The Druze residents of Dalyat el Karmel village are demanding revenge for the mutilation murder of one of their number, 27-year-old Hassan Abou Hammed, whose decapitated body was found near his tractor on a remote slope of Mt. Hermon in the Golan Heights ten days ago. The murder was attributed to terrorists from Lebanon. The cries for revenge came at a town meeting last night which was attended by Deputy Premier Yigal Allon. The victim’s head was taken away by his killers. According to Druze custom, a decapitated corpse cannot be buried. Allon said, “The blood of every man who falls on the borders–soldiers, border policemen, settlers or workers–is dear to us. Our enemies will pay heavily for its shedding.” He said that “only barbarians who have lost their human image were capable of such a brutal murder and mutilation of a dead man’s body.” Allon called on Lebanese authorities to “perform a last act of grace to the dead man” by seeing to it that the head is returned for burial with the body. Turning to young Druze soldiers who wanted to cross the border to bring “ten heads for the head of Abou Hammed,” Allon said, “This is not our way. It must not be your way. We shall not permit killing for the sake of killing of even our greatest enemies.”
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