Nilin, West Bank // The window through
which Salam Amira, 16, filmed the moment when an Israeli soldier shot from close
range a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee has a large hole at its
centre with cracks running in every direction.
“Since my video was shown, the soldiers shoot at our house all
the time,” she said. The shattered and cracked windows at the front of the
building confirm her story. “When we leave the windows open, they fire tear gas
inside too.”
Her home looks out over the Israeli road block guarding the only
entrance to the village of Nilin, located just inside the West Bank midway
between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It was here that a bound Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27,
was shot in the foot in July with a rubber bullet under orders from an Israeli
regiment commander.
The treatment of the family stands in stark contrast to the
leniency shown to the soldier and his commander involved in that incident.
B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group,
has accused the Israeli army of seeking “revenge” for the girl’s role in
exposing the actions of its armed forces in the West Bank.
It may also be hoping to dissuade other families from airing
similar evidence of army brutality, particularly since B’Tselem began
distributing dozens of video cameras to Palestinians across the West Bank.
Scenes captured on film of hooded settlers attacking Palestinian
farmers near Hebron came as a shock to many early this summer.
The village of Nilin has been the focus of the Israeli army’s
actions since May, when its 4,700 inhabitants began a campaign of mainly
non-violent demonstrations to halt the building of Israel’s separation wall
across their land.
After the wall is completed, the village will be cut off from 40
per cent of its remaining farmland, effectively annexing it to half a dozen
large Jewish settlements that encircle Nilin. The settlements are all illegal
under international law.
Several times a week the villagers, joined by small numbers of
Israeli and international supporters, congregate in olive fields where
bulldozers are tearing up the land to make way for the wall.
The people of Nilin have tried various non-violent forms of
protest, including praying in the path of the heavy machinery, using mirrors to
reflect sunlight at the construction workers, banging pots and pans and placing
rocks in the way of the bulldozers during the night.
The army has responded with tear gas and stun grenades, as well
as on occasion, with rubber bullets and live ammunition. Last month it was
reported that Israel was also experimenting with a new crowd dispersal method
called “skunk”, which involves firing a foul-smelling liquid at demonstrators.
In the past few weeks, two youngsters have been shot dead by the
army, including one, Ahmed Moussa, who was 10. The army claimed he was throwing
stones. An autopsy showed he was hit in the head by a bullet from an M-16 rifle.
Yesterday, a soldier fired from close range three rubber bullets
at Awad Surur, a mentally disabled man, as he tried to prevent his brother from
being arrested. Two bullets penetrated his skull, according to B’Tselem, which
denounced the army as increasingly “trigger-happy” and “reckless”.
Salam’s family, like many other villagers,
bear the injuries from attendance at protests. Most of her five brothers have
been hit by rubber bullets, as has her father, Jamal Amira, 53. The army has
sealed the village off on several occasions and, according to villagers, beaten
and terrorised inhabitants.
Mr Amira is among at least 100 farmers whose livelihoods will be
devastated by the wall. He will lose all 14 hectares of his land, fields on
which his ancestors have made their living by growing olives, cucumbers,
aubergine and tomatoes.
But Salam’s five-minute film of the roadblock incident, taken
during a four-day curfew imposed on the village, has only intensified the
family’s troubles.
Three days after the video was aired, the army arrested her
father during a peaceful protest. He was the only one seized after the army
claimed the demonstrators had entered a closed military zone. Mr Amira was also
charged with assaulting a soldier.
He was held for three and a half weeks before an Israeli military
judge rejected the army’s demand that he be remanded for a further three months
until his trial.
In an almost unprecedented rebuke to the prosecution, the judge
questioned the army’s case, saying he could see no evidence of an assault. He
also asked why Salam’s father was singled out from all of those protesting.
Mr Amira’s lawyer, Gabi Laski, said the decision confirmed “our
preliminary claim that the arrest was out of vengeance and punishment for the
video filmed by the girl”.
Nonetheless, Mr Amira still faces a military trial. A report last
year by Yesh Din, a human rights group, found that in only 0.25 per cent of
cases heard by military tribunals was the defendant found innocent. Even if
acquitted, Mr Amira is expected to face legal costs amounting to nearly
US$10,000 (Dh36,700), a sum the family says it cannot pay.
In contrast, the two soldiers responsible for the shooting of the
detainee at the roadblock have been reprimanded with the minor charge of
“unbecoming conduct”. Neither will stand criminal trial. B’Tselem has called the
decision “shameful”.
According to the legal group the Association of Civil Rights in
Israel, the punishment under Israeli law for aggravated abuse of a detainee is
seven years imprisonment. ACRI’s lawyers have submitted a petition arguing the
lenient charge “transmits to officers and other soldiers an extremely grave
message of contempt for human life”.
Lt Col Omri Borberg, the commander who gave the order to shoot
Abu Rahma, resigned his post but was immediately moved sideways to a senior post
in a different unit. In a show of support, Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the army,
said Lt Col Borberg may be reinstated to a command position.
Meanwhile, the villagers said the army’s behaviour would not
dissuade them from protesting or cause them to renounce their commitment to
non-violence.
Salah Hawaja, a protest organiser, said:
“When we started our demonstrations, maybe 50 soldiers showed up. Now there are
hundreds stationed permanently around us. Israel is treating us like a major war
zone, even though we are using non-violence.
“The people of Nilin have accepted that the best strategy to stop
Israel’s plans to steal our land and leave us inside a ghetto is non-violence,”
said Mr Hawaja.
“We need to show the world who is the occupier and who the
occupied. Israel understands how threatening this is, which is why it is using
so much force against us.”
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