Publish date18 Feb 2022 - 16:59
Story Code : 539001

Palestinian Teen Death Marks Continuation of Israeli Crimes

A Palestinian teen has been shot and killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, according to a Palestinian Authority Health Ministry report published on Tuesday.
Palestinian Teen Death Marks Continuation of Israeli Crimes
Local witnesses reported seeing Israeli troops fire live rounds and tear gas into crowds of citizens. Barghouti succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital shortly after being “shot by live bullets in the abdomen area,” according to the Mann News Agency who cited local sources.
This development comes only two days after 17-year-old Mohammed Abu Salah was killed by Israeli forces in Jenin and a week after three Palestinians were killed in Nablus. Both towns are located in the occupied West Bank.
 
The Israeli army said that dozens of protesters approached an army post tower while throwing stones at soldiers. In a statement, the army said that soldiers “responded with riot dispersal means and suspect arrest procedure, which included live fire.”
However, a Palestinian witness speaking with The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity said that it was hardly a riot. The witness claimed that the group approaching the tower was made up of only four or five people but did acknowledge they were throwing stones.
“The small group approached the tower. The soldiers descended from the tower and then they started firing,” said the witness.
 
Even though the Palestinian group, which included Barghouti, was throwing stones, the Israeli soldiers’ use of gunfire constituted an excessive use of force. Israeli forces should refrain from such action and instead employ less-lethal actions to diffuse the situation.
Conversing from the tower before descending would have helped de-escalate the tense confrontation. Peaceful attempts for resolution are imperative to fix what Palestinian and international human rights organizations view as a policy of “shoot to kill.”
The Israeli government must conduct a full, transparent investigation into Barghouti’s death and bring criminal charges if wrongdoing is found.
 
Barghouti’s death comes only two weeks after Amnesty International released a damning new report accusing the Israeli government of violating the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention. Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said, “Whether they live in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, or Israel itself, Palestinians are treated as an inferior racial group and systematically deprived of their rights.”
Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East War.
 
Despite this new report, the United States shockingly continues to stand firmly alongside its longtime ally. Speaking to the Israeli parliament on Wednesday with a seven Democrat delegation, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Israel the “greatest political achievement of the 20th century.”
After receiving thanks for American funding of Israel’s Iron Dome missile system, Pelosi stated that U.S. support remains “ironclad.”
Many human rights organizations have seen this as a diplomatic attempt to whitewash Israeli crimes. Sunjeev Bery, the executive director at U.S.-based human rights group Freedom Forward said, “While more and more members of the U.S. Congress are questioning U.S. support for Israeli apartheid, Democratic Party leaders are still working hard to retain the support of pro-Israel donors and networks in the US.”
As American lawmakers look to fill their pockets leading up to the midterm elections, Israel gets to clean their international image and renew their defense funding from American taxpayers. The United States has a human rights obligation to stop funding an Israeli government guilty of carrying out apartheid. Further, the international community must condemn Israeli actions and United States complicity.
 
Israel appears to be showing no signs of changing course regardless of Amnesty International’s new accusations. The deaths of Barghouti, Salah, and the three other Palestinians, all in the West Bank, make this reality chillingly clear.
Little is likely to change if the United States continues to fund Israeli defense forces and proclaim “ironclad” support. The international community has a human rights obligation to stand tough against Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and condemn these actions in the loudest of terms.
 
 
 
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