Tony Greenstein | 02 August 2017 | Post Views:

In the video above , Israeli soldiers
fire at an unarmed Palestinian youth who is then beaten with a rifle about his
head.  Clearly such incidents embarrass the
Israeli government.  So what is its
solution?  To prevent these violent armed
thugs in uniform acting this way?  No,
the Israeli government believes in attacking Israeli human rights groups like
Btselem and Breaking the Silence who publicise such matters.
Hence why Ha’aretz reported that:
Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the current law requiring some non-profit
groups to disclose funding they receive from foreign governments is too weak,
adding that he intends to push for legislation that would completely bar
Israeli non-profit organizations from receiving foreign government funds.
Naturally the cruel and vicious
occupation authorities then bar the parents from visiting their son and it
would appear physically chain the boy to his bed, all with the co-operation of
the Israeli hospital authorities.

Video:
Israeli soldier shoots and beats fleeing teen

This video shows an Israeli soldier firing at Palestinian youths who are
running away across a field. One of them, a 17-year-old boy, is hit and falls
down. The Israeli soldier then strikes the boy on the head with the barrel of a
gun as he lies on the ground, causing serious, potentially life-threatening
injuries.
The youth, identified only as D.T. by the human rights group B’Tselem, suffered a
fractured skull, bleeding inside his skull, a fractured rib and a bruised left
lung. He required surgery and a prolonged stay in hospital where he was
unconscious for five days.
B’Tselem said
that the conduct of Israeli occupation forces in this incident “is particularly
grave.”
The shooting took place on 10 March, in the occupied West Bank village
of Silwad, where
youths had earlier been responding to the incursions of Israeli occupation
forces by throwing stones.
Shot while running away
A 17-year-old Palestinian suffered serious head injuries when he was shot and beaten as he ran away from Israeli soldiers.
Video of the incident, captured by the security cameras of a local gas
station, was published this week by B’Tselem.
“A Border Police officer fired a sponge bullet at D.T., who was running
away from him and posed no danger to anyone,”
wrote B’Tselem. “Then, with D.T.
lying on the ground, wounded and helpless, the officer hit him with the barrel
of his gun, fracturing his skull and knocking him unconscious.”

Along with live
rounds designed to kill
, Israel employs a number of supposedly “less
lethal” weapons to suppress protest against its military occupation, including,
22-caliber
rifles
, rubber-coated metal bullets and foam-tipped or sponge bullets,
which are composed of an aluminum base and a dense foam nose.
But these weapons have nonetheless continued to claim
children’s eyes
and lives
and to cause permanent
disabilities
.

Parents barred from visiting
B’Tselem said that it took another 15 minutes for the occupation forces
to evacuate the boy to hospital “where he underwent head surgery” and was
treated as a dangerous prisoner, guarded round-the-clock by security personnel
who prevented his parents from going near him.”

Israeli occupation authorities only gave his parents permits to go and
see him for the first few days of his hospital stay and then cited “security
to ban his father altogether. During this traumatic period, the boy’s parents
were not allowed to enter his room and could only look at him through a window.
Through all of this, according to B’Tselem, “D.T., a 17-year-old boy,
remained in hospital completely alone, away from his home and family and
restrained to the bed for part of the time.”

Routine violence and impunity
B’Tselem added: “While this account may be shocking, it is not all that
uncommon: Firing unlawfully at a fleeing Palestinian youth, who posed no danger
to anyone, and hitting him hard on the head – actions that could have resulted
in disability or death; followed by disgraceful conduct during hospitalization
in Israel, including placing restraints on an injured teenager and denying
family visits are not a rare occurrence.”

In January this year, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Qusay al-Amour,
17, in Tuqu, a village near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Video
from the scene
shows Israeli soldiers violently dragging away the boy after
he was shot.
In December 2016, Israeli occupation forces were filmed shooting
and killing 17-year-old Ahmed Zeidani as he ran away
, during a night raid
on the West Bank village of Beit Rima.
And in April 2016, the Israeli army closed an investigation into Yisrael
Shomer, a commander of its Binyamin Brigade, who in 2015 shot to death
17-year-old Muhammad
al-Kasbeh
while the Palestinian teenager was fleeing. The Israeli army
decided that Shomer’s videotaped
slaying
of al-Kasbeh had been nothing more than “a professional mistake.”
B’Tselem described
the closure of the case as “an integral part of the whitewash mechanism which
is Israel’s military investigative system.”
The following month, B’Tselem announced
it had stopped cooperating with the Israeli army unit that is supposed to
investigate such abuses. The group said it no longer wanted to be a “fig leaf
for a system that guarantees impunity for
perpetrators.
In the rare cases where an Israeli perpetrator is brought to trial, the
penalty is normally a
slap on the wrist
.
B’Tselem reaffirmed in the case of D.T. that typically no one is held
accountable, “guaranteeing that incidents of this sort will continue so long as
the occupation does.”

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Tony Greenstein

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