Last update - 00:00 11/06/2007
Druze man urges vote against Barak over Border Policeman's death
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
A Druze man from the western Galilee has distributed a letter to Druze members of the Labor Party urging them not to vote for Ehud Barak in the party leadership race.
Haitam Abu Tarif, from the village of Yarka, said he wrote the letter because he blames Barak for the death of Border Policeman Madhat Yusuf, a close friend of his.
Madhat was shot by Palestinians at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus in 2000 and bled to death while the Palestinian Authority prevented his evacuation. Barak, prime minister at the time, elected not to send in troops in order to avoid further escalation and civilian casualties.
"Since Barak won in the first round, I haven't been sleeping at night, so I decided to do something," Abu Tarif said on Sunday.
"I, Haitam Abu Tarif, feel that my friends and I were abandoned a second time when the bitter result became known: that Barak won the support of the Druze, who didn't think of Madhat, his family and us, the fighters," he wrote in the letter.
Yusuf's family said they were aware of the letter but were not involved in distributing it.
"There's no doubt that Barak needs to be punished, but we are very concerned that they'll bring us into the political game," said Mahdi Yusuf, Madhat's brother.
Representatives from the Barak campaign's Druze headquarters said they did not think the letters would influence voters.
Riad Hamza, a leading staffer for Barak's campaign in the Druze sector, said that "for all the pain and sorrow that the incident left in our hearts," Druze voters "must be aware of the difficult situation the state is facing and search for the person best suited to lead it in the future."