The announcement was made Wednesday night by the Justice Ministry Police Investigations Department. It is widely felt that the ministry caved in to political pressure from the Arab community, which was angered by the recent decision not to press charges against policemen for their role in the killings.
Ministry officials explained on national television last night that the decision to reopen the case was made in light of the fact that family members of the deceased planned to appeal the decision to the courts.
Officials of the Israeli Arab High Monitoring Committee expressed satisfaction over the announcement, and Arab hunger strikers in the Rose Garden outside the Knesset even called off their strike.
MK Eliezer Sandberg (Shinui) responded, "It would be advisable to devote part of the investigation to the issue of whether political motives [and/or] caving in to pressure from the Arab street and the Left lie behind this decision."
Arab MK Azmi Bishara said he has no faith in the reopened investigation. He called the Justice Ministry announcement “a public relations hype,” and said he does not think that anything will change by having the same government body evaluate the evidence again.
In a related item, the police have moved to alert status as the Israeli-Arab community prepares to commemorate five years since the riots. A number of events are scheduled in the coming days to mark the date.
The Israeli-Arab riots were concurrent with the outbreak of the Oslo War, and supplemented it. The violence involved several days of Arabs blocking off major highways; beating Jews in and out of their cars; firebombs, stonings, and arson of Israeli targets.