Geneva- Israel is escalating practices of extrajudicial execution, warns the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor. Israeli forces use firearms against civilians who pose no threat although it is often possible to detain them instead.
Video recordings of surveillance cameras in the central train station of Afula city showed Israel’s reckless disregard for lives as Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian lady holding an Israeli ID, claiming that she attempted to stab a guard working in the station, while the recordings clearly showed that the woman did not attempt to attack anybody.
Eyewitnesses told a Euro-Med Monitor team that Israa’ Abed, 29, was very scared and got panicked when she found herself surrounded by a group of Israeli soldiers who were directly pointing their weapons at her. The soldiers shouted asking her to take off her head scarf and drop her bag. The woman refused, raised her hands, and begged them not to shoot.
“Even if the woman tried to attack someone, the Israeli police could detain her instead of shooting her with four live bullets” said Ihsan Adel, Euro-Med Monitor legal adviser.
In another incident, an Israeli police officer shot dead Tha’er Abughazaleh from Jerusalem after he stabbed an Israeli soldier and three other Israelis causing minor injuries to them. Israeli police declared that the man was shot while being chased by Israeli soldiers. However, photos showed that the man was shot directly in the head and the bullet was right near his head on the ground, which reveals that he was killed on purpose.
On Sunday, October 4, 2015, an Israeli police force shot dead Fadi Samir Mustafa Elwan, 19, from the village of Issawiya near Jerusalem, under the pretext that he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Eyewitnesses told Euro-Med Monitor that a group of Israeli settlers chased Elwan when he was walking in Masrara area in Jerusalem at the same time Israeli settlers gathered protesting the killing of two Israeli settlers earlier in the morning. Apparently, when the settlers saw Elwan, they attempted to attack him before he ran to Haim Barlev street. An Israeli police car arrived at the scene shooting seven live bullets towards the boy. Video recordings shared on Israeli websites showed Israeli settlers chasing Elwan and attacking him in the Almasserarh area before beating and dragging his body after he was killed.
Hadil Alhashlamoun, 18, from Hebron, was also killed at an Israeli checkpoint, known as Checkpoint 56, where Palestinians are banned from passing, except for those who live in that area. The Israeli authorities claimed that the teen was shot when the soldiers knew she was carrying a weapon and asked her to stop and drop it while the girl continued walking before the soldiers fired live bullets towards the ground near her and she raised a knife. The soldiers immediately shot her in the chest and legs, according to Shaarey Tzedeq hospital where she was transferred.
However, photos taken by an international volunteer, who was present at the scene, and testimonies of eyewitnesses, including Fawwaz Abueisha who live in Tal Rmeidah near the checkpoint, showed that the teen posed no threat to the Israeli soldiers who dropped her bag and shot her in the left leg before she fell and dropped a knife she was hiding. While the soldiers could detain her as she did not move, one of thrm shot her again in the right leg, approached and shot her several times in the chest and belly before he stopped for a moment and shot another bullet in her chest.
Although an Israeli surveillance camera recorded the incidents, the Israeli authorities refused to publish the video, which confirms the fact that the girl posed no threat before being killed.
Such acts constitute a violation of the Principles on the effective prevention and investigation of extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions (ECOSOC Principles), which were endorsed by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 15,1989, and state that firearms may not be used against persons except in the case of self-defence or the defence of others against an imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving a grave threat to life, or to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting the law enforcement official’s authority or to prevent his/her escape. In addition, the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials adopted by the General Assembly “emphasizes that the use of force by law enforcement officials should be exceptional; while it implies that law enforcement officials may be authorized to use force as is reasonably necessary under the circumstances for the prevention of crime or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders, no force going beyond that may be used.”
Israeli forces violated these articles not only in the aforementioned incidents, but also on Monday, August 17, when the Israeli border police killed Muhammed Bassam Amsha, 25, from Kafr Ra’i in the district of Jenin, as he was passing the Zaatara checkpoint, in the north of Nablus. While the Israeli police claimed that Amsha was carrying a knife and attempted to stab an Israeli soldier, eyewitnesses confirmed that they did not see any knives with the man. On the following day, Israeli forces stormed the house of Amsha claiming that they had photos showing him carrying a knife before being shot dead. However, when his father asked to see the photos, the Israeli officer refused.
Moreover, on Thursday, July 23, Israeli forces killed Falah Hamdi Zamel Abumaria, 53, from the village of Beit Amr in Hebron. The soldiers stormed his house to detain his son who they shot first causing his father to panic and throw a pottery vase at the soldiers from his balcony. The soldiers responded by firing three live bullets at his chest. The Israeli authorities claim that the family refused to hand their son and attacked the soldiers before they responded by shooting him.
According to Haidar Abumaria, Falah’s son, the soldiers beat the father as soon as they arrived at the house before they shot his son, Muhammed with two live bullets, critically injuring him. The father then started cursing the soldiers and asking them to leave the house when they shot him in the chest and prevented ambulances from reaching the place before he died.
A serious investigation must be opened into the aforementioned incidents, according to the Geneva Conventions and the Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions which state that "there shall be thorough, prompt and impartial investigation of all suspected cases of extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor calls on the Israeli authorities to open a real and transparent and investigation into the aforementioned incidents, and to bring the perpetrators to justice. Ignoring such incidents would give people the green light to perpetrate more crimes in complete disregard for lives. Moreover, the organization calls on the states parties to the Geneva Convention to take concrete steps in pressuring Israel to comply with international law and respect the right to life.
