Haaretz is reporting today that the IDF’s Military Advocate General (MAG) Avichai Mandelblit has just ordered the army’s criminal investigations unit to investigate the death of Basem Abu Rahmeh (Bassem Abu Rahma), one of the leaders of a protest movement against Israel’s Wall in Bil’in village west of Ramallah.
Basem Abu Rahmeh was killed in April 2009, minutes after being hit in the chest by a high-velocity tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops.
The Israeli military had previously decided not to investigate his death.
Though he was standing on a hill, and was clearly not one of the few protesters who is down by the fence, challenging the Israeli Border Police and/or IDF soldiers, Basem was shot in the chest by a new type of hardened, extended range, high-velocity (“rocket”) tear-gas canister, which goes straight to the target instead of arching up into the air first. It is is said to move as fast as live ammunition. He died minutes later.
According to one report, here, “Seconds before the shooting, Basem had been pleading with the soldiers to hold their fire, shouting ‘we are in a nonviolent protest, there are kids and internationals’.” The same source noted that “The teargas projectile in question is the same kind that critically injured American national Tristan Anderson at a demonstration in Ni’lin on the 13th of March, after he was hit in the head from approx. 60 meters”.
According to Haaretz, “The Military Advocate General had refused to open a criminal investigation into the death of Bassem Abu-Rahma, but on Monday changed its mind after expert testimony showed that the tear gas canister was aimed directly at Abu-Rahma and was fired in violation of military orders”…
The Haaretz report continued: “The Israel Defense Forces first said Abu-Rahma was in a group of Palestinians hurling rocks at troops. But video footage showed him shouting, not throwing rocks, when he was shot. Video footage filmed during the April 2009 protest against the separation fence in the Palestinian village of Bil’in also showed IDF troops firing tear gas canisters directly at demonstrators while in the presence of commanding officers … The original decision not to investigate Abu-Rahma’s death ignored the video footage and relied on IDF solders’ testimony that the tear gas canister hit wire along the separation fence and then ricocheted, striking Abu-Rahma. However, experts said that had the soldier who fired the canister followed IDF instructions, it would have landed hundreds of meters past where Abu-Rahma was standing”.
“This should have happened on the day [he was killed]”, Ahmed Abu-Rahma, the victim’s brother, told Haaretz. He accused the army of trying to cover up what happened. Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem told Haaretz that she believed there was no justification for the army taking 15 months to investigate the death, which she said was recorded on three video cameras. Yesh Din legal adviser Michael Sfard was reportedly just about to file a case against the military when the decision to open an investigation was announced. This Haaretz report is published here.
Here is a Youtube video compiled by BTselem of Israeli soldiers in three West Bank villages (Bil’in, Nil’in and Jayous) in 2008 and 2009, “firing teargas canisters directly at protesters contrary to orders”:
Meanwhile, Israeli photographer and activist Joseph Dana reported on his Ibn Ezra blog that another resident of Bil’in from the same family, Adeeb Abu Rahma [Abu Rahmeh], arrested in Bil’in on July 10, 2009 while taking part in one of the weekly Friday protests, was sentenced last week [on 7 July 2010] in Ofer military prison “to one year in prison which he had already served. Israeli military prosecutors quickly filed an appeal against the verdict, calling it ‘too lenient’ and asking that Abu Ramha remain in custody until the appeal process is finished … Amnesty International has said in a recent statement regarding Abu Rahma’s case that, ‘The broad scope of Israeli military orders mean that Adeeb Abu Rahma could be imprisoned solely for legitimately exercising his right to freedom of expression in opposing Israeli policies in the West Bank… If this is the case, we would regard him as a prisoner of conscience who should be released immediately and unconditionally’ … Like Adeeb, hundreds of Palestinian Gandhis are brought before draconian Israeli military tribunals each year, only to face long sentences that nearly ensure that the world will never learn their names … The American media has largely ignored the widespread unarmed Palestinian campaign of resistance, preferring to cover continued Israeli defiance over the creation of new settlements throughout the West Bank. If it were to examine Abu Ramha’s case, the mainstream American press would quickly discover a truly Kafkaesque system of laws governing the Palestinian population in the West Bank which contradict Israel’s bluster about upholding democratic values in a sea of tyranny. Indeed, the creation of settlements is less of issue than the maintenance required to control the Palestinian population. Instead of focusing on the settlement issue as the main threat to the so-called peace process, the Obama administration should begin establishing some degree of justice for average Palestinians. The White House could start by denouncing the increasing repression of grassroots unarmed Palestinian resistance”. This is posted here.
The Bil’in village website reports that Adeeb Abu Rahma was sentenced to “twelve months of imprisonment, a fine and twelve more months of suspended sentence”. This is posted here
Several months ago, the Israeli military, which controls the West Bank, declared Bil’in a closed military zone every Friday, from 8wam to 8pm, prohibiting everyone who is not a resident of the village from being there during those hours. The anti-Wall demonstrations are normally held in the afternoon hours after the mid-day Friday prayers.