Rights and Accountability 9 November 2014
At least thirty Palestinian citizens of Israel were arrested in the Galilee village of Kufr Kana on Sunday as protests spread over the cold-blooded police killing of a youth on Friday.
The video above shows Israeli police shooting 22-year-old Kheir Hamdan in Kufr Kana in circumstances that totally contradict their initial account.
“It is clear from the video footage that the shooting of Hamdan was a murder, as Hamdan did not pose an immediate threat to the lives of the police officers when they shot him,” the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said in a statement.
An image of Kheir Hamdan widely circulated on social media.
“Hamdan approached the officers’ van and banged on the windows with an object. The officers then opened the door of the van, got out and shot him from close range as he tried to run away from the scene, without giving any prior warning such as firing a shot into the air,” Adalah added.
“After the murder occurred, the police rushed to publish a false statement about the details of the incident, but later it became clear that cameras had documented the incident, showing that the police narrative was false and fabricated,” Adalah said.
Israeli police had previously told media that Hamdan was shot “when he tried to stab an officer during an attempt to arrest him for allegedly throwing a stun grenade in the town.”
“The officers’ actions clearly violate the open fire regulations of the police,” Adalah added. “The video also raises suspicion that the police shot Hamdan again after he was injured and had fallen to the ground.”
The group notes that “the police dragged Hamdan’s body in a humiliating manner while he was bleeding and threw him into the police van, as if they were carrying a meaningless object, instead of calling on rescue teams to save him.”
Adalah called for the officers involved in the shooting to be suspended immediately and for a criminal investigation to be opened under the supervision of Israel’s attorney general.
Adalah expressed pessimism that the existing system could result in accountability. “The experience of Arab citizens proves that the Israeli Police Investigation Unit (Mahash) will not seriously investigate an incident of an Arab citizen’s murder at the hands of the police, and will not take those responsible for the murder to trial,” attorney Hussein Abu Hussein said in the statement.
Result of incitement
Adalah noted that the shooting came after direct incitement to violence against Arab citizens of Israel by a senior minister:
Adalah sees a direct connection between the murder of Kheir Hamdan and the statements made earlier this week by Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich. The Minister stated that anyone who attacks Israeli Jewish citizens should be killed immediately. In any democratic society that respects the life of its citizens, any government minister that makes statements such as those by Yitzhak Aharonovich should be immediately dismissed.
Impunity
There are more than 1.6 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, who unlike Palestinians living under Israeli siege and occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, are supposedly afforded civil rights and protections.
However, Palestinian citizens of Israel live under dozens of laws and de facto practices that leave them at best with second-class citizenship.
The Israeli state recognized this in the Or Commission report produced after the October 2000 police killings of thirteen Palestinian citizens of Israel. But as Patrick O. Strickland reported last month, Israeli police brutality against Palestinian citizens remains unchecked fourteen years after that massacre.
Kheir Hamdan’s killing is only the latest by Israeli forces to be caught on video. In May, CNN and security camera video showed the cold-blooded killings by Israeli snipers of two teens, Nadim Nuwara and Muhammad Abu al-Thahir, in the occupied West Bank village of Beitunia.
In December 2012, a camera caught the killing of seventeen-year-old Muhammad al-Salaymeh in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. In that case, as in the killing of Hamdan, the video directly contradicted Israeli claims that the youth posed an immediate threat to the person who shot him.
Protests and repression
This video shows hundreds of people marching in Hamdan’s funeral in Kufr Kana as many more line the streets:
On Saturday, thousands of people marched through the town in a protest: As this video posted on Saturday shows, Israeli police stationed large numbers of forces at the entrances to Kufr Kana: Strikes and protests against Hamdan’s killings have continued in Palestinian cities towns across the Galilee and the north of present-day Israel, including in Haifa, Umm al-Fahm, Sakhnin and Tamra.Tags
- Kheir Hamdan
- Kufr Kana
- Palestinian citizens of Israel
- Israeli police
- Impunity
- Galilee
- October 2000 killings
Comments
"In any democratic society
Permalink Steve replied on
"In any democratic society that respects the life of its citizens, any government minister that makes statements such as those by Yitzhak Aharonovich should be immediately dismissed."
Ever listened to the leaders of Hamas? Takes real nerve to write that.
Israel's sunk to Hamas' level
Permalink mookins replied on
Israel's sunk to Hamas' level now, well ok- how's about they stop billing us two billion a year and telling us to go to war for them.
It is $3 bil in cash that the
Permalink maggie replied on
It is $3 bil in cash that the US taxpayers send to Israel each year but it is about $10 bil all totaled, given the transfer of military equipment and technology, the forgiven "loans", the "emergency" extra appropriations that go on all during the year from the US Treasury. If the costs to the US to defend against all the enemies we have allowed Israel to create for us the price of being aligned with Israel would soar into the stratosphere. Israel is not worth to the US the money and lives lost.
Steve the Zionist i.e. colonizer of Palestine repeats hasbara
Permalink lidia replied on
1) I bet Steve the Zionist i.e. colonizer of Palestine knows nothing but hasbara about Hamas - and hasbara means lies of Zionists i.e. colonizers of Palestine
2) Zionists i.e. colonizers of Palestine in their hasbara like to posture as "democracy" while practicing open aparteid against Palestinians, even the citizens of Zionist colony in the ME
3)The Minister stated that anyone who attacks Israeli Jewish citizens should be killed immediately - i.e. the Zionist colonizer is clearly racist. Even in USA the minister who says that "anyone who attacks USA white citizens should be killed immediately" is still not possible. But in Zionist aparteid colony on Palestinian land it is a norm.
Inhuman
Permalink John B replied on
Nothing less than complete inhuman butchery by Israeli Police who act more like security in a terrorist state, no way would American or British TV show this on their news, it is a total disgrace against humanity.
The frustration and rage felt
Permalink maggie replied on
The frustration and rage felt by Palestinians must be overwhelming. And to have the United States, a country which has long proclaimed its devotion to liberty and justice for all, to be complicit in this savage occupation and oppression of the Palestinians must be both depressing and infuriating to Palestinians.
Kheir's murder.
Permalink Sean Breathnach replied on
There is no accountability in Israel for any actions by the police, army, settlers. Anyone who thinks there is accountability, has their head in the clouds.
ambulance?
Permalink mary keating replied on
are there no ambulances in Israhell? Is shoot-to-kill now policy, and is this in violation of International law? What was time frame between this murder, and the victim being delivered to a hospital? Did they stop off somewhere first? Was there a post-mortem examination? What was the result of that and who carried it out? Have the killers been identified? What exactly is International law and who enforces it?
Ali Abunimah
Permalink John Prendiville replied on
I think the work that Ali A, does is truly fantastic. I just saw him take apart an unusually dim and prejudiced Aljazeera newsreader tonight. He reminds me of Noam Chomsky with respect to irrefutable logic and trueness of principle and heart.
he is particularly good,
Permalink mary keating replied on
he is particularly good, consistent and works damn hard.. at quite some personal cost, I would imagine. Thanks Ali for delivering the most credible work . Kudos to you and your team.
unity
Permalink Eric replied on
Horrifying and disgustingly typical Israeli behaviour, fortunately captured on video. But the videos also reveal the relative absence of women from public Palestinian politics. Until women are full political participants, it's hard to foresee the unity that is needed to overcome Zionism.
Police hate it went you pound
Permalink Anonymous replied on
Police hate it went you pound on their van windows with things. You can assume it will not be happy police that exit that van. And that is a fact in every nation in the world.
And Palestinians hate it when Zionist colonizers kidnap them.
Permalink lidia replied on
It was NOT "police" even by USA standards - they are colonial aparteid force. They are war criminals, murderers, torturers, robbers. Next time somebody will try to kidnap the anon I am sure anon's relatives and friends will be nice and polite with the kidnappers.
And why the Zionist have colonizers LIED about this? Why the Zionist colonizers simply have not said what the clever anon says now? Maybe because to murder a person for " pounding on their van windows with things" is NOT something that is done in every nation in the world?
Next time anon the apologist for Zionist kidnappers and murderers should try harder.