Mahash and the OR Committee or Strange Fruit on the Middle Eastern Trees

Thirteen Arab Israeli citizens (or Palestinian Israelis or Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, whetever definition you prefer) were killed by the police, some of them by well aimed sniper fire from policemen who acted on the orders of high officers.

The killings (murders?) were investigated by the Or committee who in their report related to the discrimination against Israeli Arabs in general and suggested several of the policement involved in the killings should be criminally indicted. From there, Mahash (the police investigation department, which is part of the Ministry of Justice, on the assumption the police cannot investigate themselves) took over. They were to investigate the killings, gather evidence and prepare the material for the indictments, which are to be carried out by the prosecution.

And "surprise surprise", mahash were not able to find sufficient evidence against any of the policemen involved and all will go free.

A number of the bodies had not even been pathologically examined at the National Institute for Pathology at Abu Kabir (located in Jaffa by the way).

When Billie Holiday first sang "Strange Fruit", about the lynchings in the south of the US, she did so in New York's Carnegie. She was very scared the public would become violent and offended. Instead there was a prolonged silence after the last tone faded. then applause

Strange Fruit, no more fitting song under the current circumstances:

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

violence in Jaffa
police harassment
or committee