1-Mar-13: Epilogue to yet another in a long series of acts of savagery

Raya Yaron, an official from Machsom Watch, an Israeli group that
offers comfort, comforts the mother of Hakim Awad, Nawef, who was still in the
post-murder, denial stage when the photo was snapped.
But then she got over it and stopped denying (see below) [Image Source]

Many Israelis, but almost no one else in the world, remember the name Fogel and shudder at the memory of a sleeping family decimated by a March 2011 assault by terrorists who attacked and murdered in their own home a young mother and father and three of their children including a newborn baby girl only four months old. 

There's an epilogue to the horrifying story in today's news.

To refresh our memory of the facts, here are two of our earlier posts:

• 19-Apr-11: What happened that awful Sabbath night in Itamar?
• 16-Jan-12: Smiling baby-slashers, men who hide bombs in their clothing and bags, and reporters confused between facts and their own prejudices

The barbaric career of two young Palestinian Arabs who executed the massacre of the young Fogel family in their home in the community of Itamar on a quiet Sabbath night is on hold, at least for the present.  

Now look at what others in their environment contributed to the ghastly series of events. There has been (as far as we can tell) absolutely zero coverage of these latest developments in the mainstream news channels. So we rely for the facts on Israel National News and a piece published there yesterday: "Three PA Arabs have been sentenced to prison for aiding the murderers of the Fogel family". 

The main perpetrators are Hakim Maazan Niad Awad and Amjad Mahmud Fauzi Awad. They confessed, declined to express even one word of regret, and on conviction were sent away to serve five life terms each for the brutal slashing murders of the family.

Three additional clansmen of the Awad brothers have now been tried and convicted of involvement in the terrorist attack.

• Salah Awad hid the two blood-drenched killers in his home on the night the Fogels were massacred. They confessed everything to him. He concealed the murder weapons in his home, provided them with a change of clothing to assist their escape, and on hearing that the police were looking for evidence, moved the weapons to a different location. For being an accessory after the fact, he was sentenced yesterday to seven years in prison.
• Hassan Awad helped the brothers find hiding places after they fled the scene. Sentence: 23 months in prison, and a fine. 
• Yazid Awad, knowing of the murders and of the Awad brothers' role, gave them what the report calls “material assistance.” Sentence: four years in prison.

The Awad clan makes up about half the population of Awarta, a village of 5,700 people in the Samaria district.

How do Palestinian Arabs feel about a massacre of Jews, including a four-month old Jewish baby girl, in their homes, in their beds? It's not a rhetorical question. An opinion poll conducted by a respected research institute asked them within days of the massacre. One third of respondents [source] supported the barbaric act. Reminder: these are our neighbours.

You will find it difficult to locate even a single media reference, outside of the usual pro-Israel sources, that documents the widespread support among Palestinian Arabs for grotesque acts like the Itamar murders. Instead, again and again, we see quiet reveries in terrorism-friendly media channels in which an opposing, and mostly bogus, narrative is described. This one for instance, written some days after the March 2011 murders:

The savagery and brutality of the killings have shocked Palestinians, including fighters from the various resistance groups, and angered Israelis. There appears to be consensus on the moral heinousness of the act.

Mrs Nawef Awad of Awarta is the mother
of a confessed murderer.  Sometimes she is sure he was forced to
confess. But sometimes she's very proud
of the blood on his hands. [Image Source]

Some consensus. We did some research into the past activities of the Awads, and wrote about them here: "2-Apr-12: When you march for the rights of prisoners, what does it mean for the rights of their past and future victims?". We wrote that 

Hakim Awad's mother, Nawef, claimed that her son was at home the night of the murder and never left the house, claiming that "five months ago Hakim underwent a surgery in his stomach and I'm sure he was tortured and forced into confessing."  

But then (as Wikipedia points out) in January 2012, 

Palestinian Authority television aired an interview with the mother and aunt of Hakim Awad, who praised him as "a hero" and "a legend"... Nawef, who had previously denied her son's involvement, now proudly admitted it.

We have said this before. The many who stand in solidarity with the perpetrators of cold-blooded acts of savagery like the one described here need to be asking themselves how to deal with those expressions of pride and satisfaction. If the practitioners of terrorism and those who nourish, nurture and support them are barbarians, what does that make their advocates?