Forensic analysis contradicts Israeli claims, says Ahmed Erekat was ‘extrajudicially executed’

Last year Israeli forces shot and killed 27-year-old Ahmed Erekat at the Container checkpoint, a highly militarized Israeli checkpoint that separates the occupied West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah. 

He was shot dead after his car rammed into a group of armed Israeli border police officers at the checkpoint on June 23rd, 2020. Erekat was running errands for his sister’s wedding, which was to be held later that day, when he was killed. 

For months, Erekat’s family have been campaigning to get his body returned to them, and have vehemently denied Israeli claims that Erekat was a “terrorist” who intentionally rammed his vehicle into the soldiers. 

The family has argued instead that Erekat was extrajudicially executed by Israeli forces– a claim that is now being backed in a new report by the London-based research group, Forensic Architecture, which uses architectural techniques and technologies to investigate cases of state violence and human rights violations around the world. 

In a report published on Tuesday, Forensic Architecture and Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq claim that Erekat was executed despite posing no imminent threat to the soldiers’ lives at the time, and was additionally denied medical attention by Israeli authorities after he was shot. 

Using 3D modeling, Forensic Architecture was able to reconstruct the scene of the shooting using available security footage from the checkpoint and several videos that were taken by bystanders and journalists around the site after the shooting. 

“Our analysis raises major questions about Ahmad’s killing that raise doubts in the Israeli army’s claims and call for further investigation,” the report said. 

Refuting Israeli discrepancies

The video detailing the group’s investigation, narrated by Angela Davis, uses 3D modeling to debunk the narrative put forward by Israeli security forces that Erekat intentionally targeted the soldiers in a car-ramming attack, therefore justifying his killing. 

The surveillance video released by Israeli authorities after the shooting appears to show Erekat’s car speeding up as it suddenly veers into the direction of the soldiers, hitting one female soldier who immediately gets back up to her feet. 

According to the Forensic Architecture model, which analyzes other angles and perspectives of the incident, Erekat’s car did not exceed a speed of 15km/hr and its acceleration “was constant and low throughout, implying that there was no sudden attempt to speed up.”

One of the possible contributions to the perceived speeding up of the car, the report noted, is the 3 degree slope of the road that Erekat was driving down. 

Forensic Architecture’s rendering of the moments leading up to the crash also shows Erekat’s vehicle veering to the left just before impacting a curb, at which point the car shifts its course to the right, impacting the soldiers. 

Further analysis suggests that moments before hitting the soldiers, the front left wheel of Erekat’s car appears still for several moments, and the distance between the back wheel and the body of the car expands, possibly indicating that Erekat was hitting the brakes, attempting to slow down the car. 

“The acceleration of the vehicle was only 4.4% of its reported capacity after turning towards the booth. Thus, the driver did not rapidly accelerate into the checkpoint. Had the driver truly wanted to maximize the chance that he would surprise the guards and strike them with his vehicle, he could have accelerated to the maximum capacity of the vehicle,” forensic collision expert Dr Jeremy J. Bauer told the group. 

Despite the evidence pointing towards the possibility that the incident could have been the result of driver error or vehicular malfunction, Forensic Architecture noted that Israeli authorities have still not opened a formal investigation into the crash, have yet to release additional security footage of the incident, and have not examined the car’s black box, which could help determine whether the incident was in fact an intentional car-ramming as Israeli authorities say, or an accident. 

Another glaring discrepancy in the Israeli authorities’ account of the event are the claims from the border police officers who killed Erekat that he ‘left the car and began running towards the soldiers’, — a claim that was used to justify Erekat’s execution. 

Frame by frame analysis conducted by Forensic Architecture, however, shows that in the moments after Erekat crashed his car, he exited the vehicle and began backing away from the soldiers with his hands up. 

At the time that the first shot was fired at Erekat, who was unarmed, he was standing approximately four meters away from the nearest soldier, the report said. The border police officers then proceeded to shoot Erekat five more times. 

Israeli forces fired the six shots at Erekat in a period of less than two seconds; three of the bullets were fired at him when he was already lying on the ground. 

According to the Israeli army’s open-fire regulations, live fire may only be used in a last resort if there is ‘life-threatening danger.’ Our analysis contradicts the army’s claim, showing that Ahmad did not pose any immediate threat,” Forensic Architecture said. 

‘Degrading treatment’

Following Ahmed Erekat’s killing, his family accused Israeli authorities of failing to provide proper medical attention to Erekat that could have potentially saved his life. Israeli forces denied this claim, saying that their forces provided Erekat with medical care “within minutes” of him being shot. 

Forensic Architecture’s analysis of the incident, however, shows that Israeli forces falsified their claims, and waited at least 45 minutes after Erekat was shot before they first attended to his body. 

In the moments after Erekat was shot, where video footage from Palestinian bystanders shows Erekat still moving as he lay injured on the ground, several border police officers can be seen moving back and forth around his body without providing any medical attention. 

In the video reconstruction of the scene, Forensic Architecture shows that Erekat’s body remained in the same position for 45 minutes after he was shot. 

“Ahmad’s body would have moved if he had received medical attention. It is therefore extremely unlikely that Ahmad was provided medical care—care that could have saved his life in those moments,” the report said. 

The report also notes that a Palestinian ambulance that arrived to the scene was prevented by the soldiers from approaching Erekat’s body, and that the Israeli ambulance that was allowed at the scene evacuated only the injured border police officer. 

At around 5:30pm, over an hour and a half after Erekat was shot, video footage shows Erekat’s body lying on the ground completely naked, surrounded by dozens of Israeli police and military personnel, some of whom were shown to be casually smoking cigarettes just feet away from his body. 

The group noted that this is the only case they have come across in which a slain Palestinian was fully undressed on site by Israeli forces. Finally, around 5:50pm, two hours after Erkeat was shot, he was evacuated by an Israeli ambulance. 

Had Israeli forces provided the necessary medical attention after the shooting, there is a possibility that Erekat’s life could have been saved, the report said. 

“Continuing their degrading treatment, the occupation forces have confiscated Ahmad’s body—refusing to return him to his family for proper burial,” the report said. 

Erekat is one of 70 slain Palestinians whose body is still being held by Israeli authorities, as part of the state’s widely-condemned policy of detaining the bodies of Palestinian “attackers” to be used as political bargaining chips.

Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch responded to Forensic Architecture’s report in an interview with The Independent, saying that holding Erekat’s body amounts to collective punishment of the Erekat family, which is a violation of international humanitarian law. 

“Preventing a family from burying their son in a dignified way is cruel and without legal justification. At the very least they should allow them to bury their loved one and have closure,” Shakir said.

Since Erekat’s death, Israeli authorities have failed to launch a full investigation into the circumstances of his killing, and have not released an autopsy detailing Ahmad’s wounds and time of death.

“Placing this killing alongside other extrajudicial executions by the Israeli occupation forces, another pattern appears whereby Palestinians are denied medical attention after being shot with lethal force,” Forensic Architecture said in the report. 

“Moreover, Ahmad’s extrajudicial execution took place at a time of global Black-led protests against racist police brutality. In this context, his killing illustrates both the entangled struggles of Palestinian and Black liberation, as well as the disposability of Black and indigenous bodies in hyper-militarized settler-colonies.”