part of the tragic reality of this country", who in his death became "another tragic victim of life in the Middle East".

Director Amos Gitai, who directed Mer-Khamis in the 2000 film "Kippur," said in response that he was "shocked" by the murder. "There are people like Juliano, who are radical people, try with their own bodies to serve as a bridge over the gorges of hate. And in Juliano's case its real, he is a larger than life," Gitai said.

"We have been served so many warning signs and calling signs, that I don’t know what will become of us," he added.

Director Avi Nesher, who directed Mer-Khamis in "Rage and Glory" in 1985 said that he felt like a member of his family had died. "He was one of the most talented people I ever worked with," Nesher said, adding that "it is hard to imagine who would want to kill him and why, and it is very disturbing, in the most profound way."

"I don’t understand the murder," he added. "he was a man who was totally there to deal with the things he believed in and I find it hard to understand the twisted rational of the people who did this."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-actor-juliano-mer-khamis-shot-dead-in-jenin-1.354044

Related reports:
☞ 'Juliano's murder most likely pre-meditated assassination' (Haaretz, 4.05)
☞ Israeli peace activist Juliano Mer Khamis shot dead in Jenin (Guardian, 4.04)
☞ Actor Juliano Mer-Khamis shot dead in Jenin (Yedioth Ahronoth, 4.04)