Tag: Tristan Anderson - Page 4 - International Solidarity Movement

State to reinvestigate wounding of U.S. activist

Cnaan Liphshiz | Ha’aretz

12 March 2010

The state this week agreed to reinvestigate the 2009 near-fatal wounding of American pro-Palestinian protester Tristan Anderson in the West Bank, after his lawyer complained that the discontinued probe of the case was “negligent.”

“We will reexamine the decision to close the case of Tristan Anderson,” Justice Ministry spokesman Ron Roman told Anglo File. He said this after receiving an appeal from the lawyer of the 38-year-old American, who remains in critical condition at the Sheba Medical Center after police seriously injured him in the head exactly one year ago during a demonstration.

The ministry decided in December to close its investigation into Anderson’s injury after its probe produced “a lack of criminal culpability.” Anderson, a Californian, was hit in the forehead on March 13, 2009 by a tear gas canister fired by a border policeman in the village of Na’alin during a demonstration against Israel’s contested separation fence.

“The investigation conducted was characterized by severe omissions,” attorney Michael Sfard wrote on Tuesday to the central district attorney’s office, in an appeal against the decision to close the case. The appeal by Sfard, an international human rights lawyer representing the family, was based on his own shadow investigation of the incident.

In deciding to close the case, the Justice Ministry’s investigation team “failed altogether to visit the scene of the incident or even view it from a nearby location in order to familiarize itself with it,” Sfard said. “Border Police officers responsible for Tristan’s injury were not questioned at all,” he added.

The ministry would not comment on this assertion, citing the ongoing investigation. The Border Police also declined to comment.

According to both the ministry’s probe and Sfard’s own investigation, Anderson was hit at around 4 P.M. near a mosque, at the same time as Border Police officers were dispersing stone throwers in the village with tear gas. But Sfard’s probe showed that although there were several Border Police squads in the area, the ministry’s team only questioned one squad, which was busy dispersing the demonstrators from its position near a cellular antenna. Sfard says that the soldiers of this squad could not have fired the canister that hit Anderson because the officers did not have a line-of-sight to Anderson.

“This constitutes severe negligence in the work of the investigation team, which went astray following the mistaken assumption that Tristan was injured by shots fired by the squad positioned on ‘Antenna Hill’, not even bothering to question the other squads, despite clear indications that [one of the other squads] fired the shot,” Sfard’s appeal reads.

The shadow investigation by Sfard traces the “mistaken assumption” to the fact that the squad questioned admitted to injuring a protester who was evacuated from the scene. However, this was not Anderson, according to Sfard. The investigators could have “discovered that there was another injured person at that same incident – and that this person was injured from the fire of a different squad than that which hit Tristan,” Sfard went on to write in the appeal.

A Swedish member of the International Solidarity Movement told Anglo File that the shooting was unprovoked. “The policeman approached from behind a building when everything was quiet,” said the activist while still in Israel a few months ago, who identified himself only as John because he works for the Swedish government. John, 30, added he was 30 meters away from Anderson at the time. The policeman who fired the canister was 60 meters away, he said.

Avi Biton, the spokesperson for the border police’s Judea and Samaria district, declined to comment on this, citing the investigation in progress. “This occurrence could have easily been avoided had demonstrators showed more respect for Israeli law regarding protests, Israel’s troops’ safety and Israeli taxpayers’ property,” Biton said.

The impact of the projectile that hit Anderson caused condensed fractures to his forehead and right eye socket. Part of his right frontal lobe had to be removed, and a brain fluid leakage was sealed using a tendon from his thigh.

The case, according to Ron Roman from the Justice Ministry, has been transferred to a ministry appeal committee in Jerusalem, which “will look into the facts in an earnest manner and may reverse the decision to close the case if it finds the evidence compelling.”

Family Appeals Decision to Close Investigation on Shooting of US Citizen Tristan Anderson

12 March 2010

This week the parents of Tristan Anderson filed an appeal on the decision to close the investigation concerning their son’s injury.– The 38 year-old American was critically injured by a high velocity tear gas projectile shot by Israeli Border Police in the West Bank village of Nili’in on March 13, 2009. The basic grounds for the appeal include undeniable negligence in the investigation. This negligence particularly involves two critical errors in the investigation conducted by the Investigative unit of the SJ District (West Bank) Israeli Police Force:

Mistaken identity: There were several Border Police squads in Nili’in at the time of Tristan’s injury, but only one of them was interviewed by investigators. A thorough examination of the facts shows that the squad interviewed was the wrong one.

No field visit: The investigation team did not visit the scene of the incident or nearby viewpoints from which it would have been possible to understand distances and positions described by eyewitnesses to the incident.

On the day of Tristan’s injury, there were several police squads in Nili’in – one stationed at a position known as “Antenna Hill” and another positioned closer to the village center. Since the squad stationed at Antenna Hill reported injuring a person, this squad was questioned regarding Tristan Anderson. However, it is now clear that there was more than one injury on March 13, 2009 – with one such injury having been reported by the squad stationed on Antenna Hill. These police officers report having hit a person in a completely different location and with an entirely different description than that of Tristan. For example, the police officers reported hitting a stone thrower whose face was covered, whereas several eyewitnesses attest to the fact that Tristan’s face was not covered at all on that day and that he did not throw stones. Furthermore, eyewitnesses to Tristan’s injury report that the tear gas canister came from a different direction than Antenna Hill, the same area in which the second squad was stationed. It is clear that these mistakes stem from the fact that investigators never visited the scene of the incident.

Attorney Michael Sfard: The astonishing negligence of this investigation and of the prosecutorial team that monitored its outcome is unacceptable, but it epitomizes Israel’s culture of impunity. Tristan’s case is actually not rare; it represents hundreds of other cases of Palestinian victims whose investigations have also failed.

One year after his shooting, Anderson is still hospitalized in Tel Hashomer hospital, with severe permanent brain damage of a yet uncertain degree. The severity of his condition still does not allow his transfer back home to the US.

To view a summary of the appeal in English, click here

CNN: West Bank wall still triggers weekly protests in village

CNN

12 February 2010

Tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and rocks: It must be Friday afternoon in the West Bank village of Bil’in.

It’s billed as a nonviolent protest against what Israel calls its security barrier, what the Palestinians call the apartheid separation wall.

The barrier separates the villagers from their farmlands. Protesters come from all over the world to support the Palestinian cause.

A few Palestinian youths covering their faces with scarves throw stones at a couple dozen Israeli soldiers in full riot gear and armed with tear gas, stun grenades and bullets.

The protest soon degenerates into chaos as it has nearly every week for the past five years. Six protesters have been killed in Bil’in and the neighboring village of Na’alin since July 2008, according to the Palestinian group, Popular Struggle, one of several organizers of the weekly protests. Several hundred have been injured by tear gas canisters and Israeli bullets. One hundred Israeli soldiers have been injured from stone throwing, according to the Israeli military.

The organizers say they have little control over the youths who prefer to throw stones at the rallies. They insist that non-violence is the best weapon they have to fight against Israel’s wall and occupation.

Israel has increased its nighttime raids into the West Bank in recent months, arresting those it believes have acted violently or those who are suspected of organizing the protests.

“They cannot be above the law, and that’s what we’re dealing with,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Peter Lerner said, referring to the protest organizers.

Critics say Israel is simply arresting those who oppose its policies towards the Palestinians. Mohamed Othman, one of the organizers of Stop the Wall campaign, was detained in September upon his return from Norway where he was lobbying the government for support.

He said he was held for four months — three in solitary confinement — then released without charge. Israel does not comment on these cases.

“We can see that Israel is starting to be afraid of the popular resistance because it’s coming from inside the people and the people decide,” Othman said.

Israel has arrested at least 150 protesters from the two villages’ demonstrations over the past two years, according to Popular Struggle. More than 30 are still locked up, the organization said. The Israeli military told CNN it was checking those figures.

One coordinator of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, also a teacher, was arrested in December. One of the charges against him was arms possession for collecting tear gas canisters used by the Israeli military against demonstrators and showcasing them.

The anti-wall demonstrators say this is a grass-roots movement. The Israeli military accuses those it has arrested of incitement.

The IDF denies it has changed its tactics in dealing with the anti-wall protesters, even though the number being arrested has risen sharply. The IDF on the ground now considers Bil’in a closed military zone on Fridays.

CNN was refused access by Israeli military forces stationed outside the village, who said only those who lived in the neighborhood could enter. But IDF spokesman Peter Lerner said the closure was meant only for protesters.

A few hours later, in Bil’in, the Israeli soldiers withdrew from the village under cover of tear gas. Some Palestinian youths followed them with stones, while the vast majority of nonviolent protesters head home.

Same time, same place, next Friday.

Attorney Sfard: Israeli police investigation of shooting of Tristan Anderson “gravely negligent”

Alternative Information Center

1 February 2010

Yesterday’s announcement by the Israeli Ministry of Justice not to indict anyone in the March 2009 shooting and critically injuring of American activist Tristan Anderson at a non-violent demonstration in the West Bank village of Ni’ilin was based on a “gravely negligent” investigation by the Israeli police, says Israeli attorney Michel Sfard, who represents Tristan and his family.

“We were notified two weeks ago that Israel decided to close this case, and our subsequent study of the investigation file led us to call this press conference,” noted Sfard, who met with local and international journalists in Jerusalem at the office of the Alternative Information Center (AIC).

“The investigation of the Judea and Samaria District Police into the shooting of Tristan Anderson was gravely negligent,” stated Sfard. He noted that the police investigation team did not even interview the officers located in the center of Ni’ilin, one of three companies of border police operating in the village that day and the ones almost certain to be directly involved in shooting Anderson, according to the ballistic evidence. “I am embarrassed to say that the investigation team did not even go to Ni’ilin, the scene of the shooting,” added Sfard. “If a Jewish man had been shot and wounded, there is no doubt that the entire village would be under curfew and Israel would do everything possible to investigate.”

Seven Palestinian and international eyewitnesses to Israel’s shooting of Tristan conclusively demonstrated that Tristan was neither masked nor throwing rocks, as the Israeli police claim. Attorney Sfard and Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack, a long-time friend of Tristan, showed photographs from the village, illustrating the impossibility of Israel’s description of the shooting.

Sfard will now file an administrative appeal with the Israeli Attorney General, demanding that the investigation be reopened. “There is little chance that the Attorney General will not accept this appeal, at least in order to interrogate the border police officers from the central command,” believes Sfard.

The Anderson family wants Israel to take responsibility for shooting Tristan, which means both bringing the people involved to justice and helping to take care of Tristan, who will likely require assistance for the remainder of his life. In addition to demanding a thorough criminal investigation and appropriate indictments, the Anderson family is further filing a civil lawsuit in the case.

Press briefing: Case closed on shooting of American citizen Tristan Anderson

Who: Tristan Anderson’s family and attorney, Michael Sfard
What: Press briefing about the status of Tristan’s case and the planned next steps
When: Monday February 1st, 1:00 pm
Where: Alternative Information Center (AIC) – Queen Shlomzion Street 4 – Jerusalem
Why: Case closed on Tristan Anderson’s case with suspicion of negligence of investigation process – indications that police did not visit the scene of the alleged offense and most probably interviewed the wrong group of border policemen.

On Monday, February 1 at 1:00, the family of Tristan Anderson will hold a press conference at the AIC in Jerusalem to expose new information about the case. Anderson’s lawyer, Attorney Michael Sfard will give a comprehensive update about the case, the decision to close it made by the District Attorney’s office and negligence of the police investigation, and discuss the next legal steps.

This week’s disturbing news – that the DA decided to close the case on Tristan and the injury he sustains after being shot in the head at close range with a high-velocity tear gas canister during a demonstration in the West Bank village of Nil’in last March – will have significant impact on Tristan’s future and his family’s. The outcome in this case is not unique, but exemplary of the general lack of accountability of Israeli security forces. It points both to the complete negligence of the police investigation and to the Israeli military’s ability to disregard even the gravest of offenses committed by security forces.