Palestinians Murder Activist For Trying To Improve Their Lives

“So you know Baha Nabata, right?”

“Yes, the activist.”

“Exactly, well you know what he is doing now?”

“What?”

“He is working with the Izzzraelis”

“Why would he betray us?”

“He wants to improve our living conditions!”

“How dare he sabotage everything we have achieved! We need to kill him!!!”

baha nabataA Palestinian activist from east Jerusalem’s Shuafat refugee camp, who was shot dead in a hail of bullets on Monday night, feared for his life for working with Israeli officials to improve living conditions in the beleaguered community, the former east Jerusalem portfolio head said on Wednesday.

Baha Nabata, 31, a well-regarded civil rights and youth-group leader, was shot seven times in the camp at approximately 11:30 PM by an assailant who fired 10 bullets at him before fleeing the scene on a motor bike, according to witnesses.

An investigation has been opened to find the killer, police said.

Former Meretz councilman Dr. Meir Margalit, who held the east Jerusalem portfolio and worked closely with Nabata to improve his community’s infrastructure, said that during their last conversation several weeks ago, the married father of two daughters said he feared for his life.

“More than once he told me that people in the refugee camp accused him of being a collaborator with Israel,” said Margalit by phone on Wednesday. “That was because in order to solve the problems in the camp, he had to be in contact with the Jerusalem Municipality, the police, Interior Ministry, and other different Israeli institutions.”

“There was no other way to address the problems in this camp without being in touch with the Israeli government,” continued Margalit, who was shaken by the news of Nabata’s violent death.

Margalit said Nabata told him on numerous occasions that he was repeatedly accused of being a traitor for his efforts.

“He was a very realistic, pragmatic guy,” he said. “He was very much involved in his community, and he really cared about the future of the young generation living in the camp.”

Margalit noted that his murder sends a clear warning to all Palestinians working with Israelis.

“It’s terrible, but I guess that the type of message to all Palestinians who work with Israel is stop doing it, or you will end up like Nabata,” he lamented.

Nabata’s numerous accomplishments included paving the camp’s roads, setting up emergency medical services for residents, and training firefighters with help from the Jerusalem Fire Department.

He also led a youth group in the adjacent Palestinian neighborhood of Ras Shehada.

This story sums up the palestinian cause so well: Ask not what you can do for your “country”, ask what you can do to score propaganda points against Israel or otherwise hurt us.

Update: Baha appeared in this BBC Panorama documentary, which seemed very biased against Israel. You can see him from 12:37 onwards.

3 thoughts on “Palestinians Murder Activist For Trying To Improve Their Lives”

  1. I’m sorry. That documentary. I barely got up to the bit where Baha is. It is so maddening. How have these people been allowed to become so far gone, such animals with not a grain of humanity? They complain about “the brutal occupation” yet every word of their drips hate and brutality. They feel that they can’t breathe, that they don’t have hope because of the barrier, yet children freely admit that their greatest hope is to become murderers and to “martyr” themselves. But the parents raising them feel no more responsible for this waste of lives, made so ugly and rotten, before they’ve had a chance to start properly, than they do for the rubbish lying in their streets. And the Jewish presenter only had sympathy for them. He videoed himself the train running through all the neighbourhoods. He said that 60% of the population are Jewish. But he referred to Palestinian neighbourhoods, not Jewish ones. And the Arabs living in the nice neighbourhoods are not happy about the train – it cuts their chest, or something On the other hand he is upset that services are not provided to the cesspool of the worst violence. I just can’t. What is this dumbfuckery? It would be funny it wasn’t so deadly serious (literally) and depressing.

  2. Norman_In_New_York

    The Shuafat refugee camp should be closed and its residents moved to permanent housing, preferably in the neighborhood, and if they refuse to leave, then they are on their own.

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