Court: Palestinian man can sue state over killing of family by IDF

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Mohammed Abu Samra, a Palestinian from Qabatiyah whose wife and two children were killed by Israel Defense Forces gunfire four years ago, can sue the state for compensation, according to a precedent-setting Haifa District Court ruling.

Haifa District Court Judge Yigal Grill decided a few days ago to dismiss the state's request to disqualify Abu Samra's lawsuit. He said the suit did not violate the Intifada Law, which prevents Palestinians from filing claims for damages for events that took place in "conflict zones," and that the amendment to the law cannot apply retroactively to a case in which the evidence has already been presented.

The shooting took place on May 5, 2002, as Abu Samra, his wife Fatma and their children - Abir, 4, and Basel, 5 - were harvesting grape leaves near the Jenin bypass road. IDF troops were operating in the area at the time, and began firing toward the Abu Samra family when a tank chain broke, making a loud noise that soldiers thought indicated that the tank had driven over an explosive device.

The family was lying on the ground, but then Abir got up and was killed by a bullet to the head. Fatma died on the spot after being shot in the chest while trying to protect Basel, who was also shot in the chest. The firing and shelling continued for about five to 10 minutes until the soldiers came to the scene. Mohammed shouted that they had killed his wife and children. The troops ordered him to lie on the ground, stripped him, handcuffed him and threatened to shoot him if he said a word. They saw that Basel was still alive and gave him first aid until a medical team arrived to take him to the hospital, where he later died of his wounds."

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[Englander]

1. From the archives;

'Headlines for Tuesday, May 28th, 2002

The Politics of Culture: Professor Edward Said Talks About the U.S. Media As An Arm of the So-Called War On Terror Against the Arab

A story by Gideon Levy in the Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, begins like this:

"For nearly three hours two Sundays ago, farmer Mohammed Abu Samra Zakarna sat in the vineyard he works, the bodies of his wife and daughter stretched out before him. For part of that time, his young son lay crying and dying next to them. Mohammed's hands were tied behind his back, and his pants had been taken away at the order of the soldiers who had just killed his family. It happened in which Zakarna works as a tenant farmer, at the side of the Jenin bypass road, in the early morning hours, when the soldiers thought that their tank had hit a roadside bomb. Only there was no bomb, and the soldiers shot and shelled the Zakarna family, the parents and their two children, who were picking grape leaves. . ."

The story continues:

"Every morning, they would get up at 5:20, eat a little breakfast and then go out at six to . . . the field . . . Every day, they took two of their children along and left two at home with their grandmother... It was too hard for the grandmother to watch four children at once, so they took two of the children to the field with them. Now the only two left are Yasmin, 7, and Hilmi, 18 months..."

Today, as US newspapers are justifiably focusing on the most recent Palestinian suicide bombing, which killed a baby girl and her grandmother and injured dozens more - we'll take a look at representations and misrepresentations of Arabs and Palestinians in the US mainstream media. The story of the farmer in the vineyard received barely a mention in the US press.

http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl?issue=20020528