Israelis shot mental patient 'under controversial military directive'

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The fatal shooting by Israeli soldiers of an Israeli man earlier this week as he tried to scale a fence into the Gaza Strip was reportedly part of a drastic procedure the army was supposed to have phased out several years ago.

The Israeli media reported that Yakir Ben-Melech, 34, had bled to death after he was shot under the "Hannibal procedure", designed to prevent Israelis from being taken captive alive by enemy forces.

One critic, Uri Avnery, a former Israeli legislator and leader of Gush Shalom, a small radical peace group, defined the procedure as meaning: “Liberate the soldier by killing him”.

The controversial directive, which was once one of the army’s best-kept secrets, was drafted more than 20 years ago after the Israeli government had come under domestic pressure to release hundreds of enemy prisoners for the return of three captured soldiers."

more


Man shot on Gaza border was mental patient (12.07.09)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3816607,00.html

Director of Erez crossing says death could have been prevented if man 'had just said one word in Hebrew'

<snip>

"Shlomo Saban, director of the Erez crossing, told Ynet that the death of an Israeli man who tried to infiltrate Gaza Monday morning could have been prevented if he had only said a word in Hebrew.

Yakir Ben-Melech, a 34-year old resident of Tel Aviv and father of one, arrived at the crossing and began to climb the security fence. He was shot and killed by security forces.

Ben-Melech's family says he was a patient at the Abarbanel mental health center. "He was a good boy who took one too many ecstasy pills 10 years ago and has never been the same since," his brother said.

"He had been speaking a lot lately about Gilad Shalit's release and wanted to do something about it. A few months ago he went up north and called us to say he was attempting to travel to Lebanon to speak to Nasrallah."

Ben-Melech's sister-in-law, Ilanit, said the incident could have been prevented. "He ran in the direction of Gaza, not the soldiers, so why did they shoot him?" she asked."

[Violet_Crumble]

1. That's appalling. I feel so bad for that man's family n/t

[azurnoir]

3. It has happened in the US too

in fact a couple of incidents that involved fatal police shootings of mental health patients in my area alone, but the quote about speaking one word of Hebrew is puzzling, does the person who made it believe that no one in Gaza speaks Hebrew?

[ConsAreLiars]

2. "could have been prevented if he had only said a word in Hebrew."

Yep. Says more than was intended.

[oberliner]

5. How does that say more than was intended?

Assuming that what he said in Hebrew wasn't "I'm going to kill you" it seems logical that a few words would have helped diffuse the situation.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. Why wouldn't a few words of English or Arabic have done the trick? n/t

[oberliner]

7. The security forces might not speak English

While English is spoken fairly widely throughout Israel, the security guards would not necessarily be able to speak it. Same with Arabic.

Words in Hebrew they would undoubtedly be able to understand.

Edit to add: Unless they maybe were recent arrivals from Russia, but then they wouldn't speak the other two languages you mentioned either, but that's another issue altogether.

[Violet_Crumble]

8. You do realise Arabic's an official language in Israel?

It's very arrogant to decide to shoot someone because they don't speak Hebrew...

[oberliner]

9. You do realize that Israeli Arabs speak Hebrew?

And while Arabic is an official language in Israel, most of the population does not speak it, whereas the vast majority do speak Hebrew.

Of course your claim that a decision to shoot this person was made "because he didn't speak Hebrew" is an utterly ridiculous one.

The reason given for the shooting (in the leg) was that he ran at the guards and ignored numerous warning shots.

Speaking a word in Hebrew or stopping still were two things that were offered as actions that could have been taken by this person that could have made the situation end differently.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. Wtf does that have to do with the arrogance of insisting on Hebrew?

Absolutely nothing, of course. I find it a bit disturbing that you appear to have no issues with whether a person lives or dies hinging on whether they say something in Hebrew. I would hope all progressives and moderates would agree with me that on such a life and death issue, attempts would be made in all official languages to communicate with the person...

[Shaktimaan]

4. I don't understand.

This article seems to contradict itself. Can anyone explain what this means?

The Israeli media reported that Yakir Ben-Melech, 34, had bled to death after he was shot under the "Hannibal procedure", designed to prevent Israelis from being taken captive alive by enemy forces.

One critic, Uri Avnery, a former Israeli legislator and leader of Gush Shalom, a small radical peace group, defined the procedure as meaning: “Liberate the soldier by killing him”.

-----

Director of Erez crossing says death could have been prevented if man 'had just said one word in Hebrew'

At first they are saying that the man was killed because he was Israeli and they would rather have him dead than captured by Hamas. But then the Director implies that they would have refrained from shooting him had they known that he was Jewish. WTF?