Israeli
Journalist Shot by Israeli Soldiers in Tulkarem
 |
|
Journalists
always suffer at the hands of Israeli soldiers
|
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, August 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An Israeli
soldier in the West Bank opened fire on a taxi carrying an Israeli
journalist who said Monday, August 12, the shots were fired without
warning. The army said the soldier and an officer would be tried.
The
incident occurred Sunday morning, August 11, in the autonomous West
Bank town of Tulkarem, as the taxi approached an army post. Shots hit
the bulletproof windshield of the armored taxi, the British daily
newspaper, the Guardian, reported.
Gideon
Levy, a correspondent for the Israeli daily newspaper, Ha’aretz,
a Ha’aretz photographer, and a representative from the
organization of Physicians for Human Rights were in the vehicle. They
were not injured.
Levy,
who writes weekly stories about the lives of ordinary Palestinians,
said the incident was not unusual. “What happened ... happens every
day in the occupied territories,” Levy said. “The only difference
was this time it was an Israeli Jew and a journalist.”
Many
Palestinians have been killed and wounded in roadblock shootings in
nearly two years of fighting. The army, however, has denied
Palestinian allegations that soldiers are quick to fire at what they
consider suspicious vehicles without justification.
Levy
said the group’s visit to Tulkarem, which is under tight curfew, had
been coordinated in advance with the Israeli army. The taxi waited for
two hours at a roadblock while soldiers confirmed that it was allowed
to continue.
When
the taxi entered the town, it traveled freely until it met an armored
personnel carrier, Levy said. Officers ordered the taxi to drive to a
nearby army post. Driving slowly, the taxi approached the post when
suddenly a soldier stationed at a lookout post opened fire, Levy said.
“There
was no warning ... just shooting to kill,” Levy said
According
to a report in Ha’aretz, the soldier who fired the shots
testified that he first fired a warning shot over the taxi, then shot
at the taxi.
The
military said in a statement that a preliminary investigation
concluded that there had been a lack of coordination between various
positions in the area and that the soldier who had fired the shots
erred. The army apologized for the incident and said the soldier and
the officer would be put on trial.
“(Lack
of coordination) is one of the problems. But the main problem is the
easy hand on the gun,” Levy said.
While
the killing of Palestinian children goes unreported and not condemned
by Israel and U.S. media, Israel continues its war on the Palestinian
civilians and children.
The
launching of an indiscriminate attack affecting the civilian
population or civilian objects in the knowledge that such attack will
cause excessive loss of life, injury to civilians or damage to
civilian objects is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, namely a
war crime, as defined in Additional Protocol 1.
|
