“The Israeli army killed Samir Awad, 16 years old, on the 15th of January 2013. After finishing an exam he came out with his schoolmates, towards the wall of Apartheid, located just 200 meters far from the school. The wall has detached the people and entails a barrier to the freedom of movement of the inhabitants of Budrus. As usual, the boys walked around the area and they decided to protest against the wall. Samir Awad received three shots of live ammunition that caused his death. Nor Samir or his classmates posed no threat to the soldiers or other people’s life.”
This way started the report of Amnesty International (AI) entitled “Trigger-happy: Israel’s use of excessive force in the West Bank”. The report aims to show how the Israeli army has repeatedly violated its obligations under the International Law of Human Rights having an overuse of force with the aim of suppressing dissent and violating the right of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
In order to document the report, AI interviews witnesses and relatives whom cases are collected like Samir’s, cases where the Palestinian population has been victim of illegal and intentional killings and would be subject to prosecution under international humanitarian law as war crimes.
According to AI, this abusive behaviour on the part of the forces of the Israeli army, which violates flagrantly the Fourth Geneva Convention, has a total impunity, caused largely by the failure of the Israeli authorities to carry out impartial and independent investigations. This pattern is repeated in the time since the first Intifada in 1987, and the lack of accountability of perpetrators of such abuse refers to a systematic policy of disproportionate, arbitrary and brutal use of force, with the endorsement of the Israeli authorities and military commanders that rule the occupied territories of the West Bank.
In the last three years, at least 261 Palestinians – 67 children between them-, have suffered serious injuries as a result of the use of real ammunition by the Israeli army. Between January 2011 and December 2013 41 Palestinians were killed. It is estimated that the Israeli army, due to weapons such as rubber coated lead bullets or gas canisters, has wounded at least 8,000 Palestinians, according to OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs).
The separation wall. Photo EAPPI/M. Lentz
The Law on Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, issued by the UN, stipulated that the intentional use of firearms should happen when you don’t have other choice in order to protect the life, for self-defenc or to protect other people in the imminent threat of death or involving serious wounds, and only when less extreme measures are insufficient to achieve these objectives.
According to AI, taking into consideration that most of the Palestinian victims have been shot for throwing stones, the circumstances of these deaths are pointing to be considered illegal killings and, in some cases, wilful killings. The organization has asked to see what are the military devices and “rules of engagement” that regulate the behaviour of the Israeli army in the Occupied Territories, but Israel has repeatedly refused to make such data public. The apparent lack of transparency raises doubts about whether this regulation complies with international standards.
The Military Advocate General (MAG) Corps is the body that must ensure compliance with the rule of law in the Israeli army. Even so, more than one year after, the findings of the investigations carried out by the Israeli authorities on various alleged illegitimate murders haven’t been released. And in the few cases that have been solved, the authors of the deaths have not been accused guilty of murder facing hardly at all proportional to the harm caused. The lack of accountability gives a total impunity to the perpetrators of the abuses, which encourage other members of the army to perpetuate such practices . Amnesty International adds that the fact that military judges do not have notions of International Law leads to a lack of confidence of the victims and their families, so many of them prefer not to report the cases, fearing reprisals from the army.
In its second part, the report collects testimonies of fatalities and injuries due to rubber bullets or blushing because of gas grenades in very high quantities. According to AI, most of the victims are peaceful protesters participating in nonviolent demonstrations in the West Bank, especially in the towns that are more affected by the Wall of Apartheid and the confiscation of lands due to illegal settlements, as Bilin, Nabi Saleh, Budrus or Qufr Qaddoum.
Al alleges that the civilian population has become a constant target of the army, as well as the human rights defenders, the medical staff present in the demonstrations to treat the demonstrators and the journalists.
According to AI, the army routinely violate their obligations under international humanitarian law and the international law of human rights, since as a ratifying country of this Treaty, Israel has the obligation as an occupying power to preserve and safeguard the security of the occupied people. However, the right of association and peaceful assembly of the Palestinian people have been denied, risking to suffer injuries, death or to face penalties of up to 10 years. The use of unnecessary, arbitrary and brutal force by part of the army, becomes a long-term systematized policy, which has been carried out for decades with the welcome of the Israeli Government and military commanders.
The report concludes with a series of demands to the Israeli authorities, which include:
- Providing all victims of crimes under international law by the Israeli army reparation, restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.
- Amnesty International calls on the Israeli authorities to instruct their forces on how to avoid the use of lethal means, including real ammunition and rubber bullets, except when it is strictly necessary to protect life. The army must also respect the right of the Palestinians to freedom of peaceful assembly.
- AI calls on the Israeli authorities to start an impartial and independent investigation of all documented cases and to facilitate the access of Palestinians from the Occupied Territories to all the judicial processes, including those initiated in Israel.
- The organization urged the United States, the European Union and the rest of the international community, including Spain, to suspend all transfers of ammunition, weapons and other equipment to Israel.
On this regard, and coinciding temporally with the presentation of the report, on Thursday 20th February, “Negocis Ocults”, (‘hidden bussiness’) within the framework of the campaign “No more complicity with Israel” (in which NOVACT takes part), the report “Defense, security and occupation as a business. Military trade relations, arms and security between Spain and Israel” was presented. This report is a continuation of the 2009 research on military exports from Spain to Israel and violations of the Spanish and European legislation. This new report takes a step further in the remaining relations in defense and security. The analysis of the implementation of the Israeli military industry in Spain, the training and transmission of experience from Israel, and the research projects on security, crystallize the rise of military relations between the two countries and the privatization process of public safety.
Israel has turned Palestinian occupation into a bussiness: it represents the 75% of the export of its arms production and helps into promoting the Israel brand as a guarantee of quality and prestige in the military and security field.
With the presentation of this report a campaign is launched on a Catalan, Spanish and European level to apply to the respective institutions for stopping complicity with human rights violations carried out by Israel, and for contributing to peace instead of arming sides of the conflict, or being accomplice in a military and security industry responsible for the longer and bloodier military occupation of our recent History.
