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Last update - 01:29 22/01/2006

Quiet rage at funeral of Wadi Ara man shot by police

By Eli Ashkenazi and Yoav Stern

Fears that riots would break out following Friday's funeral for Nadim Melhem, who was shot to death by police last week, were not borne out.

The hundreds of people who took part in the Arara funeral procession displayed maturity, restraint and responsibility, but did not conceal their feelings of rage.

Arara resident Jihad Akel, a member of Hadash and a Histadrut labor federation leader, was worried about a return to the period after the incidents of October 2000.

"We can't have an event of this kind end in tragedy. We've gone backward more than five years," Akel said.

The dynamic following Melhem's slaying was similar to that after the terrorist attack in Shfaram in August 2005: The Hebrew-language media prepared the public for major clashes, the police announced it was diverting forces to the area and preparing for anything. But in the end the funerals took place without disturbances, and the families' sorrow was "contained" within the mourners' homes.

"There is deep anger here," Melhem's brother-in-law Abdel Salam Jabaria said on Friday. "There is also a feeling of vengeance. We are asking the Jews: `Enough, stop.' We haven't heard that Jews were shot for throwing Molotov cocktails, rocks and oil. With us they shoot straight away. The finger is quick on the trigger."

In the Melhem family's neighborhood, Wadi al-Qasab, several young men stood holding signs in Hebrew: "Murder in cold blood"; "Gideon Ezra - criminal, murderer, racist"; and "District officers - serial killers."

"We are against violence and murder. It's the state that says we are violent," said one of the men, Omar Badran, 21, of Arara.

The fear of a deterioration in Jewish-Arab relations led to an outcry from politicians and activists for cooperation between the communities. On Friday morning, six local authority heads from the area - Jews and Arabs - gathered in Arara. That forum might be the most striking example of an attempt for change in Wadi Ara after October 2000.

Accompanied by Sikkuy - The Association for the Advancement of Civic Equality in Israel, these local authorities are promoting joint projects.

Melhem Melhem, a cousin of the victim, said he has faith in the probe launched by the Police Investigations Division, but he was in the minority. Most of those at the funeral did not think the probe would get to the truth.

"They lied with the Or Commission, too," said Shawki Khatib, the chair of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee. He added, "There is no more time and we won't give you time to think how to deal with the problems of the Arab citizens. You have to start listening to their problems."
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