Ahmaud Arbery’s kindred spirit: Palestinian Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif
Ahmaud Arbery, killed in 2020 in Georgia, and Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif, killed in 2016 in Palestine.
by Kathryn Shihadah
The story of Ahmaud Arbery, the black jogger gunned down in Georgia in February, has shocked and grieved many Americans. Subsequent developments have highlighted the deep racism in our country and its government.
Some recognize the incident as part of a centuries-old pattern; others view it as a tragic but isolated event. Some regard the death of Arbery as a horrific act, while others believe the real travesty was the arrest of his killers.
The case of Ahmaud Arbery – a young, black man killed unnecessarily by an armed white man – bears a strong resemblance to another case in another country. Hopefully, justice for Arbery, be upheld, not made a mockery of.
But as America is more often than not in lockstep with Israel, the odds are not in Arbery’s favor.
Armed and dangerous
Ahmaud Arbery was, according to his family, an avid runner and a familiar face in Satilla Shores outside Brunswick GA. To the shooters – one of whom is a former police officer – however, he was not a jogger but “a black man running down the street.”
Gregory McMichael and his son Travis claim they suspected Arbery was behind several recent break-ins in the neighborhood, so they grabbed guns, jumped in their pickup truck, and began following him. They assert that they shouted at him to stop; when he did not, they overtook him in their truck and confronted him with a shotgun. A friend of the shooters filmed the incident, which shows that a struggle ensued and Arbery was fatally shot.
A 2016 story involving an Israeli and a Palestinian is eerily similar. There were two young male Palestinian victims that day: Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif and Ramzi Al-Qasrawi. Al-Sharif’s death is better known, since it was, like Arbery’s, caught on video. His killer was Elor Azaria, an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldier and medic.
Israeli soldiers at the Shuhada Street checkpoint in Hebron. ((MEE/Julie Pronier))
The victims and the shooter lived in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, where Israelis – who live there illegally – are known for their extremism. On a good day, Israeli law enforcement turns a blind eye to aggression against Palestinians; on a bad day, Israelis are aided and abetted by their police.
Israel forbids any official Palestinian supervision in the city, and not long ago expelled the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) – a group that for 22 years had monitored Israel’s ongoing human rights violations in the city.
At the time of al-Sharif’s death, he – like Ahmaud Arbery – posed no threat to the shooter or anyone else. Minutes earlier, the Palestinian had allegedly attempted to stab Israeli soldiers. Al-Sharif had been severely injured and immobilized. He lay on the pavement for eleven minutes, barely moving.
Then a fully armed Elor Azaria then walked to within six feet of Al-Sharif, raised his assault rifle, and shot Al-Sharif in the head.
The shooters in both instances claimed they were justified in using deadly force; Arbery and Al-Sharif were powerless against them.
Rationalizations
Both Arbery’s and Al-Sharif’s killers felt vindicated in their actions, and they weren’t the first.
The McMichaels’ claimed that they suspected Ahmaud Arbery of burglaries, but no such incident had been reported in the area in almost two months, and the shooters offered no evidence to back up their allegation.
Interestingly, shortly before George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin in 2011, he told a 911 operator, “Hey, we’ve had some break-ins in my neighborhood and there’s a real suspicious guy…” Zimmerman was found not guilty. (To be clear, even if Martin and Arbery had burglarized homes, our laws require a presumption of innocence, and a felony does not call for the death sentence.)
When Arbery’s jogging route took him past the McMichaels’ pickup, Travis McMichaels confronted the unarmed Arbery, and Arbery resisted – a moment that Gregory McMichael characterized as a “violent” attack on his armed son. According to their story, Travis then killed Arbery in “self-defense.”
When police arrived, Travis McMichael had blood on his hands; his father explained that Travis had rolled Arbery’s body over, checking for a gun (there was none, nor was there reason to suspect one).
Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George E. Barnhill (who later recused himself from the case) hinted in a memo that Arbery may have pulled the trigger (twice), actually killing himself, rendering McMichael more of an innocent bystander.
(left) Palestinian Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif lies immobile on the ground as Elor Azaria approaches to shoot him in the head; (right) Ahmaud Arbery tries to run from Travis McMichael, who has just shot him in the abdomen.
In the Israeli parallel, Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif was at most barely conscious. Nevertheless, according to a leaked IDF report, Azaria said, “He’s a terrorist, he needs to die.” In the next moment, Al-Sharif did die.
Azaria later changed his story, claiming that he feared the Palestinian still posed a danger – an excuse so flimsy that even the Israeli military court dismissed it. (Israel’s military court has an almost 100% conviction rate for Palestinians, but only 6% for Israeli soldiers, and under 2% for Israeli civilians.)
The shooters in both the Arbery and Al-Sharif cases appeared to have a high level of confidence in their right to kill, in lands where they are unlikely to be held accountable for doing so.
Low expectations
According to a lawyer for the Arbery family, the majority of the mostly-white community supported the McMichaels. He added, “that doesn’t bode well for a fair trial.”
Similarly, when Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif was killed, Israelis in Hebron and throughout Israel were vocal in support of him. At one rally reportedly attended by 5,000, Israelis chanted, “Elor the hero” and “death to Arabs.”
Palestinians expressed concern that in this atmosphere of support for Azaria, it was unlikely that justice would be served for Al-Sharif.
A bureaucracy stacked against Arbery and Al-Sharif
Local police forces throughout the US – and Israel – have a history of discrimination, which can be blatant or subtle. Georgia has its share, including a police officer who was recorded during a traffic stop telling a white woman not to worry because the police “only kill black people.”
Glynn County, GA – where Ahmaud Arbery died – has an especially checkered past.
Lee Merritt, a lawyer representing Arbery’s family summarized Brunswick, Georgia as “small city deeply entrenched in nepotism and cronyism” where white people know “law enforcement has their back.”
Indeed, authorities in the Arbery case refused at first to charge the McMichaels: George Barnhill, one of the prosecutors initially assigned to the case assumed innocence on the part of the killers when he stated, “It appears it was their intent to stop and hold this criminal suspect until law enforcement arrived.”
Speaking about the video, Barnhill also discussed the “fact” that Arbery “initiated the fight,” pointed to Arbery’s “apparent aggressive nature,” and declared that under Georgia law, Travis McMichael “was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself.” Barnhill neglected to acknowledge Arbery’s right to defend himself against an armed aggressor.
In Israel, racism is pervasive and often flagrant, but occasionally puts on a somewhat plausible show. Unlike the McMichaels who enjoyed two months of freedom after killing Arbery, Elor Azaria was taken into custody within hours after killing Al-Sharif.
IDF soldier Elor Azaria, charged with manslaughter in shooting death of a Palestinian in March in Hebron, in the military court in Jaffa, in April, 2016. (Credit: Moti Milrod)
Azaria was charged with murder, a charge that was quickly reduced to manslaughter, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.
He was found guilty and sentenced to a mere 18 months; the army pared it down to 14 months. Ultimately he was released after serving only nine.
here and here.) For that slap, she had been sentenced by an Israeli military court to eight months – just one month less than Azaria served for killing a man. (Read more about Ahed Tamimi’s story here.)
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have reported on the Israeli military’s record of impunity toward unlawful killings and other breaches of international law.
To recap: both the McMichaels and Israeli Elor Azaria enjoy a system in which they can kill, and then find ample support for their actions. Arbery and Al-Sharif were victims of the same system.
Support for racism in high places
When the video of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing went viral, US President Donald Trump expressed confidence in Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp, stating,
I’m sure [Governor Kemp will] do the right thing…You know, it could be something that we didn’t see on tape…But they have very good law enforcement in the state of Georgia and I’m sure they are going to come up with exactly what happened.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, President Trump, both expecting justice in the Ahmaud Arbery killing. (AP Photo/Ron Harris, Alex Brandon)
For his own part, Governor Kemp is confident that truth and justice will prevail in Georgia.” Kemp’s political accomplishments include his legendary voter suppression efforts, his push to dismantle the previous governor’s criminal justice reforms, and questionable maneuvers in the Georgia judicial system.
In spite of certainty in high places, Arbery’s viral video was deeply incriminating; the video of Al-Sharif had a similar effect.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on the defensive immediately with a blanket statement that made no attempt to disguise his partiality:
Any challenge to the morality of the IDF is outrageous and unacceptable. The soldiers…maintain high ethical values while courageously fighting against bloodthirsty murderers.
After the guilty verdict was handed down, Netanyahu again defended Azaria in a proclamation that rendered the grieving Palestinian family invisible:
I support a pardon for Elor Azaria. This is a difficult and painful day for all of us – and first and foremost for Elor and his family, for IDF soldiers, for many soldiers and for the parents of our soldiers, and me among them.
Other Israeli ministers followed suit. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz declared, “The court said its piece, the legal process is done. Now is the time for clemency, to return Elor to his home”; Minister of Education Naftali Bennett insisted, “even if he made a mistake, Elor must not serve time in jail.”
When the 18-month sentence was announced, Al-Sharif’s family released a statement:
We are not surprised, from the onset we knew this was a show trial that will not do us justice. Even though the soldier was caught on video and it is clear that this is a cold-blooded execution…[t]he sentence he received is less than a Palestinian child gets for throwing stones.
After nine months in prison, Elor Azaria returned home in Hebron to a hero’s welcome. Since his release, he has become a celebrity and lives a life of luxury. He told reporters, “I am at peace with what I did, I acted properly and followed my inner truth…I have no remorse whatsoever.”
Justice received only a nod in Al-Sharif’s case; it remains to be seen whether Arbery will fare better.
Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier charged with manslaughter after shooting a wounded Palestinian assailant in the head, is greeted as he arrives home on April 22, 2016. (Credit: AFP)
Support in low places
The McMichaels have their share of supporters in the white supremacist community, including dozens of GoFundMe pages set up to raise money (GoFundMe has since shut them down). A Facebook group – later declared a fake, created “to poke fun at racist Christians and to inflame racial tensions” – had almost 110,000 followers before it too was removed.
Elor Azaria has a broad fan base, including one Baruch Meir Marzel, former right-hand man of Rabbi Meir Kahane. The American-born rabbi founded a group – the Jewish Defense League – designated a terrorist organization by the FBI, as well as a political party in Israel that was banned because of its racist platform. (Read more about Kahane here and here.)
Marzel is the head of a movement that “glorifies Arab-killers,” and is a personal friend of Elor Azaria. Marzel was present when Azaria killed Abdel Fattah Al Sharif – in fact, after the shooting, Azaria walked over to Marzel and shook hands.
Arbery and Al-Sharif: what’s really going on?
Leaders who characterize the killing of Ahmaud Arbery as a “terrible, sad story” (President Trump) or a “perfectly legal citizen’s arrest” gone bad (Barnhill) are implying that this was an isolated, unfortunate event – but the only thing uncommon about it is the fact that it was filmed. An alarming number of black men die unchronicled by a viral video.
The killing of Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif was also treated like a one-off. One Israeli investigator explained away Elor Azaria’s violence by suggesting that a “twisted ideology” made him a mentally unbalanced or brainwashed individual. This explanation fails to acknowledge the indoctrination of nearly all Israelis in a mindset of superiority, and Israeli soldiers in a mentality that exhalts violence against Palestinians.
Palestinians run for cover from tear gas during clashes with Israeli security forces near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip, east of Jabalia on May 14, 2018. ((PhotMOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images))
Israel has been the subject of many legitimate accusations of war crimes (including killing children), crimes against humanity (including apartheid), and has broken international law thousands of times.
But the country’s official response – echoed by the United States – is not to change its ways, but to denounce critics as “anti-Israel” or “politicizing.”
Azaria ended up behind bars, some analysts conclude, in a token move to show the world that Israel takes war crimes seriously. He stayed behind bars for nine months because Israel doesn’t really take war crimes seriously.
After Arbery’s death went public, some speculated that if Arbery and his father had killed a white jogger, the outcome would have been vastly different. The same can be said about Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif: Palestinians are killed with little thought by Israeli soldiers every day.
Sadly, Abdel Fattah Al-Sharif’s death had little meaning because Israel refused to learn from it – the investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s death bring a more significant change in these United States.
A roadside memorial to the twenty-five-year-old Ahmaud Arbery where he was shot and killed while going for a run in Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23rd. Photograph by Erik S. Lesser / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock