How do you punish murderers?

The news of the murder of the three kids is horrific. No qualifications, no rationalizations, nothing. The murder of children is one of the most horrific things imaginable. I found myself staring again at the pictures of the three boys, Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, and all of them look like such sweet kids. That place in my stomach that twists when I allow myself, force myself or enable myself to internalize even a bit of the ugliness and wrongness contained within the violent deaths of others is twisting. May their memories be a blessing, and may their families find comfort. I cannot imagine what feelings of grief they must be feeling right now. I didn’t know the kids, nor do I know their families, and I feel angry.

This anger, grief and confusion lead me to a question that many are asking: How do you punish murderers?

The answer has to be something like this: You punish murderers with gentleness and justice. You avenge the deaths of children unfairly killed by doing all that is possible to prevent the deaths of more children who need not die. You force those who have killed to live with the devastating memory that they have killed. You allow space for collective grieving, for healing, for the lives of the dead to be remembered. You ask questions about what sort of things they liked to do, what music they listened to, what books they read.

You do not turn the murdered children’s holy memories into political poker chips in a sick game of ego and self-worship and viscousness. You do not speak as the so-called leaders of Israel are speaking right now, “They will pay,” snarls the Prime Minister. “Our war will grow!” screams the President. “I don’t know how many of them will be left alive” flexes the Foreign Minister. And you do not follow these false leaders in your actions, as a mob that gathered to terrorize an Arab pizza worker in Jerusalem minutes ago tried to do. Nor do you follow these false leaders in your words, as those on Facebook and Twitter who call for revenge, for death, to “make them pay” are doing. To feel pain now is real and it is right. The desire to inflict pain on others may also be real, but to act on or give voice to that desire is virulently wrong.

יהי זכרונם לברכה May their memories be a blessing.

May we all have the strength and courage not to allow their memories to be turned into a curse on the lives of others- like the young man at the pizza shop- as our “leaders” are encouraging us to do.

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For a model of forgiveness, of punishing (and gracing) a murderer with gentleness, please take the time to listen to these radio pieces in which Hector Black tells of forgiving the man who murdered his daughter.

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1

baruchdeutsch on July 3, 2014 at 16:55

On (1): conflicts are resolved either when one side is completely overrun (e.g. annihilated, deported) or through an agreement. The latter may not be equally just to both sides. When there’s resolution, violence of course subsides – at least for a while. The examples for resolved conflicts you gave were fraught with violence, till a resolutions was achieved. (e.g. Northern Ireland is littered with graves of those who paid the price before “resolving” the conflict.)

Unfortunately in the Israeli-Palestinian case, neither side is ready to resolve the conflict yet and achieve an agreement. See http://back-to-israel.com/2014/02/21/israeli-palestinian-peace-in-our-lifetime/ why I think that is unfortunately the case.Given that, I am said to say that we (both sides) will experience cycles of violence for a very long time.

On (2): I didn’t mean a “society of terrorists”. Any such generalization is untrue, unjust and unproductive. I meant that an individual may choose to forgive terrorists, however the society as a whole cannot afford taking such an approach.

On (3): I fully agree that politicians calling for revenge are irresponsible and unscrupulous. Unfortunately it is a cynical way to gain points in the “public opinion”. I hope that behind closed doors they behave much more rationally. Alas, I fear most of our politicians are too petty to know what true leadership means.

Politicians not withstanding, any society where criminals go unpunished is a vulnerable one, and will likely descend into chaos and disintegrate. This goes for criminals on either side of the national divide. If indeed the Arab boy was slain yesterday as a “revenge” – then the perpetrators must be brought promptly to justice and bare the consequences of their unlawful and frankly national damaging actions.
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Moriel Rothman-Zecher on July 3, 2014 at 14:03

Baruch,

(1) I don’t think your first question, asking “when it worked” to combat terrorists with “love and forgiveness,” is really a question about what I wrote. I am not proposing “love and forgiveness” as an overarching geopolitical strategy (in terms of geopolitical strategy, I think that there are indeed plenty of examples of ways to nonviolently combat violent opponents, ie., negotiations as in Ireland, South Africa, South America, North America).

(2) Your point about mapping the individual to a whole society would be a fair one, except that I think a statement like “a society of terrorists” (is that what you meant by “society to terrorists,” or was it not a mistype?) is a horribly wrong way to collectivize and stigmatize an entire group of people.

(3) As far as hunting the suspects and bringing them to justice, it is hard for me to say exactly what I advocate. On one hand, the reality of the occupation makes me very hesitant to advocate for a full-out manhunt in the West Bank, on the other hand, a trial in a court room would be just. I don’t have a good answer, except that I know that politicians calling for revenge as part of policy prescription is absurd and dangerous.

(4) As far as “revenge,” we agree entirely.

(5) Of course I disagree with Danny Gordis’ myopic we-are-the-only-victim framing, but that is another story.
3

baruchdeutsch on July 3, 2014 at 12:32

‘O Sancta Simplicitas’… Combating terrorists with “love and forgiveness”?! Please enlighten me: when did it ever work? I can’t think of an example, can you?

Mapping the forgiving of an individual to a criminal to a forgiving of a society to terrorists is taking things out of context. While an individual may choose “forgiveness”, the society as a whole can’t afford it.

The terrorists should be hunted and brought to justice – in a court room, not via a lynch. After all, we are a lawful state, not a group of vigilante. We should continue to track down terror cells and abolish them. Everything should be done in a rational, controlled way. With minimum collateral damage to innocent people who do not engage in terror.

Desire for “revenge” may be an individual sentiment, but should not be a guiding principle for a state.

As far as love and forgiveness – those should be left for individual choice. I suspect there will be very few takers for your offer. I believe that a sense of grief and somberness is more appropriate. See for instance: http://danielgordis.org/2014/07/03/jews/
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Yahya Alazrak on July 1, 2014 at 18:33

Thank you for this grounding post.
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joyce rosman brenner on July 1, 2014 at 09:17

I agree with your approach of seeking wisdom during this horrific emotional time…we are scared and don’t know what to do! There is too much hate in the air, how can we make genuine efforts to control the whirlwind of revenge! It makes me realize that we/the left leaning Israelis have a significant task, of balancing the hatred and actively seeking other ways of communicating. Maybe?
6

Franz-Hellmut Schuerholz on July 1, 2014 at 08:31

Seeking for a human reply to a triple murder: extremely difficult, very needed. You tried it and what you recommended could help to find a way out of the circle of bloodshed. Your most recent post “What was Abu Zagher’s favorite song?” is another step in that direction. We would like to translate both into German and publish both on our website. Could we get your authorization? .
7

Moriel Rothman-Zecher on June 30, 2014 at 21:07

Bru- I hear you, and think that what you are saying is a fair and humane thing to ask for- the logistics of it become uglier and messier, and I do not have a good answer as to what should be done, exactly, only I do know that, like you said, the search should not be an excuse for collective punishment and warmongering, as it has, in many ways, been thus far.
8

bru87 on June 30, 2014 at 20:57

mor, i mostly agree with your post: certainly that my heart is broken over these boys. and i think the call for violence is grotesque and even manipulative.
but i do want the specific people responsible for this horrific act of kidnapping and murdering gilad, naftali, and eyal found and brought into custody; not free but for being haunted by their memory of these three young people calling out their last cries.