| The killing fields of Rafah
By Gideon Levy
Quietly, far from the public eye, Israeli soldiers
continue killing Palestinians. Hardly a day goes
by without casualties, some innocent civilians,
and the stories of their violent deaths never
reach the Israeli consciousness or awareness. If
there is one consistent piece of data in the
current intifada, it is the number of Palestinian
casualties: dozens a month, unceasingly.
There were 30 in November, 57 in October, 33 in September.
In May and June, the number of casualties reached 60 a
month (all data supplied by B'Tselem). While Palestinian
terror shocks us with itsbrutality, the daily killing of innocent Palestinians in far greater numbers is ignored - unless it is a case of an army operation as in Nusseirat refugee camp in October.
Here's a list of victims from the last month, taken from the margins of the daily newspaper chronicles: A 32-year-old motorcyclist shot to death in the chest after soldiers said he tried
to escape a checkpoint near Iskar refugee camp; a 10-year-old boy from Sejaya in Gaza who was bird hunting with a slingshot near the separation fence around Gaza, killed by a tank
shell fired at him; an eighth-grader from Barukin, near Jenin, who threw stones at soldiers, shot dead; a youth shot to death
during "disturbances" after the funeral of his friend in Jenin; a taxi driver and father of six shot to death in Tul Karm by soldiers who thought he was trying to get away; a
15-year-old killed in Yata during some arrests;
a nine-year-old killed by IDF fire in Rafah;
and three Palestinians who were on their way to
the holiday dinner last Wednesday in Gaza,
killed by soldiers who claimed they thought the
three were an armed cell.
The IDF admitted the next day that they were
"accidentally" killed. But a day later,
Brigadier General Gad Shamni, commander of the
Gaza forces in the Strip hurried to say the
soldiers actually behaved correctly. Even
though three innocent people were killed, he
didn't even think it was a mistake.
Life in the killing fields of Rafah, for
example, is as cheap as the hundreds of houses
that have been demolished there for various,
strange reasons. Just a few days ago, the IDF
demolished the home of someone in their custody
whom the army claimed was responsible for the
smuggling tunnels. There's no need for blood on
the hands to justify demolishing a person's
house in the current intifada. Only someone who
has lately visited Rafah can understand how
cheap life has become in this remote place,
where there's practically no building that has
not been damaged.
Last weekend, the BBC broadcast a program titled
"When the killing is easy" about the killing of
British TV cameraman James Miller, the death of
International Solidarity Movement volunteer
Rachel Corrie under a bulldozer, and the
shooting of ISM peace activist Tom Hurndall,
who has been rendered a vegetable by his
injuries. All three incidents happened within a
few weeks in Rafah.
The TV cameras caught Miller walking in the
night to his death: wearing a flak vest marked
with fluorescent ink identifying him as a
journalist, white flag in hand, walking slowly
and cautiously, calling out to the soldiers in
the armored personnel car facing him so they
calm down. Then, the sound of a shot in the
dark, and then another and Miller falls, dying
in the dirt. The single bullet that struck his
neck was well-aimed.
The soldiers in the APC had the best night
vision equipment and it is difficult to assume
that they were unable to identify their victim
as a journalist. Maybe they did not want to
kill a journalist, maybe they thought it was a
Palestinian pretending to be a journalist, but
there is no doubt he was not endangering any of
their lives inside the APC. They could have
warned him to halt, they could have only
wounded him. Hurndall was also an innocent
victim of the easy fire. A bullet struck him in
the head and he's now a vegetable.
In effect, there is no difference between how
Miller was killed, how Hurndall was wounded and
how the three Palestinians were shot dead last
Wednesday, except for the fact that a movie was
made about Hurndall and Miller, because they
are not Palestinians. When soldiers know they
will not be prosecuted - and usually no
investigation will even take place - for
killing an innocent foreign photographer or
innocent Palestinians on their way to a festive
dinner, they are getting a license to kill from
their commanders.
In the eyes of a soldier's commander, at most he
made a mistake. When Brigadier General Shamni
announced his soldiers operated "correctly" by
killing three unarmed residents, he paved the
way for the next unnecessary killing.
If there's no investigation and no punishment,
it means nothing wrong happened. If the pilots
are allowed to kill 10 civilians for a single
wanted man, obviously the killing of a single
innocent resident is inconsequential. Thus the
line blurs between killing and murder. What was
the sniper's bullet that struck Miller in the
neck? In the complacent response, the IDF's
senior command sends a worrisome message to its
soldiers. No instruction booklet about what is
allowed and not allowed and no day of
discussion about "respecting human dignity"
that certain units in the territories have
lately taken will erase the damage of the
sweeping license to kill that the IDF grants
19-year-olds in the territories. | |
