I started reading Children of the Stone by Sandy Tolan, which is on BARD,
yesterday. He's describing what things were like in the Occupied Territories in
the late 80's and early 90's in the part I am reading. There is a vast
difference between then and now, even as bad as it was then.
Miriam
Haaretz January 17, 2016
Yes, Israel Is Executing Palestinians Without Trial
In 2016, one doesn’t have to be Adolf Eichmann to be executed in Israel – it’s
enough to be a teenage Palestinian girl with scissors.
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.697788
Gideon Levy |
Jan 17, 2016 5:18 AM
An illustrative image of a soldier securing a Jerusalem bus. Credit: Olivier
Fitoussi
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Netanyahu: Swedish FM's remarks on killings of Palestinians are 'outrageous
and stupid'
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Two Palestinians, from different walks of life, brought together in death at a
checkpoint
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Senior IDF officers visit Palestinian terrorists in jail in effort to
understand their motives
We should call it like it is: Israel executes people without trial nearly every
day. Any other description is a lie. If there was once discussion here about
the death penalty for terrorists, now they are executed even without trial (and
without discussion). If once there was debate over the rules of engagement,
today it’s clear: we shoot to kill – any suspicious Palestinian.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan outlined the situation clearly when he
said, “Every terrorist should know he will not survive the attack he is about
to commit” – and almost every politician joined him in nauseating unison, from
Yair Lapid on up. Never have so many licenses to kill been handed out here, nor
has the finger been so itchy on the trigger.
In 2016, one doesn’t have to be Adolf Eichmann to be executed here – it’s
enough to be a teenage Palestinian girl with scissors. The firing squads are
active every day. Soldiers, police and civilians shoot those who stabbed
Israelis, or tried to stab them or were suspected of doing so, and at those who
run down Israelis in their cars or appear to have done so.
In most cases, there was no need to shoot – and certainly not to kill. In a
good many of the cases, the shooters’ lives were not in danger. They shot
people to death who were holding a knife or even scissors, or people who just
put their hands in their pockets or lost control of their car.
They shot them to death indiscriminately – women, men, teenage girls, teenage
boys. They shot them when they were standing, and even after they were no
longer a threat. They shot to kill, to punish, to release their anger, and to
take revenge. There is such contempt here that these incidents are barely
covered in the media.
Last Saturday, soldiers at the Beka’ot checkpoint (called Hamra by the
Palestinians) in the Jordan Valley killed businessman Said Abu al-Wafa, 35, a
father of four, with 11 bullets. At the same time, they also killed Ali Abu
Maryam, a 21-year-old farm laborer and student, with three bullets. The Israel
Defense Forces did not explain the killing of the two men, except to say there
was a suspicion that someone had drawn a knife. There are security cameras at
the site, but the IDF has not released video footage of the incident.
Swedish Foreign Minister Wallström is one of the few ministers with a
conscience left in the world.
Last month, other IDF soldiers killed Nashat Asfur, a father of three who
worked at an Israeli chicken slaughterhouse. They shot him in his village,
Sinjil, from 150 meters away, while he was walking home from a wedding. Earlier
this month, Mahdia Hammad – a 40-year-old mother of four – was driving home
through her village, Silwad. Border Police officers sprayed her car with dozens
of bullets after they suspected she intended to run them over.
The soldiers didn’t even suspect cosmetology student Samah Abdallah, 18, of
anything. Soldiers shot her father’s car “by mistake,” killing her; they had
suspected a 16-year-old pedestrian, Alaa al-Hashash, of trying to stab them.
They executed him as well, of course.
They also killed Ashrakat Qattanani, 16, who was holding a knife and running
after an Israeli woman. First a settler ran her over with his car, and when she
was lying injured on the ground, soldiers and settlers shot her at least four
times. Execution – what else?
And when soldiers shot Lafi Awad, 20, in his back while he was fleeing after
throwing stones, was that not an execution?
These are only a few of the cases I have documented over the past few weeks in
Haaretz. The website of the human rights group B’Tselem has a list of 12 more
cases of executions.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, one of the few ministers with a
conscience left in the world, demanded that these killings be investigated.
There is no demand more moral and just than this. It should have come from our
own justice minister.
Israel responded with its usual howls. The prime minister said this was
“outrageous, immoral and unjust.” And Benjamin Netanyahu understands those
terms: That is exactly how to describe Israel’s campaign of criminal executions
under his leadership.
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Gideon Levy
Haaretz Correspondent
