1 may 2018
Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan (L) ran over policeman Erez Levi and was shot
Chief prosecutor Nitzan closes investigation into police's conduct during riots in Bedouin community last year, states shooting of resident justified because cops subjectively felt threatened, inconclusive but also irrelevant whether ramming that claimed the life of policeman was intentional or not.
State Attorney Shay Nitzan announced Tuesday the closure of the investigation case into riots in the Bedouin community of Umm al-Hiran in January 2017, which claimed the lives of local resident Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan and policeman Erez Levi, and determined that there was "no reasonable doubt concerning criminality on the part of police officers."
The state prosecutor added that the question of whether Abu al-Qiyan had intended to carry out a terrorist attack could not be answered with a high degree of certainty, but that such a determination was unnecessary to decide whether to launch a criminal investigation against any of the officers involved.
In the incident at the heart of the matter took place on the night between January 17 and 18, 2017. Security forces were operating in the village to evacuate residences deemed to have been illegally constructed.
During the operation, officers feared that a driver that drew near to them—Abu al-Qiyan—was about to run them over, and therefore opened fire at him. He was hit, lost consciousness and his car ran over policeman Erez Levi. Abu al-Qiyan himself later succumbed to his wounds and passed away.
The police initially claimed the vehicle was traveling rapidly and without its headlights turned on, and insisted that the driver was a "terrorist active in the Islamic Movement, whose affiliation with the Islamic State was being examined."
Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan echoed the statement, quickly accusing that an "Islamic Movement terrorist raced at our forces in order to kill as many officers as he could before the evacuation began."
Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, for his part, said at the time, "I called the driver a 'terrorist' because all signs pointed to a car attack, and no findings contradicted that assumption."
The findings of a Police Internal Investigations Department's inquiry into the matter published a month a later, however, pointed to serious failings in the police's conduct during the incident, and found no evidence of Abu al-Qiyan's intentions to carry out a terror attack.
Moreover, the inquiry's findings showed with a high degree of likelihood that even the warning shots fired at him were not justified by any operational necessity. The inquiry also pointed at the supposedly disproportionate fire directed at the resident, which failed to take into account the positions of other officers on the scene—causing policemen to exchange friendly fire.
The Internal Investigations Department's inquiry began the day of the incident, Nitzan's statement said, and dealt both with the shooting directed at Abu al-Qiyan and the medical treatment he received thereafter.
The actions of the officers involved, State Attorney Nitzan said, which were purportedly motivated by a fear to their lives, were not beyond the realm of reason vis-à-vis legal justification to use firearms.
In his decision, the state attorney also commented on the question of whether Abu al-Qiyan hit the officer intentionally as part of a "terrorist attack" or merely lost control of his car after being fired upon.
"The collected investigative materials reflect certain inconclusive indications that could be taken both ways," he said. "Shin Bet, which canvassed the scene in the first hours following the incident, decided not to pursue the investigation while clarifying it could not determine whether the incident constituted an attack or not."
Nevertheless, the country's chief prosecutor forwarded to Commissioner Alsheikh and head of the police's disciplinary department several issues to be examined in a disciplinary context, including to review whether the force was adequately prepared for such a complex task, whether professional fault could be found in the shooting officers' conduct, whether medical attention the deceased received was faulty and certain changes and inconsistencies in the accounts of the officers involved.
'Police murdered Yaqoub'
Morad Abu al-Qiyan, a relative of the deceased, commented to say, "They can decide whatever they want. We're in a state of inequality. The incident left behind nothing but grief. We regret everything that happened and are certain it wasn't a terror attack, something both the state and police know as well."
The investigation, he concluded before thanking those who stood by his family's side, was meant simply as a cover.
Head of the Umm al-Hiran residents' committee Raad Abu al-Qiyan added, "We didn't expect much. The State Attorney's Office is part of the state and, unfortunately, did not reach the truth as far as the murder is concerned."
"Yaqoub was fired upon and left bleeding and wounded in the field. We will not relent and demand the investigation be reopened," he declared. "It doesn't stand to reason that no one is guilty. Cops acted improperly. I saw what happened, we saw how people were beaten up. It's racism, and the timing of the announcement will scuttle the evacuation agreement with residents."
"Police murdered Yaqoub," was his final conclusion.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked commented on the decision at an event in the northern region, and threw her support behind the State Attorney's Office's conclusions. "I know very thorough work was carried out in both Internal Investigations and the State Attorney's Office," she explained.
Nitzan himself participated in the event as well, and add, "We left no stone unturned because we wanted to be convinced every conceivable aspect was reviewed. At the end of the day, due to the matter's sensitivity, it was my own decision."
"We found no cause to charge any of the officers," he continued. "It's a regrettable incident, but the cops did their duty as they perceived it."
When asked about not ruling out the possibility it was a terror attack, Nitzan replied it was not his role to determine that. "It's also irrelevant to the question of whether the officers acted lawfully or not, because in their subjective perceptions they were of the opinion it was a terror attack, or at least that cannot be ruled out," he said.
Erdan: Incident should not leave gaping wound in society
Minister Erdan welcomed the State Attorney's Office's decision. "Now that it has been determined the officers acted impeccably, the Shin Bet and police investigation should be resumed and the public should be presented with all its findings, to avoid the events at Umm al-Hiran leaving a gaping wound in Israeli society," a statement on behalf of the minister said.
The Israel Police welcomed the State Attorney's Office's decision, according to which "the policeman acted lawfully and finding were wholly congruent with the initial inquiry on the field by the police."
Now that the Internal Investigation's inquiry concluded, the police added, it will be able to resume its own inquest into the matter.
Chief prosecutor Nitzan closes investigation into police's conduct during riots in Bedouin community last year, states shooting of resident justified because cops subjectively felt threatened, inconclusive but also irrelevant whether ramming that claimed the life of policeman was intentional or not.
State Attorney Shay Nitzan announced Tuesday the closure of the investigation case into riots in the Bedouin community of Umm al-Hiran in January 2017, which claimed the lives of local resident Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan and policeman Erez Levi, and determined that there was "no reasonable doubt concerning criminality on the part of police officers."
The state prosecutor added that the question of whether Abu al-Qiyan had intended to carry out a terrorist attack could not be answered with a high degree of certainty, but that such a determination was unnecessary to decide whether to launch a criminal investigation against any of the officers involved.
In the incident at the heart of the matter took place on the night between January 17 and 18, 2017. Security forces were operating in the village to evacuate residences deemed to have been illegally constructed.
During the operation, officers feared that a driver that drew near to them—Abu al-Qiyan—was about to run them over, and therefore opened fire at him. He was hit, lost consciousness and his car ran over policeman Erez Levi. Abu al-Qiyan himself later succumbed to his wounds and passed away.
The police initially claimed the vehicle was traveling rapidly and without its headlights turned on, and insisted that the driver was a "terrorist active in the Islamic Movement, whose affiliation with the Islamic State was being examined."
Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan echoed the statement, quickly accusing that an "Islamic Movement terrorist raced at our forces in order to kill as many officers as he could before the evacuation began."
Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, for his part, said at the time, "I called the driver a 'terrorist' because all signs pointed to a car attack, and no findings contradicted that assumption."
The findings of a Police Internal Investigations Department's inquiry into the matter published a month a later, however, pointed to serious failings in the police's conduct during the incident, and found no evidence of Abu al-Qiyan's intentions to carry out a terror attack.
Moreover, the inquiry's findings showed with a high degree of likelihood that even the warning shots fired at him were not justified by any operational necessity. The inquiry also pointed at the supposedly disproportionate fire directed at the resident, which failed to take into account the positions of other officers on the scene—causing policemen to exchange friendly fire.
The Internal Investigations Department's inquiry began the day of the incident, Nitzan's statement said, and dealt both with the shooting directed at Abu al-Qiyan and the medical treatment he received thereafter.
The actions of the officers involved, State Attorney Nitzan said, which were purportedly motivated by a fear to their lives, were not beyond the realm of reason vis-à-vis legal justification to use firearms.
In his decision, the state attorney also commented on the question of whether Abu al-Qiyan hit the officer intentionally as part of a "terrorist attack" or merely lost control of his car after being fired upon.
"The collected investigative materials reflect certain inconclusive indications that could be taken both ways," he said. "Shin Bet, which canvassed the scene in the first hours following the incident, decided not to pursue the investigation while clarifying it could not determine whether the incident constituted an attack or not."
Nevertheless, the country's chief prosecutor forwarded to Commissioner Alsheikh and head of the police's disciplinary department several issues to be examined in a disciplinary context, including to review whether the force was adequately prepared for such a complex task, whether professional fault could be found in the shooting officers' conduct, whether medical attention the deceased received was faulty and certain changes and inconsistencies in the accounts of the officers involved.
'Police murdered Yaqoub'
Morad Abu al-Qiyan, a relative of the deceased, commented to say, "They can decide whatever they want. We're in a state of inequality. The incident left behind nothing but grief. We regret everything that happened and are certain it wasn't a terror attack, something both the state and police know as well."
The investigation, he concluded before thanking those who stood by his family's side, was meant simply as a cover.
Head of the Umm al-Hiran residents' committee Raad Abu al-Qiyan added, "We didn't expect much. The State Attorney's Office is part of the state and, unfortunately, did not reach the truth as far as the murder is concerned."
"Yaqoub was fired upon and left bleeding and wounded in the field. We will not relent and demand the investigation be reopened," he declared. "It doesn't stand to reason that no one is guilty. Cops acted improperly. I saw what happened, we saw how people were beaten up. It's racism, and the timing of the announcement will scuttle the evacuation agreement with residents."
"Police murdered Yaqoub," was his final conclusion.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked commented on the decision at an event in the northern region, and threw her support behind the State Attorney's Office's conclusions. "I know very thorough work was carried out in both Internal Investigations and the State Attorney's Office," she explained.
Nitzan himself participated in the event as well, and add, "We left no stone unturned because we wanted to be convinced every conceivable aspect was reviewed. At the end of the day, due to the matter's sensitivity, it was my own decision."
"We found no cause to charge any of the officers," he continued. "It's a regrettable incident, but the cops did their duty as they perceived it."
When asked about not ruling out the possibility it was a terror attack, Nitzan replied it was not his role to determine that. "It's also irrelevant to the question of whether the officers acted lawfully or not, because in their subjective perceptions they were of the opinion it was a terror attack, or at least that cannot be ruled out," he said.
Erdan: Incident should not leave gaping wound in society
Minister Erdan welcomed the State Attorney's Office's decision. "Now that it has been determined the officers acted impeccably, the Shin Bet and police investigation should be resumed and the public should be presented with all its findings, to avoid the events at Umm al-Hiran leaving a gaping wound in Israeli society," a statement on behalf of the minister said.
The Israel Police welcomed the State Attorney's Office's decision, according to which "the policeman acted lawfully and finding were wholly congruent with the initial inquiry on the field by the police."
Now that the Internal Investigation's inquiry concluded, the police added, it will be able to resume its own inquest into the matter.
Israeli occupation authorities decided, on Sunday, to strip four Jerusalemite MPs of their permanent residency, under the pretext of not being loyal to Israel.
Lawyer Fadi al-Qawasmi said that Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri decided to revoke the residency of MPs Mohammed Abu Tir, Ahmad Attoun, and Mohammed Toutah, as well as that of the former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Khaled abu-Arafa.
In a statement, Al-Qawasmi said that the decision came after the Knesset approved a new bill, earlier in March, that allows the interior minister to strip any Jerusalemite of their residency rights if they are involved in “terrorism” or “anti-Israel acts”.
According to al-Qawasmi, the Israeli Supreme Court, in mid-September of 2017, overturned a decision to revoke the residency of the Jerusalemite MPs.
However, it decided to give the Israeli government a time limit to enact a law that gives the interior ministry the power to strip any Jerusalemite of residency.
The Palestinian lawyer described the bill as “unfair” and “illegal,” adding that it was applied retroactively. He affirmed that he will return to Israeli courts, to oppose the decision.
Palestinians in East Jerusalem, along with the Druze in the Syrian Golan Heights, are considered “residents” — not citizens — by Israeli authorities.
Revoking their residency, according to the new bill, means expelling them permanently from these territories.
In 2006, Israeli authorities confiscated the ID cards of the four Jerusalemite MPs, after detaining them upon participation in a protest in Occupied Jerusalem. They spent several months in Israeli jails before they were deported to the West Bank.
Lawyer Fadi al-Qawasmi said that Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri decided to revoke the residency of MPs Mohammed Abu Tir, Ahmad Attoun, and Mohammed Toutah, as well as that of the former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Khaled abu-Arafa.
In a statement, Al-Qawasmi said that the decision came after the Knesset approved a new bill, earlier in March, that allows the interior minister to strip any Jerusalemite of their residency rights if they are involved in “terrorism” or “anti-Israel acts”.
According to al-Qawasmi, the Israeli Supreme Court, in mid-September of 2017, overturned a decision to revoke the residency of the Jerusalemite MPs.
However, it decided to give the Israeli government a time limit to enact a law that gives the interior ministry the power to strip any Jerusalemite of residency.
The Palestinian lawyer described the bill as “unfair” and “illegal,” adding that it was applied retroactively. He affirmed that he will return to Israeli courts, to oppose the decision.
Palestinians in East Jerusalem, along with the Druze in the Syrian Golan Heights, are considered “residents” — not citizens — by Israeli authorities.
Revoking their residency, according to the new bill, means expelling them permanently from these territories.
In 2006, Israeli authorities confiscated the ID cards of the four Jerusalemite MPs, after detaining them upon participation in a protest in Occupied Jerusalem. They spent several months in Israeli jails before they were deported to the West Bank.
Palestinian detainees being locked up administratively, with neither charge nor trial, in Israeli jails have maintained their decision to boycott Israeli courts for the 76th consecutive day.
The prisoners started their strike in protest against their illegal detention, as well as due to the dramatic surge in the number of Palestinians sentenced administratively by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Human rights sources said the Israeli prison authorities threatened to bring the detainees before Israeli courts by force.
There are currently 450 Palestinian prisoners being held administratively in Israeli lock-ups, many among them have had their terms renewed without charge or trial. A number of detainees have been jailed under similar tags for terms that have reached up to 14 years.
In 2017 alone, 1,060 administrative detention sentences were issued by the occupation authorities against Palestinian prisoners, down from 1,742 in 2016.
The prisoners started their strike in protest against their illegal detention, as well as due to the dramatic surge in the number of Palestinians sentenced administratively by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Human rights sources said the Israeli prison authorities threatened to bring the detainees before Israeli courts by force.
There are currently 450 Palestinian prisoners being held administratively in Israeli lock-ups, many among them have had their terms renewed without charge or trial. A number of detainees have been jailed under similar tags for terms that have reached up to 14 years.
In 2017 alone, 1,060 administrative detention sentences were issued by the occupation authorities against Palestinian prisoners, down from 1,742 in 2016.
The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, has voted in favor of granting premier Benjamin Netanyahu the power to declare war solely with the approval of his army minister Avigdor Lieberman.
The vote on Monday amended a law which previously required the whole cabinet to vote on such a move, transferring that authority to Netanyahu and Lieberman.
The Knesset approved the amendment 62 to 41, allowing the two Israeli leaders to declare war in "extreme situations.”
The change was introduced by Netanyahu shortly before he gave a speech on Monday in which he claimed to have proof of Iran having secretly pursued a nuclear program.
The vote on Monday amended a law which previously required the whole cabinet to vote on such a move, transferring that authority to Netanyahu and Lieberman.
The Knesset approved the amendment 62 to 41, allowing the two Israeli leaders to declare war in "extreme situations.”
The change was introduced by Netanyahu shortly before he gave a speech on Monday in which he claimed to have proof of Iran having secretly pursued a nuclear program.
25 apr 2018
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Nadim Siam Nuwara, 17, was shot dead by an Israeli soldier on 15 May 2014
A soldier who killed a Palestinian teen has been praised as “excellent” and “conscientious” by an Israeli judge, who sentenced him to a mere nine months in prison. This conclusion to the trial of Ben Dery for the cold-blooded killing of 17-year-old Nadim Siam Nuwara is another all too predictable episode of how Israel’s military investigation system whitewashes crimes against Palestinians. “Despite clear and overwhelming video, spatial and sound forensic analysis showing Ben Dery intentionally killed Nuwara, he was charged with a lesser crime and a wilful killing was whitewashed into an accident,” Brad Parker, international advocacy officer for Defense for Children International Palestine, told The Electronic Intifada on Wednesday. “The lenient sentence announced today is not surprising and illustrates how pervasive and entrenched denial perpetuates impunity even where video evidence shows Israeli forces intentionally killing children.” Dery, a combatant in Israel’s paramilitary Border Police, was initially charged with manslaughter – already a lesser charge – in the slaying of Nuwara on 15 May 2014 – Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate their 1948 expulsion from much of their homeland. |
But that charge was reduced even further under a plea agreement to “negligence and causing severe bodily harm.”
“Excellent officer”
Israeli occupation authorities at first denied the use of live ammunition and tried to claim the video evidence was fabricated.
Michael Oren, who had been Israel’s ambassador in Washington and is now a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, even went on CNN to claim that Nuwara and another boy shot dead that day might not really be dead.
But Israeli authorities later indicted Dery with replacing the bullets in a magazine that was intended for rubber-coated bullets and blanks with live ammunition and then using his M-16 rifle to shoot Nuwara in the chest.
In imposing a sentence at the lower end of the guidelines on Wednesday, the Israeli judge described Dery as “an excellent police officer who was conscientious about orders.”
While the slaying of Palestinian children by Israeli occupation forces is a horrifyingly frequent occurrence – Israel has already killed 10 children this year – Nuwara’s case was notable for the amount of evidence available.
This video shows his slaying as captured by security cameras in the occupied West Bank village of Beitunia.
It shows that the boy was shot dead in cold blood, when he presented no possible danger to anyone.
The video also shows the slaying the same day at almost exactly the same spot and in similar circumstances of another boy, 16-year-old Muhammad Abu al-Thahir. He was fatally shot in the back, but no one was ever charged.
Following the killings, the multidisciplinary research group Forensic Architecture conducted a sophisticated analysis of video and other evidence and pinpointed the Israeli soldier who shot and killed Nuwara.
“Israeli justice”
“We are not surprised by the ridiculous sentence. As soon as the plea agreement was signed we knew that this was the direction,” Siam Nuwara, Nadim’s father, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Nuwara contrasted the light sentence received by his son’s killer to the 12-year sentence handed to Ahmad Manasra, who was accused at the age of 13 of attempted murder for allegedly helping his 15-year-old cousin attack a teenager and a man in an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem in October 2015.
“Meanwhile, Ben Dery who murders – and I am convinced that he intentionally committed murder – gets nine months and in the height of chutzpah I hear that they are considering appealing the severity of the sentence,” Siam Nuwara added.
Nuwara might also have contrasted the nine months received by Dery for taking the life of his child, with the only slightly shorter eight-month sentence meted out to child prisoner Ahed Tamimi for slapping and shoving heavily armed occupation soldiers invading her village.
Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian lawmaker in Israel’s parliament, compared the nine months received by Dery for killing a child with the two-year sentence a Palestinian citizen of Israel recently received for setting fire to a pile of garbage near his home because the local authority had consistently failed to pick it up.
“Israeli justice in 2018,” Tibi commented.
In September 2016, the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq stated [PDF] that “Since 1987, no Israeli soldier or commander has been convicted of willfully causing the death of a Palestinian in the [occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip].”
Since then there have been two convictions – both in high-profile cases where the slaying was captured on video.
Last year, Israeli army medic Elor Azarya received 18 months for the point blank execution in 2016 of injured, incapacitated Palestinian Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif in Hebron.
That sentence was later reduced by a third.
And now there is the mere nine-month sentence for the killer of Nadim Nuwara.
“My boy was murdered in cold blood and we did the autopsy which was for us as though he was murdered a second time, and all this did not convince the court,” Siam Nuwara told Haaretz. “That’s because in the final analysis we are dealing with an entire system that discriminates on the basis of race and arrives at decisions that are far from just.”
“Excellent officer”
Israeli occupation authorities at first denied the use of live ammunition and tried to claim the video evidence was fabricated.
Michael Oren, who had been Israel’s ambassador in Washington and is now a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, even went on CNN to claim that Nuwara and another boy shot dead that day might not really be dead.
But Israeli authorities later indicted Dery with replacing the bullets in a magazine that was intended for rubber-coated bullets and blanks with live ammunition and then using his M-16 rifle to shoot Nuwara in the chest.
In imposing a sentence at the lower end of the guidelines on Wednesday, the Israeli judge described Dery as “an excellent police officer who was conscientious about orders.”
While the slaying of Palestinian children by Israeli occupation forces is a horrifyingly frequent occurrence – Israel has already killed 10 children this year – Nuwara’s case was notable for the amount of evidence available.
This video shows his slaying as captured by security cameras in the occupied West Bank village of Beitunia.
It shows that the boy was shot dead in cold blood, when he presented no possible danger to anyone.
The video also shows the slaying the same day at almost exactly the same spot and in similar circumstances of another boy, 16-year-old Muhammad Abu al-Thahir. He was fatally shot in the back, but no one was ever charged.
Following the killings, the multidisciplinary research group Forensic Architecture conducted a sophisticated analysis of video and other evidence and pinpointed the Israeli soldier who shot and killed Nuwara.
“Israeli justice”
“We are not surprised by the ridiculous sentence. As soon as the plea agreement was signed we knew that this was the direction,” Siam Nuwara, Nadim’s father, told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Nuwara contrasted the light sentence received by his son’s killer to the 12-year sentence handed to Ahmad Manasra, who was accused at the age of 13 of attempted murder for allegedly helping his 15-year-old cousin attack a teenager and a man in an Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem in October 2015.
“Meanwhile, Ben Dery who murders – and I am convinced that he intentionally committed murder – gets nine months and in the height of chutzpah I hear that they are considering appealing the severity of the sentence,” Siam Nuwara added.
Nuwara might also have contrasted the nine months received by Dery for taking the life of his child, with the only slightly shorter eight-month sentence meted out to child prisoner Ahed Tamimi for slapping and shoving heavily armed occupation soldiers invading her village.
Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian lawmaker in Israel’s parliament, compared the nine months received by Dery for killing a child with the two-year sentence a Palestinian citizen of Israel recently received for setting fire to a pile of garbage near his home because the local authority had consistently failed to pick it up.
“Israeli justice in 2018,” Tibi commented.
In September 2016, the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq stated [PDF] that “Since 1987, no Israeli soldier or commander has been convicted of willfully causing the death of a Palestinian in the [occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip].”
Since then there have been two convictions – both in high-profile cases where the slaying was captured on video.
Last year, Israeli army medic Elor Azarya received 18 months for the point blank execution in 2016 of injured, incapacitated Palestinian Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif in Hebron.
That sentence was later reduced by a third.
And now there is the mere nine-month sentence for the killer of Nadim Nuwara.
“My boy was murdered in cold blood and we did the autopsy which was for us as though he was murdered a second time, and all this did not convince the court,” Siam Nuwara told Haaretz. “That’s because in the final analysis we are dealing with an entire system that discriminates on the basis of race and arrives at decisions that are far from just.”
Ben Deri
Ben Deri, who was convicted of negligent homicide after shooting dead 17-year-old Nadim Nuwara during Nakba Day clashes in Beitunia four years ago, gets prison time, ordered to pay NIS 50,000 in compensation to family under plea deal.
Border Policeman Ben Deri, who was convicted of the negligent homicide of 17-year-old Nadim Nuwara during Nakba Day clashes in Beitunia four years ago, was sentenced to nine months in prison on Wednesday.
The Jerusalem District Court also ordered Deri to pay the Palestinian teen's family NIS 50,000 in compensation.
Because the sentence includes time served, Deri will only have to spend seven months in prison.
Ben Deri, who was convicted of negligent homicide after shooting dead 17-year-old Nadim Nuwara during Nakba Day clashes in Beitunia four years ago, gets prison time, ordered to pay NIS 50,000 in compensation to family under plea deal.
Border Policeman Ben Deri, who was convicted of the negligent homicide of 17-year-old Nadim Nuwara during Nakba Day clashes in Beitunia four years ago, was sentenced to nine months in prison on Wednesday.
The Jerusalem District Court also ordered Deri to pay the Palestinian teen's family NIS 50,000 in compensation.
Because the sentence includes time served, Deri will only have to spend seven months in prison.
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Deri was initially charged with manslaughter, with the prosecution claiming he intentionally loaded a regular bullet into his rifle instead of a rubber one.
But as part of a plea deal reached with the Border Policeman, the indictment has been amended to claim the regular bullet was accidentally loaded into the rifle. During the sentencing hearings, Nuwara's father pleaded with Judge Daniel Teferberg to sentence Deri to a harsher punishment. "After Nadim, many others were killed or murdered, and their trial ended very fast. If Nadim had been the one to have killed Ben Deri, and if he had negligently killed him, would the court have treated Nadim the same way it |
has been treating Deri?" the father wondered.
"I lost my son, and I turned to the law... but I was surprised that after all of the evidence we submitted, the decision in the end was to convict of negligent homicide, and this caused a lot of problems for us. I'm asking that justice is served just once. At the end of the day, this is about killing innocent children," he continued.
Deri's attorney, Zion Amir, said following the sentencing that he was happy his client was cleared of the manslaughter charge, but he came out against the fact soldiers are prosecuted in such circumstances.
"I lost my son, and I turned to the law... but I was surprised that after all of the evidence we submitted, the decision in the end was to convict of negligent homicide, and this caused a lot of problems for us. I'm asking that justice is served just once. At the end of the day, this is about killing innocent children," he continued.
Deri's attorney, Zion Amir, said following the sentencing that he was happy his client was cleared of the manslaughter charge, but he came out against the fact soldiers are prosecuted in such circumstances.
