Mackey writes: "An Israeli soldier was arrested on Thursday after a rights group published clear video images of him shooting a wounded, immobilized Palestinian suspect in the head following a knife attack in the West Bank city of Hebron earlier in the day."
Israeli troops. (photo: AP)
Israeli Rights Group Releases Video of Soldier Executing Wounded Palestinian Suspect
25 March 16
n Israeli soldier was arrested on Thursday after a rights group published clear video images of him shooting a wounded, immobilized Palestinian suspect in the head following a knife attack in the West Bank city of Hebron earlier in the day.
The graphic, distressing video was posted online by B�Tselem, an Israeli group that provides cameras to Palestinians to help them document human rights abuses in the West Bank territory that has been under military rule since Israel first occupied it in 1967.
As the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports, the video was recorded just after another soldier was stabbed and moderately wounded at a checkpoint in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron�s Old City, and two Palestinian suspects were killed, including the one who was shot in the video.
According to Ma�an News Agency in Bethlehem, the dead men were identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, 21, and Abed al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif, 21.
In a statement accompanying the video, B�Tselem explains that the video recorded by �Emad abu-Shamsiyah, a Hebron resident, shows al-Sharif lying on the road injured, with none of the soldiers or medics present giving him first aid or paying him any attention at all.�
About 18 seconds into the clip, al-Sharif can be seen clearly moving his head as he lies sprawled on his back. 90 seconds later, an Israeli soldier cocks his rifle, steps forward and fires a single shot at the wounded man from point-blank range. Moments later, a clear trail of blood can be seen streaming from the man�s head across the pavement.
Several Palestinian and Israeli observers were struck by the fact that no one around the soldier who fired the shot seemed to treat the incident as unusual � suggesting that such extrajudicial killings of suspected attackers have now become �routine,� as critics have charged.
Asked to comment on the video evidence, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, confirmed in an email to The Intercept that the army took it to be genuine. �The IDF views this incident as a grave breach of IDF values, conduct and standards of military operations,� he wrote. �A Military Police investigation has commenced and the soldier involved has been detained. All of the soldiers involved will be investigated as will the orders given.�
Similarly graphic still images and a second video posted online suggested that the other suspect, al-Qasrawi, was also shot in the head.
Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Joint List of predominantly Arab parties in Israel�s parliament, wrote on Twitter: �Israel has turned in recent months into a place in which executions are carried out in public with the encouragement of cheering mobs.�
B�Tselem, which has repeatedly raised the alarm about the shooting of wounded suspects, said that the authorities were to blame for excusing previous incidents that were less clearly documented. �Extrajudicial street killings are the direct consequence of inflammatory remarks made by Israeli ministers and officials, augmented by the general public atmosphere of dehumanization,� the group wrote.
The rights group, and another called Breaking the Silence, which documents the excessive use of force by Israel�s military in the occupied territories, has been heavily criticized in recent months by officials and Israeli nationalists for supposedly undermining the state by pointing out abuses.
In the aftermath of Thursday�s incident, the Haaretz correspondent Barak Ravid observed that this unfiltered view of what goes on in areas of the West Bank controlled by Israel�s military made it quite clear why such groups were needed.
As another Israeli journalist, Mairav Zonszein, noted, before video of the shooting came to light on Thursday, prominent settlers in Hebron were photographed mocking activists from Breaking the Silence by dressing like them for the Jewish holiday of Purim.
Israeli soldiers are in Hebron in large numbers to protect several hundred Jewish settlers who live in the center of the city of nearly 200,000 Palestinians. Last week, the Israeli columnist Gideon Levy suggested that American legislators who support Israel�s occupation of the West Bank should visit the city to see the appalling circumstances imposed on its Palestinian majority. �I�ve never met an honest human being who went to Hebron and didn�t come back shocked,� he said.
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You, the longtime 'Independent', do most certainly have a great chance to, via huge turnouts, 1. get the nomination, and 2. get elected in '16. You are the real McCoy change we so desperately need - our current only hope of avoiding a bloody revolution, because it's true...
SANDERS PANDERS NOT, TO THE 1%
I would like to see Bernie woo THIS truly awesome woman: Jessica Tuchman Mathews, daughter of self-taught two-time Pulitzer historian Barbara Tuchman, whose very insightful books focused on what she referred to as we men's "wooden-headedn ess." Tuchman's book, The Guns of August (1914), detailed the male dominant insanity that sparked World War One. It probably saved our planet in 1962: JFK had read it, and during the American Missile Crisis (we started it with missiles in range of Moscow) when advisers were advocating a nuclear first strike, he slammed copies of it on their desks.
Check out Jessica Mathews' AWESOME resume in her Wiki bio. Mentioned last, but certainly not least, she is on the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group - the Best of the West All Stars who created Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and chose Barak over Hillary in 2008 when they both were summoned to a Bilderberg meeting in Alexandria, VA. Two days later, Hillary withdrew her candidacy. Highlight and right click links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Mathews
Portraits of Bilderberg Members:
http://www.danielestulin.com/wp-content/uploads/portraits_bilderberg.pdf
If the middle class doesn't pull out of it's nose-dive NOW, it will crash and burn in just 3-4 years, and that doesn't serve the purposes of the power elite, who only want it's suppression, not it's disintegration. It took two full generations to create the American middle class in the first half of the 20th century, and it will take two full generations to restore it... it is a long row to hoe, but the hoeing has to start NOW, and the power elite actually knows, this, I believe.
Jimmy Carter foolishly depended upon his "Georgia Mafia" advisers and Washington chewed them all up and spit them out in one term. Lincoln was wiser, bringing his opponents into his admin and thru the force of his mind made them STATESMEN.
Most Bilderbergers are quite familiar with, and are probably deeply invested in, the very successful Social Democratic Northern European nations that Bernie admires so much. These people and nations understand that capitalism can do very well in nations that embrace social economic equality to a great degree. Denmark has the world's most level personal incomes (basically one huge upper middle class) and takes it's unofficial motto of "No Dane is better than any other Dane" VERY seriously.
The key to their system is a fair and strong judicial system that is as hard on white collar crime as blue collar crime. Remember Rumsfeld telling us that the Pentagon could not account for $2.3 trillion taxpayer dollars on 9/10/2001? That could NEVER happen in Northern Euro nations that would throw corrupt generals and "defense" contractors in prison so damned fast their heads would spin off, I assure you.
Vote for him and he will win its that simple !
Bernie has been in Washingtoon long enough to know this. He also knows that every admin since Wilson's has had about 400 members of the Council on Foreign Relations in it for a REASON: The U.S. "Aircraft Carrier of State" is not a damned rowboat that one person can alter the course of by yanking hard on an oar.
If Bernie wants to reduce the influence of entities like the CFR (much less the CIA!), he will have to show power elite insiders that he can provide rational alternatives, which most certainly WILL require compromises by Senator Sanders.
He must convince them that he can STEER the Ship of State and be trusted not to DESTROY it. Otherwise, he has a snowball's chance in hell of being elected, my dear.
Celebrate asking the BIG questions.
You will work wonders if you do.
Many thanks!
--- Donate to and support the most progressive liberal candidates that you can find whether they be yours or in some other state (see Progressive Change Campaign Committee - PCCC - for info in locating them.) If we get enough of the real baddies out of there, the rest will see that the tide is turning and the handwriting is on the wall (just to mix my metaphors,) and they'd better be Jack and get over the candlestick before their pants catch on fire and they don't get re-elected. We need to remind these guys who they work for and that the real estate called "The United States of America" belongs to We the People (in writing) and not a pack of wild, paper pigs called corporations. We are still called The United States of America and not The United Corporations of America (yet). So let's get the lead out and do what we do best and get the best ones into office, for the good of all.
We have to only accept an open honest counting of votes. No more funny business behind closed doors or inside black boxes. As I see it, the R's are passing bills to do away with the estate tax, cut benefits to the working class, elderly, children, education, etc. because they feel they won't have to be accountable in the next election.
It was clear to me in 2002 that the Cheney/Bush administration was going ahead with their illegal war despite the public reaction because they knew they would be able to steal the next election. They weren't about to let anything or anyone stop them from doing it or getting caught. When Mike Connell was about to testify about the computer set up to change vote totals in Ohio his plane went down short of the runway days before his scheduled court date. A request for protection was ignored after receiving a tip that his life was in danger.
So until the election system is fixed, not rigged, congress will keep raping the people, planet and economy.
--- I don't have any qualms about his age, either. He meets the qualifications: he's standing, is warm to the touch, is a fighter and he hates injustice. He gets my vote and my donations, too.
--- Whatever works....
Or do you think those who scream against the science are committing a fraud?
Please clarify.
And, may I ask, what kind of scientist are you? I suppose one could call Rand Paul (a physician) a "scientist".
I am a nuclear scientist.
--- Nobody is "forcing" Elizabeth Warren to do anything (good luck with that; she's an independent woman with a mind of her own.)
We are only hoping and wishing for the best candidates we can get so we don't get stuck with either a Scott Walker (gag, choke, cough) or sHillary Clinton (or another brain-dead Bush who likes to spit on mothers and flip American citizens the bird... Jebbie)
But I totally agree we need to get behind Sanders and run with it.
I just happened to be listening to "Best of Car Talk" from NPR this morning (the only thing I catch from them any more). They played a clip from the next show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and it consisted of the announcer saying "Well last week at this time we had Hillary Clinton as the only viable Democratic candidate for the 2016 presidency, then Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont declared that he was running. So now we have --Hillary Clinton as the only viable Democratic candidate".
-Supposed to be funny in a snide but still revealing way.
Sadly and disappointing but predictably -THAT'S what he's up against already, and from a supposedly "Liberal (although not in my books), public" or at least centrist media outlet, partially financed by contributors funds -but of course REALLY funded by "Grants From" the same corporate monopolies -including US media- that Sanders (and Warren) have been attacking for years.
So PBS has written him off already and I'm now waiting on the first owner-media station or rag to accuse him of being a "Communist" -or perhaps some of his TeaThuglican opponents will be shoving each other aside to get to the closest mic and puke that out!
Hope so; but don't forget, he's preaching to the already-convert ed on RSN.
Can't wait until ol' Roland gives us his usual reactionary barf on Sanders.
'Nah.
It's already a 'fait accompli' (I call it infestation rather than invasion) and is handy to reveal up front, how the reactionary establishment power structure and their finks like R' and a his cowed but complacent ilk are thinking -if you can call it that.
After all, RSN actually practices free speech, which is always open to abuse by those who'd take it away from those who don't fall in line with their own boxed-in, blinkered world view.
You are correct to think that it is probably a result of the 'grants from' syndrome. Remember, the film Citizen Koch (which everyone should see, available among other places from Netflix) even though financed and produced on PBS in Boston was NEVER SHOWN on PBS because of undue influence from the Koch Bros., especially David Koch.
The offhand and denigrating unfunny remarks on WWDTM were disappointing and shocking, until one realizes that one of their newest people is Bill Curtis (those of us with long memories still see his ear-to-ear grins on CBS News as he showed us all the coffins and dead soldiers every night during the Vietnam war... .) He has in fact, turned out to be amusing....but the choice of Bill Curtis was at first unnerving, considering his history.
As for Bernie Sanders not being viable --- that does indeed remain to be seen; tens of thousands of small contributions and a lot of intelligent [and ACTIVE] support for him to counteract the right wing fascist/Faux Noise"socialist " = 'Communist' meme can go a long way to minimize the oligarchical Kochian /ALEC media takeovers. Bernie too must stand up and take down the ignorant comments along this line repeatedly and OFTEN.
So please explain.
I'm going to find their contact info, and point out to them that those kinds of statements are why they have no clout.
I don't listen to it -just heard that clip.
"Car Talk" on the other hand, cracks me up, especially the "credits".
I know it's off the subject but one of today's was a "stoatir" as we say in Scotland; "Our trans-gender specialist counselor is "Ben-hur" (Bin-her).
I don't think PBS has written Sanders off. Clinton has lots of baggage.
--- I wrote PBS off when they became the Public Broadcasting Corporation.
I finally wrote them off when Michael Powell (Son of Colin ditto) became FCC chairman and dictator.
I was a programmer (I dislike the expression "D.J.") doing World Music and Jazz on a local station at the time and was both slammed and applauded for groaning spontaneously into the main mic' "Oh Gawd, please tell me this ain't nuthin' but a joke"!
If the Clintons' perfidy gets any more publicity, the impossible may happen after all. And, I agree that Warren would be the perfect running mate. Go Bernie!!!
--- Thank you for taking the time to share this with us; especially about the reason he gave for why he isn't running as a Progressive. This information was straight from him with no spin in the middle and it gives us a clear view into the man. (Run Bernie run!)
--- We've got twenty-seven months to do something about this. People need to learn the value of the Absentee Ballot, even if they have to go visit the trees in another venue to get the job done.