Gość: A.D.
IP: *.mco.bellsouth.net
12.05.03, 00:21
))Ciekawie donosi 'Haaretz'. Okazuje sie ze kilka zydowskich matek
obserwowalo co sie dzieje na punktcie kontrolnym, gdzie sie
zwykle ..dokopuje Palestynczykow, w zaleznosci od stopnia zezwierzecenia
danego zolnierza w sluzbie swojego 'wybranego narodu'. Ku swojemu
oslupieniu, Izraelki te byly swiadkami mordowania dzieci Palestynskich
poprzez bohaterskich obroncow Izraela!!!
Eye witnesses
Two Israelis who witnessed Palestinians being shot by the IDF could not
believe their eyes.
In recent weeks, columnist Gideon Levy described two violent incidents in
the territories in which a Palestinian boy was killed and a Palestinian girl
was injured. In the wake of these articles, two eyewitnesses sent their
testimonies on the circumstances of the shootings. Both raise serious
questions concerning the behavior of IDF soldiers
1. Deliberate shooting at children
I read Gideon Levy's article about the death of Omar Matar ("The 144th
Child," Haaretz Magazine, April 11) following my own personal familiarity
with the events that are described in it. As someone who personally
witnessed the incident at the Qalandiyah checkpoint, on Friday, March 28, I
can say that it was a traumatic, terrible, unimaginable experience. My
girlfriend and I arrived at the site as members of WATCH, a group of Israeli
women who oppose the occupation and who observe the checkpoints every day in
the area of Jerusalem and the West Bank.
This was not the first time we have seen what has become routine at the
checkpoints: Children throwing stones at the fence near the Qalandiyah
neighborhood and burning tires. Within a few minutes, a group of about 10
soldiers advanced in the direction of the children and began shooting at
them. Stunned by what we were seeing - soldiers armed with rifles, wearing
helmets and flak jackets shooting at a small group of schoolchildren - we
immediately called the Benjamin Brigade commander, who told us that the
orders to the soldiers that we had seen were to shoot rubber bullets in the
air. I told him that I could see with my own eyes that they were not
shooting in the air, but that they were shooting right at the children and
that it is known that rubber bullets (which are really steel bullets covered
in rubber) can kill. Within a short time, an ambulance came to the
neighborhood's main street and we learned that a boy, Omar Musa Matar, had
been shot in the head.
Our warnings to the army had fallen on deaf ears and failed to prevent
Omar's death. This incident brings a number of difficult thoughts to mind -
thoughts about the imperviousness, cruelty and total contempt for
Palestinian lives, which is reflected in the fact that after years of
intifada, the Israel Defense Forces and the police have not yet found ways
to disperse civilian riots that comply with international law; about the
soldiers armed with rifles facing off against little children with stones;
about the horrific disparity between the orders given by senior commanders
and the reality on the ground, in which each soldier acts as he sees fit in
the full knowledge that he will not be tried for murder, abuse, robbery or
any other trampling of the law and human rights.
According to figures provided by B'Tselem [The Israeli Information Center
for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories], the number of incidents in
which the Military Police launches an investigation following the killing of
innocents by soldiers is minimal, the manner in which the investigations are
conducted ludicrous and the number of the convictions negligible.
Consequently, I will not be surprised if the murderer is not brought to
justice in this case either. This is not a trigger-happy soldier, but rather
a group of soldiers acting like a murderous gang, storming a group of
children that do not represent a genuine danger.
Adi Dagan
Herzliya
Questions to the IDF Spokesman: In Gideon Levy's article about the incident,
he quotes the eyewitness testimony of Walid Zawawi, the deputy director of
the Qalandiyah camp for UNRWA, who said that a soldier shot the boy while in
a kneeling position, that two bullets hit the boy, one in the head and the
other in the neck, and that afterward, the soldiers also shot a Palestinian
who tried to evacuate the wounded boy. The response of the IDF Spokesman at
the time was: "The Military Police is investigating the incident." Has the
investigation been concluded? What were the findings and what steps, if any,
have been taken against the commander/shooter(s)?
The response of the IDF Spokesman: The investigation is still ongoing.
2. No danger to the soldiers
In the article about the Tul Karm refugee camp (Haaretz Magazine, March 28),
Gideon Levy mentioned a 15-year-old girl "who apparently tried to stab a
soldier" at a checkpoint. She was shot and "has been lying wounded in Meir
Hospital, handcuffed, for a few weeks now." On February 20 of this year, I
was serving in the reserves at the checkpoint between Taibeh and Tul Karm.
At about four o'clock in the afternoon, I went up to my post. About an hour
and a half afterward, a girl of about 15 arrived, walked behind me and
continued in the direction of a group of soldiers at the main area of the
checkpoint. She stopped and at a certain point, took out a knife and stood
without moving for quite a while. True, she did wave the knife in the air,
but what she did was far from endangering the soldiers.
The commander of the checkpoint, who arrived meanwhile, carried out the
proper procedure for arresting a suspect and shot at her from a few meters
away. The procedure calls for a warning shot in the air; if the suspect
still does not stop, shots may be fired at the the suspect's legs and only
after that at the suspect's torso. I heard three shots. After that, for a
long while, she lay there bleeding and crying, "I want my mother." It was
quite a difficult sight to see. An ambulance that arrived was not allowed to
approach her until IDF sappers had finished checking her.
I have been doing my reserve duty in the territories since April 1988. I
have accumulated quite a bit of experience, and this time I decided to use
my own judgment during my work at the checkpoint. When I saw older people
coming to ask for permission to go through to visit their children in
Taibeh, or mixed couples, I let them go through. My behavior caused some
disagreement and consequently, the subject was brought out in the open. I
explained that I was not working from a particularly leftist position, but
rather from a human point of view.
A number of things should be made clear about the shooter. The officer that
shot the girl is an educator in his civilian life. We have been conducting a
dialogue from either side of the line that crosses Israeli society for close
to 15 years. About 13 years ago, while sitting together in a Jeep in Rafah,
I asked him if he really believes that it is a decree from heaven and that
this is how we must live with the Palestinians. Since then, the subject has
remained open between us through all the years, and here, after all these
years, we end up meeting again in a situation like this.
Let me make it clear: this is not a matter of black and white. During our
previous reserve duty, after we once again held long discussions with one
another, he invited me to give a lecture to the 12th-grade students in his
school. I believe that those who can, must volunteer to serve in the
territories in order to be at the meeting points with the population, and do
what is needed to prevent abuse by soldiers, to treat the members of foreign
organizations respectfully and to treat the Palestinians with respect and
hope. Perhaps in this way it will be possible to have a greater influence
reality.
I, for example,