CounterPunch Magazine: The Zionist Army Forces’ Policy of Intimidation

Local Editor

CounterPunch magazine wrote that the recent incident of Palestinian youths shot in the chest by Zionist forces during the Nakba Day protests in occupied Palestine is just one more of many similar ones where the forces fired and killed unarmed Palestinians, in an article published on its website on Tuesday.

 In an article published by CounterPunch magazine on Tuesday, it wrote that during the Nabka Day protests last month [May 15], two Palestinian youths were shot in the chest in the town of Beitunia in the occupied West Bank. Both adolescents died as a result of the injuries they suffered. 

It added that while the Zionist Army Forces claim that only rubber bullets had been used against those protesting, observers claim that live ammunition was used against the youths.

Furthermore, the article said that although the Zionist Army Forces claimed that its troops fired rubber bullets during the incident involving the two Palestinian youths, the Palestinian youths were apparently killed when they were relatively far away from the troops, which could be one more evidence that live ammunition was used. 

The belated release of footage taken by CNN shows one member of a group of Zionist border policemen firing at the Palestinians, the article added. 

Although the Zionist Army Forces has promised to launch an investigation, these investigations never result in the actual punishment of those guilty, the article further wrote. 

According to what was stated by the Zionist Haaretz website, "The awful moral failure underlying this incident requires the [Zionist Army Forces] to take a thorough account of itself, not only regarding the moral norms it inculcates in its soldiers, but also regarding military discipline."

The actions of the Zionist forces against the Palestinian youths have also been sharply criticized by Haaretz, which in an editorial stated, "The moral deterioration falls under the responsibility of all [the Zionists'] governments since 1967, and especially the current pro-settlement, anti-"peace" government. The story of the Beitunia shooting sums up the crime of occupation, which has turned the [Zionist Army Forces] from the people's army, whose task is to protect the [entity's] citizens, into a hothouse of violence, where soldiers and policemen shoot Palestinians as though they were ducks at a shooting range."

The Zionist Information Center for "Human Rights," B'Tselem, has previously described the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields by forcing them to carry-out life-threatening military tasks, in violation of a Zionist High Court of "Justice" injunction against this procedure.

CounterPunch magazine wrote that this last incident is just one more of many similar ones where the Zionist Army Forces fired and killed unarmed Palestinians.

Moreover, in a February 2014 report entitled, "Trigger happy: "Israel's" use of excessive force in the West Bank," Amnesty International described increasing bloodshed and widespread abuses in occupied Palestine as a result of the Zionist forces' use of unnecessary, arbitrary and brutal force against Palestinians.

On Monday, Middle East and North Africa Director for Human Rights Watch, Sarah Leah Whitson, said that, "The willful killing of civilians by [Zionist] security forces as part of the occupation is a war crime."

The killings of the Palestinian youths took place during protests across occupied West Bank on Nakba Day, when Palestinians mark the loss of their homes in 1948 that resulted in the creation of the Zionist entity and the flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Sources: News Agencies, Edited by website team