Extrajudicial killing in Hebron

The recent killing of Abdel-Fattah al-Sharif in Hebron is horrifying. The fact that he was already ‘neutralized’ and was evidently suffering a head wound when an Israeli soldier shot him a second time at virtually point blank, makes this shocking murder an extrajudicial killing. It is yet another cold blooded execution of someone who was posing no danger. The fact that this event was caught on camera by a volunteer for B’tselem, who then shared it with the world, led the military leadership to condemn the act and declare it to be contrary to the long-standing spirit of the Israeli Defense Forces and its code of purity of arms.  However, countless other similar killings and abuses of power take place in East Jerusalem and the West Bank as soldiers of the IDF act not according to a moral code but according to the policy of aggression of the Netanyahu government.
Watch B’tselems video and report here and read their report on the at least twelve extrajudicial killings from 2015 herebtselemheb
The Guardian reports,

Israel blames the attacks on incitement by Palestinian leaders and social media. Palestinians say the violence stems from frustration at nearly five decades of Israeli military occupation. The Palestinians have also accused Israel of using excessive force and killing assailants who have already been stopped or wounded.

Jewish Voice for Peace state,

For Palestinians, extrajudicial killings are a part of the daily violence of occupation. For those of us in the US, and indeed for Israeli Jews living in segregated compounds just a few miles away, this violence is invisible. But just because it isn’t on our TV screens or in our newspapers doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

Amos Harel wrote in Haaretz,

The public atmosphere in Israel being what it is, such an incident should come as no surprise. Politicians and rabbis are repeatedly calling on soldiers and police to kill terrorists without thinking too much about it. In the Jewish settlement in Hebron, where settlers and the soldiers guarding them are in close physical and ideological contact, the problem is exacerbated. Hebron is, after all, the city where right-wing extremist Kach activists hand out trays of pizza as a prize to soldiers who kill terrorists.

A condemnation of this extrajudicial killing and other such violence has yet to be issued by the Israeli government, as by the Jewish bodies here that defend the Israeli military’s violence as one borne of necessity.


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