On the Agenda

On the afternoon of 12 March 2019 Israeli soldiers and Border Police arrived at the town of Salfit. Clashes ensued with some 40 Palestinians who threw stones at them from about 80 meters away. The troops threw stun grenades and fired teargas, rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition at the young men, mildly wounding three. Muhammad Shahin was standing about 20 meters behind the stone-throwers, watching the clashes. At about 4:30 P.M., the troops fired one live bullet at Shahin, killing him. His death is one of four that B’Tselem has investigated since the beginning of March, in which lethal gunfire was found to be clearly unjustified.

In 2019, many more Palestinian families in East Jerusalem demolished their own homes, which were built without permits. They did this to avoid the high fees the city would have charged them for carrying out the demolition itself. Through the end of March, 15 homes were demolished in this way. Israel does not see East Jerusalem residents as equal citizens and barely allows them to build legally. When, given no other choice, they build homes without permits, the municipality demolishes them – all as part of a policy to Judaize Jerusalem.

B’Tselem’s investigation into four killings since the beginning of March 2019 clearly shows the lethal fire was completely unjustified. These cases illustrate, once more, just how little value Israel’s security establishment places on the lives of Palestinians. None of the victims posed a threat to the lives of security personnel. Not one of these incidents should have ended in death. As B'Tselem has cautioned countless times in the past, these are not aberrations, or “bad apples”. These are incidents that occur as part of the routine actions of soldiers and police officers, pursuant to Israel’s dangerous, lethal open-fire policy.

B’Tselem’s investigation has found that in an incident reported by the media as an attempted stabbing at Huwarah on 3 April 2019, Muhammad ‘Abd al-Fatah had been throwing stones at Israeli cars driving along the road and was then shot by a settler who pulled over. As al-Fatah lay wounded on the ground, the settler, along with another settler who also pulled over, shot him again, killing him. Soldiers erased video footage of the incident.

Every day, Israel determines what the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank will look like – while they, themselves, are barred from taking part in decisions that shape their present and their future. Israel uses its power in a violent, arbitrary fashion, with blatant disregard for the safety, wellbeing and quality of life of the Palestinians who live under its control.

Tomorrow, Israel heads to its 15th national election since the occupation began. Israelis will cast a vote to decide their own fate – and the fate of millions of Palestinian subjects denied that same right. Yesterday, the New York Times published Democracy, Israeli Style, an op-ed written by B'Tselem Executive Director, Hagai El-Ad, about reality in the occupied territories, the denial of political rights, and Trump’s possibly forthcoming “deal of the century”. But the real deal is this one: Israel continuing to control and oppress the Palestinians, while facing no international price to pay.

Every day, Israel determines what the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank will look like – while they, themselves, are barred from taking part in decisions that shape their present and their future. Israel uses its power in a violent, arbitrary fashion, with blatant disregard for the safety, wellbeing and quality of life of the Palestinians who live under its control.

On 8 March 2019, at a demonstration in Beit Sira, Ramallah District, to protest the killing of two Palestinians, an ambulance found itself amidst the clashes. As it tried to drive away, an officer ordered the driver at gunpoint to shut off the engine and hand over the keys. The ambulance was detained for about 15 minutes. Interfering with the work of medical crews or causing them harm is prohibited. There were no grounds for threatening, detaining or endangering the EMTs. These actions by the security forces are but another example of their disregard for the lives of Palestinians, conduct always carried out with impunity.

“One of the soldiers assaulted my father and beat him in the face until he bled. I was shocked and furious. I couldn’t understand why he’d done it. Didn’t he know my father was ill and blind? What did my father do to deserve that? I have a lot of questions that I still need answered. It’s a nightmare I can’t ever forget, even though it’s very upsetting whenever I think about it.” Taken from the testimony of Mazen Muzher (15).