Army jails soldier who delayed pregnant woman at checkpoint

[Scurrilous]

Company commander sentenced to 14 days incarceration following incident in which baby died stillborn after couple was held up at Nablus crossing

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3595644,00.html

<snip>

"An IDF company commander was sentenced to 14 days in jail following an incident in which a pregnant Palestinian woman in labor was delayed at a military crossing. The soldier was also relieved of his command.

The army said the soldier should have allowed the vehicle carrying the woman to pass into Nablus, and that he had violated protocol by delaying her.

The incident occurred last Thursday night. Muayed Abu Raja and his wife Nahil, of the Palestinian village of Kafr Kusra, south of Nablus, arrived at the checkpoint on their way to the hospital in Nablus but were stopped by the soldiers, who claimed they did not have the proper documentation to pass.

50 minutes later a Palestinian ambulance arrived, but was forced to declare the baby dead."

[bemildred]

1. Well, it's a start.

Not much of one, but ...

[LeftishBrit]

2. I hope this will be a deterrent.

[Violet_Crumble]

3. 14 days jail isn't much of a deterrent...

It's good that the IDF is now addressing the issue as it's been one where similar things have happened in the past, but 14 days jail seems pretty piss-weak...

[eyl]

4. Bear in mind

that he wasn't charged with the baby's death - the inquiry concluded that would have happened wven if he hadn't delayed the woman (according to the morning paper), and as such was apparently tried and punished administratively. And as I've noted before, the jail time imposable absent a court-martial is relatively limited.

[Scurrilous]

5. Twilight Zone / Dead on arrival

<snip>

"Nothing helped. Not the pleas, not the cries of the woman in labor, not the father's explanations in excellent Hebrew, nor the blood that flowed in the car. The commander of the checkpoint, a fine Israeli who had completed an officers' course, heard the cries, saw the women writhing in pain in the back seat of the car, listened to the father's heartrending pleas and was unmoved. The heart of the Israeli officer was indifferent and cruel. For over an hour, he would not let the car with the young woman in labor pass through the Hawara checkpoint on the way to the hospital in Nablus. Not to Tel Aviv; but to Nablus; not for shopping, not for work; but to get to the hospital in an emergency. Nothing helped.

Nahil Abu-Rada is not the first woman to lose her baby this way because of the occupation, and she won't be the last. At least a half-dozen checkpoint births that ended in death have been documented here over the years, and nothing has changed. No punishments, no lessons, not even a request for forgiveness from parents who lose their children because of the coldheartedness of soldiers.

The occupation kills - never has this slogan sounded so true as on that night, two weeks ago, at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus. No convoluted excuse or explanation from the Israel Defense Forces spokesman (military sources were quoted the day after the incident, making this outrageous comment: "This baby would have died anyway") can erase the simple, chilling fact that for officers and soldiers in the occupation army we have established, human feeling has become alien, at least when it comes to Palestinians. Or the fact that there are still officers and soldiers in the IDF who behave with such lack of feeling toward a woman in labor who is about to lose her child.

What went through the mind of the officer who refused to let Nahil pass? He saw her in agony, he heard her husband's desperate pleas, and he surely knows how children come into this world and how they can leave it just as easily, without lifesaving medical treatment."

more

[Scurrilous]

6. Testimony: Soldiers prevent pregnant, bleeding woman from crossing checkpoint

Full title: Testimony: Soldiers prevent pregnant, bleeding woman from crossing checkpoint and she gives birth to a stillborn baby, September 2008

<snip>

"I married Muaiad Abu-Rideh two years ago, and had a baby girl, Shadah, a year ago. She was born in my seventh month of pregnancy but is fine now.

Seven months ago, I became pregnant again. Last Thursday (4 September), I had sharp stomach pains and I started to bleed badly. Around 7:00 P.M. I went to Dr. Fathi ‘Odeh in Jawarish, because our village doesn’t have any specialist physicians. He gave me medication and told me I’d be all right, but I didn't feel any improvement and the pains even got worse.

Around midnight, I couldn’t bear the pain any more. I woke my husband and asked him to take me to the hospital. When he saw how much I was suffering, he called to get his brother ‘Udai, who lives in the center of the village, to drive us in his car. ‘Udai arrived, with my mother-in-law, in a couple of minutes. My husband picked me up and carried me to the car. I was in so much pain, I couldn’t walk.

We started on our way to the hospital in Nablus at about 12:50 A.M. At the Za’tara checkpoint, we told the soldiers I was pregnant and had to get to the hospital, and they let us cross without a problem. When we got to the Huwara checkpoint, the soldiers didn’t let us pass. They said we didn't have a permit to cross by car. We told them my brother has a permit to cross the Ma’ale Efraim checkpoint because he works at settlements in the Jordan Valley, but that didn’t help.

The pain got worse. I felt as if I was going to give birth any moment. Now and then, the soldiers came over to the car and looked at me lying in the back seat. I was really worried about the fetus, and couldn’t stop thinking that I’d have to give birth in the car while the soldiers watched.

I kept screaming and crying and calling for help. I don’t know how much time passed, but suddenly I felt the fetus coming out. I shouted to my mother-in-law and to ‘UdaI, who were outside the car: “I think he’s coming out!” I took off my clothes. I was afraid they’d see me naked and that something would happen to the fetus. My mother-in-law shouted: “Yes, here’s his head, he’s coming out.” I asked her to pull him, and she said, “Breathe! Push!” I felt as the baby move, as if he was calling for help and asking us to help him come out. My mother-in-law covered me with my clothes. I shouted to my husband, ”The baby is out!” He shouted to the soldiers something in Hebrew that I didn't understand.

I don’t remember exactly what happened then, but when the medics arrived, they picked me up with the car seat and put me in the ambulance. I didn’t feel the baby moving any more and realized he was dead. The medics took away the dead baby and took me to the hospital. My husband and mother-in-law came with me in the ambulance. At the hospital, the doctors operated on me to clean my uterus. They discharged me the next day.

It hurts me a lot when I remember how the baby moved inside me and what happened to him. What did he do wrong? I also gave birth to my daughter in my seventh month, and now she is healthy. This poor baby died because there wasn’t anybody to help me deliver him."

Naheel 'Awni 'Abd a-Rahim Abu Rideh, 21, married with one child, is a homemaker and a resident of Qusra in Nablus District. Her testimony was given to Salma a-Deba'i on 8 September 2008 at the witness's home.

http://www.btselem.org/English/Testimonies/20080904_Nahil_Ridah_Ridah_forced_to_give_birth_at_checkpoint.asp

[azurnoir]

7. So the baby was not still born?

Even if the baby had been officially "still born" that would be not breathing and no heart beat in a medical setting the baby could quite possibly have been saved, I know this because my oldest was "still born" in those terms, she was revived with no apparent ill effects as she walked at 6 months and talked in sentences at 1 year. In cases like this time is everything.