Who is a terrorist?
Amazing. Even though Ariel Sharon, the PM of Israel, declared the killing of four Arabs "a despicable act by a blood thirsty terrorist" the Israeli Defense Ministry ruled that in Israel terror cannot be committed by Jews. Arab Israeli leaders of course condemned the decision as racist because it distinguishes between Jewish terrorist and Arab terrorist.
Four Arab Israelis shot dead by a soldier opposed to the closure of the Gaza Strip settlements are not victims of "terror" because their killer was Jewish, Israel's defence ministry has ruled, and so their families are not entitled to the usual compensation for life.
The ministry concluded that the law only recognises terrorism as committed by "organisations hostile to Israel" even though the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, described the killings by Private Eden Nathan Zaada, 19, as "a despicable act by a bloodthirsty terrorist."
He shot dead four people on a bus in the Arab Israeli town of Shfaram on August 4 and was then lynched by a mob.
Arab Israeli leaders have condemned the decision. Mohammed Barakeh, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament who lives in Shfaram, said: "The decision raises a strong scent of racism, which distinguishes between a Jewish terrorist and an Arab terrorist."
The defence ministry proposes to pay the families of the Shfaram victims an undisclosed lump sum instead of a lifelong monthly amount.
But Mr Barakeh says that denies the dead their recognition as victims of terrorism. He noted that Arabs who had committed individual attacks but were not members of armed organisations had still been branded by the Israeli government as terrorists.
Jewish gunman was no terrorist, Israel rules