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Israeli Soldier Point Blank Shooting Video
July 21, 2008 10:50 AM
By Sara Sorcher, ABC News Jerusalem
B’Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights in the territories, released shocking video of an Israeli Defense Forces soldier shooting a tied and blindfolded Palestinian detainee with a rubber-coated bullet yesterday.
IDF soldiers stopped Ashraf Abu-Rahama, 27-year-old Palestinian demonstrator, after taking place in a riot in the village of Nil’in in the West Bank. The video shows a soldier fire a bullet at his foot from close range.
Abu-Rahama told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that he was left in the sun for four hours, until an officer picked him up and shot him. “It felt like my leg was a goner,” he told Ha’aretz, adding that the soldiers had beaten him beforehand. “My eyes were covered, and I could not see a thing.”
The incident took place on July 7, but B’Tselem, received the footage yesterday from a teenaged Palestinian girl who had shot the video from a window in her home in the village. She had borrowed a camera from her school, according to B’Tselem spokesperson Sarit Michaeli.
The fact that no one from the IDF reported the incident since the time it took place is “very serious,” Michaeli told ABC News. “This wasn’t just one soldier in a field, it involved a lieutenant colonel, someone high up on the chain of the command, who didn’t see fit to inform military police of this event but preferred to keep it quiet,” she said. “If the video hadn’t seen light of day issue would have been hushed up.”
An IDF statement released yesterday said that the event was in “stark violation” of the IDF’s rules of conduct and safety. “The IDF's rules of conduct clearly forbid any harm against those in its custody and are committed to human dignity and safety of all detainees.”
Major Avital Leibovich, senior foreign press spokesman for the IDF, told ABC News that an IDF medic treated the man after the incident before he was released. “The final result of the incident is that the guy got up, and he went home with a swollen toe,” Leibovich said. “However, the conduct of the soldiers is not something we encourage and goes against the code of ethics of the IDF.”
The incident leaves questions over possible post-editing of the video, Leibovich said. “When you see the footage, you can see there’s jumping between different sequences,” she said. “It raises the question of editing. You can hear that the sound was made in a room—you can hear the echo of a room and not a riot. In a riot, you can hear the sound of people shouting, rioting. You don’t hear any of those sounds here.”
Michaeli rejects any claims that the film was doctored. “Trying to cast doubts over the authenticity of footage compounds the IDF’s image as an organization that tries to hide and whitewash anything that will present it in a negative light,” Michaeli told ABC News. “The army should deal at this point not in attempting to reject authenticity of this footage but instead on combating culture of whitewash rife within the organization.”
According to Leibovich, the IDF will treat this “very seriously” and will open the investigation.
July 21, 2008 in Sara Sorcher | Permalink | User Comments (17)
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these are the same guys who kill women children, cut off heads, whining about being shot in the foot by a rubber bullet?
Posted by: generic | Jul 21, 2008 11:59:47 AM
You just wrote an article about somebody being shot in the toe with a rubber bullet? A swollen toe?
Posted by: jake8 | Jul 21, 2008 12:00:47 PM
If this was a cop from say New york or La you would care more but since its some guy 4000 miles away we don't care.I also like how you label the person being shot as a someone who kills children and cuts of heads.
Posted by: pewpewmigoo | Jul 21, 2008 12:18:58 PM
The Israeli soldiers are the ones who kill children
Posted by: Ari | Jul 21, 2008 12:34:49 PM
We would care more if something had actually happened to the guy. He was shot in the toe with a rubber bullet and left in the sun for... 4 whole hours. How is that news worthy? Like it or not these people are at war, they launch missiles at each other and blow up buses with human bombs. This guy had a swollen toe.
What ever happened to editing stories or does that only happen on the wire?
Posted by: Jake8 | Jul 21, 2008 12:41:43 PM
Oh, we don't treat Palestinians bad at all, they are not in an open air prison. I wonder why they try to kill us every chance they get? (hence the sarcasm for you slow chumps)
Posted by: Citizen in FL | Jul 21, 2008 1:03:45 PM
No, he is an innocent 27 year old man, who has nothing to do with what you wrote. In fact since when did Palestinian groups start to cut of heads? That’s Al-Qaida. Or are you suggesting that all Arabs are the same?
So I guess with your reasoning, Israel is free to do what the want to any one in the Arab world, due to the action of Al- Qaida? Interesting.
When it comes down to it, the act caught on camera is a sad indication of life under the occupation. And we wonder why people resist it?
Posted by: Mike jones | Jul 21, 2008 1:33:07 PM
Mike Jones, Palestinians have every right to resist. Every person I speak to that is for Israel is either ignorant to the facts, or is a hard core bible thumper. The ones that are ignorant, you just show em a few reputable sources and they usually change their minds real quick.
Posted by: Citizen in FL | Jul 21, 2008 2:27:29 PM
One more thing to all you people that just say its a rubber bullet. Just so you know at that range a rubber bullet has the power to do some real dmg. oh yeah Citizen in FL I hope your a Florida State fan
Posted by: pewpewmigoo | Jul 21, 2008 3:48:23 PM
The Palestinians are killed and abused by the Israels Army,instead of punishing that mean soldiear they are blaming how the video is edited.The man was blindfolded and not doing anything wrong.MAY GOD HELP ALL THE HELPLESS PEOPLE>AMEN.
Posted by: georgiagirl | Jul 21, 2008 3:59:47 PM
That must hurted like a female dog...(I can't say the real word). I wanna see more...
Posted by: koolnews | Jul 21, 2008 5:30:43 PM
So? What is the point of this? Dr.Scholls's commerical for swollen toes?
Posted by: daysofpast | Jul 21, 2008 5:37:48 PM
Nothing to worry about! The IDF is opening an investigation into the matter. It certainly does my heart good to know that.
Posted by: tv-1944 | Jul 21, 2008 5:57:13 PM
If a Palestinian had done the same thing to a Jew, western politicians would be crawling over each other to get to a microphone to be seen and heard expressing shock. But since it is "only" an Arab that got hurt, the story has probably already outlived its term.
Posted by: tv-1944 | Jul 21, 2008 7:45:46 PM
Comparing to Palestinian suicide bombs that killed thousands of innocent Israelis,Israeli IDF soldiers showed much leniency toward Palestinians captured. A special report for a swollen toe that was shot by a rubber bullet? Is it a joke? Remember? There is a war going on there.
Posted by: Mike | Jul 21, 2008 8:18:33 PM
I was relieved it was a rubber bullet and yet still horrified.
When people whine about the terrible Palestinians I always think back on the wildly uneven death toll. For example with the Lebanon invasion, wasn't it something like 100 Israelis killed for 1300 Lebanese?
This footage just underlies the apparent outlook of some folks that hold the most powerful military weapons in that part of the world.... they can do whatever they want... sounds like somebody we know here in the states.
Posted by: Citizen Voter | Jul 21, 2008 9:55:24 PM
Wow! He got shot in the foot with a rubber bullet, by God thats an international crime. I wouldn't stand for it, if it were me.
Posted by: BTL musings | Jul 21, 2008 11:11:12 PM
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