Arabs Lie - Amnesty International Issues Call
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA

In the past few weeks there have been a series of Palestinians "witnesses"
swearing that, out of the blue, Israelis shot innocent weaponless
Palestinian "martyrs".

Amnesty International no doubt would have issued press releases similar to
the one below condemning Israel and citing the eyewitnesses.

But before they managed to draft the release, videos documenting the
"innocent weaponless Palestinian martyrs" stabbing Israelis deterred Amnesty
from acting.

Take note of the absurd quote from Philip Luther, Middle East and North
Africa Director at Amnesty International: “The fact that Abdullah Shalaldah
was shot in the head and upper body suggests this was an extrajudicial
execution."

Here's another possibility: the fact that Abdullah Shalaldah was shot in
the head and upper body suggests that he acted in a manner that presented a
clear and present danger to the Israeli forces and thus they acted to insure
that Abdullah Shalaldah was effectively neutralized.

Philip Luther has been watching too many movies. A single shot rarely
insures that the person hit will not be able to respond.]

Israel/OPT: Investigate apparent extrajudicial execution at Hebron hospital

Amnesty International 12 November 2015, 18:02 UTC
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/11/israel-opt-investigate-apparent-extrajudicial-execution-at-hebron-hospital/

The killing of a 28-year-old Palestinian man by Israeli forces during a raid
on al-Ahli hospital in Hebron in the early hours of Thursday morning may
amount to an extrajudicial execution, Amnesty International said today.

Eyewitnesses report that a large group of Israeli soldiers and police
entered the hospital at 2.43am disguised as Palestinian civilians, with some
wearing keffiyehs and fake beards and another being pushed in a wheelchair
dressed as a pregnant woman. According to two witnesses Amnesty
International spoke to, they entered a room on the third floor of the
hospital where 20-year-old Azzam Azmi Shalaldah was a patient, to arrest him
on suspicion of stabbing an Israeli civilian on 25 October.

When they entered the room where the patient was in bed, they immediately
shot his cousin, Abdullah Azzam Shalaldah, at least three times, including
in the head and upper body.

“The fact that Abdullah Shalaldah was shot in the head and upper body
suggests this was an extrajudicial execution, adding to a disturbing pattern
of similar recent incidents by Israeli forces in the West Bank which warrant
urgent investigation,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and
North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

“Israeli forces must immediately cease their use of intentional lethal force
against people who are not posing an imminent threat to life.”

“The fact that Abdullah Shalaldah was shot in the head and upper body
suggests this was an extrajudicial execution, adding to a disturbing pattern
of similar recent incidents by Israeli forces in the West Bank which warrant
urgent investigation” Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director
at Amnesty International

A witness said that Abdullah Shalaldah, who had been accompanying his cousin
in the hospital and sleeping in the room, had gone to the bathroom and had
just come out when Israeli forces burst into the room and shot him. The
Israeli forces then threatened another patient at gunpoint, handcuffed
another relative to a bed and then left the hospital with Azzam Shalaldah in
a wheelchair.

Unlawful and deliberate killings carried out by order of government or
military officials, or with their complicity or acquiescence, amount to
extrajudicial executions, which are prohibited at all times and are crimes
under international law.

The Israeli military released a statement saying that Abdullah Shalaldah had
attacked Israeli forces, but did not specify whether he was armed. Witnesses
report that he was not armed, was some metres away from the soldiers and
police and had not attempted to attack them. There was no attempt to arrest
Abdullah Shalaldah, according to the witnesses, or to use non-lethal
alternatives before shooting him dead.

The killing of Abdullah Shalaldah is the latest in a pattern of killings by
Israeli forces which Amnesty International considers to have been unlawful.
Since the beginning of October there has been a dramatic increase in the
number of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli civilians, soldiers and police.
Attacks on civilians are never justified, but Israeli forces have responded
with intentional lethal use of force in many cases where it was not
warranted. The Israeli military’s own regulations allow soldiers in the
occupied West Bank to open fire only when their lives are in imminent
danger. It appears that this was not the case in the shooting of Abdullah
Shalaldah, as he was unarmed.

Israeli forces have killed at least 18 Palestinians in and around the city
of Hebron in recent weeks, including in cases that appear to be
extrajudicial executions, and accordingly should be the subject of prompt,
thorough and impartial investigations with a view to prosecution as criminal
offences.

On 6 November Israeli forces shot and killed 72-year-old Tharwat al-Sharawi,
alleging that she intended to ram them with her car. A video of the incident
shows the car which she was driving heading towards the soldiers at a speed
slow enough to allow the soldiers to jump out of the way and then begin
shooting heavily at the car. Tharwat al-Sharawi’s son has said that his
mother was on her way to lunch when she was killed. Amnesty International
considers that even if Tharwat-al-Sharami did intend to carry out a ramming
attack, the military has itself acknowledged that soldiers only began firing
after jumping out of the way of the car. This means that the imminent danger
had passed and accordingly that the use of lethal force was unlawful.

On 29 October Mahdi al-Muhtasib, 23, was shot by Israeli forces after
reportedly lightly wounding an Israeli soldier in a stabbing attack in
Hebron. Video of the aftermath of the incident shows Mahdi al-Muhtasib
writhing in pain on the ground before an Israeli soldier, standing a
distance of some metres away, shoots him again. The video shows that Mahdi
al-Muhtasib was plainly wounded, and posed no threat whatsoever to the
soldier. Moreover, shooting a wounded person is a wilful killing in grave
breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“Israeli forces have a long history of carrying out unlawful killings in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, including extrajudicial executions,” said
Philip Luther.

“While the number of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli civilians, soldiers
and police has increased significantly since the beginning of October, there
is never any excuse for the Israeli military and police forces using lethal
force where it is not warranted.”