Family feud - Gaza style

Hatred clearly runs strongly in Gaza. How’s this for a family feud? 29 dead, 60 wounded, plus homes and businesses burnt down. And its still not finished!

This feud is between the al-Masri’s and the Abu Taha’s. It started in 2005 when one of the former stopped at a roadside stall to buy a mango. The stallholder didn’t have change for $5, so the buyer did what most normal people would do - shot and killed the him.

“We want to kill one more to be equal,” a member of the Abu Taha clan told a researcher for International Crisis Group. But then the toll moved to 10 Abu Taha and 11 Masris dead - and the Masris vowed revenge.

Those Masri’s are an argumentative lot. In 2006 they went to war with another clan because one of the Masris, while driving a donkey-cart, collided with a car driven by a member of the equally powerful Kafarneh clan. 6 people were killed as neighbours who had lived side-by-side for decades turned guns on each other in the name of clan honour. Houses were sand-bagged and women who had married across clan lines on both sides were locked up while hundreds of gunmen fought it out for two months. The ongoing feud prompted the Masris to erect a four-metre-high wall around their enclave in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

They are fighting on other fronts too, vowing to kill members of the Dughmush clan. Plus they are at loggerheads with Hamas, the political party/terrorist organisation that now controls Gaza. A clan leader said it needed to avenge the death of three of its fighters during the Hamas takeover, and said “the vendetta remains outstanding”.

Happy families they are not!

Technorati Tags: Gaza, Masri, Abu Taha, Kafarneh, Dughmush, clans, Hamas, Palestine

Suck shit fatboy

An inmate in the US is claiming he’s too fat to be executed, because the executioners would have trouble finding his veins and that the drugs used would be reduced in effectiveness due to his weight.

Richard Cooey, 41, is sentenced to die in the US state of Ohio for raping and murdering two young women in 1986. His execution is scheduled for October 14. Cooey is 170 cm tall and weighs 121 kg.

Tough shit, fatboy. My advice to the prison authorities is put him on a starvation diet, say no food for a month or so. Then when he reaches goal weight, strap him down and needle him.

Technorati Tags: Richard Cooey, death penalty, capital punishment, obesity