Israeli District Attorney orders reopening of investigation into shooting of Tristan Anderson

In response to an appeal, the Israeli District Attorney has reportedly today ordered the police to reopen their investigation into the shooting that critically injured American activist, Tristan Anderson, during an anti-Wall protest in the West Bank village of Ni’ilin on March 13th, 2009.

Anderson was hit in the face by a high velocity tear gas projectile shot by an Israeli Border Police officer. He was hospitalized for more than a year in Israel, and has just returned to the U.S. with irreversible brain damage.

The case was closed earlier this year on grounds of “lack of wrongdoing”.

The appeal, filed on behalf of Anderson’s family by attorneys Michael Sfard and Ido Tamari, argued that an independent investigation showed that the original police investigation was “fundamentally flawed and negligent”.

UPDATE: On 24 June, Israel’s YNet website posted an AP story reporting that “On Thursday, Justice Ministry spokesman Ron Roman said police have been asked to investigate selected aspects of the case”. This is posted here.

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U.S. "demands" IDF probe

Haaretz reported today that “The United States embassy has demanded an investigation into how an American citizen lost her eye last week at the Qalandiyah checkpoint after being struck by a tear gas grenade”.

I would guess that “demanded” might be too strong a word.

[Later, I noticed that the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, JTA, used the probably-more-accurate verb “requested”…]

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