Rights and Accountability 30 January 2019
A still from an Israeli police video shows an officer handcuffing Samah Mubarak after she was shot and incapacitated, as a soldier points a rifle at her, at al-Zaayim checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, 30 January. The 16-year-old, who died of her injuries, appears to have received no first aid.
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian girl at al-Zaayim checkpoint in the occupied West Bank east of Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Israeli police claimed that Samah Zuhair Mubarak attempted to stab a security guard at the checkpoint before she was fatally shot.
The Palestinian Authority health ministry gave Mubarak’s age as 16, and media reported she was in the 11th grade.
No Israeli soldiers were injured during the incident, as in many previous cases in which an alleged Palestinian attacker was killed.
An Israeli police spokesperson tweeted a photo of the knife he claimed Mubarak had carried:
Israeli police also released an edited video said to show parts of the incident. The video shows a person wearing all black and carrying a backpack approaching the checkpoint.It then shows an altercation from a distance in which a person appears to stumble or lunge forward, and then fall backwards onto the ground as if shot.
The video is edited such that it does not show what happened in the seconds prior to the altercation and shooting.
It also shows a soldier handcuffing the clearly incapacitated Mubarak who is lying on the ground while another soldier points a rifle at her.
Medical aid denied
In many cases of alleged or actual attacks by Palestinians against Israeli soldiers, occupation forces have habitually used unnecessary lethal force – extrajudicial executions – against persons who presented no imminent threat or had ceased to present a danger.
“In some cases, Israeli officials have said Palestinians appeared to have carried out attacks or attempted to do so in order to be shot dead by Israeli security forces, as a form of ‘suicide by cop,’” the Times of Israel stated after Wednesday’s shooting.
Local media reported that Israeli forces prevented first responders from providing first aid to Mubarak after she was shot.
None of the images released by Israeli police or those circulating on social media and seen by The Electronic Intifada appear to show any examination of Mubarak by medical personnel or life-saving efforts taking place.
Medical care is habitually denied or actively prevented for Palestinians shot by Israeli occupation forces.
In reference to such incidents in the past, Amnesty International has stated that it is “a basic duty under international law to provide medical aid to the wounded, and failure to do so – especially intentional failure – violates the prohibition on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”
This video shows soldiers looking through Mubarak’s school bag after she was shot and finding only school books:
Israeli forces took Mubarak’s body away in an ambulance to an unknown location, Ma’an News Agency reported. Israeli forces habitually withhold bodies of Palestinians killed during alleged attacks, preventing their families from burying them according to tradition.Family shocked
A family member told Palestinian media that following the killing of Mubarak, Israel detained her father Zuhair Mubarak after summoning him for interrogation at Ofer military prison.
“We knew that Samah was going to school, and we were surprised by the news of her death. We do not know any other details about what had happened at the checkpoint.” the family member added.
Mubarak’s family is originally from the Gaza Strip, but lives in the occupied West Bank town of al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, where her father moved at the age of 18.
She is the third Palestinian child to be killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of 2019.
“Samah has a childish personality, she has no extremist thought or ideology, she comes from a religious family, we are all religious, and she would not do what Israel claims,” Samah’s uncle, Fathi al-Khalidi, told the publication Donia al-Watan.
Fatal tear gas canister
Meanwhile in Gaza on Tuesday, 47-year-old Samir Ghazi al-Nabbahin died from injuries he suffered during Great March of Return protests last Friday.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said that al-Nabbahin was hit in the face with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli occupation forces.
On 14 January, another Palestinian in Gaza, 13-year-old Abd al-Raouf Ismail Salha, died from injuries sustained when he was shot in the head by an Israeli tear gas canister days earlier.
Al-Nabbahin was buried on Wednesday amid scenes of anguish:
At least five more Palestinians were injured by Israeli gunfire on Tuesday as they participated in a weekly march in the north of Gaza against Israel’s maritime blockade of the territory.Tamara Nassar contributed research.
Comments
Perpetual murder
Permalink Nestor Makhno replied on
It goes on and on. The world is doing nothing. Still how long the Palestinians have to suffer murder, injustice and the violations of their basic rights by the cruel zionist ideology ? When this will end?
Whose fault is it?
Permalink Martin O'Brien replied on
Given that "Israel" is a criminal as well as an illegitimate state, whose fault is it that the crimes go on and on? In the well-ordered world provided for by the United Nations Charter, as in any individual well-ordered country, every criminal is entitled to be stopped, investigated, judged and punished. If this doesn't happen, all crimes that the criminal commits subsequently are the fault not only of the criminal but also of all those who are responsible for ensuring that justice is done. In this case we are talking about every member-state of the United Nations and particularly the five permanent, veto-empowered members of the Security Council. We must put pressure on them. It is they who are chiefly responsible for destroying the benefits of the Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "Israel" cannot destroy justice, peace and decency, even though it is doing its best to do this. But the Security Council can. It has this intention and will succeed unless every decent person makes their voice heard and their refusal to be robbed known.
UN
Permalink Sean Breathnach replied on
Very little can be done in the security council, while Israel is been protected by the US. The veto must go, otherwise the Palestinians will never get justice.
The end of the vetopower
Permalink Nestor Makhno replied on
I presume that ending the vetosystem in the UNSC will be nearly impossible. I think we should hope and work that public opinion in the US will change dramatically and that the politicians come under an unbearable pressure. Public opinion is changing in the US, however very slowly. There are now a few really progressive members in the house of representatives who have the courage to speak out.