Lawless Israeli Oppression in Palestine - by Stephen Lendman
Israel spurns international and its own laws.
On December 9, al-Nabi Saleh village residents protested peacefully against settlers stealing their land. At point blank range, an Israeli soldier fired a tear-gas canister directly at Mustafa Tamimi's head, killing him.
On December 10, thousands of Palestinians protested against his cold-blooded murder. Tamimi was the 20th Palestinian killed this way in the past eight years, besides many more by other means, especially in Gaza.
On December 12, a Haaretz editorial headlined, "In Israel, the life of a Palestinian is cheap," saying:
"The pictures from....Nabi Saleh are hard to swallow: An Israel Defense Forces soldier opens the back door of an armored military jeep and, from a distance of just a few meters, fires a tear-gas canister directly at a young man who is throwing stones. After the canister is fired, the jeep continues on its way without stopping."
Al-Nabi Saleh residents, like other West Bank ones, hold weekly nonviolent anti-land theft/Separation Wall demonstrations. It's their country and property. Under international law, they have every right to defend it. Not according to Israel.
Since 1967, under Military Order No 101: "Order Regarding Prohibition of Incitement and Hostile Propaganda Action," It's "forbidden to conduct a protest or march or meeting (involving 10 or more participants for political reasons) without permission of the Military Commander."
The same order forbids distributing political articles, pictures, or other materials.
In other words, an illegal occupier prohibits Palestinians from exercising their free expression and assembly rights on their own land, in their own country, under threat of intimidation, attacks, arrests, imprisonments, torture, and at times death.
In response to Tamimi's murder, an IDF spokesman said, "the army is looking into the incident." "Looking into" means whitewash. Arrests, prosecutions, justice, or even apologies rarely ever follow military, police or settler violence.
Haaretz cited a new Yesh Din-Volunteers for Human Rights report discussing 192 Palestinian complaints and 67 Military Police "investigations" involving harm to Palestinians and their property. It showed that "95.5 percent of the total number of complaints are closed without indictments."
Moreover, nearly always when they occur, penalties at most are minor and inconsequential. The "conclusion is obvious," said Haaretz. "When it comes to shooting a Palestinian, pulling the trigger does not come with a real fear of having to answer to the law."
Soldiers, police and even settlers can kill or otherwise harm with impunity. Tamimi's death and many others show that Palestinian life is "cheap."
Nonetheless, Israel's military called his killing "exceptional," saying the offending soldier's gas mask blocked his vision, despite aiming directly at Tamimi's head from about 9 feet away.
According to journalist/editor Noam Sheizaf:
