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Israeli army under scrutiny after citizen is shot { December 29 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0312290183dec29,1,1003670.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hedhttp://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0312290183dec29,1,1003670.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Israeli army under scrutiny
Firing at protesters debated after citizen is shot
By Joel Greenberg
Special to the Tribune
December 29, 2003
JERUSALEM -- An army shooting of an Israeli protester during a demonstration against a barrier in the West Bank set off a heated debate Sunday in Israel about whether troops have become trigger-happy during more than three years of violent conflict with the Palestinians.
Gil Naamati, 21, a kibbutz member who recently completed mandatory military service, was shot in the legs Friday as he joined protesters who tried to force open a gate and cut through the barrier near the Palestinian village of Maskha in the West Bank. An American woman in the group was slightly wounded.
The incident was the first time in memory that an Israeli demonstrator had been shot by soldiers in the West Bank, and it focused public attention on the army's use of live gunfire against protesters there, a common practice in confrontations with Palestinians that usually attracts little scrutiny.
More than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the current conflict, many in clashes ranging from gun battles to stone-throwing protests. More than 900 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian suicide bombings and shootings.
Human-rights groups have accused the Israeli army of resorting too frequently to gunfire when facing Palestinian protesters, and of failing to properly investigate and punish soldiers involved in killings of unarmed civilians in street clashes or at army checkpoints.
Some commentators said Friday's incident exposed an erosion of restraints in the army and in Israeli society at large caused by the grinding conflict with the Palestinians.
"Those who have been accustomed to consider human life cheap start with the Palestinians and end with members of their own people," David Grossman, a prominent novelist and peace advocate, told Yediot Ahronot, Israel's most widely circulated newspaper.
Clash at security barrier
In Friday's confrontation, Israeli demonstrators from a group called Anarchists Against Fences tried to push open a gate in the barrier and cut through a wire fence as part of a protest with foreign activists and villagers from Maskha.
The Israeli barrier, a series of fences, trenches and walls built to keep out attackers, slices into the West Bank, hemming in some Palestinian communities.
Israeli officials say the barrier is a vital security measure and that it loops into the West Bank to protect Jewish settlements. Palestinians assert that the barrier is an attempt to carve off land that should be part of a future Palestinian state.
Video footage of Friday's incident showed protesters shaking a barrier gate and shouting to soldiers in Hebrew not to shoot as the troops prepared to fire from about 30 yards away. Shots are then heard, and Naamati is seen being carried away as protesters plead unsuccessfully for soldiers to send an ambulance.
An army statement said the soldiers called on the protesters to stop damaging the fence and fired warning shots before shooting at the legs of the protest leader. The chief military spokeswoman, Brig. Gen. Ruth Yaron, suggested it was unclear to the soldiers that they were facing Israelis.
Critics noted that there appeared to be no mortal threat to the soldiers when they opened fire and that they had not used non-lethal means, such as tear gas, to repel the protesters.
"An order to fire live ammunition at people who do not endanger you is a blatantly illegal order," Ami Ayalon, a former chief of the Shin Bet security service, told Army Radio.
The army appointed a committee to investigate the incident and said the military police would open a parallel criminal investigation. The army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, visited Naamati in the hospital. He called the incident serious and said he was determined to draw appropriate conclusions.
Differing responses
The response was a sharp contrast to the army's treatment of shootings of Palestinians, which usually do not lead to criminal investigations. The military says such investigations of fatal army shootings no longer are standard procedure because it is fighting an armed conflict with the Palestinians.
According to army figures, 70 criminal investigations have been opened into shootings that have killed or wounded Palestinians, leading to 10 indictments since the current conflict erupted in September 2000.
Naamati, who completed his army duty a month ago, served stints at checkpoints in the West Bank, where, according to his father, he became critical of the Israeli occupation there.
"He had a very hard time serving in the territories, with the bad treatment of the Arabs, and I think it formed his views a bit," Uri Naamati told Israel Television.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon criticized the shooting at the weekly Cabinet meeting, saying that while the barrier should not be damaged, the protesters should have been dispersed by other means, a Cabinet statement said.
Public Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said the army clearly should have used non-lethal means to protect the barrier.
"Here there was certainly no real mortal danger, and if mortal danger will be interpreted that widely, then we are giving every soldier or officer the right to pronounce death sentences indiscriminately," he said in a radio interview.
However, Uzi Landau, a hard-line Cabinet minister, blamed the protesters, asserting that "anyone who destroys the fence is assisting terrorism."
"This was not a demonstration," Landau said. "This was an attempt not only to destroy property but to destroy a facility that saves lives, and whoever approaches it should know that he is running a grave risk."
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune
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