Negev rancher Shai Dromi is now charged with murder after having fired at four men who trespassed on his property, poisoned his guard dog (not the first such occurrence) and broke his sheep-pen locks. They were about to get away with his entire herd, in which everything he had was invested. The loss of the herd would have meant ruin.
Dromi had been robbed of his livestock in the past, and barely managed to rehabilitate his small agricultural enterprise. The fear of repeated thefts was so tangible that he had taken to spending the bitterly cold desert nights with the sheep in their pen to prevent rustlers from destroying his livelihood and life's work.
He isn't the only one. No Negev farmer is exempt from the reign of terror imposed by Bedouin gangs. The police do little, and rarely arrive even when summoned. Insurance companies will have nothing to do with the beleaguered farmers. Their only alternative is to pay exorbitant "protection" money to Bedouin "guards" to prevent them from absconding with equipment, livestock and produce. This situation, as The Jerusalem Post warned in these very columns last week, is plainly untenable.
Dromi's case was a disaster waiting to happen, as noted in that same prescient editorial on January 10 - several days before the incident at Dromi's ranch. We titled that article "The Wild South" - the prevalent appellation for the lawless Negev, where no entrepreneur, homeowner or driver is safe from Bedouin gangs.
Dromi is clearly not criminal material. He attempted to warn the rustlers away but then feared that if discovered, they'd murder him. He didn't shoot to kill, aiming at their feet. His misfortune was that one of his bullets hit Khaled al-Atrash's leg artery. Dromi desperately attempted to resuscitate Atrash, who had just been released from a four-year prison stretch for farm thefts.
Here is another article on the subject:
Shai Dromi says he regrets killing Khaled al-Atrash, 31, when he and three other Bedouin tried to rob his northern Negev farm on Saturday morning, but insists he acted in self-defense.
Dromi critically wounded a second alleged burglar, and police are searching for the other two. On Sunday, the Beersheba District Court extended his remand for four days.
"I apologize for the loss of human life, and I send my condolences to the man's family," Dromi told reporters in the courtroom. However, he insisted that he had acted to protect himself, firing at the legs of the thieves after he caught them in the middle of the latest theft of equipment and animals at the Shai ranch in the northern Negev's Yatir forest.
Dromi reportedly told police that four men arrived at his farm, poisoned a guard dog, and broke a lock on one of the sheep pens.
Dromi was distraught during his initial questioning, a detective said. Wire cutters and a snapped locked were found on the property.
Police said they were considering charging Dromi with murder, firing a weapon in a residential area, and using a rifle without a license.
This story has nothing to do with the current war against Islamist terrorism. But it has everything to do with self-defense against a good old robbery attempt. The Left and the Islamists took over this case just because the guy killed was a Muslim and an Arab. The irony of it is that he was a Bedouin. Israeli Bedouins are loyal Israeli citizens and serve in IDF. This particular guy was just a thug. What is interesting about this story is that it is indicative of political correctness run amok. Transplanted on American soil, it becomes the story of Border Patrol agents sent to jail for shooting a drug smuggler - essentially doing their job of ...protecting the border.
If we do lose this war, it will be because of stupid political correctness.
No comments:
Post a Comment