[wvns] Mohammed al-Dura lives on
Mohammed al-Dura lives on
By Gideon Levy
Ha'aretz
Oct 7, 2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/909972.html
The concern Israel demonstrates for the fate of one Palestinian boy
touches the heart: Again, note what a fuss is being made about the
case of the killing of Mohammed al-Dura. Our heart is impervious to
the fate of other children who have been killed. Just little Mohammed
continues to haunt us. But the question of who killed al-Dura is not
important. And maybe he is even alive, as some eccentrics claim.
Perhaps he committed suicide, as the strange investigations are liable
to suggest.
All of these are tasteless questions designed to divert attention from
the truly important issues: According to data collected by human
rights group B'Tselem, Israel is responsible for killing more than 850
Palestinian children and teenagers since al-Dura was killed, including
92 in the past year alone. Last October, we killed 31 children in
Gaza. This is what should have raised a storm and not the measurements
by the former head of the Israel Defense Forces' Southern Command, Yom
Tov Samiyeh, aimed at proving that his soldiers did not kill al-Dura,
or the "investigations" by the physicist Nahum Shahaf. In an eccentric
obsession, Shahaf has devoted the past years to this affair, after
previously having also obtained "amazing material" on the murder of
Yitzhak Rabin.
Al-Dura refuses to step down from the stage because he has become an
icon of the Palestinian struggle and a symbol of Israeli brutality. A
thousand Nahum Shahafs will not succeed in blurring the unequivocal
fact that a scandalous killing of children is taking place in the
territories.
Even if the director of the Government Press Office, Danny Seaman, is
right in determining that the film made by the reliable and
experienced French journalist Charles Enderlin was "staged," and even
if he succeeds in clearing Israel from responsibility for this
killing, what will we say about the other children who have been
killed? That their killing was also "staged?" That the IDF did not
kill them through carelessness and contempt for their lives; by being
trigger-happy and even acting with premeditation? If Israel were
really interested in improving its "public relations," it would
embrace the al-Dura family instead of all the foolish investigations.
It would provide compensation to the family and show the world that it
is truly and sincerely sorry about the death of one child.
The question of who killed al-Dura is like the question of what Joseph
Trumpeldor mumbled before his death. The myth in both cases is already
stronger than any investigation. Al-Dura became a symbol because his
killing was documented on videotape. All the other hundreds of
children were killed without cameras present, so no one is interested
in their fate. If there had been a camera in Bushara Barjis' room in
the Jenin refugee camp while she was studying for a pre-matriculation
test, we would have a film showing an IDF sniper firing a bullet at
her head. If there had been a photographer near Jamal Jabaji from the
Askar camp, we would see soldiers emerging from an armored jeep and
aiming their weapons at the head of a child who threw stones at them.
But these children did not become symbols; there are no stamps bearing
their portraits, no streets named after them and no songs composed for
them as with al-Dura because they were not filmed at the time of their
deaths.
Al-Dura became a symbol because every struggle needs a symbol, a
shrine for the masses of dead and the anonymous heroes. The assumption
that the IDF soldiers firing at Palestinians at the Netzarim junction
killed the boy cradled in his father's arms exactly seven years ago is
the most reasonable one. As far as we can remember, there has been no
other case in which Palestinians fired at the IDF and hit a
Palestinian child.
But even if there is some doubt, it is certain that the IDF has killed
and is killing children. So this ridiculous focus on who killed
al-Dura, a question that will never be resolved, is no more than a
tempest in a putrid teapot. There should be a tempest, a great and
mighty one, but one focused on an entirely different issue: Why is the
IDF continuing to kill children at such a frightening pace, and why
doesn't Israel take responsibility for this and compensate the
families of those killed? But no one is conducting "investigations"
about this.
===
Israeli army raids refugee camp
Associated Press (Nablus)
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070026515&ch=9/18/2007%201:56:00%20PM
One Palestinian youth was killed on Tuesday when Israeli troops raided
a West Bank refugee camp before dawn, Palestinian residents said.
The army said troops were involved in exchanges of fire and
encountered stone-throwing riots in their search for militants in the
Ein Beit Ilmeh camp in the centre of Nablus.
Palestinian residents said one youth, was killed in the shooting.
Palestinian witnesses said some Israeli soldiers were wounded in an
explosion. The Israeli army said one soldier was lightly injured.
Residents as shields
Witnesses claimed that soldiers used a resident as a shield as they
moved house to house to search of suspected militants.
The army did not immediately comment on the charge.
Israel's Supreme Court has ruled the practice is illegal. The army
says it has respected the ruling.
But Palestinians and human rights groups say that in some cases the
army has continued to use civilians as ''human shields'' during
operations in crowded urban areas.
Troops imposed a curfew in the crowded camp of 5,000 and searched from
house to house, knocking down walls to get from one building to the
next, witnesses said.
The Israeli army frequently raids Palestinian areas of the West Bank,
especially in Nablus since it is known as a hotbed of anti-Israeli
activity.
===
Footage of Israeli Soldiers Beating Palestinian Children
Fadi, KABOBfest
The Israeli Apartheid Force is undoubtedly the most cowardly army in
the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bdbA2Ka3Bo
Ramallah, 19-08-07: Footage captured by an independent American
filmmaker on Wednesday 15 August, showing Israeli soldiers beating,
spitting on and throwing stones at three Palestinian children offers
yet further proof that Israel's 543 permanent and 610 'flying'
checkpoints "are sites of systematic torture and human rights
violations against Palestinian civilians", said veteran human rights
activist, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP at a press conference held in
Ramallah today.
The footage was captured at the Ras at-Tira checkpoint in the
Qalqiliya District, and shows the three children attempting to cross
the checkpoint in a horse cart when they are stopped by two Israeli
soldiers. The female soldier is clearly shown beating the boys before
spitting on them and sending them back the way they came. Her male
colleague is then seen picking up stones from the ground and throwing
them at the children as they drive away.
Dr. Barghouthi said the beatings were reminiscent of the physical
assault of 18-year old university student Mohammad Jabali by Israeli
soldiers near the notorious Huwwara checkpoint in Nablus on 18 March
2007. Four Israeli soldiers punched and kicked Jabali in the face,
head and genitals, causing bleeding and a blood clot in his right
testicle. Jabali was forced to undergo surgery and to have part of
the testicle removed.
source:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m35516&hd=&size=1&l=e
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