April 21, 2009
In News
This is a fuller video than the short, shocking video we posted last night depicting the killing of Bassem Ibrahim Abu Ramah yesterday at the weekly protest of the confiscatory wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in. The video shows plainly that the demonstrators were not violent. Here is a rough translation of the words on the video, supplied by an anonymous friend:
The demonstrators are telling the soldiers in Hebrew that there are children and Israelis present and they are asking them not to shoot. Bassem is shouting “listen, wait a minute, wait a minute” before he falls to the ground. The soldiers then fire another round of tear gas as the demonstrators yell that he is injured and needs an ambulance.
In the longer video, as [Mohammed] Khatib is arguing with the soldier, I can’t make out all of it because they’re talking over each other, but you can clearly hear the soldier say, “do you want more gas?” They can see someone is on the ground and bleeding and because they know it’s a Palestinian, they don’t care.
And the soldier is telling Khatib “Are you going to shut up?” as Khatib pleads with him to stop shooting. The Israeli who’s next to Bassem right after the shooting is just saying, there’s an injured man, bring an ambulance quickly. He asks Bassem where he was hit. The demonstrators also repeat throughout, this is a non-violent demonstration. The soldiers merely respond with teargas.
04.18.2009 | Haaretz
Several hundred left-wing demonstrators rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest the killing of a Palestinian activist in the West Bank town of Bil’in on Friday.
The 31-year-old man was killed after being struck in the chest by a tear-gas canister fired by Israeli troops who were dispersing a protest against Israel’s West Bank separation barrier.
The Tel Aviv rally, attended by Hadash MK Dov Khenin, along with numerous left-wing demonstrators, began along Ben Zion Boulevard and culminated across from the Ministry of Defense offices, where protestors denounced both the IDF and the government.
Participants carried signs bearing slogans such as “Uniformed Killers,” “Deportation Movement,” “Arab Blood Isn’t Second-Rate” and “Blood Government, Get Out of the Occupied Territories.”
“The occupying forces have recently escalated their attacks on demonstrators protesting the separation fence,” rally organizers said.
The organizers added that, “When aimed directly at crowds, extended-range tear-gas launchers have proven to be fatal, as seen in last month’s near-fatal injury of Tristan Anderson.”
“Snipers shooting live rounds have become a commonly-used implement of demonstration dispersal. Open season has been declared on demonstrators, and their blood continues to be spilled,” rally organizers continued.
“The silence of the public, the media, and of decision-makers continues as well,” the organizers added, concluding by calling for the “cessation of all use of deadly weaponry in demonstration dispersal; all occupation’s criminals must be brought to justice, including those who fire on civilians.”