Awarta

[update below] [2nd update below] [3rd update below] [4th update below] [5th update below]

That’s the village in the West Bank near the Itamar settlement, where five members of a family were murdered last month.  Since then, the IDF has carried out a campaign of collective punishment against the villagers, detaining hundreds, vandalizing property, and generally behaving odiously. Settlers have also been doing their part—not for the first time—to make their neighboring Arabs’ lives miserable. This is outrageous.  The soldiers are presumably searching for the perpetrators of the atrocity, though given that it happened exactly one month ago, it stands to reason that if the murderers came from Awarta, their identities would be known by now at the very least (and one may be sure that they wouldn’t be hanging around anywhere in the vicinity). The Israelis, with 44 years of occupation under their belt, know every nook and cranny of the West Bank, and have a dense network of informers in every last village and hamlet (and particularly those in Areas B and C; Awarta is in B). Now it’s possible that Israeli intelligence is not what it used to be. But really now. I can’t remember the last time an atrocity on the scale of Itamar went this long without arrests. Unless the murderers may not have been Arab after all and the Israelis are not yet prepared to admit it. This would be a bombshell indeed. A mega-bombshell. Affaire à suivre.

UPDATE: +972 has more today (April 14) on the IDF’s continuing operation in Awarta.

2nd UPDATE: Two suspects have been arrested (April 17) for the Itamar murders. Affaire à suivre.

3rd UPDATE: Amira Hass: “Itamar murders don’t justify stripping Palestinians’ rights.” (April 21)

4th UPDATE: One of the Itamar murderers—who, as it turns out, were indeed from Awarta—has been convicted and sentenced to five life terms in prison. (September 13)

5th UPDATE: The second Itamar murderer has been convicted and sentenced. (January 17, 2012)