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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9601">https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9601</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">October 2000 to Gaza 2018: Israeli
snipers continue killing unarmed Palestinian demonstrators</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">30/09/2018</div>
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Israel blatantly ignoring domestic and international law;
Adalah demands accountability and prosecution of those
responsible for gross violations of right to life.</p>
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<p>Eighteen years have passed since the <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9258">October
2000 Israeli police killings of 13 unarmed Palestinian
protesters</a> and – despite solid condemnation of
this practice on both the national and international
levels – the Israeli military continues killing unarmed
Palestinian civilian protesters with snipers and live
fire in the Gaza Strip, with the approval of Israel’s
Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Just this past Friday, <a
href="http://www.mezan.org/en/post/23230">Israeli
troops killed seven people and wounded another 257 in
Gaza</a>. 163 of the wounded were hit by live
ammunition. Among those Israeli troops killed with live
fire were two boys ages 11 and 14.</p>
<p><strong>Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority
Rights in Israel demands that Israel immediately halt
the shooting of civilian protesters with live
ammunition.</strong></p>
<p>In October 2000, Israeli police and special sniper
units <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8639">killed
13 unarmed Palestinians</a> (12 citizens of Israel and
one Gaza resident) and wounded hundreds more when
Palestinian citizens of Israel staged mass
demonstrations throughout the country to protest
Israel's oppressive policies against Palestinians in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) at the beginning of
the Second Intifada.</p>
<p>18 years later, however, not a single police officer,
commander, or politician responsible for the October
2000 killings has been held to account for their
criminal actions. Adalah and the families of the 13
victims continue to demand that those responsible for
the crimes of October 2000 be prosecuted.</p>
<p>In the wake of the killings, the official Or Commission
of Inquiry concluded in 2003 that: <em>"It should be
unequivocally clear that live fire, including by
snipers, is not a means for the police to disperse
crowds."</em></p>
<p>Eighteen years have passed, and despite the clear
recommendations of the Or Commission, the Israeli armed
forces have not changed their practices but continue to
use excessive force and fire live ammunition at unarmed
Palestinians in contradiction of both Israeli and
international law, this time at protesters in Gaza.</p>
<p>Since the start of the Great Return March protests in
Gaza on 30 March 2018, Israeli troops have killed 151
people – including 30 children, one woman, two
journalists, three paramedics, and three persons with
disabilities, according to <a
href="http://www.mezan.org/en/post/23230">figures from
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights</a>. Israeli troops
also wounded 10,234 persons, including 5,814 – among
them 939 children and 114 women – with live fire.</p>
<p>In April 2018, Adalah and Al Mezan Center for Human
Rights <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9488">petitioned
the Israeli Supreme Court</a> to order the Israeli
military to immediately halt its use of snipers and
other live weapons against unarmed protesters.</p>
<p>The petition emphasized the absolute ban on opening
fire on demonstrators with live ammunition and noted
that the norms applicable to confronting civilian
demonstrations are based in international law governing
"law enforcement and order." These same norms have also
been adopted into Israeli law, including via 2003's Or
Commission report.</p>
<p><em>"These universal norms apply equally and without
discrimination to citizens and non-citizens alike,
regardless of the content of the protest, their
slogans, their location, their organizational
affiliation, and the ethnic and national affiliation
of the participants."</em></p>
<p>Nevertheless, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected our
petition. Adalah and Al Mezan responded:</p>
<p><em>"…this ruling, which justifies the shooting of
protesters, contradicts the conclusions and
preliminary results of international human rights
organizations and United Nations bodies documenting
and evaluating the events in Gaza. The Supreme Court’s
ruling gives full legitimacy to the illegal actions of
the Israeli military, which has led to the killing of
more than 100 people and the wounding of thousands of
protesters, including women, children, journalists,
and paramedics. Of those killed, 94 percent were shot
by Israeli troops in the upper body." [Casualties
figures from 25 May 2018] </em></p>
<p>Israeli armed forces backed up by the Supreme Court’s
ruling, continue to target unarmed Palestinian
demonstrators with snipers and live ammunition today in
Gaza just as they killed Palestinian citizens of Israel
protesting in October 2000.</p>
<p><strong>Adalah calls on Israel to immediately halt
these deadly practices and to allow Palestinians to
exercise their right to protest and to freedom of
political expression. </strong><strong>Adalah will
continue to defend Palestinians’ right to protest, to
support the struggle against racism and Occupation,
and to demand accountability for the victims of these
gross human rights violations.</strong></p>
<p>Adalah also urges the international community to take
strong measures to ensure respect for international law,
to provide protection for demonstrators and all
civilians in Gaza, and to support the work of the
independent <a
href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIOPT/Pages/OPT.aspx">UN
Commission of Inquiry into the 2018 Protests in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).</a></p>
<p>The <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/8648">13
young men shot dead by Israeli police in October 2000</a>:
21-year-old Rami Ghara in Jatt; 26-year-old Eyad Lawabny
in Nazareth; 23-year-old Mohammed Jabareen in Umm
al-Fahem; 18-year-old Ahmed Jabareen in Mu’awiya;
19-year-old Misleh Abu Jarad in Umm al-Fahem;
17-year-old Asel Asleh in Arrabe; 18-year-old Ala Nassar
in Arrabe; 21-year-old Walid Abu Saleh in Sakhnin;
25-year-old Emad Ghanayim in Sakhnin; 19-year-old
Mohammad Khamayseh in Kufr Kanna; 24-year-old Ramez
Bushnaq in Kufr Manda; 42-year-old Omar Akkawi in
Nazareth; and 25-year-old Wissam Yazbak in Nazareth.</p>
<p>The High Follow-Up Committee for Palestinian Arab
citizens of Israel has declared a general strike to be
observed tomorrow, 1 October 2018, to commemorate the
October 2000 killings and to protest both Israel’s
planned demolition of the Bedouin village of Khan Al
Ahmar and the recently-approved <a
href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9569">Jewish
Nation-State Law</a>.</p>
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415 863.9977
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