Criminals Aren't Afraid

The murder of Sharifa Abu Muammar, the 30-year-old mother of three and schoolteacher from Ramle, who was shot to death on Monday night in her home, is a badge of dishonor to Israel’s police, who have lost all control over crime in Arab communities and over the possession of illegal arms there.

Police special forces on Sunday raided an Arab neighborhood in the town of Ramle where the three men shot to death the previous day had lived. The raid by dozens of police officers started when gunshots hit a patrol car in the neighborhood, Jawarish. As the forces entered the area, some residents threw stones at them; the police then hurled stun grenades into people’s yards and ordered the residents to stay indoors.

A four-year-old Palestinian girl who was hit in the head with a bullet several days ago died at Hadassah University Hospital on Monday, according to a press release. Police suspected the shot that hit Rafif Mohammed Karain was fired over the separation wall between Jerusalem and the West Bank on May 21. Last week, Palestinian sources in Isawiyah said they doubt the police's line of investigation, as the family lives near the center of the neighborhood, relatively far from the wall.