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ANALYSIS: CONTROVERSY AROUND THE DEATH OF A PALESTINIAN MAN KILLED IN NABLUS BY THE ISRAELI ARMY
Morning Edition: January 14, 2004
Israeli Army Accused of Executing Palestinian
BOB EDWARDS, host:
In the West Bank city of Nablus, at least 18 Palestinians have been killed over the last three weeks during an Israeli military operation. Israeli's army has been searching for Palestinians wanted for questioning. In one case, family members said they saw soldiers execute a man in army custody. The army denies that and says the man was shot while acting suspiciously. NPR's Linda Gradstein visited Nablus and sends this report.
Mr. MUSTAFAH AL KHASASS: (Foreign language spoken).
LINDA GRADSTEIN reporting:
Friends and neighbors have come to comfort Mustafa Al Khasass, kissing him on both cheeks and telling him that his brother has gone to heaven. It seems little comfort to Mustafa who says he saw the soldiers shoot his 26-year-old brother Rbed three times.
Before dawn last Wednesday, he says, dozens of soldiers, accompanied by attack dogs burst into the compound where Rbed Al Khasass lived with his parents and brothers. The soldiers called on everyone to leave the apartment building and, according to the army, rounded up 11 Palestinians wanted for questioning. One of them was Ibrahim Atari who the army says was shot in the courtyard just outside the house while resisting arrest. According to Mustafa, soldiers dragged his brother Rbed over to Atari's body.
Mr. AL KHASASS: (Through Translator) He told them that I don't know him. After that they shot him in the right leg and in the left leg.
GRADSTEIN: Mustafa says he was standing at the door to the courtyard and saw everything. He says the soldiers asked his brother again, `Do you know this man?' And when he said, `no,' they put a gun next to his face and opened fire. Mustafa says the soldiers then left Rbed bleeding on the ground and refused to let him call an ambulance for more than three hours. By then, Rbed was dead.
Several neighbors said they also heard the exchange between Rbed Al Khasass and the soldiers. Nablus governor, Mahmoud Aloul says the hospital reports are consistent with Mustafa's version of events.
Governor MAHMOUD ALOUL (Nablus): (Through Translator) He examined the body and the nature of the bullet that was shot at this person, it was shot at him from a very close range, entering from the face and coming out from the head. And from the nature of the event, looks like a summary execution.
GRADSTEIN: Israeli army spokesman Jacob Dallal offers a different version of events. He says soldiers surrounded the apartment building based on intelligence that Palestinians wanted by Israel were hiding there. The soldiers called on everyone to leave, which most did. But Dallal says one man crouched down behind a bush and refused to come out.
Mr. JACOB DALLAL (Israeli Army Spokesman): We saw the movements of the man behind the bush and we called to him to leave the bush. He was moving around suspiciously and as he continued to move in a way that we thought he was going to fire on the troops, the troops shot at him.
GRADSTEIN: Dallal says the soldiers followed proper procedure, firing in the air first and only then aiming at Al Khasass who turned out not to be armed.
Mustafa says his brother had worked in Saudi Arabia until three years ago when he returned to Nablus. He says Rbed worked as a curtain hanger and was not involved with any Palestinian resistance groups.
An Israeli and a Palestinian humans rights group say they're investigating the incident. But Jessica Montell, the executive director of the Israeli human rights group Betselem, says it is often impossible to determine exactly what happened. Palestinians are often hesitant to allow an autopsy and the army usually limits its investigation to debriefing of the soldiers involved. Montell says that in the past three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, more than 2,200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers. Of these, she says, at least half were unarmed civilians. The military police have opened 72 investigations and issued 13 indictments. Montell says only two soldiers have been convicted.
Ms. JESSICA MONTELL (Executive Director, Betselem): We have documented several very, very troubling cases of excessive force, disproportionate, or cases of Palestinians killed with no justification whatsoever. And there is very little accountability on the part of the military.
GRADSTEIN: Betselem says a full investigation should be launched into the death of every Palestinian civilian.
Linda Gradstein, NPR News.
EDWARDS: The time is 19 minutes past the hour.
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