By Jonathan Cook: Israel’s ever-more sadistic reprisals help shore up a sense of victimhood. When
Israel passed a new counter-terrorism law last year, Ayman Odeh, a
leader of the country’s large minority of Palestinian citizens,
described its draconian measures as colonialism’s “last gasp”. He said:
“I see … the panic of the French at the end of the occupation of
Algeria.”
The panic and cruelty plumbed new
depths last week, when Israeli officials launched a $2.3 million
lawsuit against the family of Fadi Qanbar, who crashed a truck into
soldiers in Jerusalem in January, killing four. He was shot dead at the
scene.
The suit demands that his widow, Tahani, reimburse the state for the
compensation it awarded the soldiers’ families. If she cannot raise the
astronomic sum, the debt will pass to her four children, the oldest of
whom is currently only seven.
