"Israel" Cold Blooded Shooting Stirs Rage

Source: Alalam.ir, 21-7-2008
WEST BANK--An "Israeli" soldier has been caught on camera shooting a bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoner in the leg.
In the video, the Palestinian, Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27, is seen being led, handcuffed and blindfolded, to a Jeep by a high ranking officer of the Zionist army.
While the officer, a lieutenant-colonel grips his arm, a second soldier aims his gun at Abu Rahma's legs and fires a rubber bullet at him from about 1.5 meters away.
"Israeli" media reports said the soldier who fired the shot had been arrested. Asked about the reports, a occupying military spokesman said: "When the investigation is over and the results are in, steps will be taken."
The incident took place on July 7 in Ni'lin, a West Bank village, according to the "Israeli" Human Rights group B'Tselem, which has published the video.
The village has been the scene of near daily demonstrations by stone-throwing protesters against the construction of the West Bank security fence.
The demonstrator says that the bullet hit his left toe.
"I closed my eyes and I don't remember anything," Rahma told the Palestinian television channel that screened the video on Sunday. "It felt like my leg was gone."
He said he had been held for about 30 minutes and had been beaten by soldiers before being shot.
After the shooting he said he received treatment by an army doctor and was then released.
The video was shot by a 14-year-old girl who filmed it from her house in the village, and sent it to B'Tselem.
B'Tselem said it received the tape on Sunday and forwarded a copy to the Military Police Investigation Unit, demanding an inquiry.
"Israel" occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 war. It has settled hundreds of thousands of Jews in the West Bank and keeps a large military presence there.
'VIOLENT ACTS HAVE BECOME METHODICAL'
Left-wing representatives active in the Naalin protests responded to the publication of the tape by saying that this was not a rare incident. "The incident you have witnessed is not at all rare; it appears rare because it was filmed, but during protests we are forced to deal with this kind of behavior on a daily basis," said Aahad Khawaja, chairman of Naalin's anti-fence committee.
"I have been beaten and shot with tear gas in a direct manner while I was holding a 9-year old boy. I have seen them beating and shooting at an "Israeli" and later attacking him and beating him with clubs after he had fallen," he continued.
Jonathan Polk, who frequents anti-fence rallies, said that the violent acts committed by "Israeli" soldiers have become methodical. "It's a method of violence that is launched at protestors in a brutal and excessive fashion, and most of the time the violent suppression is led by the officers at the scene," he said.
Polk says that the story only received coverage by the media because of the tape documenting it. "Usually the behavior is similar. We cry out that the army is using excessive violence and this time it has been proven on tape. I am not claiming that the protestors don't throw stones but I do claim that in 90% of cases the army is the first to open fire at the protestors, even when they do not constitute an impediment to the construction of the fence."