Mohammed Shawkat Salameh

Column by Gershon Baskin, which I won't post on Facebook, but want to bookmark:

There is a moral code in Judaism that states: hakam l’horgkha hashkem l’horgo – roughly translated means “kill or be killed.” If Salameh had been killed immediately by the Border Police by their first shots while fending him off from Elmaliah and protecting themselves and others from being stabbed, we would not have an issue at all with the rules of war or with the moral consequences of what followed.

But once Salameh was wounded and on the ground, and clearly not wearing a vest of bombs, he was no longer a danger to the public. He could have been secured and treated medically, and if he would sustain the wounds, he would be brought to trial. But the officers shot him dead on the spot and essentially implemented a death sentence without trial. 

 

There are two causes for concern in my view. One is the execution that took place in broad daylight, which was filmed and documented. The second issue is the justification and the heroizing of the officers, which took place after they implemented the death sentence. The public cheer and the media celebration of the “justified” execution is to me very disturbing.

 ....

 We don’t know what brought a 25-year-old man from Salfit to enter Israel and to try to kill Israelis. His story might be deep hatred of Israel and of Jews. It may also be something much more benign – such as a fight with his family, or a lack of purpose in life, or a love story, or some other distorted notion of how he could bring fame to himself and his family, or even mental illness. We don’t know and we will probably never know.

 

Did he deserve to die? Perhaps. Those are the consequences of war. But he did not deserve to be executed without trial once he was down and injured. Israel has invented a new word in our war lexicon: “neutralized.”

 

Essentially Salameh was neutralized when he was first shot and wounded. But the term “neutralized” is now synonymous with executed, killed, eliminated. The laundering of words is a clear parallel to the laundering of morals and standards. There is no way of putting this otherwise – the execution of Mohammed Shawkat Salameh was a war crime.