SHFARAM, Israel, 6 August 2005 — Thousands of mourners marched yesterday at the funeral of two Israeli-Arabs among four shot dead by a Jewish militant in an attack that put Israel on alert for a possible wave of Arab unrest.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon condemned the gunman, an Israeli soldier who was beaten to death by enraged residents after the attack, as a “bloodthirsty terrorist”. The killer apparently sought to inflame violence to stop Israel’s Gaza pullout plan.
Sharon vowed to begin pulling Israeli settlers and troops out of occupied Gaza as planned starting Aug. 17 regardless of efforts made by ultrarightist Jews to thwart the move, touted by Washington as a step toward peacemaking with the Palestinians.
Thousands of Israeli police redeployed to heavily Arab areas of northern Israel, where Thursday’s attack aboard an intercity bus occurred, to pre-empt potential riots.
Police commanders and Arab community leaders agreed in talks that protest rallies could be held “and we hope the Arab public will display restraint,” police spokesman Avi Zelba said.
Fears of disturbances at a Jerusalem shrine sacred to both Muslims and Jews eased after 35,000 Palestinians completed Islamic prayers and dispersed without incidents reported.
In the Israeli-Arab town of Shfaram, scene of the bus shooting, thousands of mourners joined a Muslim funeral train for two sisters in their 20s slain by the gunman. “The martyrs are beloved by God,” the crowd chanted.
Also killed were the bus driver and a middle-aged male bus passenger, both Christians. Their funerals were due later in the day. At least 22 people, most of them Arabs, were wounded.
“Our town is at the heart of the state of Israel and they are targeting people here. The state is not doing enough (to protect) its Arab citizens,” said municipal worker Mounir Baki as he swept away shards of bus window glass before the funeral.
Arabs make up about a fifth of Israel’s population and often complain of discrimination. They sympathized with a Palestinian revolt in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza, but few have got involved in militancy.
Israel’s army said the gunman, Eden Nathan Zaada, 19, had deserted his unit recently and was “of problematic background”.
Security agencies had warned that Jewish militants could target Palestinians or Israeli Arabs to whip up conflict to try to stop the removal of Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza.
Israel Radio quoted Zaada’s mother as saying she contacted the army two weeks ago to say he was armed, held ultrarightist views and could be dangerous, but that nothing was done. It was the worst attack by a Jewish radical since a West Bank settler killed 29 Palestinians praying in a mosque in 1994.
