The wall of separation takes yet another victim

Tag : Boys' Sandal
05 August 2008
Thousands marched through the occupied West Bank in a funeral lastWednesday for a Palestinian boy who was shot dead by Israeli forcesduring a protest against Israel's separation barrier.
"O martyr, rest in peace; we shall continue the struggle", thecrowd of some 3,000 people chanted during the march from the cityof Ramallah to the nearby village of Nilin, where 12-year-old AhmadMoussa was killed on Tuesday.

Clashes broke out when the procession reached the village, withPalestinians hurling stones and Israeli troops firing tear gasgrenades and rubber bullets, wounding five Palestinians, medicssaid.

Doctors at a nearby hospital said one of the wounded, a 16 yearold, was in serious condition after being shot in the eye and thehead with rubber-coated bullets.

Earlier Moussa's extended family had gathered in his family home asneighbors and relatives milled outside the house chanting, "Ululatewith joy, mother of the martyr, your son is surely in paradise!"

His parents huddled inside, his mother silently hugging a pictureof her son and his father holding back tears. "God gave me my sonAhmad, and he took him as a martyr", he said. "I only ask that Godis merciful to him".

Rafik Husseini, an aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas whoattended the funeral, said the shooting was "truly a crime againsta child".

"The Israeli army, with its actions in Nilin and the rest of theWest Bank, is trying to destroy any chance of peace and of asolution with two states living side-by-side", he said.

An Israeli soldier shot the boy in the head with a live roundduring a demonstration in Nilin, according to protest organizersand witnesses.

Salah Khawaja, who organizes weekly protests in the village againsta nearby section of the separation barrier, said soldiers firedlive rounds towards a group of protestors who had run into Nilinafter dispersing them outside the village with rubber-coatedbullets.

Ahmad Saadat, a 10-year-old boy who saw the shooting, said he waswith a group of children near a section of the barbed wire fence onthe edge of the village that had been cut by older boys earlier inthe day.

Saadat said they threw rocks at soldiers who arrived in a jeep. "Amilitary jeep came, and a soldier wearing a uniform got out andfired at us. He hit Ahmad directly in the head", Saadat said.

Mahmoud Mohsen, another 10 year old, said Moussa tried to run awaybut his sandal slipped off after he stumbled over a part of thefence.

Israeli police are investigating the incident. "A policeinvestigation is under way into the unfortunate incident that ledto the death of a 12-year-old child", police spokesman MickyRosenfeld told reporters, adding that every soldier present wasquestioned immediately afterwards.

The army promised to conduct "a serious inquiry" into the incidentwith "concerned officials on the Palestinian side".

Villagers and activists regularly protest at Nilin against theconstruction of the separation barrier, hurling rocks atconstruction workers and Israeli troops, who usually respond withtear gas and rubber-coated bullets.

Israel says the projected 723 kilometers of steel and concretewalls, fences and barbed wire is needed for security, whilePalestinians view it as a land grab that undermines their futurestate.

To date Israel has built 57 percent of the projected barrier, mostof it in the West Bank.

In 2004 the International Court of Justice issued a non-bindingresolution calling for parts of the barrier inside the West Bank tobe torn down and for a halt to construction there.

Israel has ignored the ruling, as well as a similar order by itsown High Court that nullified three sections of the wall, includingone that runs near Bilin, a town near Nilin that has held weeklyprotests for more than two years.
'Soldiers seldom punished for attacks on Palestinians'
According to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, only sixpercent of probes into offenses allegedly committed by Israelisoldiers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank yieldindictments.

The report came last week as the armed forces promised toinvestigate the death of Ahmad Moussa.

Of a total of 1,246 investigations by the military police intosuspected offenses against Palestinians or Palestinian propertybetween 2000 and 2007, only 76 ended in indictments, Yesh Dinreported.

A total of 132 people were charged, of whom 110 were found guiltyof various offenses, four were acquitted, eight indictments wereannulled and the trials of 10 others were still under way, thereport said on July 30.

"The figures on the low number of investigations and the minutenumber of indictments filed reveal that the army is shirking itsduty to protect the civilian Palestinian population from offensescommitted by its soldiers", Yesh Din legal advisor Michael Sfadisaid in a statement.

According to figures provided to Yesh Din by the army, only a fewof the investigations followed complaints from within army ranks.

Out of 152 probes launched in 2006, only 14, or nine percent, werebased on complaints filed within the military, the report said. In2007, seven percent of the investigations emanated from the army.

"The minute number of indictments launched following reports bycommanders to military police brings to light the army's conspiracyof silence over offenses against Palestinians", Sfadi said.

In response, an army spokesman indicated it deployed "severalmethods to examine in a professional manner complaints overoffenses against Palestinians".

He said that 39 soldiers had been charged since a special militaryjustice section was formed to deal with this kind ofinvestigations.

In a separate incident, the army on Tuesday suspended a commanderfor 10 days after he failed a lie-detection test over the shootingof a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian with a rubber-coatedbullet.

A videotape of the July 7 incident shows the Palestinian detainedduring a protest in Nilin with an army officer holding his armwhile a soldier next to him appears to aim at his leg.

Turmoil ahead for Israel after Olmert resignation announcement
Israel now faces weeks of political turmoil after Prime MinisterEhud Olmert said he would step down in September, in a surprisemove that casts a shadow over peacemaking efforts.

Wednesday's announcement opened the way for political jockeyingwithin Olmert's centrist Kadima Party, which is scheduled to holdan unprecedented primary on September 17.

It also spurred renewed calls for snap elections to choose a newprime minister.

"Everyone in this government is responsible for a string offailures. We must let the people decide through new elections",right-wing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli publicradio.

He also made it clear that he had no intention or reaching any dealwith the new Kadima leader following the party's leadershipprimary.

"This government has finished its mission, irrespective of who willhead Kadima", said Netanyahu, who served as prime minister between1996 and 1999.

Olmert's decision also raised questions over the next steps in thehobbled peace process with the Palestinians and recently launchedindirect talks with long-time foe Syria.

But the US Administration, which has played a key role in theIsraeli-Palestian negotiations, insisted Olmert's departure wouldnot dampen the peace process.

Asked if US President George W. Bush still hopes that anIsraeli-Palestinian peace agreement can be reached this year,national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in Washington: "Wewill continue to work on a deal before the end of the year".

The long-dormant peace talks were revived at a US conference inNovember with the goal of resolving the decades-old conflict by theend of 2008, but have made little tangible progress since.

Johndroe said Bush had spoken with the 62-year-old Olmert justbefore his announcement, adding that the US president "wishes himwell".

Announcing his decision last Wednesday, Olmert insisted he wasinnocent of allegations of graft that in recent months led to achorus of calls for his resignation.

His surprise announcement marked the climax of a political stormunleashed when police launched a probe in May over suspicions hehad accepted vast sums of money from US financier Morris Talanskyto fund elections campaigns and a lavish lifestyle in the 13 yearsbefore he became premier in 2006.

"I have made mistakes and I regret it", Olmert said in histelevised address from his official residence in Jerusalem.

"I will quit my duties in an honorable, just and responsiblemanner, as I have acted throughout my mandate. I will then prove myinnocence".

He said he would step down after the Kadima primary and stressed hewill "happily accept the outcome" of the vote.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni who has traded increasingly sharpbarbs with Olmert in recent weeks and the hawkish TransportMinister Shaul Mofaz are seen as the top contenders to replaceOlmert at the head of Kadima.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, whose Labor Party is Kadima's keypartner in the government coalition, welcomed Olmert'sannouncement. "Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision wasappropriate and correct", an aide quoted Barak as saying.

In June Barak pushed Olmert to schedule an unprecedented partyprimary by threatening to support a bill to dissolve Parliament.
Netanyahu aiming to be a 'comeback kid'
Opinion polls indicate Israelis favor Netanyahu as a new primeminister, ahead of Livni and Mofaz, the top contenders to take overfrom Olmert as head of Kadima.

Bibi, as Netanyahu is widely known in Israel, made it clear lastweek he had no intention of cutting any deal with whoever wins theKadima primary and again called for snap elections.

A survey by private television Channel 10 carried out on July 30,before Olmert's announcement, found 36 percent of voters thoughtthe right-wing opposition leader would make the best premier.

Just 24.6 percent backed Livni, who held a narrow lead over Mofazfor leadership of Kadima.

Since he led Likud to its biggest-ever electoral defeat in 2006 the58-year-old Netanyahu has been determined to bury the humiliationand return to the country's leadership.

The right-wing party had the wind knocked out of it after thenPrime Minister Ariel Sharon decided in November 2005 to leave itand form Kadima, today headed by Olmert.

With Netanyahu at the helm, Likud -- which had dominated Israelipolitics since its first election victory in 1977 -- managed toscrape together only 12 seats in the 120-member Parliament.

Smooth-talking and ever ready with a sound-bite in perfect AmericanEnglish, the wily politician has managed to pull off stunningvictories and weather shocking defeats during his political career.

In 1996, his tough talk on security saw him defeat Nobel Peacelaureate Shimon Peres for the premiership despite the enormous waveof support for the latter after the assassination of Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin in November 1995.

During his premiership he put the brakes on the peace process withthe Palestinians, in part by authorizing a major expansion ofJewish settlements.

But as premier he made more concessions to the Palestinians thanhis hard-line rhetoric had led Israelis to expect, and under USpressure he concluded two agreements with the late Palestinianleader Yasser Arafat.

After three years as premier, he was defeated by Labor Party chiefEhud Barak, who campaigned under the slogan of "Anyone but Bibi".

Educated in the United States, where his father worked as anacademic, Netanyahu attended the elite Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, earning a bachelor's degree in architecture and amaster's in business.

A former ambassador to the United Nations, he has also held theForeign and Finance portfolios.

Netanyahu has two children with his third wife Sarah, and adaughter from a previous marriage.
© Monday Morning 2008