is caught out murdering another civilian(s).
‘We are conducting an investigation.’
It is Mark Regev’s explanation when he has run out of any other excuse. When, as with the case of the 4 boys who were mowed down by a fire from an Israeli airplane whilst running on a Gaza beach, the excuse was that it was ‘a tragic accident’.
itself it exonerates itself without exception.
That is why it is the ‘most moral army’ conducting the ‘most moral
occupation’ in the history of the world.
Every act of murder is justified.
particularly horrific in Hebron last year.
An 18 year old student, Israeli army personnel barked orders at her in a
language she didn’t understand. She was
clearly frightened and paralysed before she was gunned down. No one has ever been charged, still less
convicted of her murder.
See
Israelis rally around soldier filmed executing injured Palestinian
 |
| Elor Azarya, seen in an image posted on his Facebook page, has been named as the suspect in the apparent extrajudicial execution of Yusri al-Sharif in Hebron on 24 March. |
al-Hashlamoun, 18, in occupied territory goes unmentioned in J Street statement
lamenting violence
 |
| The murder of Hadeel Hashlamoun |
responded angrily to the congressional letter, and Sen. Patrick Leahy has
defended it. See below.
horrifying killing of 18-year-old Hadeel al-Hashlamoun at an Israeli checkpoint
in occupied Hebron last September has at last become a public issue in the U.S.
Vermont Senator
Patrick Leahy has called on the State Department to determine whether the
killing, and several other Israeli “extrajudicial killings,” violated the Leahy
law against military assistance to gross human rights violators. The letter to
John Kerry cites Egypt along with Israel, and is signed by ten members of
Congress along with Leahy. They include Raul Grijalva, Eleanor Holmes Norton,
Chellie Pingree, Eddie Beatrice Johnson, Sam Farr, Jim McGovern, Jim McDermott,
and Andre Carson.
has published
the letter. It includes these crucial passages:
have been a disturbing number of reports of possible gross violations of human
rights by security forces in Israel and Egypt — incidents that may have
involved recipients, or potential recipients, of U.S. military assistance. We
urge you to determine if these reports are credible and inform us of your
findings:
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have reported what
may be extrajudicial killings by the Israeli military and police of Fadi
Alloun, Saad Al-Atrash, Hadeel Hashlamoun, and Mutaz Ewisa. There are also
reports of the use of torture in the cases of Wasim Marouf and Ahmed Manasra.
Hashlamoun’s killing was of course the most dramatic and appalling Israeli
killing last year because it was so
amply documented and the pictures were so graphic, and it took place on
September 22 before the so-called intifada of knives had begun in earnest.
is a report
on the Fadi Alloun killing by police, near Damascus Gate last October, as
Alloun was being chased by a mob, after allegedly stabbing a settler in East
Jerusalem.
is a report from EI
on the killing of Saad Atrash, 19, in Hebron last October.
would note that many of the signatories, including Hank Johnson, Andre Carson,
Eddie Bernice Johnson, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Raul Grijalva, are people of
color; this is relevant because as Tamara
Cofman Wittes said at Columbia Monday night, Israel support is slowly
becoming politicized in the U.S. as the Democratic base becomes more heavily
black and Latino, groups that have sympathy for the Palestinian cause. And all
the signatories to this letter are Democrats.
letter’s real impact may be political: Israel’s unusual, if not unprecedented
inclusion with Egypt on such an inquiry is likely to rile Israel’s allies in
Washington, who bristle at the notion that the Middle East’s only established
democracy could be lumped in with a notorious human rights abuser like Egypt.
it was sent to Kerry well beforehand, the timing of the letter’s release comes
just days after an Israeli soldier was filmed executing a Palestinian prisoner
at close range – setting off fury in the Arab world and launching a military
disciplinary process that has many on the Israeli right fuming.
The Netanyahu government is enraged by the letter.
Netanyahu’s response to US @SenatorLeahy:
IDF & police defend innocent civilians against bloodthirsty terrorists. pic.twitter.com/5QYblbGHE4
Ofir Gendelman (@ofirgendelman) March 30,
2016
Leahy has
responded strongly:
Prime Minister of Israel knows – and it should go without saying – that the
United States does not provide weapons or other aid to Hamas or any other
terrorist group, and that no nation more strongly condemns and works to
eradicate terrorism worldwide than does the United States. There are
multiple laws prohibiting such aid to Hamas and other such groups, and one
reason Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid is to help defend
against terrorist attacks.
congressional letter cites allegations of possible serious abuses, identified
by respected international human rights organizations, by the military and
police forces of Egypt and Israel. Under the Leahy Law it is the
responsibility of the State Department to evaluate the credibility of such
allegations. The Leahy Law, which has existed for nearly 20 years,
applies uniformly, worldwide – no country is exempt – and it applies to
specific military personnel and units, not to general security forces, when
U.S. aid is involved. It has led to the suspension of U.S. aid to
military personnel and units found to have committed abuses in many countries
when governments fail to punish those responsible, and only when those
governments themselves have failed to act. This is only fair to U.S.
taxpayers, and it is necessary in upholding the rule of law that our country
stands for.”
Israelis rally around soldier filmed executing injured Palestinian
A new video shows an Israeli soldier shaking hands with a settler leader just
after the soldier was filmed apparently executing an injured Palestinian in the
occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
The video has emerged as Israelis, including top leaders, are rallying
around the accused killer.
Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif was
shot dead along with Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, both of them 21 years old,
after allegedly stabbing and moderately wounding a soldier in the Tel Rumeida
neighborhood of Hebron’s Old City on Thursday.
The slaying of al-Sharif, who was lying on the ground incapacitated but
moving his head before he was shot, was caught on video.
The new video shows the shooter “shaking hands with far-right activist
Baruch Marzel” while al-Sharif’s body is removed from the scene, according to Haaretz.
The US-born Marzel,
a former leader of the violent group Kach, is notorious for fomenting attacks
on Palestinians.
Kach was outlawed by Israel after one of its members, the US-born medical
doctor Baruch Goldstein, gunned down 29 Palestinians at Hebron’s Ibrahimi
mosque in 1994.
The video provides visible evidence of the close relationship between the
Israeli army and the violent settlers it supports and protects.
Shooter named
Haaretz says the new video, published on its
YouTube account with the face of the gunman blurred, was filmed by a
Palestinian fieldworker with B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group which released
the video showing the execution on Thursday.
The blurring of the faces in the new video is in apparent deference to a gag
order that prevents Israeli media from revealing the suspect’s identity.
However, blogger Richard Silverstein, who has frequently published
information censored by Israeli authorities, has named
the suspect as Elor Azarya, citing independent Israeli websites.
Israel’s Ynet news website effectively confirmed the identification
by publishing
an image of the suspect with his face blurred.
The same image, without the blurring, appears
on Azarya’s Facebook page.
“He is a devoted follower of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer club,” noted
Silverstein, based on analysis of Azarya’s social media accounts. Azarya has
also written “Kahane was right” on his Facebook page – a slogan used by
supporters of late Kach founder Meir Kahane, who called for the total expulsion
of Palestinians.
Beitar
Jerusalem fans are notorious for taking part in mobs and rallies calling
for “death to the
Arabs.”
“Confirming the kill”
According to Silverstein’s analysis, Azarya, a medic, “asked permission from
his commanding officer to ‘finish off’ the wounded Palestinian.”
“Apparently the commander approved,” Silverstein added. “The soldier walked
to within six feet of the wounded Palestinian, cocked his rifle and shot him.”
This practice is known in the Israeli army as “confirming the kill,” and has
been used and
subsequently approved even in the slaying of Palestinian children such as
13-year-old Iman al-Hams in Gaza in 2004.
Azarya also “liked”
the Facebook pages of Israeli leaders who have incited
violence or genocide
against Palestinians – justice minister Ayelet Shaked and
former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman
– as well as the Facebook page of Marzel.
Public support
Israel’s political and military establishment broke out into a chorus
of condemnation immediately after the release of the video on Thursday.
The army also announced the detention of the soldier and an investigation
into the killing.
Yet the condemnations were baldly hypocritical given the long record of
Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of inciting and
approving extrajudicial executions of Palestinians.
Numerous videos have shown such killings of Palestinians who were injured,
incapacitated or otherwise posed no plausible threat.
Now Netanyahu appears to backing away from his criticism, in light of a
swell of public support for the Hebron gunman.
The prime minister told cabinet colleagues on Sunday that “questioning the
IDF’s [Israeli army’s] morality is outrageous and unacceptable … IDF soldiers,
our children, maintain a high moral standard when they deal with bloodthirsty
murderers.”
Netanyahu added that he was “certain that in this case, like in every other
case, all of the circumstances are taken into account. Thus we must all support
the IDF chief of staff, the IDF and the soldiers that protect us.”
Haaretz called Netanyahu’s
comments a “backtrack” from his initial condemnation of the shooting.
Netanyahu’s change of tune appears to be in harmony with public opinion as
well as with other politicians who are striking tougher poses
.
Naftali
Bennett, the Israeli education minister who has boasted
about his own record of killing Arabs, also offered his support to the
gunman.
“The soldier is not a murderer. Have we lost our minds?” Bennett wrote
in a Facebook post that calls Israel’s military “the most moral army in the
world.”
At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, several ministers, including Bennett and Ayelet
Shaked, voiced
support for the soldier.
Meanwhile, Avigdor Lieberman demanded the impeachment of the defense
minister for failing to back the soldier, and called Netanyahu “spineless.”
Israel’s Channel 2 published an opinion poll on Saturday showing that 57
percent of Israelis believe
there is no need to investigate or detain the
soldier, as
reported by Haaretz.
Two in five respondents called the soldier’s behavior “responsible” and just
five percent described it as murder.
A petition asking Bibi to give a
medal to the soldier who executed a Palestinian in Hebron has ~42,000
signatures.
An online petition calling on
Israel to give the soldier a medal has received almost 50,000 signatures.
The municipality of Beit Shemesh, a town in present-day Israel, even published an ad on its official website
urging citizens to attend a rally on Monday to demand the release of Azarya,
whom it called a “national hero.”
 |
| Official website of the Beit Shemesh municipality advertises rally in support of Elor Azarya, who was filmed executing an injured Palestinian at close range. |
The soldier’s family has also mounted a high-profile
campaign in defense of Azarya.
The gunman’s mother wrote an open
letter to Moshe Yaalon, the defense minister, telling him that
“you stood
in my son’s place, only in the room of Abu Jihad, and confirmed the kill of a
despicable terrorist and murderer.”
She was referring to Yaalon’s role in the 1988 slaying of Khalil al-Wazir, a
senior PLO leader who was executed
in his Tunis home by Israeli assasins, in front of his wife and son.
Mother of solider who executed Palestinian to @bogie_yaalon:
You also shot to confirm death.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army investigation into Thursday’s killing has
reportedly revealed that the shooter had told a comrade that Abd al-Fattah
Yusri al-Sharif “needs to die” shortly before he shot him.
According to Haaretz,
the “investigation also found that in contradiction to claims of self-defense
voiced by the soldier’s lawyer, there was no evidence supporting the claim
there were fears the prone Palestinian was carrying a suicide belt.”
Palestinians targeted
While Israeli leaders line up to support al-Sharif’s killer, Israeli forces
on the ground are targeting the youth’s family.
On Sunday, Israeli soldiers raided the home of Abd al-Fattah’s brother,
Khalid Yusri al-Sharif, in the village of Jabal Abu Rumman, near Hebron, the Ma’an News Agency
reported.
Imad Abu Shamsiyyeh, the B’Tselem volunteer who filmed the execution video, told
Human Rights Watch that Israeli forces threatened him both at the scene of the
shooting and later on.
Abu Shamsiyyeh was called in by the army to give a witness statement.
He says the army interrogator told him: “How will you benefit from this
video? It got a lot of publicity. Your name is known to everyone. Who is going
to protect you and your family from right-wing Israelis? Remember you live in
[Tel Rumeida], surrounded by Israeli settlers, who will be able to protect you
there?”
“I felt that I was being threatened,” Abu Shamsiyyeh said.
Impunity for war crimes
Human Rights Watch said
that “the open and casual way that a soldier appears to execute a wounded,
prone Palestinian, which was captured on video, suggests a dangerous climate of
impunity for war crimes.”
“The video of al-Sharif’s killing by an Israeli soldier shows both an
apparent cold-blooded murder and numerous witnesses, which should make for a
strong legal case,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Human Rights Watch’s Middle East
director.
“The question is whether Israeli authorities will do what they haven’t done
in countless other cases and bring the alleged killer to justice,” Whitson
added.
Given the way Israeli leaders are rallying around the gunman, there’s little
reason to expect anything different this time.
