IDF is never guilty even when proven otherwise
The Culture of Impunity and the absurdity of Israel investigating itself. Israel’s IDF soldiers shoot to kill, then they investigate themselves and find that they did nothing wrong, or it was only by mistake!
By John Brown (Translated by Sol Salbe)
Last night (27th May), IDF gun-totters invaded the Palestinian town of al Khader and shot dead a 15-year-old youth, Zeid Ranim. The police and IDF spokespeople’s versions varied from initially suggesting the youth threw a Molotov cocktail, to later saying that Molotov cocktails were thrown during the confrontations. According to the boy’s father, IDF troops chased him into an alley and executed him with six bullets.
Clearly a serious investigation is needed. Would Israel demand a joint investigation with the Palestinians in this case as well? Have the Military Police investigators been to the scene to collect the bullets (Not according to news reports)? After all, all that is missing in the investigation of the journalist’s murder is the bullet, right? So how will they investigate the youth’s alleged murder?
In recent days, the military regime’s propaganda has presented the narrative that even if their troops shot Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh it certainly was not intentional. On what basis? Without presenting any evidence of this, of course, except for an investigation in which the IDF investigated the IDF. An investigation which the whole world understands its absurdity.
But no one in the Israeli media asks the chief of staff on what basis did he determine [that it wasn’t intentional]. Given that evidently, they don’t know at all whether it was their gunslinger who fired the shot, how did they determine without questioning the sniper concerned about the shooting that it was done unintentionally?
The reason for this is the fairytale that IDF soldiers do not kill on purpose, only by mistake. Because [Colonel] Israel Schumer murdered a youth with 3 shots in the back, but by mistake because he aimed at the legs. Which is a lie. Because Ben Deri shot two youths, but he got mixed up with his bullets [used real ammunition instead of rubber tipped bullets]. Because a soldier of the Kfir brigade killed two cuffed Palestinians with 29 shots, but he was confused because he thought he saw a pitchfork. Because a week later an officer in the same Kfir Brigade entered the village of Irak Burin and murdered two youths allegedly with a rubber rifle. He then returned to base, and his soldiers reported that there was a celebration. He went on to the weapons storeroom, swapped his weapon (the original couldn’t fire rubber) and forged the documents. But he had just got confused by the documents and was reprimanded. The two soldiers from the 188th Battalion who executed a youth, Samir Awad, in Budrus also got confused by orders and fired. But since no bullets were collected it is not possible to determine who fired the shot, the conclusion is that no one fired the shot. The investigating Military Police were also mixed up.
The Kfir officer who stood up on a bridge on Route 443 and murdered, Mahmoud Badra, another youth, who had returned from the pool, simply got confused because he thought the youth in the vehicle a quarter of an hour earlier in another place had thrown a stone. The soldier who last year murdered a 12-year-old boy in Beit Ummar, also got confused because the vehicle drove backwards and moved away from him, which is known to be very dangerous. The soldier who murdered 19-year-old Amar Shafik Abu Afifa a few months ago was also confused because the boy went for a walk near a religious Jews’ outpost. Even the Kfir soldiers in an ambush who murdered 41-year-old Shadi Shurfa near the village of Beita were confused because he was a plumber and had a spanner in his hand because he went to fix the water of the village that the religious settlers had turned off. Plumbers tend to really confuse people.
All of these murders were committed on purpose, and IDF soldiers kill on purpose. This is not an opinion; this is a fact. No one has bothered to check who the killers were, but anyone who has read Elor Azaria on social media knows that it would be a right-wing person who hates Arabs. The same thing applies to a significant number of others with whom I was able to find out their names from the investigations, when these were still taking place. This does not mean that the same IDF killers would have committed all the same murders in Tel Aviv. You don’t often see them killing plumbers on Ibn Gabirol, [one of the city’s main thoroughfares.] Even in cases where they shoot at children who throw stones, which according to their orders is justified, they would never shoot religious people who do throw stones at their face.
The same murders would not have been committed if the killers had known that there would be an effective investigation into their actions, and they would not have been committed if they had not undergone intensive indoctrination for the dehumanisation of Palestinians. The IDF spokesperson tells them that Journalists are “armed” with cameras, so why not shoot them? Channel 12 News tells them that Arabs in the *Israeli* government are terrorists telling them news 12. What is the alleged shooter at the journalist supposed to conclude from Kochavi’s quotes, that it did not happen on purpose and there is no criminal suspicion? What lesson will the next shooter draw from this?
The military regime’s ability to make the claim “IDF soldiers do not shoot on purpose” stems from the fact that they simply do not prosecute the shooters, so if they do not investigate and they don’t bring charges, then when playing the pretend game, it just did not happen. But this isn’t what happens in reality.
