Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat approved executions by firing squad for two men accused of collaborating with Israel in killings of Palestinians. “Majdi Makawi, 28, and Alam Bani Odeh, 25, will face the firing squads on Saturday,” justice Minister Farah Abu-Maddien said, ruling out possibility of clemency. “We are not giving mercy for anyone who sells his homeland and collaborates with Israel,” Abu-Maddien said.
A Palestinian state security court in Gaza convicted Makawi of involvement in the November 22 killing of his uncle, Jamal Abdel Razek, a commander of Arafat's fatah movement in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Razek and three other people were killed when Israeli soldiers opened fire on their two cars at a military checkpoint. The army confirmed seeking out and killing the militia co-mmander, and said that the other three people killed were members of the Tan Zim militia tied to Fatah. Razek was a nephew of a Palestinian cabinet minister. Bani Odeh was convicted by a court in Nablus in a November 23 car bombing that killed his cousin, Palestinian bomb-maker Ibrahim Bani Odeh. Palestinian police investigators say Israeli agents planted a bomb in the car's headrest with the help of Alam Bani Odeh. Palestinians say that Israeli forces are singling out and killing men suspected of being leaders of a three-month-old Palestinian uprising. “About a dozen local leaders have been killed in the past eight weeks,” Palestinians say. “Time is limited for other collaborators still working with Israel,” Abu-Maddien said. “But they still have time to become good people before they face the same circumstances as these two men.” The Palestinian authority has carried out the death penalty comparatively rarely since its formation in 1994. The two men are believed to be the first to be condemned as collaborators. Bureau Report