Ariel Sharon during Yom Kippur War
Ariel Sharon during Yom Kippur WarFlash 90

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz on Monday slammed Jabril Rajoub, a senior Palestinian Authority official, for calling the late Ariel Sharon a “war criminal.” If Sharon was a war criminal, said Katz, Rajoub was “a subhuman with blood on his hands.”

Rajoub made the comments Sunday in several interviews, including with Israeli media. In the interviews, he said that he regretted that Sharon had never been tried in international courts for what he termed his many “crimes” against Palestinians, and especially for what he claimed was an attempt on the life of arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat.

Speaking on his way to Monday morning's memorial service for Sharon, Katz said “when I hear a subhuman like Jibril Rajoub, whose hands are awash in Jewish blood, celebrating the death of Ariel Sharon and calling him a murderer, and when I see the joy in the Arab street over his death, I say that we are all Sharon today.”

On Sunday, Arab MK Jamal Zahalka said that Sharon should be put on trial posthumously – to make an example out of him. Writing on his Facebook page, Zahalka said that “Sharon's biological death reminds us that war criminals should be tried before international courts. If, as in Sharon's case, this is no longer possible, he should be put on trial anyway, even if he is not present, and indicted for crimes against humanity. This should be done in order to strip Zionism naked and show the world its sins. Sharon was one of Zionism's greatest spokespeople.”

Sharon's “criminal” career, said Zahalka, stretches back to the 1950s, when he set up a special combat unit to deal with cross-border terror attacks from Jordan and Egypt, known as Unit 101.

“Sharon was responsible for many massacres, especially in Lebanon in 1002, and for the murder of Egyptian prisoners of war in 1967.” He was also responsible for the deaths of terrorists in Jenin, and for the elimination of top Hamas terrorist Ahmad Yassin.

Adding to the list of accusations, Zahalka also claimed Sharon was responsible for the death of Yasser Arafat. Despite numerous scientific studies concluding that the former PA chairman died of natural causes, conspiracy theories blaming an Israeli "assassination" for his death continue to be widely entertained in the Arab world.