Who Burned My Car

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Unknown persons (I know who they are, and I have handed their names to the concerned authorities) set fire to my car, which was parked inside the yard of my house. They jumped over the wall of the house, poured a flammable substance (I found the cap of the bottle they used), and set it ablaze. This was on Friday, 23 January 2009, at 9:20 p.m. The car was completely burned.

A person called me by phone on 30 December 2008, identifying himself as Mahdi Marqa, a resident of Ein camp, and told me he had heard my interview with al-Aqsa Television (I had given a phone interview to al-Aqsa TV that same evening), and told me to “watch out, watch out, watch out”; he said I could consider that a threat if I wished. This is the same person who attacked my car on 14 June 2007, firing about sixty bullets at it along with those who were with him, and who had deliberately shot at the engine to make sure it was destroyed. He now works as head of security at Junaid Prison, even though the Fayyad government had announced that it was pursuing and punishing those who assaulted people and their property. The Palestinian police found near the car a mask similar to the one sometimes worn by members of the Palestinian security services.

On 23 January 2009 I gave an interview to Al-Quds Satellite Channel, in which the discussion revolved around Hamas’s strategy in the coming phase. I finished the interview at 8:00 p.m. and headed back home.

Ultimately responsible for the burning of the car is Dr. Salam Fayyad and his government. This government is responsible for the Palestinian security services and for the security of citizens — at least, that is what it claims. This government is responsible for finding the perpetrators, and it is responsible for covering all the material and moral damages that have befallen me and my family. Nor should I forget to mention here that an officer in one of the Palestinian security services sent someone to burn my car back in 2005, because I had published an article about arrests carried out against members of Islamic Jihad in which his name appeared as one of those who carried out the arrests.

Note also that the Ma’an News Agency published a statement from a fictitious “brigade,” claiming to be the “Gaza Martyrs’ Brigades,” which claimed responsibility for the car-burning operation. The agency kept this statement at the top of its front page for several hours, and after I sent a response, my reply — merged in with the statement in terms of priority — quickly disappeared from the front page.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “من أحرق سيارتي” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.