<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Israeli Police Given Protection for Killing Palestinians |&nbsp;Report]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>by <a rel="nofollow" href="http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/author/guest-post/">Guest Post</a> on <abbr title="2010-10-08">October 8, 2010</abbr></p>
<p><strong>By Mel Frykberg | <a href="http://www.sabbah.biz/">Sabbah Report</a> | <a href="http://www.sabbah.biz/">www.sabbah.biz</a></strong></p>
<p><img src="https://i1.wp.com/lh3.ggpht.com/_8ZLZsV89Ns0/TK7jQuImgWI/AAAAAAAAAqI/q8cJKpSFtUA/s800/kill-arabs.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="240" />SHUAFAT,  Occupied East Jerusalem – A peaceful morning is interrupted by the  sounds of an Israeli helicopter circling overhead – often a sign of  trouble on the ground. Later Sunday the news broke: a Palestinian man  was shot dead in the village of Issawiya by Israeli paramilitary border  police as he tried to enter Israel in search of work.</p>
<p>A father of  five, 38-year-old Ezzidine al-Kawazba from Hebron, became the latest  Palestinian casualty to die at the hands of the Israeli security forces  in disputed circumstances. The policeman who shot al-Kawazba alleged  that his weapon went off &#8220;accidentally&#8221; and that he &#8220;didn&#8217;t mean to kill  the laborer.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli-Arab minister of the Israeli Knesset, condemned the shooting.</p>
<p>Once  again Israel&#8217;s police officers and border police shoot and kill an Arab  in cold blood. This time it was a father to many children who was  trying to enter Jerusalem to find work for his livelihood.</p>
<p>Again the automatic false claim was made that a Palestinian tried to  take a border policeman&#8217;s weapon. Will the police force, once again,  rally behind this murdering officer? Will he, too, gain the status of a  hero that killed another Arab?</p>
<p>Earlier, IPS attended the funeral  of Sameh Sarhan from East Jerusalem after he was shot dead by an Israeli  security guard, who claimed self-defense, outside the illegal Israeli  settlement of King David in occupied East Jerusalem. Video evidence  taken at the scene contradicted the security guard&#8217;s version of events.  Sarhan&#8217;s killing sparked a week of riots.</p>
<p>The latest killing in  Issawiya came as two Israeli soldiers were convicted by an Israeli  military court of using Palestinians as human shields during Israel&#8217;s  Operation Cast Lead in Gaza December 2008-January 2009, which left more  than 1,400 Palestinians dead, most of them civilian.</p>
<p>The soldiers  were convicted of offenses including inappropriate behavior and  overstepping authority for ordering an 11-year-old Palestinian boy to  search bags suspected to have been booby-trapped.</p>
<p>The Israeli  police have said they are investigating the two latest shootings.  However, a lack of confidence in the integrity of police investigations  when security force members are involved in the killing of unarmed  Palestinians has been backed by several Israeli rights groups.</p>
<p>The  Israel Democracy Institute is due to release a report accusing the  Israeli police of &#8220;bias in analyzing evidence&#8221; in relation to three  Israeli-Arabs shot dead by police during the October 2000 riots (the  beginning of the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising) in northern  Israel. Thirteen Palestinians were shot dead and hundreds were injured.</p>
<p>The  study investigates the circumstances which prompted then Israeli  attorney general Menachem Mazuz to follow the state prosecutor&#8217;s  recommendation to close the inquiries into the deaths of three men on  the basis of lack of evidence.</p>
<p>Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer and  former Haifa district attorney Lina Saba, who conducted the study,  examined files containing dozens of pieces of accumulated evidence.</p>
<p>The Israeli daily <em>Ha&#8217;aretz</em> reported that according to the investigators, &#8220;the study shows that  closing these three cases was unjustified and the Department for  Investigating Policemen, and the prosecution, did not complete the  investigation. The examination also showed the prosecution took a biased  approach in analyzing the evidence.&#8221;</p>
<p>Several months ago, Israeli  policeman Shahar Mizrahi, who shot dead an unarmed Palestinian motorist  whom he claimed was a car thief, was sentenced to an original 15 months  imprisonment. This was later doubled to 30 months on appeal when an  Israeli court found the killing unnecessary as the officer&#8217;s life was  not in danger as he had claimed.</p>
<p>Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Israel&#8217;s  internal security minister, and Dudi Cohen, the police commissioner,  said they would immediately seek a presidential pardon for Mizrahi. &#8220;I  won&#8217;t merely support a pardon bid, I&#8217;ll lead it,&#8221; added Aharonovitch.</p>
<p>Israeli  police gave Mizrahi more than $42,500 for legal expenses in the initial  criminal case, and a further $50,000 for his appeal to the Supreme  Court.</p>
<p>Israeli rights group Yesh Din reported earlier in the year  that only &#8220;six percent of investigations yielded indictments against  Israeli soldiers who harmed Palestinians.&#8221;</p>
<p>Another Israeli human  rights organization, B&#8217;tselem, released a report last month, &#8220;Void of  Responsibility: Israel Military Policy Not to Investigate Killings of  Palestinians by Soldiers.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the report, B&#8217;tselem stated that &#8220;at  the beginning of the second Intifada, the Judge Advocate General&#8217;s  Office announced that it was defining the situation in the Occupied  Territories as an &#8216;armed conflict,&#8217; and that investigations would be  opened only in exceptional cases, in which there was a suspicion that a  criminal offense had been committed.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;This policy, which led to a  significant drop in military police investigations of homicide cases,  ignored the varying character of the army&#8217;s actions in the Occupied  Territories, and treated every act carried out by soldiers as a combat  action, even in cases when these acts bear the clear hallmarks of a  policing action.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, another Palestinian mosque near  Bethlehem was torched and vandalized on Sunday night by Israeli  settlers. A number of copies of the Koran were reported destroyed.  Clashes then broke out between Palestinians and the settlers. Israeli  soldiers subsequently arrived and forced the settlers to retreat, but  none were arrested.</p>
<p>Several West Bank mosques have been subjected  to settler vandalism and arson attacks since last year. Others have had  anti-Arab and anti-Muslim graffiti scrawled on their walls. The Israeli  authorities have not charged anyone.</p>
<p>(Inter Press Service)</p>
<div id="linkwithin_text_0">You might also like:</div>
<p><a name="linkwithin_link_0" href="http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/02/06/citizens-arrest-of-war-criminals-tony-blair-and-george-w-bush/"></p>
<div>
<div>Citizen&#8217;s Arrest of War Criminals Tony Blair and George W. &#8230;</div>
</div>
<p></a> <a name="linkwithin_link_0" href="http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/02/13/losing-patience-with-squabbling-2-rump-palestine/"></p>
<div>
<div>Losing patience with squabbling &#8216;2-rump&#8217; Palestine</div>
</div>
<p></a> <a name="linkwithin_link_0" href="http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/07/24/katya-adler-israeli-arabs-struggle-for-land/"></p>
<div>
<div>Katya Adler – Israeli Arabs struggle for land</div>
</div>
<p></a> <a name="linkwithin_link_0" href="http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2008/08/20/action-alert-keep-in-touch-with-free-gaza-ships/"></p>
<div>
<div>ACTION ALERT &#8211; Keep in Touch With Free Gaza Ships</div>
</div>
<p></a> <a name="linkwithin_link_0" href="http://widget.linkwithin.com/redirect?url=http%3A//sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/03/22/zionisms-dark-forces-dont-want-the-lights-on/&amp;vars=%5B%22http%3A//sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/10/08/israeli-police-given-protection-for-killing-palestinians/%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2BSabbahsBlog%2B%2528Sabbah%2BReport%2529%22%2C%20171376%2C%200%2C%20%22http%3A//sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/10/08/israeli-police-given-protection-for-killing-palestinians/%22%2C%20null%2C%204%2C%2025534709%5D&amp;ts=1286532913096"></p>
<div></div>
<p></a><a name="linkwithin_link_0" href="http://widget.linkwithin.com/redirect?url=http%3A//sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/03/22/zionisms-dark-forces-dont-want-the-lights-on/&amp;vars=%5B%22http%3A//sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/10/08/israeli-police-given-protection-for-killing-palestinians/%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2BSabbahsBlog%2B%2528Sabbah%2BReport%2529%22%2C%20171376%2C%200%2C%20%22http%3A//sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/10/08/israeli-police-given-protection-for-killing-palestinians/%22%2C%20null%2C%204%2C%2025534709%5D&amp;ts=1286532913096"></p>
<div></div>
<p></a></p>
<p><a href="http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/10/08/israeli-police-given-protection-for-killing-palestinians/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SabbahsBlog+%28Sabbah+Report%29">Israeli Police Given Protection for Killing Palestinians | Sabbah Report</a>.</p>
]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://i1.wp.com/lh3.ggpht.com/_8ZLZsV89Ns0/TK7jQuImgWI/AAAAAAAAAqI/q8cJKpSFtUA/s800/kill-arabs.jpg?fit=440%2C330]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[320]]></thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[240]]></thumbnail_height></oembed>