10 dec 2016
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Nadim Siam Nuwara, 17, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier on 15 May 2014. (via Facebook)
An Israeli soldier facing trial for the killing of an unarmed Palestinian teenager that was shown on TV screens around the world may now get away with a slap on the wrist. Israeli Border Police combatant Ben Dery is charged with manslaughter in the slaying of 17-year-old Nadim Nuwara on 15 May 2014 – Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate their 1948 ethnic cleansing from much of their homeland. But Israeli media are reporting that the manslaughter charge may now be dropped. Dery’s lawyer told the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz this week that prosecutors are discussing a plea bargain in which his client would admit only to “negligence” – that a live round, instead of a rubber-coated bullet, found its way into his magazine unintentionally. The charges against Dery represent one of the exceptionally rare instances of Israeli soldiers being prosecuted for the killing or injury of a Palestinian. “Reports of a potential plea agreement are unsurprising given that Israeli forces enjoy near complete impunity for killing and violence against Palestinian children,” Brad Parker, attorney and international advocacy officer |
with Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP), told The Electronic Intifada.
Between January 2014 and November 2016, 70 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been killed, all except two at the hands of Israeli forces, according to evidence collected by DCIP.
“Nothing illustrates the systemic impunity enjoyed by Israeli forces more than the fact that out of these 70 cases, only one killing, that of Nadim Nuwara, has resulted in an indictment,” Parker noted. “This single indictment was issued, not because Israeli authorities were interested in justice, but because overwhelming video and forensic evidence could no longer be denied,” Parker added.
Parker said it would be “shocking” if with all the evidence related to Nuwara’s killing, Dery were held accountable only for “negligence.”
Videotaped killings
Nuwara was shot dead in cold blood, when he presented no possible danger to anyone, in a killing captured on video, in the West Bank town of Beitunia.
The same day, at almost the same spot, another boy, 16-year-old Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, was fatally shot in the back in almost exactly the same circumstances, and his killing too was captured on video.
No one has been charged with killing Abu al-Thahir, and in March 2016 Israel closed the investigation claiming there was no evidence found to point to live fire from its forces.
The killings left behind two bereft and devastated families.
A third Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Azzeh, then 15, was shot with live ammunition on the same day but survived. This was also captured on video.
Evidence
In November 2014, a sophisticated analysis of video and other evidence requested by DCIP, and conducted by the multidisciplinary group Forensic Architecture, pinpointed the Israeli soldier who shot and killed Nuwara.
“Using spatial and video analysis we have identified the border policeman that shot and killed the unarmed Nadim Nuwara,” Eyal Weizman, principal investigator at Forensic Architecture, said.
“Using sound analysis we found that the border policeman fired live ammunition through a rubber bullet extension installed on his gun, perhaps in an attempt to hide his action,” Weizman added.
The Israeli indictment alleges that on the day Nuwara was shot, soldiers had been ordered to use only rubber-coated bullets. Dery had an M-16 rifle with an attachment for firing rubber-coated bullets. He also had a magazine containing rubber-coated bullets together with blanks that was marked in red.
The indictment says that “Dery replaced the bullets in the marked magazine with live M-16 rounds,” the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reports. Dery then allegedly shot Nuwara in the chest, killing him.
Attempted cover-up
“From the moment Nadim and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir were killed on 15 May 2014, rather than investigate the killings, Israeli authorities set out to deny any wrongdoing,” DCIP lawyer Brad Parker said.
He noted that Israeli forces first denied any live ammunition was fired that day, then attempted to discredit the video footage and, when the bullet that killed Nuwara was found in the backpack he was wearing, the Israelis claimed it was planted.
Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the US who now serves as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deputy minister for “public diplomacy,” even appeared on CNN to cast doubt on whether Nuwara and Abu al-Thahir had even been shot and killed at all.
After Dery was indicted, Nadim’s father, Siam Nuwara, decried the relatively lenient manslaughter charge laid against his son’s alleged killer.
“In my mind, this was a murder and the policeman should be facing a murder charge, with the possibility of receiving a life sentence,” Nuwara said. “A Palestinian arrested under these circumstances would be facing murder charges, with the possibility of life imprisonment, and his family’s home would be demolished.”
Now it appears that – as usual – even the small measure of justice Israel held out for Nadim Nuwara could be slipping out of reach.
Between January 2014 and November 2016, 70 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have been killed, all except two at the hands of Israeli forces, according to evidence collected by DCIP.
“Nothing illustrates the systemic impunity enjoyed by Israeli forces more than the fact that out of these 70 cases, only one killing, that of Nadim Nuwara, has resulted in an indictment,” Parker noted. “This single indictment was issued, not because Israeli authorities were interested in justice, but because overwhelming video and forensic evidence could no longer be denied,” Parker added.
Parker said it would be “shocking” if with all the evidence related to Nuwara’s killing, Dery were held accountable only for “negligence.”
Videotaped killings
Nuwara was shot dead in cold blood, when he presented no possible danger to anyone, in a killing captured on video, in the West Bank town of Beitunia.
The same day, at almost the same spot, another boy, 16-year-old Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, was fatally shot in the back in almost exactly the same circumstances, and his killing too was captured on video.
No one has been charged with killing Abu al-Thahir, and in March 2016 Israel closed the investigation claiming there was no evidence found to point to live fire from its forces.
The killings left behind two bereft and devastated families.
A third Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Azzeh, then 15, was shot with live ammunition on the same day but survived. This was also captured on video.
Evidence
In November 2014, a sophisticated analysis of video and other evidence requested by DCIP, and conducted by the multidisciplinary group Forensic Architecture, pinpointed the Israeli soldier who shot and killed Nuwara.
“Using spatial and video analysis we have identified the border policeman that shot and killed the unarmed Nadim Nuwara,” Eyal Weizman, principal investigator at Forensic Architecture, said.
“Using sound analysis we found that the border policeman fired live ammunition through a rubber bullet extension installed on his gun, perhaps in an attempt to hide his action,” Weizman added.
The Israeli indictment alleges that on the day Nuwara was shot, soldiers had been ordered to use only rubber-coated bullets. Dery had an M-16 rifle with an attachment for firing rubber-coated bullets. He also had a magazine containing rubber-coated bullets together with blanks that was marked in red.
The indictment says that “Dery replaced the bullets in the marked magazine with live M-16 rounds,” the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz reports. Dery then allegedly shot Nuwara in the chest, killing him.
Attempted cover-up
“From the moment Nadim and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir were killed on 15 May 2014, rather than investigate the killings, Israeli authorities set out to deny any wrongdoing,” DCIP lawyer Brad Parker said.
He noted that Israeli forces first denied any live ammunition was fired that day, then attempted to discredit the video footage and, when the bullet that killed Nuwara was found in the backpack he was wearing, the Israelis claimed it was planted.
Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the US who now serves as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deputy minister for “public diplomacy,” even appeared on CNN to cast doubt on whether Nuwara and Abu al-Thahir had even been shot and killed at all.
After Dery was indicted, Nadim’s father, Siam Nuwara, decried the relatively lenient manslaughter charge laid against his son’s alleged killer.
“In my mind, this was a murder and the policeman should be facing a murder charge, with the possibility of receiving a life sentence,” Nuwara said. “A Palestinian arrested under these circumstances would be facing murder charges, with the possibility of life imprisonment, and his family’s home would be demolished.”
Now it appears that – as usual – even the small measure of justice Israel held out for Nadim Nuwara could be slipping out of reach.
8 dec 2016
Despite hundreds of complaints of Shin Bet torture, no single criminal investigation has been launched by the Israeli authorities, Haaretz newspaper reported Wednesday.
A special unit was created seven years ago to investigate complaints against the Shin Bet, but employs just one investigator, said the Hebrew daily.
Despite dozens of "inquiries" opened in recent years, none developed into an investigation.
Even in cases where detainees provide testimonies on torture, including severe beatings and extensive sleep deprivation, no probes have been launched into Shin Bet crimes.
Hearings on a petition to the High Court of Justice revealed that in 2001-2008 nearly 600 complaints had been submitted to the unit, and every single one of the cases had been closed.
A total of 148 complaints recorded in 2014 had also gone unheeded. Dozens more were filed in 2015 and 2016 without a single investigation being launched into the charges.
A special unit was created seven years ago to investigate complaints against the Shin Bet, but employs just one investigator, said the Hebrew daily.
Despite dozens of "inquiries" opened in recent years, none developed into an investigation.
Even in cases where detainees provide testimonies on torture, including severe beatings and extensive sleep deprivation, no probes have been launched into Shin Bet crimes.
Hearings on a petition to the High Court of Justice revealed that in 2001-2008 nearly 600 complaints had been submitted to the unit, and every single one of the cases had been closed.
A total of 148 complaints recorded in 2014 had also gone unheeded. Dozens more were filed in 2015 and 2016 without a single investigation being launched into the charges.
A bid meant to legalize 4,000 Israeli illegal settlement houses passed a first reading in the Knesset on Wednesday.
The bill was approved with 58 in favor and 51 opposed.
The bill brought to a vote on Wednesday would legalize houses that were built on private Palestinian land.
MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Bayit Yehudi) presented the proposed law, amid nearly nonstop shouting from the opposition benches.
“The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. We returned after 2,000 years and established a state... A nation cannot be an occupier in its own land,” Moalem-Refaeli claimed.
During Moalem-Refaeli’s speech, MK Dov Henin (Joint List) appealed to her religious beliefs, shouting to her that the Torah says not to steal.
Joint Arab List MKs condemned the bill, saying it would rather pave the way for bringing the Israeli occupation government before the International Criminal Court for its “war crimes.”
Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg came out against the bill, saying that its passage would be an example of the tyranny of the majority.
“This Knesset could propose that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east and it could pass, because there’s a majority,” she said.
“In the name of the majority, this coalition is passing a law saying it is permissible to steal. And then these people say they’re speaking in the name of God and the Torah! “Shame on you,” Zandberg said to the coalition.
As soon as final voting in favor of the bid sees the day, Israel will find no obstacles legitimizing 60 illegal outposts and giving go-ahead signs to 4,000 illegal settlement units which were built on Palestinian lands occupied in 1967. Israel will also hold sway over 8,000 dunums of Palestinian lands.
The bill was approved with 58 in favor and 51 opposed.
The bill brought to a vote on Wednesday would legalize houses that were built on private Palestinian land.
MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Bayit Yehudi) presented the proposed law, amid nearly nonstop shouting from the opposition benches.
“The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. We returned after 2,000 years and established a state... A nation cannot be an occupier in its own land,” Moalem-Refaeli claimed.
During Moalem-Refaeli’s speech, MK Dov Henin (Joint List) appealed to her religious beliefs, shouting to her that the Torah says not to steal.
Joint Arab List MKs condemned the bill, saying it would rather pave the way for bringing the Israeli occupation government before the International Criminal Court for its “war crimes.”
Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg came out against the bill, saying that its passage would be an example of the tyranny of the majority.
“This Knesset could propose that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east and it could pass, because there’s a majority,” she said.
“In the name of the majority, this coalition is passing a law saying it is permissible to steal. And then these people say they’re speaking in the name of God and the Torah! “Shame on you,” Zandberg said to the coalition.
As soon as final voting in favor of the bid sees the day, Israel will find no obstacles legitimizing 60 illegal outposts and giving go-ahead signs to 4,000 illegal settlement units which were built on Palestinian lands occupied in 1967. Israel will also hold sway over 8,000 dunums of Palestinian lands.
6 dec 2016
The Israeli Knesset approved late Monday the controversial settlement bill which would recognize West Bank settlement outposts built on Palestinian private lands.
The bill, passing with 60 voting in favor and 49 against, would see thousands of dunums of privately-owned Palestinian land seized and dozens of illegal Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank retroactively legalized.
However, the bill would not be applicable to Amona.
A clause demanding that the symbolic Amona outpost be retroactively legalized was removed from the bill, according to Israeli media sources.
Following the vote, the bill will be brought to a first reading in the Knesset on Tuesday.
The revised version allows the "state of Israel" to give settlers “usage rights” to privately-owned Palestinian land, but not ownership rights, while Palestinians who can prove ownership of land would receive “compensation,” according to the Hebrew daily Haaretz.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov reacted immediately to the passage of the bill, saying that the bill will annex parts of the West Bank to Israel.
Such steps would undermine any chance for peace, he added.
Human rights groups and international leaders have strongly condemned Israel’s settlement construction, saying it is a strategic maneuver to prevent the establishment of a contiguous, independent Palestinian state by changing the facts on the ground.
The bill, passing with 60 voting in favor and 49 against, would see thousands of dunums of privately-owned Palestinian land seized and dozens of illegal Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank retroactively legalized.
However, the bill would not be applicable to Amona.
A clause demanding that the symbolic Amona outpost be retroactively legalized was removed from the bill, according to Israeli media sources.
Following the vote, the bill will be brought to a first reading in the Knesset on Tuesday.
The revised version allows the "state of Israel" to give settlers “usage rights” to privately-owned Palestinian land, but not ownership rights, while Palestinians who can prove ownership of land would receive “compensation,” according to the Hebrew daily Haaretz.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov reacted immediately to the passage of the bill, saying that the bill will annex parts of the West Bank to Israel.
Such steps would undermine any chance for peace, he added.
Human rights groups and international leaders have strongly condemned Israel’s settlement construction, saying it is a strategic maneuver to prevent the establishment of a contiguous, independent Palestinian state by changing the facts on the ground.
5 dec 2016
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking ways to legitimize nearly 4,000 settlement units illegally built on Palestinian private lands in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli Channel 7 said a strategic deal is about to see the day as soon as a compromise will be reached between Netanyahu and Bayit Yehudi chairman Education Minister Naftali Bennett over the settlement bid.
The compromise will culminate in the legalization of 4,000 settlement units, along with dozens of other isolated houses.
A report broadcast by Channel 7 warned of underway attempts to sanction dozens of thousands of settlement buildings illegally built on Palestinians’ own lands.
The bid does not only seek to whitewash the illegal settlement in Amona outpost. 55 other outposts, comprising 797 settlement units built on 3,067 dunums of Palestinian lands, are also to take profit from the settlement-whitewash process.
The sought-after compromise will also bring about a legalization of 3,125 illegal settlement units established on Palestinian lands covering an overall area of 5,014 dunums.
A few days earlier, the Israeli legal adviser, under pressure from Netanyahu, ruled for the transfer of Amona settlement units to three nearby land lots on claims that they make part of absentee land property.
The Israeli Channel 7 said a strategic deal is about to see the day as soon as a compromise will be reached between Netanyahu and Bayit Yehudi chairman Education Minister Naftali Bennett over the settlement bid.
The compromise will culminate in the legalization of 4,000 settlement units, along with dozens of other isolated houses.
A report broadcast by Channel 7 warned of underway attempts to sanction dozens of thousands of settlement buildings illegally built on Palestinians’ own lands.
The bid does not only seek to whitewash the illegal settlement in Amona outpost. 55 other outposts, comprising 797 settlement units built on 3,067 dunums of Palestinian lands, are also to take profit from the settlement-whitewash process.
The sought-after compromise will also bring about a legalization of 3,125 illegal settlement units established on Palestinian lands covering an overall area of 5,014 dunums.
A few days earlier, the Israeli legal adviser, under pressure from Netanyahu, ruled for the transfer of Amona settlement units to three nearby land lots on claims that they make part of absentee land property.
3 dec 2016
Israeli Army Minister Avigdor Lieberman called Saturday for postponing outpost regulation bill vote until after U.S. newly elected President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Addressing the Saban Forum in Washington, Lieberman said that “the key to the future of the settlements is getting understandings with the U.S. on this issue.”
There is no peace with Palestinians, he said, holding PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the suspension of the peace process.
He pointed out that Abbas’s recent statements of the Palestinian right of return are not acceptable.
The Palestinian right of return means the end of Israeli state, he said.
Lieberman expressed hope that President-elect Donald Trump will play an active role in ending the war in Syria and will be very tough with Iran.
“We need an active America in the Middle East.”
The Brookings Institution’s annual Saban Forum, hosted by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban, has in the past provided a venue for top Israeli and American diplomats to appraise their challenges and to outline their vision for the Middle East.
Addressing the Saban Forum in Washington, Lieberman said that “the key to the future of the settlements is getting understandings with the U.S. on this issue.”
There is no peace with Palestinians, he said, holding PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the suspension of the peace process.
He pointed out that Abbas’s recent statements of the Palestinian right of return are not acceptable.
The Palestinian right of return means the end of Israeli state, he said.
Lieberman expressed hope that President-elect Donald Trump will play an active role in ending the war in Syria and will be very tough with Iran.
“We need an active America in the Middle East.”
The Brookings Institution’s annual Saban Forum, hosted by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban, has in the past provided a venue for top Israeli and American diplomats to appraise their challenges and to outline their vision for the Middle East.
A right-wing Knesset member intends to submit a “racist” bill calling for economically punishing families of Palestinian children and teenagers who are convicted of throwing stones and launching attacks against Israelis.
According to Walla news website, the bill, which was prepared by MK Miki Zohar (Likud), will be referred to the Knesset’s ministerial commission for legislation on Sunday in order to obtain approval for tabling it for vote by Knesset members.
Zohar claimed that making families responsible for their children’s actions is part of what he described as Israel’s fight against terrorism.
He also said that Israel should deprive families of Palestinian attackers of all national insurance allowances, including unemployment benefits, pensions and work-injury payments.
This new legislation is only aimed at the Palestinians. The Israeli authorities have never taken any punitive measures, such as demolition of homes, against Jewish families, whose relatives were convicted of attacking Palestinians.
According to Walla news website, the bill, which was prepared by MK Miki Zohar (Likud), will be referred to the Knesset’s ministerial commission for legislation on Sunday in order to obtain approval for tabling it for vote by Knesset members.
Zohar claimed that making families responsible for their children’s actions is part of what he described as Israel’s fight against terrorism.
He also said that Israel should deprive families of Palestinian attackers of all national insurance allowances, including unemployment benefits, pensions and work-injury payments.
This new legislation is only aimed at the Palestinians. The Israeli authorities have never taken any punitive measures, such as demolition of homes, against Jewish families, whose relatives were convicted of attacking Palestinians.
