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ANALYSIS: SHOOTING OF ISRAELI PROTESTER BY ISRAELI SOLDIER SPARKS NEW DEBATE OVER ARMY'S USE OF LETHAL FORCE
All Things Considered: January 13, 2004
Israel Evaluates Lethal Force Rules
MICHELE NORRIS, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
There's new debate in Israel over the army's use of lethal force in the Palestinian territories. The recent shooting of an Israeli demonstrator who was protesting the Israeli barrier in the West Bank has brought the issue to the forefront. An initial investigation by the Israeli Defense Force raised questions about the army's credibility. And the father of the wounded Israeli says the incident has changed his perception of the shootings involving Palestinians. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.
PETER KENYON reporting:
On December 26th, a group of Israeli, Palestinian and foreign demonstrators gathered at the Israeli barrier near the West Bank village of Maskha and the Jewish settlement of El Kana. Amateur video cameras were rolling, and experts of the footage they recorded were posted on the Internet.
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KENYON: The demonstration began as many previous ones have. The protesters chanted, waved signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English and grabbed on to the metal fence that forms part of the barrier, shaking it and trying to cut through it. It's unclear on the video if the soldiers gave a warning, but the video clearly shows a soldier lying on the ground, taking aim and shooting at the demonstrators. A young Israeli, Gil Na'amati, was shown being carried off, shot in both legs. The video clip showed the Israel protesters shouting at the soldiers in Hebrew as Na'amati and a lightly wounded American demonstrator were taken back toward the Palestinian village and eventually to Israeli hospitals.
Outside his son's hospital room, Gil Na'amati's father, Uri, is answering questions, partly to shield his son from the media. He says his son was hit in a major artery in one leg, and needed 15 blood transfusions. He believes that had medical care been longer in coming, the blood loss could have been fatal. Now with his son facing months of difficult rehabilitation just to be able to walk again, the father tries to understand why the soldier shot his son, who had just finished his own military service a few weeks earlier.
Mr. URI NA'AMATI (Father): I found it hard to believe that they didn't know that they are shooting Jews. I cannot prove it, but with all the shouts in Hebrew and all the ...(unintelligible) around the soldiers, it's hard to believe that they really felt that they are shooting our demonstrators.
KENYON: Na'amati is the mayor of his regional council, a self-described Labor Party conservative who believes the barrier now being constructed in the West Bank will save Israeli lives, although he wishes it were being built on Israel's 1967 borders instead of slicing off large chunks of Palestinian land. He also believes the army saves Israeli lives, and he says he encouraged his son to serve at the checkpoints, even though he says Gil was disturbed by the treatment of the Palestinians. Now, his faith in the military shaken, he's beginning to wonder about all the cases involving dead Palestinians, cases in which he always accepted the army's explanation.
Mr. NA'AMATI: For sure, there is an issue of credibility, but we have to understand that we are not angels, but neither the other side. And the suicide bombers make us all very desensitized, yeah, in a way, yeah.
KENYON: The father's biggest shock was the army's initial investigation, which recommended no discipline of the soldiers involved or their commander. The army refused to provide anyone to be interviewed about the incident, but did release a statement and summary of the investigation. It says the incident took place in a combat zone in a region where, quote, "many terrorists have infiltrated Israel in order to carry out suicide bombings." The investigation did find several flaws in the preparation of the soldiers for their assignment, including the failure to distribute non-lethal means of crowd control, such as rubber-coated bullets.
A second investigation has now been launched by the military police, which could conceivably come up with different results. Attorney Dan Yakir with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel says it's rare for a criminal probe to be launched in such cases, perhaps because this time, the Israeli Defence Force has shot an Israeli, not a Palestinian.
Mr. DAN YAKIR (Attorney, Association for Civil Rights): This is extremely troublesome that only a case of an injured Israeli garners such wide public attention, whereas thousands of dead Palestinians did not. I'm afraid this is part of Israeli society becoming indifferent to the suffering of Palestinians in light of the serious security considerations and terrorist attacks. Most of the policy of the idea of right now amounts to a licence to kill.
KENYON: There's no word on when the military police investigation of the incident will be concluded. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Jerusalem.
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