Her husband, Qadoura Moussa, 60, the governor of this region in the northern part of the Palestinian territories, popped a blood-pressure tablet, then grabbed his rifle and headed into the night. He roamed the city for an hour or more before collapsing at a clinic. He suffered two heart attacks and was dead before dawn.
“This person is a coward,” Mrs. Moussa said of whoever fired the shots, between condolence calls Monday afternoon. “But those who sent him were trying to convey a message.”
In the week since his death, Mr. Moussa has been embraced here as a martyr to the Palestinian national struggle, his visage plastered on car windshields and building facades, behind candy kiosks and in front of protest tents. The Palestinian Authority and others close to the governor say he died battling gangs that threatened to bring chaos back to the streets of Jenin, a notorious hub of violent crime during the second intifada reborn in recent years as a model of Palestinian self-rule, cooperation with Israel and economic growth.
“It is a significant setback for the dovish wing of the Palestinian national movement as well as the American and the quartet’s attempt to keep hope afloat in these times when the ‘peace process’ is in tatters,” Prof. Mark Rosenblum, a left-leaning Queens College historian of the Middle East, said by e-mail, referring to the four Middle East peacemakers: the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Professor Rosenblum described the “Jenin model” as an important “symbol of a secure and successful de-occupation.”
Brig. Gen. Radi Assidi, commander of the security forces in the region, said people throughout the West Bank “realize that law and order started in Jenin, so any lawlessness that starts in Jenin could spread throughout the West Bank.”
Scores of Palestinians have been detained for questioning in connection with the shooting at Mr. Moussa’s home, officials said, including a number of security officers. While Jenin’s downtown vegetable market bustled with life as usual Monday afternoon, as night fell convoys of heavily armed officers rolled onto the streets and out to a village connected to the leading suspects.
“You can feel the tension and instability,” said Louy Arkawi, owner of Ombashi, a restaurant on one of Jenin’s main thoroughfares. “As a businessman, I want law and order. If there is chaos, my priority will be not to invest more in the city, but to buy weapons to defend myself.”
General Assidi traced the resurging lawlessness back about a year, to the murder of the legendary director of the Freedom Theater, an oasis for decades of so-called cultural resistance. The violence picked up over the past seven or eight months, he said, and escalated in an April confrontation in the nearby village of Bir al Basha between police officers and a man wanted for killing his cousin. The wanted man’s brother fired on the police and ended up dead, General Assidi said, and many here believe that the attack on the governor’s home was retaliation.
“Unfortunately, our leadership in Ramallah heard the bell ringing late,” General Assidi said in an interview at his headquarters here, not yet entirely rebuilt after having been destroyed during the intifada. “We informed them that some members of the security establishment have no loyalty, but nobody paid attention to our request.”
On Monday, General Assidi said, nine of his counterparts from across the West Bank met here with the authority’s top security official, part of a crackdown in which the leadership has vowed to question, arrest and try anyone connected with the attack on Mr. Moussa’s house, the Bir al Basha affair and other recent flare-ups. A new governor, Talal Dwaikat, arrived Sunday, walking the streets for an hour to proclaim his commitment to safety.
“Jenin will not be a place for the gangs,” Mr. Dwaikat told a delegation of Israeli Arab women who came from Nazareth on Monday to express condolences and meet him. “Jenin will be a place of security so we can receive you warmly.”
In an interview afterward, Mr. Dwaikat said he would prosecute every criminal in the region. “There will be no exception,” he said. “Whatever his status in the community or history, law and order is above all of us.
“I want to continue the march of Qadoura Moussa.”
Khaled Abu Aker contributed reporting.
View the original article here
“This person is a coward,” Mrs. Moussa said of whoever fired the shots, between condolence calls Monday afternoon. “But those who sent him were trying to convey a message.”
In the week since his death, Mr. Moussa has been embraced here as a martyr to the Palestinian national struggle, his visage plastered on car windshields and building facades, behind candy kiosks and in front of protest tents. The Palestinian Authority and others close to the governor say he died battling gangs that threatened to bring chaos back to the streets of Jenin, a notorious hub of violent crime during the second intifada reborn in recent years as a model of Palestinian self-rule, cooperation with Israel and economic growth.
“It is a significant setback for the dovish wing of the Palestinian national movement as well as the American and the quartet’s attempt to keep hope afloat in these times when the ‘peace process’ is in tatters,” Prof. Mark Rosenblum, a left-leaning Queens College historian of the Middle East, said by e-mail, referring to the four Middle East peacemakers: the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Professor Rosenblum described the “Jenin model” as an important “symbol of a secure and successful de-occupation.”
Brig. Gen. Radi Assidi, commander of the security forces in the region, said people throughout the West Bank “realize that law and order started in Jenin, so any lawlessness that starts in Jenin could spread throughout the West Bank.”
Scores of Palestinians have been detained for questioning in connection with the shooting at Mr. Moussa’s home, officials said, including a number of security officers. While Jenin’s downtown vegetable market bustled with life as usual Monday afternoon, as night fell convoys of heavily armed officers rolled onto the streets and out to a village connected to the leading suspects.
“You can feel the tension and instability,” said Louy Arkawi, owner of Ombashi, a restaurant on one of Jenin’s main thoroughfares. “As a businessman, I want law and order. If there is chaos, my priority will be not to invest more in the city, but to buy weapons to defend myself.”
General Assidi traced the resurging lawlessness back about a year, to the murder of the legendary director of the Freedom Theater, an oasis for decades of so-called cultural resistance. The violence picked up over the past seven or eight months, he said, and escalated in an April confrontation in the nearby village of Bir al Basha between police officers and a man wanted for killing his cousin. The wanted man’s brother fired on the police and ended up dead, General Assidi said, and many here believe that the attack on the governor’s home was retaliation.
“Unfortunately, our leadership in Ramallah heard the bell ringing late,” General Assidi said in an interview at his headquarters here, not yet entirely rebuilt after having been destroyed during the intifada. “We informed them that some members of the security establishment have no loyalty, but nobody paid attention to our request.”
On Monday, General Assidi said, nine of his counterparts from across the West Bank met here with the authority’s top security official, part of a crackdown in which the leadership has vowed to question, arrest and try anyone connected with the attack on Mr. Moussa’s house, the Bir al Basha affair and other recent flare-ups. A new governor, Talal Dwaikat, arrived Sunday, walking the streets for an hour to proclaim his commitment to safety.
“Jenin will not be a place for the gangs,” Mr. Dwaikat told a delegation of Israeli Arab women who came from Nazareth on Monday to express condolences and meet him. “Jenin will be a place of security so we can receive you warmly.”
In an interview afterward, Mr. Dwaikat said he would prosecute every criminal in the region. “There will be no exception,” he said. “Whatever his status in the community or history, law and order is above all of us.
“I want to continue the march of Qadoura Moussa.”
Khaled Abu Aker contributed reporting.
View the original article here
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