4 victims of Jewish extremist attack buried

SHFARAM, Israel -- If Michel Bahouth worried at all, it was about the Palestinian suicide bombers who for years have targeted Israeli buses in his area.

The 55-year-old bus driver shot dead by a Jewish extremist Thursday would never have guessed that danger lurked in the guise of an Israeli soldier wearing a skullcap and carrying an army-issued automatic rifle, his friends and family said yesterday.

Bahouth and three other residents of this Arab town in northern Israel were buried yesterday in large but orderly ceremonies a day after they were killed in an attack meant to disrupt Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank later this month. An angry mob beat the shooter to death when he stopped to change clips in his gun.

Though Sharon vowed to carry on with the plan, the shooting underscored the potential for extremists to sew turmoil in the run-up to the withdrawal. Islamic Hamas announced it would seek retribution for the attack, and police raised the alert level in the country a notch.

The attack also highlighted the complex relationship Israeli Arabs must constantly manage with their own country on the one hand, and with the people with whom they share a kinship -- Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza -- on the other.

''Every bus driver here lives in fear [of suicide bombers], but they usually feel safe in the villages," said Samer Nachly, a businessman in Shfaram and a friend of the Bahouth family. He said Bahouth was supposed to have the day off, but volunteered for a colleague's shift to earn extra money.

Elsewhere in the country, police arrested three young men suspected of knowing in advance about the attack. In the shooter's hometown, Rishon Letzion, the mayor refused to allow his burial, describing him as a disgrace to residents.

Eden Natan-Zada, a 19-year-old army deserter, boarded the bus near Haifa and opened fire minutes after it reached Shfaram.

His parents said yesterday that he had been living at Tapuach, one of the most extreme West Bank settlements, since skipping out on the army less than two months ago to avoid taking part in the evacuation of Jewish settlements, starting Aug. 17. They said they had pressed the army to find him and confiscate his gun.

''I blame the army for this," his mother, Dvora Natan-Zada, told reporters at the family home. She and her husband asked authorities to explain why police failed to protect their son from Shfaram residents after the attack, she said.

The army announced it would investigate how Natan-Zada managed to desert with his gun and why military police had not tracked him down at Tapuach. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, meanwhile, said Natan-Zada would not be accorded a military funeral because ''he was not worthy."

With no immediate solution for the burial, Natan-Zada's body remained in a Tel Aviv morgue.

''I asked for the body, but they said no, it belongs to the state," said Yitzhak Natan-Zada, the assailant's father. ''The state won't bury him, but they won't let me take him and bury him."

At the site of the attack, residents assembled a makeshift memorial yesterday from pieces of the bus -- metal window frames, rubber siding, and glass shards -- and from victims' shoes, including a pair of well-worn, high-heeled sandals. Melted wax from candles covered a square of the pavement, along with wreathes inscribed with the names of the victims -- two Muslim sisters, Hazar and Dina Turki, and two Christian men, Bahouth and Nader Khayek.

Thousands of residents marched in a funeral procession for the sisters. Both university students, they were sitting behind the driver when Natan-Zada opened fire. Some of the mourners chanted nationalist slogans at the procession but most marched quietly, meandering through the Muslim section of town amid occasional olive and date trees and under a blistering sun.

Just over half of Shfaram's residents are Muslim, but about one-third are Christian and 15 percent are Druze. Tensions occasionally flare between the communities. Druze men usually serve in the Israeli army and are seen as more closely allied with Israel's Jewish majority. Many Muslims have become active in Israel's growing Islamic movement. But the funerals yesterday drew representatives from each of the communities.

''It's not an easy life," said Nachly, reflecting on the condition of Christian Israeli Arabs. ''For an Israeli, you're not Israeli enough and for Arabs, you're not Arab enough."

He said Bahouth, a father of four, had been active in the Christian community and attended church regularly. ''He felt so Israeli and so much a part of his community."

Pharmacist Nazi Khayek, whose brother was the fourth victim in the attack, said he never expected such violence in Shfaram. Nader Khayek, who owned a grocery store in the town, was returning home from shopping in the northern port city of Haifa.

Nazi Khayek said he hoped Israel would deal with the attack in the same manner it doles out justice to Palestinian militants.

''People [on the Palestinian side] who carry out attacks, their homes are demolished. I'm waiting to see the same thing happen to the family of this guy."