Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Why do some Palestinians celebrate violence against Israel?

Credit: Getty images

Jerusalem, 13 May 1998. Khairi Alkam, a 51-year-old Palestinian labourer, left home early in the morning to pray at al-Aqsa mosque before going to work. As he was walking through the Mea She’arim neighbourhood, a suspected Jewish terrorist stabbed him in the back and left him to bleed to death in the street. He left behind a wife and nine children. 

The crime horrified Israelis and Palestinians alike. Ezer Weizman, then president of Israel, visited Alkam’s widow Dalal to pay his respects and described the killing of her husband as ‘a murder by cowards’. Dalal was not eligible for compensation under the Victims of Hostile Actions (Pensions) Law – no perpetrator had been identified and the 1970 legislation was drafted with only Palestinian terrorism in mind. Nevertheless, the defence ministry authorised a six-figure payment. A mere token compared to a human life but a shuffle nonetheless towards Israel reckoning with its own extremists. 

The veneration of violence within sections of Palestinian society is what has allowed Israel to become so complacent

Jerusalem, 27 January 2023. Khairi Alkam, a 21-year-old Palestinian named after his slain grandfather, entered the Neve Ya’akov community in the east of the city and opened fire outside the Ateret Avraham synagogue. Five people were killed in the initial salvo, including 14-year-old Asher Natan. Upon hearing gunfire outside, Eli and Natali Mizrahi, a married couple in their forties, left their dinner table and went to help the injured. They would never return. Alkam shot them both at point blank range.

This crime too horrified Israelis. When far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the scene of the attack, locals shouted: ‘Come clean up the blood, it happened on your watch.’ It turns out voting for someone to hate the Arabs for you doesn’t do much for the Jews. Elsewhere, Mansour Abbas, head of the Islamist Israeli party Ra’am, said: ‘We condemn and reject any attack in which innocent civilians are murdered.’ 

Not everyone was on board with even that very specifically worded sentiment.

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