How a dog was saved
Palestine, People, 12/2/1997

It is amazing when both the Palestinian and Israeli sides face a real negotiations crisis and can still get together and agree not on political issues but on the need to kill a dog.

The details of this funny affair were carried by a leading Hebrew daily on Tuesday which said that Israeli reserve soldiers and officers serving in a post near Jericho refused to carry out orders given to them to kill Azit, the dog of the post.

The paper said the soldiers believed the order was given because senior Palestinian officials complained to their Israeli counterparts that the dog was barking at their cars every time they passed through the Israeli checkpost. The soldiers, for their part, said the dog is accustomed to barking at mainly dark-colored cars. Palestinian officials usually drive in such vehicles. One soldier said that on one occasion a car stopped when Azit barked at it, and who got out? None other than one of the Palestinian ministers. The soldiers claimed that the Palestinian minister turned to him and demanded that the dog be killed. The policeman referred the order to one of his superiors at the post but he refused.

Two days later, the soldier at the post received an order from a senior officer to kill the dog. Again the soldier and his commanders refused to fill the order and at a certain stage, they decided to hide the dog at a nearby Jewish settlement. Said the soldier: ³I received an order from a commander of the rank of Major who serves at the DCO (District Coordination Office) at the Allenby Bridge saying the dog must be poisoned or shot. I refused and said it was not my job to do that. If he wants, he should appeal to those responsible over us in the sector. When we understood that they insisted that the dog be killed, we took her safe and sound to a nearby settlement.²

Previous Stories:
  Arab girls' flat torched again in less than 2 months   (12/1/1997)
  Israel delays French traffic lights to Jenin   (11/24/1997)
  Palestinian man killed on way back from West Jerusalem   (11/24/1997)

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