AL QUDS, Sept 1: Government prejudice and police incompetence lay at the heart of events which led to the deaths of 13 Arab Israelis killed during protests in support of the Palestinian uprising three years ago, an official inquiry found on Monday.

The long-awaited findings of the Orr Commission also criticised former Labour prime minister Ehud Barak for failing to show sufficient awareness about the Arab sector “which created the possibility of widespread riots breaking out”.

As well as criticising several senior police officials, the report recommended that former interior security minister Shlomo Ben Ami never again hold any public security post.

But the report failed to satisfy families of victims who said that the people who were responsible for the “murders” had evaded justice.

“The events were the results of deep-seated factors which created the combustible atmosphere among the Israeli Arabs,” the report said. “The state and its various governments failed in dealing with in a thorough and comprehensive way the problems of the existence of a large minority within the Jewish majority.

“The government treatment of the Arab sector was characterized by prejudice and neglect.”

The report said that the state had failed to “budget resources on an equal basis to the (Arab) sector (and) ... did not do enough to promote equality in the Arab sector and did not act to uproot the phenomenon of discrimination”.

“At the same time, not enough was done to enforce the rule of law in the Arab sector.”

Arabs make up almost one fifth of the Israeli population.

The report also accused police of displaying an attitude of “prior hostility” towards the protestors and having no idea of how to deal with riots.

Lethal weapons, particularly live fire and rubber bullets should never have been used, except in specific conditions where life was in danger, it said. In most incidents where life was lost that was not the case, the report added.

“The committee determined that it is important that it be pointed out in a completely non-ambiguous way that the use of live fire, including live fire by snipers, is not a means of dispersing large crowds by police.”

The Orr Commission was set up in the wake of widespread anger over the protests which came just a month after the start of the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, in September 2000.

The report failed to satisfy families who said that it did not bring closure to their grief.

“The last three years have been filled with unending pain and sadness,” said Hassan Aasla, whose 17-year-old son was among those gunned down by Israeli police.

“We asked that the committee investigate the murder of 13 citizens of this country, but we asked in vain.”

“Those who killed our sons will pay for what they did, under local or international law. We demand that all those responsible, from the lowest to the highest, be brought to justice.”

Harsh criticism of the commission’s findings was also expressed by Arab Israeli MP Azmi Bishara, who was himself singled out in the report for “incitement”.

Thirteen citizens were killed and the police did not investigate even one suspect, Bishara said, criticising the fact there was no recommendation to bring any of the culprits justice

“As citizens of this country we have the right to go and demonstrate and express solidarity with people under occupation without getting shot and killed.

“The problem is how the police force in this country deals with this as if it were an act of war,” he said.—AFP