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Israel Defence Force Shoots Unarmed, Protesting Palestinian Civilian Villager ...
We dare say some will say the cartoon shown to the left is in pretty poor taste.
Some, we're sure, will even say it's sick.
So, we wonder what some will say when they watch the film footage set to follow shortly.
Rex, a regular reader, left a link in the comments' section of our previous blog-post.
It's remiss of us not to have thanked him and not to have highlighted his link somewhat sooner.
But better late than never. We're about to put things right. (Including altering location of incident - from Lebanon to Palestine - after verification of reliable [ MFI] source. See coments section).
First, here's a fair warning; what you may be about to watch could offend your sensibilities, because this isn't a cartoon.
This is/was real life in Palestine -- with the IDF.
Finally, Rex himself titled his link at the time of his posting, as shown below:
This video shows the IDF shooting an unarmed, protesting Palestinian villager.
N.B. Turn speakers on - give page time to load - click start-button on video player console - note left sided scroll bar.
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posted by Richard at Wednesday, August 16, 2006
9 Comments:
Thanks, Richard. If more people realised how little life seems to be worth to some, maybe more would review their own misguided beliefs. Including the so-called Christians currently holding such twisted views of the teaching of the man they say they follow - namely Jesus - the peacemaker.
Thanks Richard. Any suggestions how to spread the call for a boycott of Israel?
Hi Richard,
Thanks for alerting me to this over at my place. I hadn't in fact seen it. You need to do some rewriting :-)
A few points:
That's not in Lebanon.
That protest and shooting are at a place called Bil'in. It's a Palestinian village on the West Bank about (IIRC) 8 miles west of Ramallah.
Very much a Fatah stronghold IIRC at least one member of the PLC lives there.
It's been the scene of a lot of protests about the wall because the wall would cut it off from most of it's agricultural land again IIRC from something like 60-70% of it's surrounding land.
There's a Haredi (Ultra-orthodox) settlement nearby called Modi'in Illit who've taken over that land and claim they bought it legitmately. The villagers say otherwise.
The upshot of all of the above is that Bil'in has been the scene of protests every week and has attracted a fair bit of international attention. There've been a number of shootings of protesters there. Israeli authorities have also admitted the use of agents provocateurs at the demos.
A few technical points:
Yes it appears to be a clear example of excessive force.
The video itself is very heavily edited - I'd want to see the whole thing. It looks to me like there was a lot of stone throwing edited out. That's not as harmless as it sounds they use slings and fairly large stones. Nowhere near as bad as a rubber bullet or regular round but I can tell you from experience that they can inflict pretty severe injuries. - Two or three strikes and you're in hospital with a nasty head injury as I can testify.
The shooting - That's a mix of Israeli border police and regular troops you're seeing. The border police are IMO a bunch of thuggish muscle minded tank brains so not surprised. Especially not in the current climate. It looks to me like they were aiming rubber bullets at the head not at immediately over the left nipple which is where they're trained to shoot at. That can be fatal so a massive head injury leading perhaps to permanent severe brain damage would be entirely consistent with what we've been shown.
Nevertheless I'd want to see the whole thing before saying anything stronger than it appears to be a clear example of excessive force.
So none Israeli life is so cheap?
I saw tha man throw no stones before he was shot. Also the officer did nothing, not even second glance. I spit on them.
Mark, I bow to your 1st hand knowledge. Thanks for that.
Rex, I hope you realise Mark's expertise/local knowledge etc, and therfore why I've altered the location. Just the same, many thanks for finding it and letting everyone see.
Anon, some big sites {and smaller blogs} were picking this boycott up and running with it. I'll have to check around again, though I think someone here gave some links a while back. Maybe they'll remind us. Over & above that many have begun personal boycots, including my own family.
Hem, sadly in far too many places life certainly seem to be cheap, or is seen to be by some.
Richard you're welcome.
Hem you need to learn to read what is being said.
I did not say that the injured man was throwing stones I said that it appeared that stones were being thrown. That stones were being thrown is very clear even from the very heavily edited video. I also very clearly said that even from the very heavily edited video that it appeared that the injured man was injured by a deliberately aimed headshot.
"It looks to me like they were aiming rubber bullets at the head not at immediately over the left nipple which is where they're trained to shoot at. That can be fatal so a massive head injury leading perhaps to permanent severe brain damage would be entirely consistent with what we've been shown."
Richard wanted a technical opinion from somebody experienced in peacekeeping. That's what he got. The facts visible even from that very heavily edited video are both clear and bad enough for me not to waste time by engaging in polemics that's something I leave to others.
No argument from me Richard and Mark, I take your word for it. I said Lebanon in all good faith as that's what I was led to believe originally. I still find it an appaling [re]action though.
Sadly you're right and apalling ain't the half of it Rex. I expect Israel to swing hard right politically over the next few months in reaction to their defeat in Lebanon.
As part of that I expect them to behave with great brutality against the Palestinians in the occupied territories. What's going on in at the moment is largely hidden from view while everybody focusses on Lebanon and its aftermath. Which is why getting videos and other information like this is so important. I don't see any relief coming for the Palestinians in the near to intermediate future. I wish I could see it but I can't.
There's always more bad news than folk can keep up with, and that's just how "they" like to keep it. The more crimes "they" commit the easier it is to get away with each one. Folk can't keep up with it all so they switch off.
I should say "some" folk.
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