[News] Israeli soldiers tell Palestinians: ‘We will gas you until you die'

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israeli soldiers tell Palestinians: ‘We will gas you until you die'

Oct. 30, 2015
*http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768559*

By: Megan Hanna

Megan Hanna is a freelance photographer and journalist based in Palestine.

On October 29, Israeli military forces issued a disturbing message to 
residents of Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, telling them that unless 
they stopped throwing stones "we will gas you until you die."

Israeli military forces raided the camp and fired tear gas and flash 
grenades indiscriminately at people’s windows, balconies, and down the 
narrow streets, allegedly in response to Palestinian youths throwing 
stones at the Israeli separation wall that borders the community.

During the raid, an Israeli soldier in a military vehicle addressed the 
protesters and residents of the camp through a loudspeaker in Arabic. 
The disturbing incidentwas caught on film.

“Inhabitants of Aida, we are the Israeli occupation forces, if you throw 
stones we will hit you with gas until you die. The children, the youth, 
and the old people, all of you – we won’t spare any of you”.

During the assault of theprotesters, Qassan Abu Aker, 25, was arrested.

The speakerphone announcement continued, “We have arrested one of you, 
he’s with us now. We took him from his home, and we will kill him while 
you’re watching as long as you throw stones.”The chilling message 
concluded: “We will blind your eyes with gas until you die, your homes, 
your families, brothers, sons, everyone."

Subsequently after the announcement, Israeli forces fired tear gas and 
rubber-coated steel bullets indiscriminately in the streets.

The use of force was so extreme that children from Aida’s two community 
centersand residents of nearby houses had to be evacuated to another 
part of the camp, and at least one youth was taken to hospital with 
respiratory problems. The clashes are part of a spate of violence that 
has unfolded across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory over 
the past month, in which at least 64 Palestinians and 9 Israelis have 
been killed.

    Israeli military vehicles invaded Aida refugee camp and used loud
    speakers to leave the Palestinians a message.. Watch, listen and
    share.. (English subtitles) #Palestine

    Posted byMohammed Matter <https://www.facebook.com/abu.yazan.gaza>on
    Thursday, 29 October 2015

Alongside the disconcerting language used to inspire terror among the 
residents -- the majority of whom weren’t involved in the stone throwing 
-- the film provides evidence of a member of the Israeli army admitting 
to the potentially lethal application of tear gas.

Last week, on Oct. 21, Hashem al-Azzeh, 54, died 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768426> in Hebron due to 
excessive tear gas inhalation used by Israeli forces to subdue 
protesters, and two days earlier an elderly woman 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768342> in the Batan el-Hawa 
area of Silwan, East Jerusalem, died from the effects of tear gas fired 
during clashes.

“In this statement, we see -- among a range of potential criminal 
offenses -- a public threat to kill Palestinian civilians, and to 
execute a prisoner," Simon Reynolds, Legal Advocacy Coordinator at the 
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, told 
Ma'an.

"Though such threats are appalling, they are not necessarily surprising. 
In light of the mounting civilian death toll among Palestinians, such 
threats merely add words to the deed.

“What we are seeing is an apparent policy of lawlessness in which 
Israeli forces can wield deadly force with virtual impunity. Especially 
troubling is that this is a policy that seems to have, at the very 
minimum, the tacit acceptance of the highest levels of government.”

Numerous rights groups have publicly condemned Israel’s disproportionate 
military response while policing demonstrations and responding to 
alleged attacks.

“Indiscriminate or deliberate firing on observers and demonstrators who 
pose no imminent threat violates the international standards that bind 
Israeli security forces," Kenneth Roth, executive director of Humans 
Rights Watch said on Oct. 11, after a HRW research assistant was shot 
and injured while observing a demonstration near Ramallah.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International demanded 
<http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768524> that Israel stop 
unlawful killings in occupied Palestinian territory, stating that 
Israeli forces appeared to have "ripped up the rulebook."

“There is mounting evidence that, as tensions have risen dramatically, 
in some cases Israeli forces appear to have ripped up the rulebook and 
resorted to extreme and unlawful measures,"Philip Luther, Director of 
the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International 
said. "Intentional lethal force should only be used when absolutely 
necessary to protect life," he added.  "Instead we are increasingly 
seeing Israeli forces recklessly flouting international standards by 
shooting to kill in situations where it is completely unjustified."

In February last year, Amnesty released a report entitled 
'Trigger-happy', which found that Israeli forces display a "callous 
disregard" for human life, with near total impunity for the killing of 
Palestinian civilians in cases examined since 2011.
-- 
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