On the Agenda

In the last round of hostilities, Israel killed 35 Palestinians, including 14 uninvolved civilians. B’Tselem investigated three of the bombings. One particular case helped shed light on Israeli bombings in Gaza as a whole, revealing sites listed in the military’s “target bank” are rarely reassessed before an attack, nor are attempts made to ensure the absence of civilians. This policy, formulated by top government and military officials and backed by military legal advisors, persists despite its horrifying results.

On 17 Nov. 2019, Palestinan children and teens threw stones at Israeli oldiers near the boys’ school at al-Jalazun RC. About half an hour later, soldiers and at least one person in civilian clothes opened fire at children hiding near the entrance to the camp, injuring two of them, aged 11 and 13. This illegal shooting is illustrative of the military’s trigger-happy policy, backed and bolstered by a military law enforcement system that ensures no accountability.

On 11 Nov. 2019, a soldier shot and killed ‘Omar al-Badawi as he was trying to put out a fire at the front of his house. B’Tselem’s investigation and video footage of the incident show al-Badawi was shot for no reason and without justification, while advancing slowly and signaling to soldiers not to fire. His death is not solely the responsibility of the soldier who shot him, but of all those responsible for the MAG Corps’ whitewashing protocol that allows these shootings to recur with no accountability.

The pages below are an exhumation, digging up the past. For each year since 1989, we brought an account of a single instance in which soldiers killed, injured or beat a Palestinian. The account of each incident presents the testimony we collected at the time and then describes how one or another of the state’s legal branches whitewashed the actual event. Lastly, we bring a testimony we recorded this year from a relative or from the victims themselves. Their personal stories tell of lives unalterably changed in an instant. They were never the same again.

On Dec. 5, B'Tselem marked 30 years since its founding in a special event at the Khan al-Ahmar school community. B'Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad spoke about what we learned over 30 years of work, since 1989.

Residents of the souther Hebron neighborhood of al-Harika have suffered incessant soldier and military-backed settler harassment ever since the settlement of Kiryat Arba was built next door in 1972. In five months this year, we documented five such attacks. These and other cases previously documented by B'Tselem illustrate how fragile, exposed and unpredictable life is in the neighborhood. The intolerable living conditions created by Israel’s policy drive Palestinians to abandon homes and businesses in the neighborhood.

The first full-length documentary film produced by B’Tselem, “Of Land and Bread,” directed by the head of the organization’s video department, Ehab Tarabieh, will premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA). The world premiere will take place tonight, November 24, with additional screenings scheduled later this week as part of the festival.

On 3 Nov. 2019, before noon, soldiers detained ‘Abd a-Razeq Idris, 13, in Hebron, took him to al-Harika neighborhood and walked him, blindfolded, through the streets. They then drove him to a nearby military post, asked him about stone-throwers and sent him home alone. This case is no aberration, but part of the routine violence imposed on Palestinians by Israeli security forces and settlers as part of Israel’s policy in Hebron.

According to B'Tselem data, Israel is holding the bodies of more than 52 Palestinians who attacked Israelis or the military claims tried to, and is refusing to return them. Holding bodies as bargaining chips is a long-standing policy only made official in a January 2017 cabinet resolution. The High Court initially held it illegal but later overturned the ruling based on an unreasonable interpretation of the Defence Regulations. This contemptible extortionist practice causes the families immense suffering, as described in the following.