The Assassination of Arab-Jewish peace activist, Juliano Mer.

Courtesy of our friend Andrew Sullivan and The Dish.

Friends hang a poster of Arab-Jewish actor and director Juliano Mer-Khamis outside The Almidan Theatre on April 5, 2011 in Haifa, Israel. The 52-year-old and director of the theatre was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the West Bank city of Jenin. By Uriel Sinai/Getty Images.


"I don’t understand the murder. He was a man who was totally there to deal with the things he believed in and I find it hard to understand the twisted rational of the people who did this. He was a special person, brave but crazy to do what he did," - actor Alon Abutbul, speaking of a remarkable Israeli peace activist, Juliano Mer, who was assassinated by a masked gunman at close range in Jenin. More on this horrible news at the Guardian. A reader writes from Israel:

People I know here in Israel just can’t stop crying. Juliano Mer was the Nazareth-born and bred son of an Israeli Jewish mother and an Israeli Christian Arab father, both lefty activists, and they clearly did something right because instead of losing his mind, he tried to quietly and with dignity remake the world we live in.

It’s not Libya, but it’s a bone-chilling night here too.

[we think so too. r.i.p. Mr. Mer, and thank you Mr. Sullivan]