Selected reactions to the findings of the Ohr Commission, released today (Monday):
President Moshe Katsav said, "I hope the report will result in the start of improved relations between Israelis - Arabs and Jews."
Minister Uzi Landau (Likud) noted that the riots had taken place at a time when the Palestinian Authority had just launched a war against Israel, and the Israeli Arab rioters were part of that hostile effort. "Chanting death to the Jews is not a protest of single mothers, or the like..." Landau told Israel Radio, "It was done hand in glove with the Palestinian Authority... [The riots] constituted assistance to the enemy."
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Michael Ratzon (Likud): The Arab community is responsible for its own situation, explaining the community is uninterested in integrating into Israeli life. The community may play a more integral role in the nation if it chooses to. Instead of Arab leaders calming the community in October, message of violence were released by community leaders.
Deputy Minister of Education, Culture, and Sport Tzvi Hendel (National Union) said that "instead of presenting police with awards for their actions during the rioting, we spat in their faces." Similarly, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Zevulun Orlev (National Religious Party) said that the government should not automatically accept the commissions report as is, pointing out the police force has been "castrated" by the report and police in the future will think twice about putting themselves on the line for the job.
While Labor Party Secretary Knesset member Ofir Pines said that it is the police department that must do some serious soul searching in light of the report. Shas party leader MK Eli Yishai questioned why Shlomo Ben-Ami was disqualified from future public office, but Ehud Barak was not. MK Yossi Sarid of Meretz also said that the ramifications of the commissions findings do not go high enough up the ladder. No one is facing criminal charges for their actions, despite the fact 13 Israelis were killed, Sarid lamented.
Expressing similar sentiments, a family member of one of the thirteen Arabs killed while taking part in the October 2000 rioting, Ibrahim Jabarin, told Israel Radio this afternoon, "We feel like we are burying our sons a second time. ...[It is] as if the political echelon is innocent, yet they are the ones that have to take direct responsibility." Adallah, an Israeli non-profit, non-governmental legal center serving Arab citizens of Israel, called the Ohr Report "a big disappointment", in that it criticized the Arab leaders and made no operative recommendations regarding Ehud Barak.