Jawaher Abu Rahme, killed by IDF December 31, 2010 (Haaretz)

On the one year anniversary of the death of non-violent Bilin protester Jawaher Abu Rahme, her family’s Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard, reminds us of the nasty conspiracy by senior IDF commander, Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi, with the Israeli media to rob Abu Rahme in death of her dignity through outright lies. These lies were dutifully disseminated by reporters and right-wing hasbara blogs like Muqata, Israellycool (yes, our old friend David Lange again), and Jonathan Hoffman at the Jewish Chronicle, who claimed in blaring headlines that the Palestinian non-violent movement had created a “blood libel” against the IDF. Virtually every claim of the IDF and their media whores was disproven. Yet no newspaper except Haaretz published anything close to the truth, nor did anyone publish a correction or retraction.

Thanks to Oren Persico at 7th Eye for publishing Sfard’s J’Accuse against Mizrahi. I should point out that the publication, showing an abundance of caution, refused to name the IDF liar (though Sfard did in his remarks). But it didn’t need to, because Yossi Gurvitz did so last year in +972. Sfard’s comments are expanded upon in Blood Libel in Bilin, a full-length investigation (summary here) prepared by the NGO Keshev. It recounts the entire media coverage of the tragedy and tells a particularly ugly story. To be fair, the report singles the Palestinian media out for criticism as well. But given that the killing was perpetrated by Israel and its media is much larger and has more resources, Israel’s media is far more culpable.

This is the schandeh of which Gen. Mizrahi is guilty: he told the Israeli media that Abu Rahme wasn’t at the demonstration at all and therefore couldn’t have died of tear gas inhalation. He told them that the activists delayed getting her to the hospital, which caused her death. He told them the hospital committed medical negligence by treating her for the wrong condition thereby causing her death. He said that the drugs she was given during treatment indicated she had cancer rather than gas toxicity and died of cancer instead of asphyxiation.

All these things were lies. Disgusting lies for which Mizrahi and no one in the IDF has paid a price. But Mizrahi isn’t the only bald-faced liar. Last year, I wrote a post noting that Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon also joined in the lie-fest echoing his colleague. In fact, Alon is such a good liar he was promoted to assume Mizrahi’s former position. On a further note, Mizrahi’s troops also murdered a Palestinian grandpa in his bed just before Abu Rachme’s killing. The troops had broken into an apartment on the wrong floor and killed the 65-year-old innocent man as he lay sleeping, while they held a gun to the head of his poor wife as she sat in another room. All this is proof positive that in addition to merit, the IDF rewards its commanders for deceit, subterfuge, fakery, murder, and dishonoring the memory of their Palestinian victims. It makes me ashamed. Damn ashamed.

The Israeli military prosecutor is “investigating” the case and there will be a Supreme Court hearing in July. Without this, the army would undoubtedly sweep yet another negligent homicide under the rug. For those who object to the term “homicide” they’ll recall an IDF study from 2002 which noted that CS gas in strong enough concentrations could kill a human being, which is precisely what happened.

Another word about the role played by David Lange in this matter. He and his fellow Hasbara media mavens were willing co-conspirators with the IDF in spreading its lies. They were hoaxed, but willingly so. And they in turn perpetrated the hoax on their readers, and they too may’ve been willingly hoaxed. I don’t mind that Lange hoaxed me into exposing a fraudulent identity he’d created for himself. All that was hurt was my pride. But through his fraud in this instance he dragged Jawaher Abu Rahme’s reputation in death through the mud. That is a far worse crime. Lange will never apologize. He doesn’t have it in him. Not least because Abu Rahme, as a Palestinian isn’t fully human to him. She is the enemy and therefore anything she does, including dying, is a personal affront to Israel and its army. An affront that’s worth lying about to “expose.”

Finally, we should note that the very same CS tear gas and the projectiles that deliver them continue causing death to Palestinian protesters including one that happened last month. The fact that the IDF uses munitions and crowd control devices that kill not just once but repeatedly, makes the entire army guilty of violations of international law. These deaths are no longer accidents or unfortunate mistakes. They are, at the very least negligent homicide and at worst murder. Take your pick.

Jawaher Abu Rahme's mother holding picture of daughter killed by IDF (Gil Yochanan)

After trying four or five previous sets of lies to absolve themselves of responsibility for killing Jawaher Abu Rahme during a weekly Bilin demonstration a few weeks ago, the IDF now has a story and they’re sticking to it.  It appears that despite the fact that the army’s own doctors warned in 2004 that the U.S.-manufactured CS gas could be lethal if inhaled at a high-enough exposure, it wasn’t CS that killed her, but incompetent medical treatment.

Yes, a woman stricken at a Bilin demonstration where CS gas is used every week, taken by an ambulance driver to whom she said that she’d inhaled tear gas, to a hospital which regularly treats such victims, instead of treating her for CS, treated her instead for phosphorous fertilizer and nerve gas poisoning.

According to the IDF anonymous (naturally) source, Jawaher inhaled only an infinitessimal amount of gas because she wasn’t even at the demonstration.  Of course the IDF hasn’t thought to explain if she’d inhaled only a minimal amount of CS, why would she need to call an ambulance and be taken to the hospital?

C’mon, this doesn’t even pass the smell test.  Why would a Palestinian hospital treat a patient for nerve gas when the IDF doesn’t use nerve gas against demonstrators?  These people are shameful, an embarrassment to humanity.  They smear the memory of a poor, dead girl whose brother they’ve already killed in cold blood.  Have they no shame, at long last have they no shame?

Read this for more background on the tragedy and a refutation of the IDF’s tissue of deceit.

I wrote recently about a Forward article which portrayed a 2002 study by IDF toxicologists which noted that high concentrations of CS gas could be lethal.  The article attempted to explain how Jawaher Abu Rahme could’ve been killed by the inhalation of CS gas at last week’s Bilin demonstration.

Today’s Haaretz references that study (without crediting the previously published Forward story) and adds new information–that the IDF is using a new tear gas launcher which can fire six canisters simultaneously, thus saturating an area more intensely than ever before.  Though the story notes that gas concentration would have to be 800 times the average level used to quell demonstrations in 2002, the new weapon, which dishonors the name of Beatle Ringo Star, could likely achieve such an level especially if the shells landed in very close proximity to each other and the victim.

Despite this, the IDF continues slinging the lies:

The IDF Spokesman responded that soldiers use the Ringo only “in compliance with the binding professional orders for using this weapon, and with the rules of engagement applicable under the circumstances. CS gas is less poisonous than other tear gases. Therefore, it is the tear gas commonly used worldwide.”

Here the official blows smoke up our asses by deliberately obfuscating the problem with the Ringo.  The problem isn’t that the weapon is being used contrary to specifications.  The problem is that it IS being used according to military orders and those orders are not only likely, but destined to kill someone.  In fact, at least one of the other 21 Palestinians killed at Separation Wall protests was killed from gas inhalation.  This isn’t a new problem for the IDF.

Again, the army placed blame squarely on the Palestinians for her death with more sophistry:

…The study found that “treating people exposed to CS gas is simple, and any medical crew can treat victims of the gas with simple and readily available medical means.” Therefore, it concluded, there is no reason “to change the policy for using the gas.”

Note the unproven claim that a 2002 study by Israeli army doctors found that under typical Israeli conditions is easily treatable.  However, conditions prevailing in 2002 don’t prevail now.  The IDF uses vastly greater firepower in confrontations with Palestinians; and when they are injured the medical facilities available to them are not as sophisticated as treatment available to Israelis.

IDF Brig. Gen. Alon Nitzan speaks ill of the dead

Any IDF officer who makes a statement that it should not change a policy that kills people should be a candidate for the Hague.  Plain and simple.

I have yet another candidate in mind.  Without offering any proof whatsoever, Brig. Gen. Nitzan Alon blames Abu Rahme’s death on the Palestinian medical system:

“She most probably died as a result of other complications, combined with problems in the medical care she received at the Palestinian hospital,” Nitzan said.

Every piece of actual documented evidence I’ve read shows that the only complication Abu Rahme had was an inner ear infection treated before her death.  She was taking no medications at the time of her death.  She had no medical complications at the time of her death.  There is NO indication of anything remiss in the medical treatment offered to her in the Ramallah hospital that treated her.   I note that the IDF, just after her death, lied once again in claiming that the hospital released Abu Rahme and she went home where she died.  It was at that time attempting to insinuate that the hospital thought her condition mild enough that it released her.  This would thus absolve the IDF and CS gas of any responsibility in her death.

Now the IDF concedes that the victim did stay in the hospital till her death, but that medical treatment (or lack thereof) killed her.  Considering again that they offer no proof for this “theory” it’s worth about the same amount as the earlier nonsense they tried to peddle.

I am sorry to speak in such extremes but these people are not just cruel, or mean-spirited or self-serving.  It goes beyond this.  They are evil.  Or perhaps if you want to let them off the hook a bit you can say that they’re reinforcing an evil system and therefore have absorbed the immorality of that system.  But I believe that human beings have agency.  They have responsibility for moral thought.  Even soldiers.  Even senior officers.  Especially senior officers.

Israel and officers like Nitzan must know that no matter what their army and nation tells them to do, that there are others  watching this evil and keeping accounts.  That these accounts must be answered in time.  They will be held accountable.

When you think about it, even if Israel adopted a slightly more accommodating approach and admitted error or expressed remorse.  Even if it didn’t end the Occupation, it would still earn some measure of decency in the opinion of others and perhaps even some Palestinians (not that I advocate such half-measures).  But Israel disowns its actions by claiming that Jawaher died for her own sins.  It takes the approach of bullies and monsters throughout human history: if they admit any weakness, any error, their enemy will exploit it ruthlessly and that will be the end of their privileged, superior status.  And bullies never willingly relinquish their power.

This is the tragedy of modern Israel.  It could have half a loaf and everything that comes with it: peace, security, prosperity, good relations with its neighbors.  Instead, again like those bullies I mentioned, it will take the whole loaf or destroy everything trying to get it.

Teargas clouds in Bilin: prolonged exposure can cause death (Oren Ziv/Active Stills)

The Forward publishes today an eye-opening follow-up to the Jawaher Abu Rahme story.  It seems that the IDF’s own doctors published a study in an academic journal noting that the type of CS gas used in the Bilin demonstrations could be lethal:

A 2003 article published by four Israeli army doctors in Archives of Toxicology noted that CS gas…causes tearing and burning for about 15 to 30 minutes, and this is lessened if people are moved into fresh air. The army has insisted on the safety of CS beyond these immediate effects. But the Israeli army doctors’ article noted, “At high concentrations, enclosed spaces, or prolonged exposures, severe side effects may occur and human deaths…have been reported.”

A 2009 article in the British Medical Journal came to similar conclusions, noting that tear gas is “not a gas at all, but a toxic chemical irritant.”

Instead of examining the circumstances under which the IDF prepared and conducted its teargas barrage on unarmed Palestinian protestors to determine whether something might have led this particular incident to be more lethal than others, the IDF obfuscates by insinuating that Abu Rahme really died of cancer or asthma or that she wasn’t even at the protest (she was in fact 150 feet away near her home, but the massive flow of teargas engulfed her and her mother).

You remember the standard definition of insanity: repeating the same failed action in the belief that next time it will work.  In that light, and after reading that the army’s own doctors warned of such lethal effects from CS, we must call the IDF’s approach to policing the Bilin demonstration certified insanity:

The Israeli military source says the army does not plan to change its methods. A statement released by the spokesman noted: “The tear gas used by the IDF, like all other riot dispersal means, is checked rigorously before being put into active use. During the approval process, the device passed all the necessary tests and approvals.”

You have to wonder whether IDF spokespeople are merely idiots or whether there’s some sort of method to their stupidity.  Of course, the tear gas and rifle launchers worked as advertised.  The problem wasn’t mechanical.  The problem was the human beings (let’s be charitable, shall we) who determined to use the gas in such a way that it not only can, but will likely kill people.  The Forward article notes that at least one other such demonstrator died from tear gas inhalation, so Jawaher wasn’t the first.

Really, when you come right down to it, the IDF doesn’t give a crap about the lives of the Palestinians they kill (or the ones they don’t).  If they cared and felt they’d be held accountable for this massive shande, they’d behave differently.  You could even argue that the IDF is happy to kill them, perhaps thinking mistakenly it might be a deterrent to others who fear for their lives.  But I’d argue that these deaths and the furor they arouse inside and especially outside Israel will fuel, rather than quell the unrest in Bilin and along the route of what should be called the Land-Grab Wall.

Israel’s supporters grow apoplectic when you talk about the need for international justice and arresting Israeli generals and sending them to the Hague.  But what else can you do?  There can be no justice in Israel.  What judge has the stomach to look an IDF sergeant in the eye and call him a killer for firing tear gas canisters at Palestinians?  Let’s be real.  The only way to get justice is to go outside Israel.  Only an international court has the distance and resolve to judge these issues fairly.  I, like Richard Goldstone, would like to see Israel police itself, investigate and punish itself for the deeds of the guilty.  But it ain’t gonna happen.

Speaking of mendacious, underhanded IDF spin, Yossi Gurvitz writes a masterful post exposing the hitherto unidentified army source who spewed so much trash about Jawaher, which was eaten up by the Israeli media.  Gurvitz noted the two-pronged strategy of IDF media manipulation: the official spokesperson says little and notes there is an investigation.  But the senior army commander speaking anonymously trash talks about the dead woman.  This way, when his speculation and spin are exposed for the lies they are, the IDF can fall back on the official position and claim it never really officially said any of the things reported from the general’s mouth.  It really has to be read to be believed.

As Martin Luther King would remind us were he alive to do so, Israelis aren’t the only ones culpable for this death.  We all are.  Our own U.S. government exported this lethal agent to Israel and gave its blessing for use against defenseless Palestinian civilians.  A U.S. company manufactured this product and helped kill Jawaher as well.  In fact, I was delighted to hear that the day after her death, Israeli activists threw empty tear gas canisters collected in Bilin at the home of the U.S. ambassador outside Tel Aviv.  We should lay the weapon that killed Jahawer right at his doorstep and demand an answer from the government as to what it plans to do to ensure such murder doesn’t happen again.  So far things aren’t looking good in that vein:

Asked to comment on Israel’s use of the tear gas, a State Department representative told the Forward, “The United States expects any recipient of U.S. defense articles to use those items in accordance with the terms and conditions of any U.S. transfer.”

Israeli diplomatic sources said Israel had not, so far, received any inquiries from Washington regarding the use of tear gas in the Bil’in incident.

Well, Mr. State Department representative, just what are the “terms and conditions” of U.S. transfer?  Do they say that U.S.-made CS may be used to quell non-violent Palestinian demonstrations and kill innocent women?  As for the Israeli response, if the U.S. hasn’t “inquired” about this killing and our role in it they damn well should.  What do we pay you for, Madame Secretary (Clinton)??

Related articles

• From Bilin to Tel Aviv, outrage at killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah (josephdana.com)
• A Thinking Person’s Guide to the Abu Rahmeh Story (jeremiahhaber.com)
• Combined Systems Inc’s lethal products (warincontext.org)
• Open letter to Combined Systems Inc, Maker of Israeli Tear Gas (josephdana.com)

A list of tweets and retweets by Biliin witnesses of the tear-gassing of Jawaher Abu Rachme

Not content to have killed Jawaher Abu Rahme with a lethal CS teargas barrage at the concluding weekly demonstration against the Separation Wall of 2010, the IDF is now smearing her memory and attempting to deprive her in death of the dedication to the cause for which she gave her life.  Like someone who throws spaghetti on the wall to see which strands will stick, the IDF first tries one lie and then, if that doesn’t work or resonate in public discourse, it tries another.

The first lie they tried was to claim that Abu Rahme had asthma which either caused or contributed to her death.  The IDF whined that the family refused to share with it her medical records so it could get itself off the hook.  Not a whit of awareness that personal medical records are private and don’t have to be shared with anyone, especially the party which murdered her (more on my use of this term later).

They also claimed the teargas came as a result of stone-throwing on the part of the protesters.  But eyewitnesses noted that the teargas actually preceded any acts of violence on the part of the anti-Wall activists.  In fact, they weren’t even in the vicinity of the Wall when the gassing occurred, which is the usual MO for these events.

The latest lie is to claim she wasn’t even at the protest.  Which means she died of teargas inhalation how?  Israeli anti-Wall activists who themselves were at the demonstration and witnessed her injury tweeted about it en masse.  Were they making it up?  Or perhaps they weren’t there either.  Perhaps, instead they were all out partying in Tel Aviv.

Yonatan Pollak, one of the Israelis who witnessed Abu Rahme’s injuries, begs to differ:

“I saw that Jahawer [sic] took an active role in the protest,” he told Ynet, while presenting his update on the incident in his Twitter account.

“I saw how they put her in the ambulance that took her to the hospital. I know with certainty that she arrived there and stayed there, and later died at the hospital,” he said.

Despite the problematic findings presented by the army, Pollack insisted that “the IDF’s version isn’t based on any facts…the only thing the army’s claims are based on is the error of a doctor who got one digit wrong when he wrote down the time.”

Jawaher Abu Rahme mourning poster

Now a word about CS and other lethal weaponry used by the IDF to suppress mainly non-violent protest.  Such weapons have regularly proven lethal in the past.  In fact, such a canister fired from a high-velocity rifle into the chest of her brother, Bassam, killed him last year.  21 Palestinians have been killed in anti-Wall demonstrations.  Keep in mind that the vast majority of the dead hadn’t engaged in any violent act at all.  In Bilin you can be killed for shouting a slogan, which is what happened to Bassam.  He was known as a fiery leader loudly chanting calls for justice for his fellow townspeople.  The IDF response, a tear gas canister in the chest to shut you up.  An American protester, Tristan Anderson, suffered a massive head injury and brain damage from a similar injury.  American Emily Hochnowitz recently marked the first anniversary of her loss of an eye at a protest at another village along the route of the Wall.  The U.S. government response?  Little or nothing: if you don’t want trouble, stay away.

These are largely non-violent protests against the blatant theft of Palestinian land.  Such theft is a violation of international law.  Which means that the IDF is murdering non-violent Palestinians because they are demanding that Israel adhere to international law and return their land to them.  Not to mention that the Israeli High Court itself has directed a rerouting of the wall in the Bilin zone which the IDF has so far refused.

Haaretz has noted that CS gas, though used by some police forces to quell civil disturbances, can be a lethal weapon when used under certain circumstances.  In fact, the British medical journal, The Lancet, urged a moratorium on its use two years ago.  A study commissioned by the federal government task force investigating use of CS in the Branch Davidian assault found that the gas could be lethal if breathed for a sustained period in close quarters.  Exposure to the agent has caused women to miscarry.  The U.S. Army Center for Preventive Medicine found that at “specified concentrations” it was an imminent danger to life and health.”  The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention outlaws use of CS in war because of the fear that use by one nation against another might spur retaliation and use of even more dangerous agents by the victim nation.

There can be little doubt that, while at Bilin demonstrators are engaging in legitimate protest, the IDF is engaged in a war against them.  The repeated use of CS and other lethal weapons, the late night massive assaults on villages housing leaders of the anti-Wall protests, and their incarceration using trumped-up charges as in the case of Abdullah Abu Rahme, can only mean that Israel sees itself justified in waging what is virtually a war.  The IDF knows these weapons and agents are lethal.  It doesn’t care.  It kills with them repeatedly and yet continues to use them.  That’s because there is no Judge Goldstone looking over their shoulders and threatening them with international opprobrium for their cold-blooded killings.

Hundreds of Israeli protested against Jahawer’s death in full force yesterday and blocked roads around the Kirya (Israel’s Pentagon) and near the U.S. ambassador’s home (a U.S. company of course makes the teargas used to kill Jawaher).  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a sense of solidarity and anger within Israel over the death of a Palestinian.

I want commenters to be very clear that I will not countenance anyone in threads here raising bogus Truther/Birther nutcase claims regarding Jawaher’s death.  If you want to believe delusions that absolve the IDF of responsibility I invite you to the Jerusalem Post Talkback section or Debka Files.  That’s where you belong.  I’m prepared to debate the legitimate issues.  But claiming a murdered woman wasn’t at the place where she was murdered or that asthma killed her is so absurd, so breathtakingly cruel and heartless, that I won’t be part of it.

The IDF lies.  Period.  If you want to accept the lies of the IDF based on no evidence whatsoever other than the claims of known prevaricators, you’re welcome to do so.  But you won’t speak ill of the dead here.

Related articles

• From Bilin to Tel Aviv, outrage at killing of Jawaher Abu Rahmah (josephdana.com)
• IDF Kills Unarmed Protester, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, May Her Memory Be For A Blessing (jeremiahhaber.com)

Thanks to Michael Levin for creating this wonderful poster which illustrates the hypocrisy or at at least obliviousness of those campaigning for Gilad Shalit‘s release who neglect the fact that there are 7,000 Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons as well. They all await their freedom.  Please do your very best to circulate this image around the web and send it to your friends via e mail and social networking.  I hope it can become as visible on the web as posters about Gilad Shalit circulated by his own Israeli supporters.

Among the newer additions to our The Await Their Freedom project is Abdullah Abu Rachmeh, a non-violent campaigner from Bilin, who organized the anti-Wall demonstrations there.  An Israeli Kangaroo judge recently extended his jail sentence at the behest of the military prosecutor for no other reason than Israel finds the Bilin protests a nasty thorn in its side.  This week a relative of Abdullah’s, Jawaher Abu Rachmeh, was murdered by IDF tear gas at a similar demonstration.  Alas, she cannot even be part of our our campaign to free the prisoners because she never even made it to an Israeli prison.  She was a victim of CS gas, one of the most lethal tear gas formulations that exists.  It smothered her and caused her death, which the IDF is now shamefully trying to blame on an imagined case of asthma.

I regret to say that during the time we were creating this poster Prisoner X went from an incommunicado detainee held in Ayalon Prison to a murdered one.

It is time for Israel to free its prisoners and time for the Palestinians to release theirs.  It’s also long past time to resolve this entire conflict with compromise on both sides that are just and fair.

I just published a post slamming Britain’s foreign secretrary, William Hague and I’m afraid I’m going to have to take most of it back.  Eyal Clyne just sent me a link to an amazing Haaretz story reporting on Hague’s address to Palestinian anti-Wall activists.  It’s worth translating significant portions of the article:

“When negotiations seem like an eternally unfulfilled promise due to Israel’s unwillingness to reach a fair solution, popular resistance to the Occupation is the sole remaining possible alternative for the Palestinians to achieve their rights and avoid armed struggle.”

Abdullah Abu Rahme flashes V sign after sentencing (AP/Oded Balilty)

He made this statement while meeting with Palestinians and Israelis struggling against the Separation Wall.  He offered the support of the British government for non-violent struggle, saying that this form of resistance would meet with widespread support in the international community.   This development comes on the heels of strong British protest at the sham 12-month sentence an Israeli military court handed out to the leader of the Bilin anti-Wall demonstrations, Abdullah Abu-Rachmeh, whose brother was murdered several months ago by the IDF there during a protest.  Abu Rachmeh was found guilty of “incitement” for demanding that Israel not steal his village’s land.  The Foreign Office said it was concerned that:

The sentence would prevent other Palestinians from exercising their legitimate rights to demonstrate non-violently against the appropriation of Palestinian land by Israel [by the Wall].

The mere fact of such a meeting with a British foreign secretary seems close to historic and certainly a big slap in the face to Israel.  Willy, I take it all back.  You may be talking out of both sides of your mouth, but today I like what you said.

Tzipi Livni did not take kindly to this “nonsense” at all and put in a good word for the miraculous life-saving qualities of the Wall.  But her most interesting comment concerned the nasty habit of British international human rights activists filing arrest warrants whenever Israeli leaders like her or Dan Meridor schedule some hasbara there:

Britain is being fully exploited for the worse by radical political elements making cynical use of its legal system.  A situation in which an Israeli leader, whether minister or military officer, cannot travel to Britain is absurd and must be stopped for the sake of good Israeli-British relations.

“O, the times they are a changin’”

IDF soldier 'wanted' for gravely wounding unarmed Palestinian protestor

This is the type of political action I approve of heartily.  It has guts and imagination and takes the battle directly to the other side:

WANTED

The police request the public’s assistance

The suspect is wanted for investigation of attempted murder.  On 04/23/2010 at 14.03, the suspect was randomly shooting towards the heads of non-violent demonstrators. As a result, Imad Rezqa was wounded, suffering a fractured skull and internal bleeding in the brain.  Consider the suspect armed and dangerous. If seen, do not make contact. Notify the police immediately.  Anyone with further details report to…

Let me ask you why this soldier is wearing shades?  All those headlines about warrants for the arrest of IDF officers and policitians may be getting to the grunt on the ground.

Imad Rezka's head wound caused by the hooligan in uniform to the right: does this look like what the IDF characterized as a 'superficial wound??'

Eyewitnesses to this incident photographed this soldier, who shot and seriously wounded Imad Rezka, a non-violent demonstrator attending the weekly Bilin Separation Wall rally.

This is but the most recent of numerous incidents in which IDF personnel use this weapon, originally meant to shoot tear gas canister as a means of crowd disperal, directly at the heads of unarmed demonstrators.  In the past, they have killed and wounded numerous demonstrators both Palestinian and American.

The last soldier who actually killed a Palestinian was cleared of any wrongdoing by an IDF Kangaroo investigation.  That’s why the peace movement is taking matters into its own hands and making known to the IDF that if they won’t hold their soldiers accountable, others will.

There will come a time when Palestinian survivors and victims will get their day in court and there will be justice.  I just hope that Israel has a big enough treasury to pay for the restitution they will owe for these heinous attacks.

First, read Haaretz’s account and then read the typically mendacious IDF version:

Rezka was taken to a Ramallah hospital, where it was found that the aluminum canister fractured his scull and caused intracranial hemorrhaging. He was then taken to the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, where surgeons removed shards from his scull and reconstructed it with plastic surgery.

Central Command officers told Haaretz that Rezka put himself in harm’s way, and claimed that activists’ initial reports of a “serious” injury were “manipulative,” as he only sustained a “superficial wound.”

Yup, that’s the Most Moral Army in the World™ talking.  Since when have you ever heard of a concussion from a high velocity tear gas rifle causing a “superficial wound??”  When have you ever heard of a head wound requiring reconstructive surgery being superficial??  Some of my liberal Zionist friends complain that I show insufficient love for Israel in the midst of my criticism.  Tell me, how can I do that when faced with the monstrousness of this?