• » Hours Before His Sister’s Wedding, Israeli Soldiers Kill A Young Palestinian Man Near Bethlehem
    June 23, 2020 9:32 PM – IMEMC News
    https://imemc.org/article/hours-before-his-sisters-wedding-israeli-soldiers-kill-a-young-palestinian-ma

    Israeli soldiers shot and killed, Tuesday, a young Palestinian man near the “Container” military roadblock, northeast of Bethlehem, east of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank.

    The head of Abu Dis Town Council, Ahmad Abu Hilal, said the soldiers shot the young man, identified as Ahmad Mustafa Erekat , 27, from Abu Dis, and left him to bleed to death, before taking his corpse away. Erekat suffered several gunshot wounds.

    Abu Hilal added that Ahmad was driving to Bethlehem city to fetch his sisters, and his mother, from a hairdressing shop in Bethlehem, as the family was preparing for the wedding of one of his sisters, which was supposed to take place on the same day, Tuesday, June 23 2019.

    Eyewitnesses said the soldiers at the permanent military roadblock closed the area, and prevented Red Crescent medics from approaching the young man, in addition to firing many gas bombs at Palestinian cars and residents to force them away.

    The Israeli army alleged that the young man “accelerated towards the roadblock, and attempted to ram a female soldier with his car,” and added that the soldier reportedly suffered mild wounds before she was moved to a hospital in Jerusalem.

    The spokesperson of the Israel police, Micky Rosenfeld, claimed that “after trying to ram the soldiers, the young man got out of his vehicle, and approached them before who shot him.”

    The family denied the military allegations and said the soldiers rushed to deliver the fatal shots without proper justification and added that they believe their slain son must have lost control over his car.

    “As we have seen in previous similar incidents, the soldiers were quick to open deadly fire,”, his family said, “Our son would never have tried to deliberately ram soldiers, or anybody else, especially on the eve of his sister’s wedding!”

    They added that they intend to hire a lawyer to demand Israel to release his corpse for burial.

    #Palestine_assassinée

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    Said Shoaib
    @saidshouib
    https://twitter.com/saidshouib/status/1275477565797543940

    Israeli soldiers shot Palestinian young man and left him leading to death at a checkpoint to the east of of Jerusalem.
    #PalestinianLivesMatter

    • Erekat: “Netanyahu Is Responsible For Ahmad Erekat’s Execution”
      June 24, 2020 2:53 AM | IMEMC News
      https://imemc.org/article/erekat-netanyahu-is-responsible-for-ahmad-erekats-execution

      The Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the head of its Negotiations Affairs Department, Dr. Saeb Erekat, strongly denounced the Israel army’s killing of his relative Ahmad Erekat, and held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the crime.

      Erekat stated that Netanyahu’s policies against the Palestinian civilians are what encourages Israeli soldiers to continue to commit these crimes.

      He added that the Israeli occupation did not only execute Ahmad Erekat in a cold-blooded crime but also tried to coverup by fabricating the truth and coming up with lies and justifications for this crime by claiming the young man “attempted to ram the soldiers with his car.”

      His statements came from the mourning home of the slain young man, who was supposed to get married within a few days.

      “We, just like any Palestinian family, suffer from this racist occupation, Ahmad was killed in a cold-blooded crime! He was my cousin, and we were supposed to celebrate his wedding withing a few days,” Erekat added, “We were also supposed to be celebrating his sister’s wedding today, but the soldiers killed him and tried to justify their crime.”

      On his official Twitter account, Dr. Erekat said the army has many cameras at the roadblock, yet failed to release the video and show what really happened.

      “This is the invitation of Eman’s wedding , Ahmed’s sister 23rd of June 2020 from 7-10 pm. Ahmed Erakat (26) was murdered in cold blood at the wadi al-Nar (The Container) roadblock, by Israeli occupying . They continue their lies and claim he tried to run over the soldiers. Netanyahu is responsible. (...) ”

      https://twitter.com/ErakatSaeb/status/1275508368627679233

    • Israeli war criminals shot my cousin, then let him bleed to death
      Dalal Iriqat- 24.06.2020 - Haaretz.com
      https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-israeli-war-criminals-shot-my-cousin-then-let-him-bleed-to-death-1
      https://images.haarets.co.il/image/fetch/x_48,y_0,w_416,h_242,c_crop/q_auto,h_698,w_1200,c_fill,f_auto/fl_lossy.any_format.preserve_transparency.progressive:none/https://www.haaretz.co.il/polopoly_fs/1.8944979!/image/687336996.png

      “O mother of the martyr, I wish it was my mother in your place!”

      That was the song of the young people processing through the streets of Abu Dis until they reached the house of the martyr. My little cousin, the handsome 26 year-old, the fiancé, the brother and son, Ahmed Mustafa Erekat.

      He was executed by the Israelis after he lost control of his car and crashed into a checkpoint. They left him bleeding for more than an hour. The occupation army prevented an ambulance from getting to him, it prevented civilians from approaching to comfort him, it prevented witnesses who could record the details of the crime.

      When my uncle arrived at the checkpoint barrier, he could see his son Ahmed writhing on the ground. He called out to the soldiers, he begged them, he cried out to them for help, but they offered no mercy. They stood by as Ahmed’s lifeblood left him.

      And killing him wasn’t enough: Israel’s criminal authorities weren’t satisfied, so they detained Ahmed’s dead body.

      We as Palestinians are used to Israel’s attempts to blame the victim, to swing the blame for each field execution back on us. In Ahmed’s case, we saw the same inhuman injustice, the same effort to humiliate us, with the invention of a narrative to implicate Ahmed, to make him responsible for his own murder.

      Ahmed was a regular guy. He enjoyed keeping fit. He had his own business printing graphic designs on T shirts.

      And he was a young man in love. He was due to get married at the end of May, but the wedding was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. His fiancée has spoken about the new house they were getting ready, and the wedding preparations, the dress, the festive jewellery, the furniture that they’d purchased.

      Ahmed didn’t attack anyone. This is the true story of his life. Don’t let the occupation rewrite his story.

      Today, the day after, was the wedding day of Iman, Ahmed’s little sister. Every scene is imprinted in my mind, all the pain.

      I stood there next to his traumatized sisters. My eyes scanned the details of the house, decorated with such expectations, joy and care: from the lace adorning the banisters, the chairs that filled the house in preparation for the guests, the beautifully laid out chocolate, wedding favors and coffee: everything was ready for Iman’s pre-wedding reception.

      Ahmed is not the first member that the Erekat family has lost to Israel’s occupation, and I fear he won’t be the last martyr from among the Palestinian people.

      I hope those who genuinely want to console the family will help share the truth, and expose the occupation. Raise your voices to call for Israel to release the full footage from the ten security cameras that recorded Ahmed’s last hour on earth.

      In Occupied Palestine, there is no right to life, no right to joy, no right even to say farewell. Young Palestinian men are just numbers, not individuals, and Ahmed’s body has now joined that cold audit.

      Our fight is to stop the killing of our people. When we cry for help, will anyone listen? Do Palestinian lives really matter?

      Dalal Iriqat, PhD is the vice president for International Relations at the Arab American University in Palestine and a weekly columnist at the Al Quds newspaper. Twitter: @Dalaliriqat

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      Palestinian Scholar Noura Erakat: Israeli Forces Killed My Cousin on His Sister’s Wedding Day
      24 juin 2020
      https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/24/noura_erakat

      Israeli soldiers on Tuesday killed 27-year-old Ahmed Erekat at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank as he was on his way to pick up his sister, who was set to be married that night. Ahmed Erekat is the nephew of senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and cousin of Palestinian American legal scholar Noura Erakat, who says Israeli claims that Ahmed was attempting a car-ramming attack on soldiers are completely unfounded. “What we understand is that Ahmed lost control of his car or was confused while he was in his car. That was all it took to have a knee-jerk reaction … and immediately to cause the soldiers to open fire on him multiple times,” she says.

    • De la famille Erakat le 27 juin 2020
      https://www.facebook.com/santrisi/posts/2628004383966293

      La famille Erakat vous remercie pour les condoléances, l’intérêt et le suivi de l’assassinat d’Ahmad Erakat, et souhaite soulever quelques points importants pour les médias et le partage des nouvelles :
      Le martyr Ahmed Erakat n’est pas le premier martyr palestinien à être victime des crimes d’exécution israélienne. Onze martyrs ont précédé Ahmad rien que cette année. Israël continue d’ignorer le droit à la vie des palestiniens.
      Israël applique une politique générale d’exécution extrajudiciaire du peuple palestinien, citant des raisons de sécurité, et le martyr, Iyad Al-Hallaq, un jeune homme autiste tué il y a quelques semaines, est le meilleur exemple de cette politique systématique.
      Dans de nombreux cas, Israël tente de fabriquer l’histoire de ce qui s’est réellement passé et fait tourner la vérité pour porter plainte contre les victimes palestiniennes.
      Se poser des questions sur les détails minuscules de la fusillade sur comment et pourquoi ne devrait pas être au centre de l’attention. Les questions devraient être : pourquoi y a-t-il des barrières entre les villes palestiniennes qui sont militarisées par Israël ? Pourquoi les victimes sont-elles tirées à bout portant et refusées de soins médicaux ?
      Nous demandons à tout le monde d’examiner ce meurtre de manière objective et de ne pas adapter le récit israélien fabriqué qui est devenu un record répété pour Israël afin de lui permettre l’impunité des crimes répétés. (...)