UN-Truth

The Israeli Military Advocate General announced on 15 July that a “special military court handed down the verdict in the case of a shooting of a rubber bullet towards a Palestinian demonstrator. In its verdict the court has convicted Lieutenant Colonel B for the offence of attempt of threats and of conduct unbecoming. And Staff Sergeant K was convicted of illegal use of weapon and conduct unbecoming”. This is posted here.

Now the question is what will the sentences be?

UPDATE: The Haaretz headline read: “IDF convicts commander, soldier in shooting of bound Palestinian — Lt. Col. Omri Burberg was filmed holding the blindfolded prisoner and ordering his soldier, Staff Sgt. Leonardo Korea, to fire a rubber bullet his leg in Na’alin two years ago”.

According to the Haaretz report: “Burberg arrested Ashraf Abu Rahme on July 7, 2008 for his ‘involvement in disrupting the peace’. The prisoner was taken to the entry of the village, where he was bound and his eyes were covered. Burberg, who had known Abu Rahme because of his role in previous demonstrations, allegedly said: ‘Now you will stop demonstrating against the IDF’. Abu Rahme responded in Arabic, which suggests he might not understand Hebrew.
The officer suspected that Abu Rahme was lying, and turned to Korea, a soldier on his staff, and asked him: ‘What do you say – should we take him aside and shoot him with a rubber [bullet]?’ Korea said in response: ‘I have no problem to shoot him with a rubber [bullet]‘. Burberg stood the prisoner on his feet, led him to a nearby jeep and told L. to prepare a rubber bullet. ‘I already have one in the barrel’, L. responded. At that point, L. aimed at the Palestinian’s foot and fired a rubber bullet from a very short range. Burberg allegedly pushed the soldier and shouted at him for shooting a bound prisoner. L. said he thought he had received an order to shoot. ‘As a result of the shooting, Abu Rahme suffered superficial injuries on his left toe, was treated by a medic and did not require further care’, the chief prosecutor, Colonel Liron Liebman, wrote in the original indictment”. This Haaretz article can be read in full here.

Abu Rahme fainted dead away from sheer terror.

The Jerusalem Post reported, here, that “Lt.-Col. Omri Burbag, commander of Armored Battalion 71, was caught on video leading the
blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian to a military jeep, where the soldier was then seen raising his weapon and discharging a shot. The soldier claimed that Burbag had ordered him to fire, but the officer told investigators that all he had told the soldier to do was ’shake his gun’ to scare the detainee. The prisoner was wounded in his foot. Burbag had initially been charged by Military Advocate- General Brig.-Gen. Avichai Mandelblit with inappropriate military conduct, a lesser charge, which prompted
human rights groups to petition the High Court of Justice. Mandelblit added threats and behavior unbefitting a commander to the charge sheet, and he was convicted of these on Thursday. On Thursday, the judges wrote in their decision that Burbag’s conduct constituted a serious deviation from IDF norms and values. ‘This detracts from the standing of the IDF, its commanders and soldiers’, the judges wrote in their decision”.

Filed under: Human Rights, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians