On 20 March 2010, Israeli soldiers raided Iraq Burin near Nablus after a demonstration by the villagers to protest ongoing restrictions on access to their lands near the illegal Jewish settlement of Har Bracha. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza reported:
At approximately 11:30, IOF moved into the east of Iraq Borin [sic] village, south of Nablus. A number of Palestinian boys gathered and threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who immediately responded by firing, but no casualties were reported. The Palestinian boys withdrew into the village, while IOF took position in the east of the village.
At approximately 15:00, a Palestinian civilian Ford transit minibus, driven by Zakareya ‘Adel Qadous, arrived in the village from Nablus. In the meanwhile, Israeli soldiers were positioning themselves approximately 30 meters to the east of the intersection of Iraq Borin village and exited their jeeps. The driver drove to the western entrance to the village. Approximately 100 meters from the intersection, in front of the mosque of the village, the driver found out that there were burning tires and that the street was closed.
He stopped and Mohammed Ibrahim Abdul Qader Qadous, 16, and Usaid Abdul Naser Qadous, 20, stepped out of the minibus. As the driver turned around to travel back to Nablus, Israeli soldiers opened fire at Mohammed, who was wounded by a bullet to the heart, and Usaid who was wounded by a bullet to the head.
A number of young Palestinians who were at the scene carried the two wounded persons back into the minibus. After the minibus drove for approximately 20 meters, Israeli military jeeps tried to stop it, but the driver managed to pass them and reach Nablus Specialized Hospital.
Mohammed was dead upon arrival at the hospital, while Usaid underwent a prolonged surgery, but was pronounced dead on Sunday morning, 21 March 2010. Usaid was student at an-Najah National University in Nablus.
Ha’aretz correspondent Amos Harel reported on March 23rd that immediately after the shooting, the IDF Central Command described the killings as "a regrettable incident" that should not have ended in the deaths and announced plans to probe the incident.
Two days after the second young man passed away, the IDF’s chief prosecutor, Major Avihai Mandelblit, ordered the army’s criminal investigation division to get to work.
For once it seemed like things might just be limping towards a glimmer of justice:
Military sources said the two Palestinians who were shot on Saturday in the village of Iraq Burin, near Nablus, were apparently killed by live Israel Defense Forces fire, contrary to the IDF’s initial claim that only rubber bullets were used.
IDF doctors met with Nablus hospital doctors Sunday night to examine X-rays of one of the men killed in Iraq Burin, which the Palestinians said show that a live bullet had penetrated his head.
Photo: Salma aDeb’i/B’Tselem
Yet as the Ha’aretz report meandered towards its conclusion, it became clear that all of this "concern" was just business as usual, with the IDF spokesperson retreating into three classic positions that decades of evidence suggest must surely be written up in what would be the international relations Holy Grail of WikiLeaks… the official IDF spokesperson’s handbook:
1. The Combo Smoking Gun/Magic Bullet Theory
IDF sources said however it was not certain the bullet was a 5.56 mm., the kind used by the IDF, or a 7.62 mm., used by Palestinian security forces.
5.56mm rounds (L) and 7.62mm (R)
Of course! The M-16 (and derivative M-4 rifles) which are predominantly used by the IDF use standard NATO 5.56x45mm rounds, while the AK-47s predominantly used by Palestinian Authority forces use Russian 7.62x39mm rounds!
With CSI-Israel pointing out the obvious in this case, we should expect this to be a simple, quick and conclusive investigation: 5.56 mm = Israeli perp. 7.62 mm = Palestinian perp!
Unfortunately, the IDF investigators must have forgotten about Israel’s own Galil ACE Assault Rifle, based on the original late 1960s design by Yisrael Galili and Yaacov Lior and produced by Israel Weapon Industries Ltd, two models of which use the Russian 7.62x39mm ammunition and which are used by some IDF troops:
And I was really rooting for them this time!
2. The Doctor Is Feared More Than The Disease
They also said it was not verified the X-ray was of the Palestinian who was killed in this incident or of someone else.
Yeah, because Palestinian doctors living in warzones where more than 6,300 Palestinians have been killed within the last decade—roughly 2 per day, not counting those injured or maimed during the conflict, or merely routinely sick—are just brimming with spare time to create fake X-rays that are going to stand up to even a cursory professional comparison with medical records and photographic evidence.
Teams of them are waiting at the ready in tiny, remote villages like Iraq Burin, champing at the bit for the opportunity to create the needed documentation in minutes, every time Palestinians coincidently shoot a 16-year-old and 20-year-old Palestinian dropped off by a relative at the same time Israeli troops have been firing all kinds of weapons for several hours.
3. In The Kingdom Of The Blind The One Eyed Israeli Is King
The officers and soldiers at the site said they had only fired rubber-coated bullets…. Officers said it could be difficult to obtain the "full picture" of what had happened because the sergeant who shot the victims and his three soldiers are the only witnesses.
Ah, the crux of the matter. It doesn’t matter even if there were 100 Palestinian witnesses to the shooting or that, as the International Solidarity Movement reported, that there were 15 internationals present during the day’s events.
The problem is that there weren’t any Israeli witnesses, apart from the perpetrators themselves, who claim that they only shot with "rubber bullets."
I guess we know where this investigation will go. Nonviolent Palestinian activist Bassem Abu Rahmeh was killed a year ago by the single shot to the chest of a long range tear gas cannister—the same pattern of intentional weapon misuse that also left U.S. citizen and ISM activist Tristan Anderson with serious brain injuries a month before him.
On March 28th, the IDF made a final statement on the events of Abu Rahmeh’s killing, reported in Ha’aretz:
"We have approached military officials for their comments on the alleged incident. After examining the materials we received, we came to believe there was no basis found to the claim a tear gas grenade was aimed and fired directly at Abu Rahmeh," the statement read.
"The inquiry shows that there are two possible explanations for the injury: A. The injured man was standing on an elevated spot, and intersected the firing line of the grenade or B. The ammunition fired hit the upper wires of the fence, which changed its trajectory."
As Ha’aretz also reported:
The incident was documented by three different video cameras. Abu Rahmeh’s family sent the footage to ballistics experts, who cross-sectioned the images and concluded the grenade was fired directly at Abu Rahmeh, contrary to rules of engagement for the weapon.
Do IDF spokespersons practice keeping a straight face?
Nigel Parry is a former webmaster of Birzeit University, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, and a longtime independent media activist. He currently lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
Nato is 7.62×51
AK 47 uses 7.62×39
the Galil used by the IDF is predominately the Sniper version (like it says in the link provided.) Usually only snipers carry around sniper rifles, something is fishy w/ this ‘excellent work of journalism.’
something is fishy w/ this ‘excellent work of journalism.’
You noticed as well?
How could any self-respecting journalist ever question the most moral army in the world? For shame…
Usually only snipers are used by the Israelis to pick out individuals in demonstrations. That way the Israelis can conceal who shot the victim. This message thread has been very useful in discussing types of bullets in general. Next time, we will know who is using what.
Rubber bullets sound kindly, but they are nothing of the sort; they are a large lump of metal covered with a very thin coating of ‘rubber’. They managed to injure an American demonstrator, Ellen Stark, penetrating her arm, after being fired from only 4m away. The X-rays are here: link to amandamueller.com
The treatment she was able to receive at a Palestinian hospital is described here:
“Due to conditions at the medical center in Ramallah, the use of a flashlight from a mobile phone was required for lighting while the rubber bullet was removed from Stark’s arm. Her arm was broken as a result of this incident”
link to amandamueller.com
Ellen was not with the major bunch of protestors, but off to one side with a group of professional observers. Three of them were also detained.
Thanks Bob, there were indeed too many NATOs in that sentence. In the end there can only be one. :-)
Thanks Nigel. These matters are deeply disturbing. I once found myself caught between an American Israeli and artist who jointed the solidarity movement at one point in his life. Cases from the first intifada. I went through peculiar alternative mental states, the Israeli pulled hard, and it felt he wanted to recruit me, but in the end I decided in favor of the artist: a propagandist, a liar from the Israeli’s perspective. The main problem for me was, he needed too many generalizations, evasions, prevarications like – paraphrasing: Palestinians always lie, my experience tells me maybe not 100% but 98%. The more anecdotal evidence presented about “the Arab’s mind and manners” felt pretty disgusting too, maybe since it felt so unrelated.
Have you ever spent time in a hospital with an Arab in your room? I can tell you it is a horrible experience. The whole clan comes to visit. (paraphrased)
with the IDF spokesperson retreating into three classic positions that decades of evidence suggest must surely be written up in what would be the international relations Holy Grail of WikiLeaks
Interesting coinage, but I don’t think it captures the confusion one is caught in dealing with these cases yet.
Isn’t the core of the matter related to the fact that you simply need to declare all protests war? Doesn’t that put the single sergeant or soldiers beyond the law, after all soldiers are essentially trained to kill. The fog of war, you know.
If I believe Patrick Lang, who has quite a bit of military and first hand experience in the region, it could well be that the sergeant only covers one of his man:
It’s very, very unfortunate that we can’t take a closer look at the IDF soldiers involved. That might be interesting.
I have to amend this, since obviously Patrick Lang never wrote something like this. What he mentioned once though, is that the IDF soldiers in the occupied territories are usually young and not well trained and not well led. If I remember well he added that you can produce the same scenario everywhere by giving not young guys or not well led soldiers guns, and exactly these things will happen.
No big deal. Nice article. Almost hated to nit pick.
Another day, another Palestinian murder, another Israeli cover up…
A little of topic, but did anyone watch the Simpson’s episode from last weekend, The Greatest Story ever D’ohed,
it was quite funny and took some nice shots at Israel and Israeli culture.
Seriously? You came onto this article talking about the murder of Palestinians and try to change the topic to the Simpsons? Really?
Are you a fucking psychopath, yonira?
You’re talking to the same person who insulted Palestinian children, suffering from malnutrition AND who also facetiously compared an Israeli winning a Nobel to a Palestinian painting stripes on donkeys to cheer up children in Gaza – AFTER Israel came in and fucked everything up.
The guy is a racist freakshow. (I actually suspect he’s someone from a video-game forum I frequent. Long story, but yea, kind of a hunch judging by some of the phrases he’s said here.)
Not argue with the main thrust of this very well done post, but one detail is off: U.S. citizen and ISM activist Tristan Anderson is *not* effectively brain dead. He’s still in the hospital, he’s capable of little or no movement on one side, he’s lost sight in one idea, and he has many other problems resulting from his injury, but he’s made a lot of progress in recent months. He can even talk now.
So what’s to complain about?
Thanks for catching that Henry.
Info on Tristan’s current medical condition is really hard to find. It doesn’t appear to be either on the website linked or his Facebook group. That’s somewhat frustrating. I’d read what you wrote somewhere else, but I can’t for the life of me remember where.
A thief always suspects that others are stealing from him, even when they’re not.
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Why is lethal ammunition referred to as “live ammunition”? [War is Peace, Lies are Truth]
I could not find a definition of “live ammunition”.
If rubber-coated ammunition can kill (can it?) it is lethal. Does this make it “live”?
Is “live” ammunition a bullet whose projectile is 100% metal? How much plastic or rubber is needed to make the bullet NOT “live”. Does the speed of the bullet matter? At the muzzle? At the point of impact?
Live ammunition is used nowadays to distinguish active bullets from blanks. A blank bullet is one that does not contain an explosive chemical, thus it is not “live”, it is inert.
As for lethal vs. non-lethal, the distinction should be made between lethal and what is often referred to as less-than-lethal by the law enforcement community, for even so-called rubber bullets can be lethal.
It’s one of the absurdities of modern warfare.