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.
Silverstein has published Tikun Olam since 2003, It exposes the secrets of the Israeli national security state. He lives in Seattle, but his heart is in the east. He publishes regularly at Middle East Eye and Jacobin Magazine. His work has also appeared in Al Jazeera English, The Nation, Truthout and other outlets.
Do you know something we don’t? Have you seen the medical documents?
I don’t know whether I believe the IDF, but I’d like to see a proof for either case (death from CS gas or Atropine overdose, or maybe something completely different). This is pure argumentum ad ignorantiam.
Frankly, my policy is to disbelieve anything the IDF says that appears to be in their self interest unless they present physical evidence to document their claims. And they never do. And they’re usually proved to be liars after the fact as I am confident will happen in this case. After all, if their first four theories of her death proved to be lies why would the fifth be truthful? Can you answer me that?
As far as I’m concerned this new theory is a canard just as vile as any in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The IDF have trampled the memory of this woman into the mud. They should be ashamed, but they aren’t. And when the IDF is proven once again to be lying you might want to come back & apologize not to me, but to Jawaher’s memory.
This is pure argumentum ad ignorantiam.
I beg to differ. It has been widely reported in the Israeli press that the attending physician attributed the cause of death to CS gas inhalation.
The IDF report implies that atropine is only used to treat nerve gas poisoning. But it is more commonly administered as a bronchodilator in the treatment of the airways of crashing asthmatics; to reduce life threatening mucous secretions; and to maintain proper heart function and blood pressure during emergencies, such as arrhythmias (bradycardia). In short, repeated doses of atropine are indicated for several of the symptoms that Abu Rahme might have been experiencing. The fatal adult dose of atropine is not known, so a review of the patients records cannot be used to diagnose an overdose.
If you meant that the IDF wasn’t actually there, and did not observe the patient’s condition, you are certainly correct. Their conclusions are a textbook case of argumentum ad ignorantiam.
Good point & thanks for that information.
Thank you. In so many instances you’ve stood-up and said the things that the rest of us have been thinking.
Aw shucks, this is gonna turn into a love-in pretty soon. Thanks again & I’m so proud that you feel that way.
As the saying goes “the fish stinks by the head”
Look at it this way: Barak + Gallant = everything is said (and let’s leave Bibi and the rest of the incompetent gang)
Why the surprise
Gallant really scares me. I expect a whole lot more death once he steps into his new office. The man seems like a true sociopath.