Palestinian Peace Activist killed by Israeli Missles Yesterday

[bryan at indymedia.org.il]

This was just published onto IMC-Israel's website.  I thought that it 
would be of interest to some of you here.  This is not the first time since 
the beginning of the New Intifada that a moderate has been assasinated 
by the Israeli Army under the pretext that they were a Hamas/Islamic 
Jihad/Tanzin activist...not that I would justify extra-judicial killings of this 
sort even if they were proven to have been anyone of the above 
affiliated.  
I state for knowledge purpose that the author wrote anon...which could 
be easily construed as that they were in an understandably paranoid 
state due to the present conditions, and were worried about openly using 
their name...
------------------------------------------------
Isaac Saada (1950 – 2001) 



Wednesday, July 18, 2001 



Dear Friends 



Yesterday our friend and colleague Isaac Saada from Bethlehem was 
killed by an Israeli missile fired from a helicopter. The target of the 
missile was Omar Saada, Isaac’s brother who the Israelis claim was a 
Hamas terrorist. Omar Saada was killed together with two others on the 
impact of two rockets fired from the helicopter. Isaac ran out of his 
house when he heard the explosions in his bother’s yard and was then 
killed by a third missile fired to make sure that the first two “did the job”. 
Isaac left 11 children orphaned. 



Why am I telling you this story? – it happens almost every day? Isaac 
Saada was a teacher involved in IPCRI’s Peace Education Project. Just 
one day before being killed, Isaac spoke to Nedal Jayousi, the 
Palestinian Co-Director of the Peace Education Project. Isaac asked 
Nedal how he could be more involved. Today at the same hour that he 
is being buried, Isaac was supposed to be at IPCRI participating in a 
joint seminar with Israeli teachers. Isaac had just completed with his 
Israeli and Palestinian colleagues work on a new Peace Education 
Curriculum on conflict resolution and negotiations for Israeli and 
Palestinian 11th grade classes. In fact, I have a check on my desk for 
him for the work he had done. 



I remember sitting with Isaac over lunch at a joint teachers seminar that 
took place after the intifada began. Isaac was telling me the troubles he 
was having trying to teach his own children to love and want peace. He 
talked about the terrible things that his children had witnessed over the 
past months and some of them questioned how their father could still 
work with the Israelis. He told me that he was very firm with them, 
telling them that we had to believe in peace and that peace would 
eventually come. He told them that the worst thing that could happen to 
them and to the Palestinian people would be if they filled their hearts with 
hatred. 



Isaac has been presented in the Israeli and International media reports as 
one of four Hamas terrorists killed. I am very angry at this lie. I have 
attempted to correct this falsehood with my media contacts. There was 
one short sentence in the report by Amira Haas in Haaretz today stating 
that Isaac was involved in meetings with Israeli teachers. Israeli TV 
News Channel One’s correspondent Oded Granot also indicated that 
Isaac was involved with the Israeli-Palestine Center in peace education 
activities. We want the entire world to know that Isaac was not a 
terrorist – he was a man of peace. I only hope and pray that his 11 
children will not learn the lesson of revenge – which is all too easy to 
understand. We expect and demand that the Government of Israel issue 
an apology to Isaac’s family and a recognition of the tragic error that 
was committed and that the Government of Israel recognize and 
acknowledge that Isaac was a man of peace. 



Isaac was from a poor family. He lived in a poor neighborhood of 
Bethlehem. He supported his wife and 11 children on the salary of a 
teacher in the Terra Sancta School in Bethlehem. Today there is no one 
to provide the few sheckels that he brought home each month.

Bryan Atinsky
IMC-Israel
Engish Editorial Coordinator
http://www.indymedia.org.il