Tag: Execution

Shoot First Don’t ask Questions Later

20th October 2015 | International Solidarity Movement | West Bank, occupied Palestine

A video posted on October 12th by Shehab news agency described as an attack on a Palestinian girl from Haifa in her twenties for allegedly trying to assault a taxi driver in Tel Aviv after an argument between them. The video shows a woman pinned to the ground by a man as passers-by argue about whether or not to beat and kill her. One woman claims she saw the woman had a knife and screams “Why are you playing around. They are coming to kill our children!” and demands her execution. Another bystander asks the man “Did she come at you with a knife?” and he replies “She put her hand in her pocket.” Yet Another kicks her in the head. Sharon Puwler from Haaretz Daily reported on 20th October 2015 that the woman did not carry any weapon.

While there undoubtedly are stabbings of Israelis taking place, there are also undoubtedly mistaken or false accusations and pressure from Israeli civilians to kill people they suspect of being terrorists. The latest example being the Eritrean asylum seeker Mulu Habtom Zerhom who was shot and beaten to death in the Beersheva central bus station after being mistaken for an Arab. Because Mulu was not Palestinian there will be an investigation committee looking into his murder.

Palestinians who are killed are assumed guilty by default. In the case of the Palestinian woman in the video taken in Tel Aviv, if some of the bystanders hadn’t intervened and the woman had been lynched it would have been reported as: “knife wielding terrorist neutralized”. This is how the Israeli media portrayed 23 year old Ahmed Sha’ban from Ras el-Amud in Occupied East Jerusalem. Al Quds Newspaper published a video showing an Israeli security guard shooting twice directly at Ahmed’s body after he is already on the ground. An Israeli eye witness is heard stating: “Central bus station in Jerusalem, just now, a terrorist was exterminated, bro, right in front of me! Right in front of me he shot him ten times! Ten bullets were shot at him now! It’s such a mess here! I don’t know, he didn’t touch anything… He didn’t have a knife in his hand. Everyone shouted ‘terrorist’. The security guard shot him. I am telling you the bullets are right in front of me. My head hurts.”

Israeli officials have been criticised by human rights organisations for calling on Israelis with licensed guns to carry them in public and to kill any suspect. They have made it clear that it is not necessary to determine if the suspect is holding a knife before shooting to kill. At a press conference on October 8th Israeli Minister of defence Moshe Yaalon stated “Right now it is required primarily to be vigilant, determined, to respond quickly to any local attack, to eliminate the terrorist stabber or the perpetrator, stone thrower and the like, immediately on the spot. This is the answer to this kind of terrorism.” Other Israeli officials rushed to echo the sentiment On the 11th of October MK Yair Lapid Head of the Yesh Atid party said on a televised interview,” whoever takes out a knife or a screwdriver or whatever it may be, needs to be shot to kill”, adding “don’t hesitate. Even at the start of an attack, shooting to kill is correct.”

There have been many cases of alleged knife wielders shot in the last months since the killing of Hadeel al-Hashlamoun in Hebron that Amnesty international categorized as an extrajudicial execution. They all deserve an investigative committee. Whether a suspect is falsely accused or did actually carry out an attack, shooting and/or killing people who do not constitute an immediate threat to anyone is war crime.

Israeli forces extra-judicially execute man in Jenin area

Ala Ad-Din Abu Ar-Roub, killed by Israeli forces

A 21 year old man, Ala Ad-Din Abu Ar-Roub, from Qabatiya village near Jenin was killed early Thursday morning after his home was surrounded and entered by a large number of Israeli forces.

According to family members, Ala was working on his computer in his room at 4:30am when the soldiers attacked the house, blowing open the front door and entering without warning. Ala was killed by multiple gunshots to the head and chest while his brother Muhammed lay sleeping on a mattress next to him.

The Israeli forces then forced all of the family members outside after violently subduing Ala’s mother who had attempted to come to his aid. The family members including children were not even permitted to put on outdoor clothing or shoes before exiting the house.

After the family was evacuated, the Israeli forces laid explosive charges inside the house, blowing open a large hole in one wall and damaging much of the internal structure of the house. The family was prevented from attending to Ala during this time and had no knowledge of his condition.

Family members claimed that they had been given no indication by Israeli forces that Ala was wanted on any charges although he had been imprisoned more than a year previously. They stated that he had not been involved recently in any political activity and would not have been living unprotected at the family home if he had believed he was a target of Israeli security forces.

Abu Ar-Roub was shot multiple times while his brother lay on a matress next to him

Ala was the oldest child of the Abu Ar-Roub family, and is survived by his parents and brother Muhammed and seven sisters. He had previously studied electrical engineering and intended to continue his studies. He also enjoyed various athletic activities.

According to village sources, this is the first targeted assassination in the Jenin area in over a year, although arrests have been common by Israeli forces. Such extra-judicial executions by the occupying forces are flagrant violations of international and humanitarian law.

Summary execution in southern West Bank

Palestine News Network

During the killing of over 1,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the demonstrations against them the occupation remains in the West Bank. This week a family lost their father in Hebron.

Yasser Saqr Ismail Tameizi had his six year old son with him. They were working on their land in Ithna Village, west of the city.

It was Tuesday morning and the 35 year old farmer’s death served as a violent reminder, commented the Al Haq Human Rights Organization, “that even as Israel engages in horrific and illegal attacks against the Gaza Strip, its oppressive occupation policies continue to undermine the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank.”

Tameizi had an Israeli-issued permit to reach his lands that the Wall had divided him from. Two eyewitnesses were in an adjacent field grazing their cattle and Tameizi and his six year old were 500 meters east of the Wall which is incomplete in this area of Hebron. Instead of a 10 meter concrete wall, it consists of barbed wire fencing that cuts through the village.

On 13 January at 11:00 am four Israeli soldiers entered Tameizi’s land through a gate in the Wall. They told the little boy to leave, which he did, and one of the soldiers kicked the father. Tameizi made a move to defend himself and his son and two of the soldiers knocked him to the ground and ties his hands behind his back. He was held down on his back by two soldiers sitting on his stomach while the others watched.

At noon an Israeli military jeep with four soldiers entered Tameizi’s land. After 15 minutes the man was thrown, blindfolded and still handcuffed, into the back of the jeep.

The eyewitnesses report, “The jeep then moved toward the gate, with four soldiers inside and the other four walking behind it.”

At 1:30 an APC, Armored Personnel Carrier, arrived and still on the side of the Wall facing the Israeli boundaries it left after 10 minutes with the jeep driving quickly to Tarqumiya Checkpoint.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reports that its Hebron branch office received a phone call at approximately 3:00 pm in which Israeli soldiers told them to pick up Tameizi who was still in their custody.

He was dead before reaching the hospital.

The 35 year old man had been shot and died of the bullet wound to his stomach which exited through his lower back. The Red Crescent said it indicates he was shot at point blank range most likely while sitting down by someone above him aiming down.

Ramallah’s Al Haq referred today to the severe violation of international law, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in addition to tenets of the Geneva Conventions and United Nations resolutions, as a “summary execution.”