Israeli military spokesman accused of mocking dead Palestinian protester

[Scurrilous]

Last edited Tue Dec 13, 2011, 02:10 AM - Edit history (2)

The Israeli army was at the centre of controversy on Sunday after a senior military spokesman was accused of mocking a dead Palestinian protester on the social networking website Twitter.

<snip>

"Mustafa Tamimi died on Saturday, a day after he was struck in the face by a tear-gas canister fired at close range from an armoured military jeep in Nabi Saleh, a village in the West Bank that has seen weekly protests against the Israeli occupation.

Israeli military officials have been largely unapologetic for the death, releasing pictures of a sling they said was found on Mr Tamimi's body as evidence that the dead man had thrown stones.

A number of military officials took to Twitter to defend the army and attack Mr Tamimi, but none caused as much outrage as a post by Maj Peter Lerner, spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Central Command, who appeared to suggest that the Palestinian deserved his fate.

"What was Mustafa thinking running after a moving jeep while throwing stones #fail," he wrote as the Palestinian fought for his life in hospital."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/8949527/Israeli-military-spokesman-accused-of-mocking-dead-Palestinian-protester.html


Mustafa Tamimi has died

<snip>

"Mustafa Tamimi, a 28 year old resident of Nabi Saleh died from injuries sustained after an Israeli soldier shot him in the face with a tear gas canister. The impact blew off half of Tamimi's face, and when his friends and family cried out in horror, Israeli soldiers laughed and said, "So?". According to B'Tselem, Tamimi is the 20th person to have been killed in demonstrations in the West Bank in the last eight years."

<snip>

"From Max Blumenthal in 2010:

What are Israeli soldiers doing in Nabi Saleh in the first place? The village has been besieged by its neighbors from the religious nationalist Israeli settlement of Halamish since Halamish was constructed in 1977 on land privately owned by Nabi Saleh’s residents. Recently, the settlers seized control of a fresh water spring that has belonged to Nabi Saleh since the village was built in the 19th century. In December 2009, the settlers uprooted hundreds of the village’s olive trees in an attempt to re-annex land awarded back to Nabi Saleh in an Israeli court case. Since then, farmers from Nabi Saleh have been subjected to routine attacks by settlers and prevented from working their land. The Israeli army has come down firmly on the side of Halamish, suppressing the demonstrations with disproportionate force while doing little, if anything, to prevent settler violence. But if the spirit of Nabi Saleh’s young demonstrators are any indication, the army has a long way to go before it breaks the villagers’ will.

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/12/mustafa-tamimi-had-died.html


After Fatal Shooting of Palestinian, Israeli Soldiers Defended Use of Force Online

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/after-fatal-shooting-of-palestinian-israeli-soldiers-defended-use-of-force-online/

[polly7]

1. Horrible and so sad. That "So?" just makes my blood boil. It's pretty much indicative of the

reaction of the whole world to any sort of Palestinian suffering though, so it's not unexpected to read of it.

[oberliner]

7. There is no evidence of the "So?" being real

One person just tweeted that "Israel soldiers" said that.

[polly7]

9. Of course.

[oberliner]

10. The tweeter called the soldiers: "Nazis, terrorists, vermin, programmed killing machines.”

According to her own report, she screamed those words at the soldiers.

Perhaps that had something to do with the alleged callous response.

[polly7]

11. I'm doing ok reading the articles myself.

But thanks for letting me know how to interpret them.

[Scurrilous]

2. Legal effort over injured American seeks compensation of Israel

Tristan Anderson of Oakland visited Israel and the West Bank in 2009 with his girlfriend to see the Mideast conflict. At a pro-Palestinian rally he was hurt by a border guard's tear-gas canister.

<snip>

"Tristan Anderson visited Israel and the West Bank in 2009 with his girlfriend, a Jewish American activist, to participate in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and see the Mideast conflict firsthand.

The Oakland man left with brain damage, partial paralysis and blindness in one eye after being hit in the head with a high-velocity tear-gas canister during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Nilin.

Now Anderson, 40, and his parents are pressing the Israeli government to pay for his rehabilitation and 24-hour care in a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit.

Anderson's girlfriend, Gabrielle Silverman, who was with him when he was injured, returned to Israel last month to act as a family representative during the first phase of the trial because he is not well enough to travel. Anderson uses a wheelchair and suffers from impaired judgment."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-israel-activist-lawsuit-20111211,0,5969565.story

[Scurrilous]

3. In Israel, the life of a Palestinian is cheap

When it comes to shooting a Palestinian, pulling the trigger does not come with a real fear of having to answer to the law.

<snip>

"The pictures from Friday's events in Nabi Saleh are hard to swallow: An Israel Defense Forces soldier opens the back door of an armored military jeep and, from a distance of just a few meters, fires a tear-gas canister directly at a young man who is throwing stones. After the canister is fired, the jeep continues on its way without stopping.

A photographer on the scene relates that the young man "fell to the ground, remained conscious for a few seconds, and then began bleeding profusely from the region of his eye." He was subsequently evacuated for treatment at Beilinson Hospital, where he was sedated and placed on a respirator. On Saturday, he died from his wounds.

The incident took place during the weekly demonstration held by residents of Nabi Saleh against the expropriation of their land in favor of the nearby settlement of Halamish and the settlers' takeover of a spring that served the Palestinian residents. The young man who was killed has a name - Mustafa Tamimi, 28, a resident of the village and regular participant in the demonstrations that have been taking place there every Friday for the past two years.

The IDF Spokesman's Office said in response that "the army is looking into the incident." But one needs to wonder about the use of the term "looking into." A report published last week by Yesh Din-Volunteers for Human Rights, which examined 192 complaints - including an analysis of the content of 67 Military Police investigations into various types of severe harm to Palestinian civilians and their property - reveals that 96.5 percent of the total number of complaints are closed without indictments."

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/in-israel-the-life-of-a-palestinian-is-cheap-1.400908

[Scurrilous]

4. A death that could have been avoided

Rights groups have been warning for years that tear gas canisters can kill. Last Friday, it finally happened.

<snip>

"Every death is a tragedy for the family and friends of the deceased. Yet a death you can see coming from miles away, a needless death that could have been prevented, is a tragedy about which hard lessons must be learned.

Such is the case of Mustafa Tamimi, the 28-year-old Palestinian man killed in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh last Friday. Tamimi was shot at close range with a tear gas canister. The canister hit him in the face, causing massive bleeding, and he died the following day.

But Tamimi was throwing stones, some will argue, and it is true: Shortly before his death, Tamimi was filmed running after an armored jeep and throwing stones. This is indeed a criminal offense.

But there is no death penalty for stonethrowing – as the army itself affirms. The soldiers were not in any danger, and Tamimi could have been arrested and charged for his offense.

Tear gas is intended as a non-lethal crowd-control tool. The canister that delivers the gas is not intended as a weapon. For this reason, IDF regulations prohibit firing tear gas directly at people. However, the military regularly and blatantly violates its own regulations in Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank."

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=249162

[Scurrilous]

5. Tamimi was killed because of occupied village’s insistence on access to its only well

Last edited Tue Dec 13, 2011, 04:35 PM - Edit history (1)

<snip>

"Friday morning, December 9th, my friend and I set out to experience a West Bank protest. It was a first for both of us, seeing as I have Arabic class every Friday, and he lives in Tel Aviv. As protest virgins, we had no idea what to expect. What did a confrontation look like? How do people protest? How would the soldiers react? I’d heard tales of people dodging tear gas canisters and running from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). After four months of living in Bethlehem, I wanted to experience it for myself.

We ended up attending the protest in Nabi Saleh, coincidently on its two year anniversary date of weekly protests. The source of the conflict is the confiscation of much of the town’s land and its only water well due to the construction of the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Halamish. Furthermore, the IDF under the mandate to protect Israeli citizens (the occupants of the illegal settlements), makes frequent night raids, surprise home invasions where children are dragged from their beds for interrogation, documentation and sometimes detention.

Every Friday, the townspeople and activists gather and attempt to march to the stolen water well, but as I was to experience, rarely make it out of their village.

After noontime prayers, the protest began. We walked down the main road and towards the highway leading to the well. We didn’t get far. Shortly after rounding a bend, we found the IDF waiting for us. I was a little surprised to see the soldiers so early in our march, still within the town precinct and still quit a distance from the well. Obviously intent on stopping our forward progress, the army commenced a volley of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets. In response, some of the local kids and youths began returning the military crowd retardants with stones along the road."

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/12/tamimi-was-killed-because-of-occupied-villages-insistence-on-access-to-its-only-well.html


A courageous Palestinian has died, shrouded in stones

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/a-courageous-palestinian-has-died-shrouded-in-stones-1.401102

The army spokesman was right - Mustafa died because he threw stones; he died because he dared to speak a truth, with his hands, in a place where the truth is forbidden.

<snip>

"Mustafa Tamimi threw stones. Unapologetically and sometimes fearlessly. Not on that day alone, but nearly every Friday. He also concealed his face. Not for fear of the prison cell, which he had already come to know intimately, but in order to preserve his freedom, so he could continue to throw stones and resist the theft of his land. He continued to do this until the moment of his death.

According to British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, in response to the reports about the shooting of Tamimi, the spokesman of the GOC Southern Command wondered on his Twitter account: "What was Mustafa thinking running after a moving jeep while throwing stones #fail." Thus, simply and mockingly, the spokesman explained why Tamimi was to blame for his own death.

Mustafa Tamimi, from the village of Nabi Saleh - son to Ikhlas and Abd al-Razak, brother to Saddam and Ziad, to the twins Oudai and Louai and sister Ola - was shot in the head at close range on Friday. Hours later, at 9:21 on Saturday morning, he died of his wounds. A gas grenade was fired at him from an armored military Jeep at a distance of only a few meters. It was not out of fear that the person who did fired the shot hit him. He poked the barrel of the rifle through the door of the armored vehicle and fired with clear intent. The shooter is a soldier. His identity remains unknown and perhaps it will always remain unknown. Maybe this is for the best. Identifying him and punishing him would only serve to whitewash the crimes of the entire system. As if the indifferent Israeli civilian, the sergeant, the company commander, the battalion commander, the brigade commander, the division commander, the defense minister and the prime minister had no part in the shooting.

The army spokesman was right. Mustafa died because he threw stones; he died because he dared to speak a truth, with his hands, in a place where the truth is forbidden. Any discussion of the manner of the shooting, its legality and the orders on opening fire, infers that the landlord is forbidden to expel the trespasser. Indeed, the trespasser is allowed to shoot the landlord."

[oberliner]

8. Dared to speak a truth with his hands?

That's what throw rocks at police/soldiers is?

[Scurrilous]

6. US-made tear gas becomes fatal ingredient of protests

<snip>

"Residents of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank have been demonstrating, each week for the past two years, against the slow encroachment on their land by Israeli settlers.

Gathering in the village centre on Friday afternoons, villagers along with Israeli and international activists attempt to march, under the watchful eye of soldiers, to a disputed agricultural spring which was confiscated recently by Israeli settlers.

Often protesters never even reach the edge of the village; crowd-control measures by the military regularly include barrages of tear gas and rubber bullets.

Palestinian villagers claim that hundreds of protesters have been injured, some seriously, in the Nabi Saleh demonstrations.

But no one had been killed there - until last week.

The death of 28-year-old Mustafa Tamimi may seem to have little in common with the more numerous deaths of protesters in Cairo over the past few days.

Indeed the demonstrations are different from each other in many ways. But in protests from Tunis to Cairo to little Nabi Saleh, the use of tear gas by authorities, and the increasing number of related fatalities, has become a common thread in recent months."

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/us-made-tear-gas-becomes-fatal-ingredient-of-protests

[Scurrilous]

12. The undeniable Palestinian right to resist occupation

<snip>

"Following the killing of Mustafa Tamimi in his village Nabi Saleh, Spokesperson for the IDF presented pictures of a slingshot Tamimi had on him when he was brought to the hospital. This was to be the indicting evidence that the protester was taking part in hostile action against the army – i.e. throwing stones – and therefore responsible for his own death.

Only in the context of the occupation can throwing stones at a bullet-proof army jeep be seen as an offense deserving the death penalty, carried out on the spot (clearly, the soldiers weren’t acting in self-defense). Furthermore, as recent attacks by settlers on soldiers – including a brick thrown from close range on the IDF regional commander – demonstrated, the army’s treatment of Jews is very different (to be clear, I don’t call for shooting Jewish stone-throwers either). But there is a larger issue here, concerning the whole notion of “legitimate” resistance to the occupation.

Facts and context are important: Israel took over the West Bank and Gaza more than 44 years ago. Since then, the Palestinians have been under military occupation, which denies their basic human and civil rights. The Palestinians can’t vote. They are tried in military court, where the conviction rate is astonishing. They don’t enjoy due process. Their property rights are limited, and their lands – including private lands – are regularly seized by Israel. All this is well-known and well-documented.

As far as Israel is concerned, this situation can go on forever. Israel is not attempting to leave the West Bank – it actually strengthens its hold on the territory – and it doesn’t plan to give the Palestinians equal rights within the state of Israel.

The Palestinians therefore have a moral right to resist the occupation. It’s as simple as that."

http://972mag.com/the-undeniable-palestinian-right-to-resist-our-occupation/30735/