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T. Galardi
Guest
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 Posted:
Fri Jul 01, 2005 2:15 pm Post subject:
Snipers with children in their sights |
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Snipers with children in their sights
Palestinian civilians have been killed by the army with impunity
Chris McGreal
Tuesday June 28, 2005
The Guardian
It was the shooting of Asma Mughayar that swept away any lingering doubts
I had about how it is the Israeli army kills so many Palestinian children
and civilians.
Asma, 16, and her younger brother, Ahmad, were collecting laundry from
the roof of their home in the south of the Gaza Strip in May last year
when they were felled by an Israeli army sniper. Neither child was armed
or threatening the soldier, who fired unseen through a hole punched in
the wall of a neighbouring block of flats.
Article continues
The army said the two were blown up by a Palestinian bomb planted to kill
soldiers. The corpses offered a different account. In Rafah's morgue,
Asma lay with a single bullet hole through her temple; her 13-year-old
brother had a lone shot to his forehead. There were no other injuries,
certainly none consistent with a blast.
Confronted with this, the army changed its account and claimed the pair
were killed by a Palestinian, though there was persuasive evidence
pointing to the Israeli sniper's nest. What the military did not do was
ask its soldiers why they gave a false account of the deaths or speak to
the children's parents or any other witnesses.
When reporters pressed the issue, the army promised a full investigation,
but a few weeks later it was quietly dropped. This has become the norm in
a military that appears to value protecting itself from accountability
more than living up to its claim to be the "most moral army in the
world".
As Tom Hurndall's parents noted yesterday after the conviction of an
Israeli sergeant for the manslaughter of their son, the soldier was put
on trial only because the British family had the resources to bring
pressure to bear. But there has been no justice for the parents of
hundreds of Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers.
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, the army has killed
1,722 Palestinian civilians - more than one-third of them minors - as
well as 1,519 combatants, since the intifada began nearly five years ago;
the comparable Israeli figures are 658 civilians killed - 17% minors -
along with 309 military. The army has investigated just 90 Palestinian
deaths, usually under outside pressure. Seven soldiers have been
convicted: three for manslaughter, none for murder.
Last month, a military court sentenced a soldier to 20 months in prison
for shooting dead a Palestinian man as he adjusted his TV aerial, the
longest sentence yet for killing a civilian, and less than Israeli
conscientious objectors have got for refusing to serve in the army.
B'Tselem argues that a lack of accountability and rules of engagement
that "encourage a trigger-happy attitude among soldiers" have created a
"culture of impunity" - a view backed by the New York-based Human Rights
Watch, which last week described many army investigations of civilian
killings as a "sham ... that encourages soldiers to think they can
literally get away with murder".
In southern Gaza, the killings take place in a climate that amounts to a
form of terror against the population. Random fire into Rafah and Khan
Yunis has claimed hundreds of lives, including five children shot as they
sat at their school desks. Many others have died when the snipers must
have known who was in their sights - children playing football, sitting
outside home, walking back from school. Almost always "investigations"
amount to asking the soldier who pulled the trigger what happened - often
they claim there was a gun battle when there was none - and presenting it
as fact.
The military police launched an investigation into the death of Iman al-
Hams last October only after soldiers went public about the circumstances
in which their commander emptied his gun into the 12-year-old. He was
recorded telling his men that the girl should be killed even if she were
three.
Colonel Pinhas Zuaretz was commander in southern Gaza two years ago when
I asked him about the scale of the killing. The colonel, who rewrote the
rules of engagement to permit soldiers to shoot children as young as 14,
acknowledged that official versions of several killings were wrong, but
justified the tactics as the price of the struggle for survival against a
second Holocaust.
Perhaps that view was shared by the soldier who shot dead three 15-year-
old boys, Hassan Abu Zeid, Ashraf Mousa and Khaled Ghanem, as they
approached the fortified border between Gaza and Egypt in April. The
military said the teenagers were weapons smugglers and therefore
"terrorists", and that the soldier shot them in the legs and only killed
them when they failed to stop.
The account was a fabrication. The teenagers were in a "forbidden zone"
but kicking a ball. Their corpses showed no evidence of wounds to disable
them, only single high-calibre shots to the head or back. The army
quietly admitted as much - but there would be no investigation.
chris.mcgreal@guardian.co.uk
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James Chamblee
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jul 01, 2005 3:57 pm Post subject:
Re: Snipers with children in their sights |
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T. Galardi at TGalardi@hotmail.com wrote
| Quote: | Snipers with children in their sights
Palestinian civilians have been killed by the army with impunity
Chris McGreal
Tuesday June 28, 2005
The Guardian
It was the shooting of Asma Mughayar that swept away any lingering doubts
I had about how it is the Israeli army kills so many Palestinian children
and civilians.
Asma, 16, and her younger brother, Ahmad, were collecting laundry from
the roof of their home in the south of the Gaza Strip in May last year
when they were felled by an Israeli army sniper. Neither child was armed
or threatening the soldier, who fired unseen through a hole punched in
the wall of a neighbouring block of flats.
|
One of the biggest U.S. mistakes in history was to support Israel. Israel
is a predatory imperialist nation, with no moral values. Almost every time
a Palestinian is killed or murdered, the weapon of death says "Made in USA"
on it.
Great PR for America. |
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Jean Smith
Guest
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Jerry Okamura
Guest
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| Posted:
Fri Jul 01, 2005 9:12 pm Post subject:
Re: Snipers with children in their sights |
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"T. Galardi" <TGalardi@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns968635CE01094TGalardi@63.218.45.254...
| Quote: | Snipers with children in their sights
Palestinian civilians have been killed by the army with impunity
Chris McGreal
Tuesday June 28, 2005
The Guardian
It was the shooting of Asma Mughayar that swept away any lingering doubts
I had about how it is the Israeli army kills so many Palestinian children
and civilians.
Asma, 16, and her younger brother, Ahmad, were collecting laundry from
the roof of their home in the south of the Gaza Strip in May last year
when they were felled by an Israeli army sniper. Neither child was armed
or threatening the soldier, who fired unseen through a hole punched in
the wall of a neighbouring block of flats.
|
Hou "young" was the younger brother? We know their age, do we know if they
looked their age, looked younger than their age, looked older than their
age?
| Quote: |
Article continues
The army said the two were blown up by a Palestinian bomb planted to kill
soldiers. The corpses offered a different account. In Rafah's morgue,
Asma lay with a single bullet hole through her temple; her 13-year-old
brother had a lone shot to his forehead. There were no other injuries,
certainly none consistent with a blast.
|
Pretty dumb statement to make. The corpses as the article points out, tells
what happened.
| Quote: |
Confronted with this, the army changed its account and claimed the pair
were killed by a Palestinian, though there was persuasive evidence
pointing to the Israeli sniper's nest. What the military did not do was
ask its soldiers why they gave a false account of the deaths or speak to
the children's parents or any other witnesses.
|
Who gave the false account, the soldier who fired the gun, or their
superiors. By reading this account, I did not read that the account was the
soldiers version of events.
| Quote: |
When reporters pressed the issue, the army promised a full investigation,
but a few weeks later it was quietly dropped. This has become the norm in
a military that appears to value protecting itself from accountability
more than living up to its claim to be the "most moral army in the
world".
|
What does the term "most moral army in the world" mean?
| Quote: |
As Tom Hurndall's parents noted yesterday after the conviction of an
Israeli sergeant for the manslaughter of their son, the soldier was put
on trial only because the British family had the resources to bring
pressure to bear. But there has been no justice for the parents of
hundreds of Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers.
|
Let me see. We are in WWII, both sides are killing not hundreds, but tens
of thousands of childen. Can I say "there was o justice for the parents of
these children killed by allied and axis powers?
| Quote: |
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, the army has killed
1,722 Palestinian civilians - more than one-third of them minors - as
well as 1,519 combatants, since the intifada began nearly five years ago;
the comparable Israeli figures are 658 civilians killed - 17% minors -
along with 309 military. The army has investigated just 90 Palestinian
deaths, usually under outside pressure. Seven soldiers have been
convicted: three for manslaughter, none for murder.
|
In a war where the Palestinian fighters are not wearing any acceptable form
of uniform, how do you separate a "combatant" for a "non combatant"? From
say any great distance, can you tell the difference between a young adult
and say a teenager? And how many non-combatants were killed during WWII? |
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