Video: Did Israeli soldier plant knife on teen killed by settler?

October 17th, 2015

Awake Goy

A video published on Facebook by Youth Against Settlements shows the moments after an Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian teenager in Hebron, Saturday.

At 12 seconds into the video, one soldier hands off an object to another soldier, who appears to drop it by the body.

The video has raised suspicions that the soldiers are planting a knife.

The settler who reportedly killed the youth is seen in the video walking around with his handgun still drawn.

Ma’an News Agency has identified the youth as 18-year-old Fadil Qawasmi.

The shooting took place in central Hebron’s Shuhada Street.

“Palestinians may only access the street by passing through an Israeli military checkpoint with a metal detector,” Ma’an notes, “raising suspicions among locals as to whether Qawasmi could have been carrying a knife at the time of the alleged attack.”

Ma’an reported that local resident Mufid Sharabati said that the settler shot the youth near the Israeli settlement of Beit Hadassah.

Sharabati added, according to Ma’an, that “paramedics of the Palestinian Red Crescent arrived but Israeli soldiers didn’t allow them to access the young man. The soldiers then covered the young man’s face then took him in an ambulance to unknown destination.”

Damage control

The Israeli army spokesperson Peter Lerner attempted to do damage control as the incriminating video spread. In a post on Twitter, Lerner claimed that the object passed between the soldiers was a radio, used to report the incident. Careful viewing of the video shows that what appears to be a radio is passed between one soldier and the officer standing by Qawasmi’s body. But seconds later another item is passed to the officer, who appears to drop it by the body.

Lerner’s spin fails to account for this second object.

Killings continue

Hebron witnessed the killing of another Palestinian teenager, Saturday, 17-year-old Bayan Ayman Abd al-Hadi al-Esseili.

Local activist Raed Atrash told Wattan TV that eyewitnesses had seen Israeli forces fire three shots at Bayan at close range and then barred medical teams from aiding her.

Israeli occupation forces claimed that she had tried to stab an Israeli soldier close to the the Wadi al-Ghrus area near the Kiryat Arba settlement, according to Ma’an News Agency.

This video posted on YouTube is said to show Israeli occupation forces detaining Bayan’s father:

Also on Saturday, 16-year-old Mutaz Ahmad Uweisat was shot dead by Israeli police for allegedly attempting to stab an officer near the settlement of Armon Hanatziv in the West Bank near occupied East Jerusalem.

No Israelis were injured in any of the alleged attacks.

Wattan TV said that Mutaz was from Jerusalem’s Jabal al-Mukabir neighborhood.

This picture of the teen has circulated on social media:

Revenge demolitions

Ma’an News Agency reported that Israeli occupation forces had raided and searched the child’s family home and detained several members of his family.

On Thursday, Israel delivered an additional four demolition orders to families of Palestinians it alleges took part in attacks on Israelis.

Under accelerated procedures, a family is given 72 hours to evacuate their home before it is demolished.

Israel’s aggressive use of revenge demolitions is reserved exclusively for Palestinians.

Family members of Israeli Jews who kill or injure Palestinians are never subjected to such collective punishment.

Summary executions

The deaths of three more Palestinians, Saturday, brings to at least 40 the number of Palestinians killed in intensified violence since 1 October.

On Friday, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during anti-occupation demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A fourth Palestinian was shot dead after injuring an Israeli occupation soldier in Hebron.

A Palestinian who had been critically wounded one week earlier also died in Gaza.

Seven Israelis have died in recent violence.

Many Palestinians appear to have been killed according to an Israeli policy to extrajudicially execute them on mere suspicion or accusation they were carrying out an attack.

None of the Israeli Jews who have stabbed Palestinians, or stabbed other Israeli Jews mistaking them for Palestinians, have been summarily executed.

In a reflection of the dangers Palestinians face, a Palestinian citizen of Israel was arrested for allegedly having knives and an Islamic Movement flag in his car.

Yahya Masarwa was says he was beaten and abused by police who threatened to kill him. Authorities later released him after it became clear that he was carrying work tools.

In a statement, the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights today condemned “in the strongest terms how the Israeli forces and police have continued to shed the Palestinian blood in the occupied Palestinian territory, especially in occupied East Jerusalem.”

Israel has escalated its repression of Palestinians who live under its military occupation, especially in East Jerusalem, which remains under lockdown.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says it has treated more than 5,000 Palestinians with conflict-related injuries since the beginning of the month.

These include 530 Palestinians shot with live ammunition, 1,250 shot with rubber-coated steel bullets and more than 3,000 people who suffered the effects of tear gas.