Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Fury After Israeli Officer in Charge of Prisoner's Shooting Is 'Reassigned'
JERUSALEM - Outraged Israeli human rights organizations have united in challenging the military's decision to invoke only minor penalties against a senior officer over the shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoner by a soldier under his command.
Lt-Col Omri Burberg has been "reassigned" and was indicted yesterday on the limited charge of "unworthy conduct" after the incident last month in which he held the Palestinian as the soldier shot him at close range in the foot with a rubber-coated bullet. The offence does not carry a custodial sentence.
The soldier, a staff sergeant who claims he was ordered to fire by the officer, has been demoted to private but faces the same charge. Lt-Col Burberg claimed he only wanted to intimidate the Palestinian, Ashraf Abu Rahmeh, after he was detained near Ni'ilin, the scene of regular unarmed demonstrations against the military's West Bank separation barrier.
Human rights group B'Tselem, which exposed the incident - shown on Israeli television after being videoed by a Palestinian woman in the village - said yesterday: "The army treats the shooting at point-blank range of a bound man [only] as inappropriate behaviour. It disgraces the values which it pretends to uphold."
And Yesh Din, the legal action group representing Mr Abu Rahmeh's family, pointed out that if the officer had been "caught smoking a joint" he would have suffered the worse penalty of a prison sentence and dishonourable discharge. It added: "This case proves once again that the military judicial system views harming innocent citizens as a public image problem and not as a moral issue."
Both groups have joined with the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) in seeking to halt the court martial against the two men long enough for them to mount a high court challenge against the lightness of the indictment. In a letter to the military advocate general, Avichai Mandelblit, ACRI pointed out that the High Court ruled in 1988 that "Harming a bound and helpless person is a shameful and cruel act, and calls for an appropriately severe response".
While acknowledging that the "severe incident" reflected a "moral failure of command that should not have happened", the military said that the Chief of Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, "recognised the positive manner" in which the officer had commanded his battalion and "commended" his actions after the incident, including his "immediate report" of it. Brigadier Mandelblit said he had taken into account "significant" penalty of reassignment, in framing the indictment.
But the lawyer acting for the victim's family, Michael Sfard, yesterday contrasted the charges with that carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years' detention of "endangering life" levelled "on a daily basis against Palestinian kids who throw stones", even if no one is hit. He added: "Of course they don't get that but they are frequently jailed for months."
Meanwhile an investigation is already underway after a later incident in which a 10-year-old boy, Ahmed Moussa, was shot dead with a live bullet after another demonstration at Ni'ilin.
© 2008 The Independent
7 Comments so far
Show AllFury? What fury? I don't hear no stinkin' fury, not even a comment.
I wonder if there will also be an investigation into activities of the settlers who threw a 14 year old Palestinian boy off the roof of a four-storey building. The boy's father said:
They consider us nothing more than mosquitoes, not human beings, as though we didn't exist.
Incidentally, many of these settlers are not Israeli-born, but come from places like Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
And this is called the Holy Land.
How many times in the past 50 years have the Israelis murdered, beaten, harrassed, intimidated, persecuted Palestinians, and the world looks on, and does NOTHING. From the murders of Egyptian prisoners in 1967 to the deliberate attack on the USS Liberty to the killing of Rachael Corrie to the ongoing violation of UN Security Council resolutions, the Ashkenazi Khazar of Israel are allowed to go unpunished for their crimes against humanity.
WHY?? Well, it has NOTHING to do with religion, Hitler, the Nazis or Germany. It has to do with the total control about 3% of the US population has gained over the other 97%.
This control is maintained two ways. First, some whining, racist CRIMINAL will start bleating "antisemite" if the truth is spoken. Second, money.....stunning wealth accumulated by the Khazars of Wall St......so much money that the Khazars can kill any political career in this country. Finally, note that the crowd that pushes the most for gun control is lead by three Jews, Schumer, Boxer, and Feinstein. The disarming of America is the final goal of the Khazars. That will permit the total subjugation of the American people. Thankfully, the recent Supreme Court decision on the 2nd Amendment has pushed off the date for the Khazars more completely ruling America. But, that day is coming. Even now, in 2008, Americans have tolerated an unnecessary war of choice in Iraq for Israel that has resulted in the loss of over 4100 American lives, the wounding of well over 30,000 Americans, and the spending (final cost) of over $2 TRILLION dollars for no good reason.
Jews have done this to America. Just look at Perle, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Frum, Wurmser, Kristol, Feith, Bolten, Paulson, Mukasey, Zelikow.....and on and on, there are SO many in powerful positions in the US government. If just a third of the dual citizen Israelis were removed from government, the USA might have a chance to survive and prosper. But, I fear the time for America to rise above criminal bigotry has passed. America died in 1967 when Israel was allowed to kill American sailors with impunity.
biwee--the truths you seek to tell are drowned in shit before they ever reach life.
to put it more clearly: i see you for the anti-semite you are.
jews are not some monolithic group with an unlimited amount of dire magic. jews did not commit the very real atrocities of which you speak. jews are not the problem.
the israeli state, funded and supported by its best friend the US government is responsible for these terrors, the same kind that go on all over the world when uncle sam takes an interest.
I agree jews are not to blame, it is the miltiary-industrial state caled Israel.
one clairafication: palestinians are also semetic
No one should have the right to exclude anyone. I am a belever in diasporism, witch means, as a jew, my home is where god intended it. Under my hat!
one love
good look, leaderglass, on reminding me that palestinians are also semitic; i forgot that in my anger.