Israeli soldiers ambushed three Palestinian teenagers with live ammunition, killing one, despite the fact that they posed no immediate threat. Neither the soldiers nor their commanders will face any charges.
An IDF commander ordered soldiers to fire live ammunition directly at Palestinian teenagers who broke through part of the separation fence, resulting in the killing of 14-year-old Yousef a-Shawamreh last year. This, despite the fact they they posed no immediate danger, according to a B’Tselem report released Wednesday criticizing the military’s decision to close the investigation without indictment.
On March 19, 2014, three Palestinians – an 18-year-old and two minors, one of them a-Shawamreh – walked up to the separation barrier in the area of the village of Deir al-‘Asal al-Foqa, southwest of Hebron. The IDF knows that certain parts of the barrier are often crossed by Palestinian youth who go to pick edible gundelia plants from their families’ land on the other side.
B’Tselem originally thought they crossed through an opening but later learned from military footage (video below) that they cut through the metal fence that the military sealed the previous day. This means that the IDF knew that whomever tried to cross that day would have to first sabotage the fence. That person would then be deemed “a fence saboteur” – and by definition suspected of committing an offense serious enough to warrant carrying out a suspect-apprehension procedure, including firing at below the knees.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvvWeqywc6s]
According to B’Tselem, the investigators did not ask the commander why he had decided, by sealing the gaps in the fence, to incriminate anyone who crossed it as “suspected of a dangerous offense.”
According to the military, the soldiers in the field called out to the boys to stop, firing two warning shots in the air before firing at 14-year-old a-Shawamreh with a shot that should have been directed at his legs, but which they claim accidentally hit his waist. The Palestinian teens who were with a-Shawamreh testified that they didn’t realize there were any warning shots but rather were immediately fired upon.
B’Tselem slammed the Military Advocate General’s decision to close the investigation without serving any indictments. ”No apparent attempt was made to reconcile the contradicting versions given by the suspects and by witnesses, and the responsibility of the commanders who decided to mount an armed ambush at the spot was utterly ignored.”
Whether or not the open-fire regulations directed by the commander on that day were indeed in line with the IDF’s protocol, the incident is highly suspect.
Why would soldiers who knew the fence was sealed the day before stand by and watch the three youth as they broke through, only to approach them afterwards. It is almost as if they waited for them to do it (a form of entrapment) so they could then justify firing on them. The bottom line, however, is that a 14 year old was killed for picking plants on land that he can no longer freely access due to the route of the separation barrier. If the protocol allows for him to be shot for that, there is clearly something very wrong with the system at its core.
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The Deuteronomy quote is interesting. I’ve just read Chapter 20 and the context of Verse 16 is interesting and significant. In Verses 3 and 4 “the priest” tells the Israeli people “Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
Then “the officers” “speak unto the people” because there are people whose “hearts” do “faint”, who do “fear” and who do “tremble” – those who fear losing their “house” or “vineyard” or “wife”. Such people need to be sorted out and not allowed to “fight” “lest (their) brethren’s heart faint as well as (their) heart”.
Then in Verses 10 and 11 comes a classic ‘offer which cannot be refused’: “When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.”
Verses 12 to 16 are worth quoting in full: “And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:…”
Note particularly Verse 15: “Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations.”
Look how far Yahweh has led his people since then. Look who have chosen to be “tributaries” and to “serve” Yahweh’s chosen people. All the nations of Christian Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia for a start; Islamic monarchies like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, …
Food for thought there?
“The LORD your God” does allow you to think, doesn’t He?
The Pentateuch and the book of Joshua are pure blood and crimes against humanity. These vicious filthy crap of barbaric murderers who enjoyed stealing, raping killing, slavery and every putrid manner of violence and horror that the Jews very much love.
Thousands of years later this same twisted insane mentality sick race we know as Jews are murdering tens of thousands of defenseless helpless Palestinians men, women and children with the same depraved OT sick twisted mentality that created holy acts out of pure cold blooded murder.