19 nov 2019
Solomon Tekah
The indictment states the defendant was pelted with stones by Solomon Tekah and 2 other teens and suffered a subchorionic hemorrhage, prompting him to fire off one bullet into the ground which ricocheted and killed the 19-year-old
An off-duty police officer who shot dead an Ethiopian teenager five months ago was charged with negligent homicide on Tuesday.
The shooting of Solomon Tekah in the Kiryat Haim neighborhood of Haifa took place on June 30 after the officer, who'd finished his shift, confronted Tekah and a number of his friends after he suspected them of stealing a cell phone.
The policeman claims that during the confrontation he found himself in mortal danger which prompted him to fire off his gun. He was later arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
The Police Internal Investigations Department said according to the findings of the investigation, the officer who confronted Tekah opened fire in the direction of the floor but the bullet ricocheted and hit the 19-year-old man, killing him.
The lawyer representing the Tekah family, Zion Amir, said they are disappointed with the decision and feel as if Solomon "was killed for the second time," but remain "restrained and noble."
“I am disappointed with the decision but determined to prove my innocence,” said the indicted officer in a statement. The officer has remained under house arrest since July while the investigation into the shooting continued.
As the decision was being announced, a group of at least a dozen demonstrators protested the charges, deeming them too lenient. They chanted “Solomon Tekah’s blood wasn’t spilt in vain,” and labeled Justice Minister Amir Ohana “a disgrace.”
"The decision was made after a thorough examination of the incident, including the fact that the officer opened fire not in accordance with police protocols he was well aware of, and did not take any other alternatives measures which were available to him,” said the Justice Ministry in a statement.
“We took into account the fact that the officer had stones hurled at him by the deceased, as well as other teenagers, and was hurt in the incident before he decided to reach for a gun,” said the statement. “But, after examining all the circumstances, we believe there is room for indictment.”
According to the indictment, the police officer arrived at a public park in Kiryat Haim with his wife and three young children on his day off. He noticed a 13-year-old boy giving money to two other teenagers, aged 14 and 16. He’d asked his wife to wait for him and approached the 13-year-old, who told him he gave the two other teens NIS 50.
The defendant then approached the two, told them he is a police officer and asked them to empty out their pockets, at which point Tekah joint the group and told the officer his police ID was fake.
“At this point, the two teens along with the deceased began cursing the officer and claimed the gun he had on him was fake,” said the indictment. “Fearing escalation, the officer decided to leave the area but the two teens along with the deceased began following him and threatening him.”
The officer made his way to the nearby parking lot where the three began pelting him with stones. The defendant was wounded in the incident and suffered a subchorionic hemorrhage. This prompted the officer to fire one bullet gun into the asphalt.
The death of the 19-year-old sparked widespread demonstrations across the country by Israelis of Ethiopian origin, where at least 111 officers and dozens of protesters were wounded, and 136 people were arrested.
The indictment states the defendant was pelted with stones by Solomon Tekah and 2 other teens and suffered a subchorionic hemorrhage, prompting him to fire off one bullet into the ground which ricocheted and killed the 19-year-old
An off-duty police officer who shot dead an Ethiopian teenager five months ago was charged with negligent homicide on Tuesday.
The shooting of Solomon Tekah in the Kiryat Haim neighborhood of Haifa took place on June 30 after the officer, who'd finished his shift, confronted Tekah and a number of his friends after he suspected them of stealing a cell phone.
The policeman claims that during the confrontation he found himself in mortal danger which prompted him to fire off his gun. He was later arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
The Police Internal Investigations Department said according to the findings of the investigation, the officer who confronted Tekah opened fire in the direction of the floor but the bullet ricocheted and hit the 19-year-old man, killing him.
The lawyer representing the Tekah family, Zion Amir, said they are disappointed with the decision and feel as if Solomon "was killed for the second time," but remain "restrained and noble."
“I am disappointed with the decision but determined to prove my innocence,” said the indicted officer in a statement. The officer has remained under house arrest since July while the investigation into the shooting continued.
As the decision was being announced, a group of at least a dozen demonstrators protested the charges, deeming them too lenient. They chanted “Solomon Tekah’s blood wasn’t spilt in vain,” and labeled Justice Minister Amir Ohana “a disgrace.”
"The decision was made after a thorough examination of the incident, including the fact that the officer opened fire not in accordance with police protocols he was well aware of, and did not take any other alternatives measures which were available to him,” said the Justice Ministry in a statement.
“We took into account the fact that the officer had stones hurled at him by the deceased, as well as other teenagers, and was hurt in the incident before he decided to reach for a gun,” said the statement. “But, after examining all the circumstances, we believe there is room for indictment.”
According to the indictment, the police officer arrived at a public park in Kiryat Haim with his wife and three young children on his day off. He noticed a 13-year-old boy giving money to two other teenagers, aged 14 and 16. He’d asked his wife to wait for him and approached the 13-year-old, who told him he gave the two other teens NIS 50.
The defendant then approached the two, told them he is a police officer and asked them to empty out their pockets, at which point Tekah joint the group and told the officer his police ID was fake.
“At this point, the two teens along with the deceased began cursing the officer and claimed the gun he had on him was fake,” said the indictment. “Fearing escalation, the officer decided to leave the area but the two teens along with the deceased began following him and threatening him.”
The officer made his way to the nearby parking lot where the three began pelting him with stones. The defendant was wounded in the incident and suffered a subchorionic hemorrhage. This prompted the officer to fire one bullet gun into the asphalt.
The death of the 19-year-old sparked widespread demonstrations across the country by Israelis of Ethiopian origin, where at least 111 officers and dozens of protesters were wounded, and 136 people were arrested.
The Palestinian killed by Israeli police on Sunday has been identified as Fares Bassam Abu Naab.
His father said that the circumstances and the position of the car completely contradict the narrative of the police, who claimed that they fired on the car during the chase.
The car was not hit with any bullets, however.
In addition, a cellphone video taken from an apartment above the street clearly shows the young man parking and exiting the vehicle. It then shows a heavily armed Israeli police officer running toward him, shooting him, then running back.
Abu Naab’s father said that his son was forced out of the car, and then he was shot. He said that what happened is clearly an execution, and that the police claim they want to do an autopsy. The family has refused the autopsy, and the Israeli police will be taking the family to court.
Abu Naab’s father also said that despite the fact he went to a number of police stations asking about his son, and was refused any information, later he was contacted by Mahash, the Israeli police investigatory unit for internal investigations.
Mahash confirmed the death of the son, and asked the father to come to the station to file a complaint and to agree to an autopsy.
The Wadi Hilwej Information Center in Silwan said that after the young man was killed, the Israeli police and soldiers invaded the area surrounding his home in Ras al-Moud neighborhood in Silwan, and fired gas bombs at the crowds that gathered.
His father said that the circumstances and the position of the car completely contradict the narrative of the police, who claimed that they fired on the car during the chase.
The car was not hit with any bullets, however.
In addition, a cellphone video taken from an apartment above the street clearly shows the young man parking and exiting the vehicle. It then shows a heavily armed Israeli police officer running toward him, shooting him, then running back.
Abu Naab’s father said that his son was forced out of the car, and then he was shot. He said that what happened is clearly an execution, and that the police claim they want to do an autopsy. The family has refused the autopsy, and the Israeli police will be taking the family to court.
Abu Naab’s father also said that despite the fact he went to a number of police stations asking about his son, and was refused any information, later he was contacted by Mahash, the Israeli police investigatory unit for internal investigations.
Mahash confirmed the death of the son, and asked the father to come to the station to file a complaint and to agree to an autopsy.
The Wadi Hilwej Information Center in Silwan said that after the young man was killed, the Israeli police and soldiers invaded the area surrounding his home in Ras al-Moud neighborhood in Silwan, and fired gas bombs at the crowds that gathered.
15 nov 2019
Sight of Jerusalem terror attack killing two soldiers in 2017
If successful the families say, they will have prevented funds from Hamas that could be used to launch terror attacks against more Israelis as well as bolster the organizations strength in controlling the Gaza Strip
Five Israeli families will file a law suit against Hamas in Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, seeking NIS 500,000,000 in damages from the terrorist organization in compensation for family members killed in terror attacks.
The families who were to be represented by Shurat HaDin, Israel Law Center, argue that financial ramifications may adversely affect the terror organization's ability to instigate terror attacks.
In a groundbreaking move, the families have added to their class action suit three money changers who have worked in the service of Hamas and facilitated the transfer of funds from Iran to the Gaza rulers.
"Make no mistake, Hamas are all terrorists," said Herzl Hajaj, father of Shir, a 22-year old soldier who was murdered in Jerusalem.
“This is a terror organization and we should not try to reach any (diplomatic) agreements with them."
He added: “It is vital to take financial measures against them as there is an entire monetary scheme in play making them a profit from killing Jews."
There is slim chance that the suit will be successful or that the compensation received will be anything other than very low. Yet the case is unique because of the three money changers, who have assets and bank accounts in the United States that have already been confiscated.
If the court finds in favor of the plaintiffs, legal action could be taken in the U.S. to claim those funds.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the head of Shurat HaDin who is representing the families said: “This is an ongoing battle but the only way to weaken these terror groups is to target their source of funding.
"Money is what allows Hamas to control the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, it allows their production of rockets and mortars and it allows them to maintain an army of killers ready to do their bidding.”
She also expressed the hope that by targeting “their funding channels, we may bring them down."
If successful the families say, they will have prevented funds from Hamas that could be used to launch terror attacks against more Israelis as well as bolster the organizations strength in controlling the Gaza Strip
Five Israeli families will file a law suit against Hamas in Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, seeking NIS 500,000,000 in damages from the terrorist organization in compensation for family members killed in terror attacks.
The families who were to be represented by Shurat HaDin, Israel Law Center, argue that financial ramifications may adversely affect the terror organization's ability to instigate terror attacks.
In a groundbreaking move, the families have added to their class action suit three money changers who have worked in the service of Hamas and facilitated the transfer of funds from Iran to the Gaza rulers.
"Make no mistake, Hamas are all terrorists," said Herzl Hajaj, father of Shir, a 22-year old soldier who was murdered in Jerusalem.
“This is a terror organization and we should not try to reach any (diplomatic) agreements with them."
He added: “It is vital to take financial measures against them as there is an entire monetary scheme in play making them a profit from killing Jews."
There is slim chance that the suit will be successful or that the compensation received will be anything other than very low. Yet the case is unique because of the three money changers, who have assets and bank accounts in the United States that have already been confiscated.
If the court finds in favor of the plaintiffs, legal action could be taken in the U.S. to claim those funds.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the head of Shurat HaDin who is representing the families said: “This is an ongoing battle but the only way to weaken these terror groups is to target their source of funding.
"Money is what allows Hamas to control the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, it allows their production of rockets and mortars and it allows them to maintain an army of killers ready to do their bidding.”
She also expressed the hope that by targeting “their funding channels, we may bring them down."
12 nov 2019
It has been a week of appalling abuses committed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank – little different from the other 2,670 weeks endured by Palestinians since the occupation began in 1967.
The difference this past week was that several entirely unexceptional human rights violations that had been caught on film went viral on social media.
One shows a Palestinian father in the West Bank city of Hebron leading his son by the hand to kindergarten. The pair are stopped by two heavily armed soldiers, there to help enforce the rule of a few hundred illegal Jewish settlers over the city’s Palestinian population.
The soldiers scream at the father, repeatedly and violently push him and then grab his throat as they accuse his small son of throwing stones. As the father tries to shield his son from the frightening confrontation, one soldier pulls out his rifle and sticks it in the father’s face.
It is a minor incident by the standards of Israel’s long-running belligerent occupation. But it powerfully symbolises the unpredictable, humiliating, terrifying and sometimes deadly experiences faced daily by millions of Palestinians.
A video of another such incident emerged last week. A Palestinian man is ordered to leave an area by an armed Israeli policewoman. He turns and walks slowly away, his hands in the air. Moments later she shoots a sponge-tipped bullet into his back. He falls to the ground, writhing in agony.
It is unclear whether the man was being used for target practice or simply for entertainment.
The reason such abuses are so commonplace is that they are almost never investigated – and even less often are those responsible punished.
It is not simply that Israeli soldiers become inured to the suffering they inflict on Palestinians daily. It is the soldiers’ very duty to crush the Palestinians’ will for freedom, to leave them utterly hopeless. That is what is required of an army policing a population permanently under occupation.
The message is only underscored by the impunity the soldiers enjoy. Whatever they do, they have the backing not only of their commanders but of the government and courts.
Just that point was underlined late last month. An unnamed Israeli army sniper was convicted of shooting dead a 14-year-old boy in Gaza last year. The Palestinian child had been participating in one of the weekly protests at the perimeter fence.
Such trials and convictions are a great rarity. Despite damning evidence showing that Uthman Hillis was shot in the chest with a live round while posing no threat, the court sentenced the sniper to the equivalent of a month’s community service.
In Israel’s warped scales of justice, the cost of a Palestinian child’s life amounts to no more than a month of extra kitchen duties for his killer.
But the overwhelming majority of the 220 Palestinian deaths at the Gaza fence over the past 20 months will never be investigated. Nor will the wounding of tens of thousands more Palestinians, many of them now permanently disabled.
There is an equally disturbing trend. The Israeli public have become so used to seeing YouTube videos of soldiers – their sons and daughters – abuse Palestinians that they now automatically come to the soldiers’ defence, however egregious the abuses.
The video of the father and son threatened in Hebron elicited few denunciations. Most Israelis rallied behind the soldiers. Amos Harel, a military analyst for the liberal Haaretz newspaper, observed that an “irreversible process” was under way among Israelis: “The soldiers are pure and any criticism of them is completely forbidden.”
When the Israeli state offers impunity to its soldiers, the only deterrence is the knowledge that such abuses are being monitored and recorded for posterity – and that one day these soldiers may face real accountability, in a trial for war crimes.
But Israel is working hard to shut down those doing the investigating – human rights groups.
For many years Israel has been denying United Nations monitors – including international law experts like Richard Falk and Michael Lynk – entry to the occupied territories in a blatant bid to stymie their human rights work.
Last week Human Rights Watch, headquartered in New York, also felt the backlash. The Israeli supreme court approved the deportation of Omar Shakir, its Israel-Palestine director.
Before his appointment by HRW, Shakir had called for a boycott of the businesses in illegal Jewish settlements. The judges accepted the state’s argument: he broke Israeli legislation that treats Israel and the settlements as indistinguishable and forbids support for any kind of boycott.
But Shakir rightly understands that the main reason Israel needs soldiers in the West Bank – and has kept them there oppressing Palestinians for more than half a century – is to protect settlers who were sent there in violation of international law.
The collective punishment of Palestinians, such as restrictions on movement and the theft of resources, was inevitable the moment Israel moved the first settlers into the West Bank. That is precisely why it is a war crime for a state to transfer its population into occupied territory.
But Shakir had no hope of a fair hearing. One of the three judges in his case, Noam Sohlberg, is himself just such a lawbreaker. He lives in Alon Shvut, a settlement near Hebron.
Israel’s treatment of Shakir is part of a pattern. In recent days other human rights groups have faced the brunt of Israel’s vindictiveness.
Laith Abu Zeyad, a Palestinian field worker for Amnesty International, was recently issued a travel ban, denying him the right to attend a relative’s funeral in Jordan. Earlier he was refused the right to accompany his mother for chemotherapy in occupied East Jerusalem.
And last week Arif Daraghmeh, a Palestinian field worker for B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, was seized at a checkpoint and questioned about his photographing of the army’s handling of Palestinian protests. Daraghmeh had to be taken to hospital after being forced to wait in the sun.
It is a sign of Israel’s overweening confidence in its own impunity that it so openly violates the rights of those whose job it is to monitor human rights.
Palestinians, meanwhile, are rapidly losing the very last voices prepared to stand up and defend them against the systematic abuses associated with Israel’s occupation. Unless reversed, the outcome is preordained: the rule of the settlers and soldiers will grow ever more ruthless, the repression ever more ugly.
The difference this past week was that several entirely unexceptional human rights violations that had been caught on film went viral on social media.
One shows a Palestinian father in the West Bank city of Hebron leading his son by the hand to kindergarten. The pair are stopped by two heavily armed soldiers, there to help enforce the rule of a few hundred illegal Jewish settlers over the city’s Palestinian population.
The soldiers scream at the father, repeatedly and violently push him and then grab his throat as they accuse his small son of throwing stones. As the father tries to shield his son from the frightening confrontation, one soldier pulls out his rifle and sticks it in the father’s face.
It is a minor incident by the standards of Israel’s long-running belligerent occupation. But it powerfully symbolises the unpredictable, humiliating, terrifying and sometimes deadly experiences faced daily by millions of Palestinians.
A video of another such incident emerged last week. A Palestinian man is ordered to leave an area by an armed Israeli policewoman. He turns and walks slowly away, his hands in the air. Moments later she shoots a sponge-tipped bullet into his back. He falls to the ground, writhing in agony.
It is unclear whether the man was being used for target practice or simply for entertainment.
The reason such abuses are so commonplace is that they are almost never investigated – and even less often are those responsible punished.
It is not simply that Israeli soldiers become inured to the suffering they inflict on Palestinians daily. It is the soldiers’ very duty to crush the Palestinians’ will for freedom, to leave them utterly hopeless. That is what is required of an army policing a population permanently under occupation.
The message is only underscored by the impunity the soldiers enjoy. Whatever they do, they have the backing not only of their commanders but of the government and courts.
Just that point was underlined late last month. An unnamed Israeli army sniper was convicted of shooting dead a 14-year-old boy in Gaza last year. The Palestinian child had been participating in one of the weekly protests at the perimeter fence.
Such trials and convictions are a great rarity. Despite damning evidence showing that Uthman Hillis was shot in the chest with a live round while posing no threat, the court sentenced the sniper to the equivalent of a month’s community service.
In Israel’s warped scales of justice, the cost of a Palestinian child’s life amounts to no more than a month of extra kitchen duties for his killer.
But the overwhelming majority of the 220 Palestinian deaths at the Gaza fence over the past 20 months will never be investigated. Nor will the wounding of tens of thousands more Palestinians, many of them now permanently disabled.
There is an equally disturbing trend. The Israeli public have become so used to seeing YouTube videos of soldiers – their sons and daughters – abuse Palestinians that they now automatically come to the soldiers’ defence, however egregious the abuses.
The video of the father and son threatened in Hebron elicited few denunciations. Most Israelis rallied behind the soldiers. Amos Harel, a military analyst for the liberal Haaretz newspaper, observed that an “irreversible process” was under way among Israelis: “The soldiers are pure and any criticism of them is completely forbidden.”
When the Israeli state offers impunity to its soldiers, the only deterrence is the knowledge that such abuses are being monitored and recorded for posterity – and that one day these soldiers may face real accountability, in a trial for war crimes.
But Israel is working hard to shut down those doing the investigating – human rights groups.
For many years Israel has been denying United Nations monitors – including international law experts like Richard Falk and Michael Lynk – entry to the occupied territories in a blatant bid to stymie their human rights work.
Last week Human Rights Watch, headquartered in New York, also felt the backlash. The Israeli supreme court approved the deportation of Omar Shakir, its Israel-Palestine director.
Before his appointment by HRW, Shakir had called for a boycott of the businesses in illegal Jewish settlements. The judges accepted the state’s argument: he broke Israeli legislation that treats Israel and the settlements as indistinguishable and forbids support for any kind of boycott.
But Shakir rightly understands that the main reason Israel needs soldiers in the West Bank – and has kept them there oppressing Palestinians for more than half a century – is to protect settlers who were sent there in violation of international law.
The collective punishment of Palestinians, such as restrictions on movement and the theft of resources, was inevitable the moment Israel moved the first settlers into the West Bank. That is precisely why it is a war crime for a state to transfer its population into occupied territory.
But Shakir had no hope of a fair hearing. One of the three judges in his case, Noam Sohlberg, is himself just such a lawbreaker. He lives in Alon Shvut, a settlement near Hebron.
Israel’s treatment of Shakir is part of a pattern. In recent days other human rights groups have faced the brunt of Israel’s vindictiveness.
Laith Abu Zeyad, a Palestinian field worker for Amnesty International, was recently issued a travel ban, denying him the right to attend a relative’s funeral in Jordan. Earlier he was refused the right to accompany his mother for chemotherapy in occupied East Jerusalem.
And last week Arif Daraghmeh, a Palestinian field worker for B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, was seized at a checkpoint and questioned about his photographing of the army’s handling of Palestinian protests. Daraghmeh had to be taken to hospital after being forced to wait in the sun.
It is a sign of Israel’s overweening confidence in its own impunity that it so openly violates the rights of those whose job it is to monitor human rights.
Palestinians, meanwhile, are rapidly losing the very last voices prepared to stand up and defend them against the systematic abuses associated with Israel’s occupation. Unless reversed, the outcome is preordained: the rule of the settlers and soldiers will grow ever more ruthless, the repression ever more ugly.
8 nov 2019
A video has surfaced online showing two Israeli soldiers shoving and cocking a gun in the face of a Palestinian father in the presence of his young son, causing outrage among Palestinian social media users.
The scuffle — which took place in the southern West Bank city of (Hebron) on Tuesday — starts with an Israeli soldier shouting at the man, saying that the child has been throwing rocks at the regime’s forces.
“Throwing rocks?! He’s five years old,” exclaimed the father.
“Yes, throwing rocks, all your friends are throwing rocks. I don’t care [how old he is],” the Israeli soldier replied.
Another Israeli soldier then joined in and both started shoving the Palestinian man. The man responded by saying “don’t raise your hands on me.”
One of the Israeli soldiers cocked and aimed his gun at the father’s face as he tried to move on with his child.
The incident, nonetheless, gained widespread attention, prompting Israeli authorities to claim that they were probing the incident.
This is not the first time that Israeli soldiers have been caught on camera assaulting Palestinians.
Just last week, footage emerged showing an Israeli police officer firing at an unarmed young Palestinian man as he was leaving the scene with his arms raised.
Israeli police claimed the incident had taken place roughly a year and a half ago and the officer had been arrested on suspicion of shooting the Palestinian man with a sponge-tipped bullet “as a dubious form of entertainment.”
Crimes perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians are rarely acknowledged by their authorities. Limited cases against Israeli forces are addressed in courts and are also known to result in very mild prison sentences.
In a notable case in 2017, the United Nations slammed a “lenient” 18-month prison sentence handed to Israeli Sergeant Elor Azaria who had killed a wounded Palestinian. The UN described the murder as an apparent “extrajudicial execution.”
Several human rights organizations have highlighted that the Israeli military purposely targets Palestinians with unnecessary lethal force, with one report saying that senior Israeli officials have encouraged forces “to unlawfully shoot to kill.”
The scuffle — which took place in the southern West Bank city of (Hebron) on Tuesday — starts with an Israeli soldier shouting at the man, saying that the child has been throwing rocks at the regime’s forces.
“Throwing rocks?! He’s five years old,” exclaimed the father.
“Yes, throwing rocks, all your friends are throwing rocks. I don’t care [how old he is],” the Israeli soldier replied.
Another Israeli soldier then joined in and both started shoving the Palestinian man. The man responded by saying “don’t raise your hands on me.”
One of the Israeli soldiers cocked and aimed his gun at the father’s face as he tried to move on with his child.
The incident, nonetheless, gained widespread attention, prompting Israeli authorities to claim that they were probing the incident.
This is not the first time that Israeli soldiers have been caught on camera assaulting Palestinians.
Just last week, footage emerged showing an Israeli police officer firing at an unarmed young Palestinian man as he was leaving the scene with his arms raised.
Israeli police claimed the incident had taken place roughly a year and a half ago and the officer had been arrested on suspicion of shooting the Palestinian man with a sponge-tipped bullet “as a dubious form of entertainment.”
Crimes perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians are rarely acknowledged by their authorities. Limited cases against Israeli forces are addressed in courts and are also known to result in very mild prison sentences.
In a notable case in 2017, the United Nations slammed a “lenient” 18-month prison sentence handed to Israeli Sergeant Elor Azaria who had killed a wounded Palestinian. The UN described the murder as an apparent “extrajudicial execution.”
Several human rights organizations have highlighted that the Israeli military purposely targets Palestinians with unnecessary lethal force, with one report saying that senior Israeli officials have encouraged forces “to unlawfully shoot to kill.”
