Israeli Forces Accused Of Executing Unarmed Palestinians After They Surrendered

Zero Hedge

Members of the Israeli border police have been accused of executing two unarmed Palestinian men after they surrendered in the West Bank town of Jenin.

In the incident from Thursday caught on camera, two men can be seen emerging from a doorway of what appears to be a warehouse, lifting their shirts, before they were shot dead by the Israelis. 

The IDF says that the incident is under "review" - but claims that the two men were terrorists who had attacked them earlier. After gathering their bodies, the IDF says that the men were identified as Mahmoud Qassem Abdallah, 26, and Youssef Asasa, 37, and were "wanted individuals who had carried out terror activities, including hurling explosives and firing at security forces." 

"The forces entered the area, enclosed the structure in which the suspects were located and initiated a surrender procedure that lasted several hours," an IDF spokesman told the Telegraph. "Following the use of engineering tools on the structure, the two suspects exited.

"Following their exit, fire was directed toward the suspects. The incident is under review by the commanders on the ground and will be transferred to the relevant professional bodies."

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Israel is killing Gazans trying to return to their homes beyond the ‘yellow line’

Tareq S. Hajjaj | Monodweiss.net

As part of the ceasefire, Gaza has been split in half by the so-called ‘yellow line,’ where Israel’s military controls just over 50% of the Strip. Palestinians are being killed for trying to cross or even get close to the line. 

There is an invisible line dividing Gaza, and any Palestinian who attempts to cross it, or even get close to it, is killed. 

That is what happened to Ibrahim and Mazen al-Najjar, two men from the same family,  on November 5th. Displaced in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, they attempted to go to their home in the eastern part of Khan Younis, to attempt to retrieve some belongings. It was a simple enough task. The only problem was, their home lies behind the ‘yellow line’, which is the area of Gaza under full Israeli military control since the ceasefire on October 10. Ibrahim and Mazen never made it to their home, and returned to their displacement camp in body bags. They were shot and killed by Israeli soldiers while attempting to cross the line.

The al-Najjars are only a few of some 250 Palestinians who have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire began.

Many of those Palestinians have been killed in similar circumstances, while trying to return home. While the ceasefire agreement stipulates a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in the second phase, that has not yet begun. The ‘yellow line’ marks the area that Israel now controls in Gaza during this initial ceasefire period. 

This line divides the inner neighborhoods of the Strip into two halves: one where residents are allowed to be present, and another that is forbidden to them. According to Palestinians, anyone who approaches those areas is dealt with by intense force.

The yellow line is a new reality, as it divides the Gaza Strip into two parts, with the eastern part under Israeli army control. According to estimates, there are around 37 Israeli military points and positions within these areas, starting from Rafah to Beit Hanoun. The yellow line passes through the middle of large, densely populated neighborhoods such as Shuja’iyya in eastern Gaza City, Jabalia in the north, and Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, covering about 50% of the total area of the Strip.

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View the Frontline Documentary on Gaza that PBS pulled

  Palestinians in Gaza carry an injured girl on March 31, 2018.
 

Alison Weir
If Americans Knew 

PBS stations around the U.S. were scheduled to show a riveting new Frontline documentary, "One Day in Gaza," but at the last minute PBS pulled it. 

The film is missing important context about the issue, but it includes footage that Americans, as Israel's top funders, should see – including a young, unarmed teen being shot in her head. 

BBC, the coproducer of the film, broadcast it to British viewers. We are posting it below so that Americans can also view it. 

Recently, hundreds of PBS stations around the United States were scheduled to broadcast a powerful new Frontline documentary: One Day in Gaza. But viewers tuning in found that it had been replaced by a slightly updated Frontline report on Robert Mueller that had been broadcast two months before and had been streaming online ever since.

PBS no longer has the Gaza film listed on its schedule.

The documentary was to be aired on the one-year anniversary of events that took place on May 14, 2018, when tens of thousands of men, women, and children in Gaza gathered with the intention of deploying the tactics Gandhi had used in freeing India from British control.

The demonstration that day was the 8th march in what Gazans named the Great March of Return.

Palestinians months earlier had announced their plan for a mass, peaceful demonstration in which Gazans would march for an end to Israel's crippling 12-year blockade and, especially, for  their right to return to homes stolen by Israel in order to create a Jewish state. Palestinians' right to return to their homes and ancestral land is well established in international law. This fundamental right, affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel had responded by immediately deploying a hundred snipers.

In the first seven weekly marches, Israeli forces killed about 50 of the marchers and injured over 7,000.

During the 8th march on May 14, the day depicted in the film, Israeli forces killed 60 more and shot 1,000 – an average of one person every 30 seconds.

While this was going on, a glittering Israeli celebration was taking place as a new, transplanted U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem, a city that Israel illegally annexed following the Six-Day War that Israel launched in 1967. 

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American Jewish Council misrepresents facts about Gaza

If Americans Knew

The latest United Nations report on Israeli violence at the Gaza border, was vehemently rebutted by the American Jewish Committee; however the AJC defense came up very short on facts.

by Kathryn Shihadah, reposted from Palestine Home

AJC, the American Jewish Committee, released a statement last Friday rejecting the recent report from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The AJC statement includes decontextualizations and inaccuracies that deserve to be addressed. Below is their statement in italics, with responses.

“AJC denounces the latest UN Human Rights Council report singling out Israel for condemnation. The report was prepared by an “independent international commission of inquiry” established by the Council to investigate the violence that took place along the Gaza-Israel border from March 30 to December 31, 2018.”

Note: the “violence that took place along the Gaza-Israel border” is essentially one-sided: a nonviolent protest by Palestinians has been met week after week for almost a year by Israeli sniper fire, resulting in the deaths of at least 250 Palestinians. One Israeli soldier and zero Israeli civilians have been killed.

 

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Israel’s IDF Snipers: Choosing Who to Shoot

Stephen Shenfield
Mondoweiss

Snipers (sharpshooters) constitute about a quarter of all soldiers in the IDF’s combat units. The standard course for the training of snipers lasts five weeks. The best snipers, however, are Russian immigrants who fought in Chechnya. 

Snipers are organized in teams that form part of infantry battalions. Snipers are equipped with special rifles of various makes. Since 2010 the best rifle at their disposal has been the HTR 2000, which has a range of over 1,000 meters. Older makes have somewhat shorter ranges — several hundred meters.

The locator 

Each team of snipers contains a specialist called the locator, who plays a key role in choosing targets. On April 10 a former locator by the name of Nadav Weiman talked on Israeli television to Channel 10 about his experience in a sniper team of the Nahal Reconnaissance Platoon on the Gaza border. (He now works for the organization Breaking the Silence as head of its education department.)

Here is how Weiman describes his work as a locator:

“I would sit with binoculars and an electro-optic lens during the day and a thermal lens at night. I would identify a figure, see if he was armed, then I would measure the distance with a laser meter and check the wind with an electronic weather vane. Then I would give the snipers correction data and count down 3, 2, 1, fire!”

It is of interest to compare this account of the pre-firing procedure with that given on April 1 by Major General Haim Cohen, commander of the Shaked Battalion near the southern end of the Gaza Strip, on the Galatz military radio station. Cohen omits the technical detail provided by Weiman but emphasizes two steps that Weiman fails to mention: (1) obtaining authorization to fire from a commander; and (2) warning the targeted individual by means of a PA system. According to Cohen, there was a commander next to each sniper team and it was he who gave the order to fire. But Weiman says that when he was in the army it was he, the locator of the team, who gave the order. 

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‘New York Times’ teams up with Israel to smear slain medic Razzan al-Najjar as ‘complex,’ not innocent

Donald Johnson, James North and Philip Weiss
Mondoweiss

The New York Times today printed a long article giving credence to Israeli claims that Razzan al-Najjar, the young medic killed by an Israeli sniper a week ago, was not innocent. The article takes at face value Israel's desperate efforts to taint the young woman, whom the army has previously maintained it killed by accident.

The first paragraph announces the Times' service to Israel:

The Israeli military published a brief video on Thursday aimed at showing that a Palestinian medic killed by Israeli forces last week was not the neutral health care worker she has been portrayed as.

The article parrots Israeli hasbara, or propaganda, about al-Najjar: that in a video interview of the medic that the Israelis passed along she described herself as a "human shield." 

Razan Ashraf Al-Najjar, 21, nurse killed in Gaza, June 1, 2018.

Not till paragraph 20 of 22, does the Times state what Jonathan Ofir reported yesterday, the Israeli video cut short al-Najjar's actual statement in an effort to misrepresent her.

In the longer video, the comment that the military translated as "I act as a human shield" was part of a sentence in which Ms. Najjar said, "I'm acting as a human rescue shield to protect the injured inside the armistice line."

Nonetheless, Times author Herbert Buchsbaum, a desk editor in New York, chimes in: al-Najjar "may have been a more complex person than either side is making her out to be."

What can the Times mean by "more complex"?

That is, she was not only saving lives, but was part of the protest. Apparently there is something "complex" about this and therefore Israel isn't really guilty of lying, just oversimplifying. That is obfuscation. Everyone knows what this woman was doing: protesting and saving lives. Calling this "complex" is just the NY Times saying she wasn't really sweet and innocent. If Russia did this the Times would call it the cynical slander and lie that it is. But since it is Israel they have to make this into a he said/she said debate. There is a "battle" of narratives about al-Najjar, the Times says. There is no debate. Israel has lied about the al-Najjar case repeatedly.

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See also: Israel edited video to misleadingly justify shooting Palestinian medic

In Memory of Razan al-Najjar

Orly Noy
ICH

Around two weeks ago, a Facebook friend of mine proposed an experiment to a small group of us. Social media has become a boxing ring, she said. The two sides, left and right, dig into their positions and slug it out in the comments — and that’s if they don’t just “block” each other. My friend suggested that for a month, we try to engage in a productive dialogue with right-wingers on Facebook, even with the most combative of commenters. After all, our aim is to change what and how people think, and to do that, we need to speak to other side. Let’s try it, I said, if only for a month — to see what happens.

For the past two days, I’ve been thinking about Razan al-Najjar, the 21-year-old paramedic shot and killed by Israeli soldiers Friday near the Gaza-Israel separation fence. According to witnesses, she was wearing her white paramedic’s uniform, attempting to treat protesters near the fence when she was shot. Immediately following Razan’s death, her picture appeared everywhere on my Facebook newsfeed. I, too, shared a post with her picture.

The angry responses came quickly.

Here was an opportunity to try out the dialogue experiment my friend had suggested, I thought. Maybe because Razan in her white uniform was so different from the image of the terrorist that the Israeli collective imagination assigned the protesters in Gaza, I hoped there would be an opening for compassion, for second thoughts, for a discourse free from blind hatred.

I was wrong.

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Making Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinians

Joe Quinn
Sott.net

Satirical news site News Thump recently published an article where they 'quoted' Israeli PM Netanyahu on yesterday's massacre of 62 unarmed Palestinians by Israeli soldiers:

Netanyahu has defended his armed forces and their tactics, accusing Palestinians of working together to jump in front of any random sniper's bullets that happened to be in their vicinity.

Netanyahu told reporters,

"These people could have avoided the thousands of high-velocity bullets sent in their general direction if they had wanted to.

"But no, their primary goal was to make Israel look like a bully on the international stage, so they took every opportunity they could to throw themselves in front of bullets that would have otherwise fallen harmlessly into the ground.

"And those dead children were probably thrown in front of bullets by their parents."

The article has been liked 339,000 times on Facebook, and as far as I can tell, few if any realized that the article comes from a satirical site and that Netanyahu did not publicly say those words, or anything like them. But then that's not exactly surprising, because Netanyahu could easily have said those words, and there's little doubt he - and many other members of the Israeli political and military elite - thought them.

On the night of July 20th 2014, the Israeli military shelled the eastern Gaza City neighborhood of Shuja'iyeh, killing 63 people, 17 children among them. In an attempt to justify that massacre, Netanyahu said at the time:

"We have to protect ourselves. We try to target the rocketeers, we do. And all civilian casualties are not intended by us but actually intended by Hamas who want to pile up as many civilian dead as they can because somebody said they use telegenically dead Palestinians for the cause. They want the more dead the better."

The words are different from News Thump's satirical take, but the message is the same. Palestinian leaders and authorities 'make' Israel kill Palestinian civilians because they want to make Israel look bad ("for the cause"). Many parallels could be drawn with Netanyahu's statement, for example, the rapist who accuses his victim of 'making him do it' or 'asking for it'; the psychologically deranged murderer who claims that he killed prostitutes 'to save them' from a cruel world. When it raises its ugly head in civil society, this kind of twisted psychopathic thinking provokes revulsion and is universally condemned, yet when Netanyahu employs it in relation to the massacring of Gazans, it's accepted as a reasonable argument that absolves him and his shock troops.

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U.S. Media Whitewashes Gaza Massacre

Jo Lauria
Consortium News

As Israel killed more than 50 Palestinians in cold blood protesting the American embassy move on Monday, U.S. corporate media failed to accurately report what happened in Gaza, once again meekly protecting the government line, argues Joe Lauria. 

Typical of the mindset of corporate media reporting on what happened in Gaza on Monday as Israeli soldiers killed more than 50 protesting Palestinians, is this tweet from CNN. It says: “Death toll rises to at least 52 people during clashes along the border fence between Israel and Gaza, Palestinian officials say. More than 2,400 people have been injured.” CNN’s new slogan is “#FactsFirst.”

Adam Johnson, who writes for the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, responded to CNN with a tweet of his own:

“This one’s got it all:

• ‘death toll rises’ — no one was killed and no one specific party did the killing, the death toll just mysteriously ‘rises’

• ‘clashes’ — launders all power asymmetry

• ‘2,400 people have been injured’ — all 2,400 are Palestinian but lets go with ‘people’.”                                  

Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said on his blog that he did a Google News search for the word “massacre” and found not one reference to Gaza.  
A New York Times headline on Monday said: “Dozens of Palestinians have died in protests as the U.S. prepares to open its Jerusalem Embassy.” Journalist Glenn Greenwald responded: “Most western media outlets have become quite skilled – through years of practice – at writing headlines and describing Israeli massacres using the passive tense so as to hide the culprit. But the all-time champion has long been, and remains, the New York Times. #HaveDied.”

[Perhaps because of pressure from Greenwald and others, the Times on Monday night changed its headline to “Israel Kills Dozens at Gaza Border as U.S. Embassy Opens in Jerusalem.”]

Yet another CNN headline simply read: “Dozens die in Gaza.” Journalist Max Blumenthal responded: “Maybe they were old. Perhaps they were very sick. They just up and died! Who will solve the mystery behind these deaths?”

Blumenthal later offered a possible solution to the mystery: “According to the White House, Khhamas launched 41 protesters into unsuspecting Israeli bullets.”

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Gazan Gandhis: Gaza bleeds alone as ‘liberals’ and ‘progressives’ go mute

Ramzy Baroud
Intrepid Report

Three more Palestinians were killed and 611 wounded last Friday, when tens of thousands of Gazans continued their largely non-violent protests at the Gaza-Israel border.

Yet as the casualty count keeps climbing—nearly 45 dead and over 5,500 wounded—the deafening silence also continues. Tellingly, many of those who long chastised Palestinians for using armed resistance against the Israeli occupation are nowhere to be found, while children, journalists, women and men are all targeted by hundreds of Israeli snipers who dot the Gaza border.

Israeli officials are adamant. The likes of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman perceives his war against the unarmed protesters as a war on terrorists. He believes that “there are no innocents in Gaza.” While the Israeli mindset is not in the least surprising, it is emboldened by the lack of meaningful action, or outright international silence to the atrocities taking place at the border.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), aside from frequent statements laced with ambiguous legal jargon, has been quite useless thus far. Its chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, derided Israel’s killings in a recent statement, but also distorted facts in her attempt at ‘even-handed language,’ to the delight of Israeli media.

“Violence against civilians—in a situation such as the one prevailing in Gaza—could constitute crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court . . . as could the use of civilian presence for the purpose of shielding military activities,” she said.

Encouraged by Bensouda’s statement, Israel is exploiting the opportunity to deflect from its own crimes. On April 25, an Israeli law group, Shurat Hadin, sought to indict three Hamas leaders at the ICC, accusing Hamas of using children as human shields at the border protests.

It is tragic that many still find it difficult to grasp the notion that the Palestinian people are capable of mobilizing, resisting and making decisions independent from Palestinian factions.

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Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian at checkpoint - the genocide continues

Maureen Clare Murphy
Electronic Intifada

Israeli forces were shown on video opening heavy gunfire on a Palestinian man at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

The footage shows a man standing next to a concrete barrier, several feet away from any Israeli soldiers.

The man stands in place for several seconds, and remains standing as a group of soldiers shout at him to stop and sit on the ground and a first shot is fired. He then walks towards the soldiers who are firing near his feet before he eventually collapses, apparently shot in the upper body, as he comes closer to the soldiers at a faster pace.

The Israeli army claimed that the man, identified by Palestinian sources as Nidal Daoud Mahdawi, 44, attempted to stab soldiers. Mahdawi reportedly held Israeli residency and was a married father of five.  

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Israel's psychopathic society: "Death to the Arabs" rally draws thousands in support of soldier who murdered wounded Palestinian

Israeli medic: "He's not dead, shoot him in the head" 

***

Sott.net via The Electronic Intifada

In Tel Aviv's Yitzhak Rabin Square on Tuesday evening, thousands of Israelis rallied in support of Elor Azarya, the soldier filmed executing a gravely wounded Palestinian last month.

Rally-goers shouted anti-Arab slogans and attacked persons perceived as being leftists or journalists.

Hours earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a call for leniency for the soldier.
Times of Israel reporter Judah Ari Gross tweeted that an activist from B'Tselem, the human rights group that released the video of Azarya shooting and killing Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif, had to be escorted out of Rabin Square by police in order to "protect his life."
Journalist attacked

Reporter David Sheen, a contributor to The Electronic Intifada, was set upon by a mob and then ordered to leave the area by police after he was accused of association with B'Tselem.

Sheen told The Electronic Intifada he arrived at Rabin Square before the rally began but as several hundred people had already gathered. Some asked him to film them with their signs supporting Azarya.

At that point, Sheen said, a man began asking him why he was filming. Other members of the crowd quickly began joining in, shouting at Sheen, "Are you B'Tselem? Go to Gaza!"
Sheen said he tried to remain calm and exit the square but the increasingly agitated mob followed him and began to surround and kick him.
He was then grabbed by a police officer and extracted. Sheen said police took his camera equipment and questioned him. After he told them he was a journalist, they said he either had to leave immediately or face a night in jail. Sheen said he chose to leave and that police returned his equipment.
The police were effectively acting accomplices to the mob, Sheen observed, ensuring the removal of journalists who could document what occurred.

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Report: 78% of Palestinian victims were executed

Aletho News

RAMALLAH – The number of Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli gunfire since October 1, has reached 82, Jerusalem Center for Israeli-Palestinian studies revealed. 78% of the reported victims were executed in cold-blood.

The majority of the reported victims were from al-Khalil where 28 youths were executed by Israeli gunfire in the city.

16 children and seven women were also among the victims, the center added.

The Jerusalem Center called on international human rights groups to seriously work on putting an end to the Israeli crimes and violations of international laws.

Israeli Troops Receiving “Free Permits” To Open Fire On “Suspicious” Palestinians

Mint Press News

Israeli police stand near the body of a Palestinian who, according to the police, stabbed two police officers, then other police forces opened fire and killed him, but also wounded one of their own, at the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015. 

Palestinians carried out two stabbing attacks in Jerusalem on Saturday before being shot dead by police, while another two Palestinians were killed during a violent demonstration near the Gaza border fence. The violence, including the first apparent revenge attack by an Israeli Friday and increasing protests by Israel’s own Arab minority, has raised fears of the unrest spiraling further out of control.

(ANTIMEDIA) United Kingdom — The latest victims of Israeli aggression in the occupied Palestinian territories are 30-year-old pregnant mother Noor Hassan and her 2-year-old daughter Rahaf.  The family was killed in the early hours of Sunday in Gaza, after airstrikes — that Israel claims were targeting Hamas infrastructure — caused their home to collapse.
Since October 1st, the situation in the West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem, and Gaza has deteriorated. Over 20 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1000 injured as official requests by the Palestinian leadership for international protection go ignored.
On October 8th, Amnesty International issued a statement that condemned deliberate attacks on both Israeli and Palestinian civilians. The condemnation also included the widespread use of excessive force by the Israeli army and its failure to protect Palestinians from attacks by Israeli settlers.

Those surprised by these recent events haven’t been paying attention, but should not be blamed. Amid escalations in the region, mainstream news coverage is always lacking in context and portrays the violence as though it arises out of a vacuum. Israelis are historically painted as victims, besieged by their vicious neighbours who want nothing more than to push them into the sea — all while the savage Palestinians attack them for no other reason than violence inherent to their nature.

The insidious reporting not only fails the public, but lets the colonial regime off the hook. Omitting the context of 67 years of brutal military occupation, creeping settlement expansion, and Israel’s extrajudicial killings to focus solely on Palestinian“terror” gives a green light to the armed settler puppets of right-wing politicians to run riot — literally.

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Official Israeli policy: Mass murder and ethnic cleansing of defenseless Palestinians

Stephen Lendman
thepeoplesvoice.org

Palestine is a free-fire zone. No safe havens exist. Mass murdering and ethnically cleansing defenseless Palestinians are longstanding Israeli policies.

So is targeting them one at a time. No miranda rights. No due process. No judicial fairness. Summary judgment approves brutalizing and killing them unaccountably.

It happens repeatedly - each time justified by fabricated claims of responding to nonexistent Palestinian threats or attacks. Victims are blamed for cold-blooded Israeli murder.

In the past week alone, Israeli forces shot three Palestinians. Two died. An IDF spokesperson lied claiming they stabbed or attempted to stab soldiers. No evidence proves it.

Killer soldiers and cops are considered heroes. Investigations when conducted are consistently whitewashed.

On Monday, soldiers lethally shot 26-year-old Mohammed Bassam al-Atrash. He bled to death left unattended without emergency medical attention.

On Saturday, Israeli forces murdered 16-year-old Rafik kamel al-Taj - claiming he tried stabbing a soldier, the same Big Lie repeated often.

On August 9, Israeli soldiers lethally shot 20-year-old Anas Taha - this time claiming he stabbed a settler.

In late July, the Al-Haq human rights group said "Israel's indiscriminate, excessive and unlawful use of force against Palestinian civilians persists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)."

"Almost on a daily basis, Al-Haq documents Israel's reckless and lethal use of force which has led to the killing and injury of countless Palestinians over the years."

"Since the beginning of 2015, Israel has killed 21 Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Between 21 and 27 July alone, Israel shot and killed three Palestinians in the West Bank."

Each death was willful, unprovoked assassination. Fabricated accusations claim otherwise. More Palestinians died in August - victims of Israeli ruthlessness.


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Israeli Forces Shoot Dead Two Unarmed Palestinian Teenagers from 200 Meters

Al Jazeera

Defence for Children International (DCI) posted the two-minute video on YouTube, which it said was edited from six hours of surveillance footage from fixed security cameras at a Palestinian-owned business that overlooked the scene.

The group said the video showed that troops had committed “unlawful killings where neither child presented a direct and immediate threat to life at the time of their shooting”.

The Israeli rights group B’Tselem said the images back its findings that troops killed the teens without cause by firing live rounds from more than 200 metres away. The soldiers were in “zero danger” at the time, said Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem.

Palestinian hospital officials said Mohammad Abu Thaher and Nadim Nuwara were both shot in the heart. Officials originally gave their respective ages as 22 and 17, but later said they were 16 and 17.

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BBC in the service of Israeli propaganda

Electronic Intifada

Over the last five weeks, the trend in BBC reporting to ignore events that show Israel in a negative light, while affording coverage to tenuous claims from the Israeli army that it has uncovered Palestinian “terror” plots, has become quite glaring.

On 19 March, a 14-year-old Palestinian child, Yussef Shawamreh, was shot in the back and hip by Israeli soldiers as he foraged for edible wild thistles on his family’s land in the occupied West Bank.

The child bled to death. His two friends, aged 12 and 17, were seized by soldiers dressed in black fatigues and wearing black face masks, and taken to a nearby illegal settlement, in handcuffs and blindfolds. There they were beaten for failing to answer questions in Hebrew, a language neither understands.

By any standards, the cold-blooded killing of a 14-year-old by soldiers, and the subsequent abuse of his young friends, is appalling. The media outcry if the boy had been Israeli and his killers Palestinian can only be guessed at.

As it is, with the dead child being Palestinian, the BBC ignored the story. The previous week, the BBC also failed to report on the killing on 10 March of university student Saji Darwish, also in the West Bank.

Saji, a university student, was shot in the head by Israeli forces as he tended his goats.

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