IDF sniper acquitted due to poor investigation

Lack of evidence forces military court to acquit sniper who shot against orders, hitting a Palestinian three year ago

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3370863,00.html

<snip>

"The shooting of a Palestinian by an IDF sniper in Gaza in 2003 went unpunished as the military court acquitted the soldier for lack of evidence on Tuesday after a three-year trial.

The maximum sentence facing the sniper, sergeant A., had he been convicted is 20 years, not to mention a criminal record for an offense similar to manslaughter.

"The prosecution did not succeed in presenting admissible evidence proving what happened to the Palestinian…The investigation of the incident was careless and unprofessional," read the verdict.

Sergeant A. served in the Shimshon battalion in 2003 where, according to the indictment, he was ordered to fire warning shots during a crowd dispersal operation; after a few shots a man was seen falling to the ground.

The indictment claimed that in the investigation of the incident, the solider admitted to shooting against orders and supposedly said, "One more Arab is dead."

That strains credibility. This is pretty disgusting- particularly in light of the fact that he fired against orders and made a clearly damning and racist comment.

see "Dispatches - The Killing Zone" (BBC 4)
http://www.thedossier.ukonline.co.uk/video_cover-ups.htm

a clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvzXi_YT9KI

<snip>

"A Bedouin girl was critically wounded on Wednesday when she sustained bullet wounds to the head in the northern Negev. The shots were apparently fired by an Israel Defense Forces soldier.

The military police has opened an investigation into the incident.

The girl, 12, was hospitalized at the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva with life-threatening wounds.

The girl, who had been herding her sheep in the area of the incident, was brought to an IDF base near Kibbutz Orim in the northern Negev in the early afternoon by a Bedouin man. The man said that the girl had been shot by IDF soldiers after she had wandered into a firing zone.

The paramedic who treated the girl confirmed that she had severe head wounds.

The girl was evacuated to the hospital by ambulance. The IDF has not confirmed any details of the incident."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/831805.html

to them was hurt. This is Israeli military policy, it is not a aberration.

Serious consequences are very rare, but have occured.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1358173,00.html
An Israeli army officer who repeatedly shot a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza dismissed a warning from another soldier that she was a child by saying he would have killed her even if she was three years old.

The officer, identified by the army only as Captain R, was charged this week with illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and other relatively minor infractions after emptying all 10 bullets from his gun's magazine into Iman al-Hams when she walked into a "security area" on the edge of Rafah refugee camp last month.

A tape recording of radio exchanges between soldiers involved in the incident, played on Israeli television, contradicts the army's account of the events and appears to show that the captain shot the girl in cold blood.

The official account claimed that Iman was shot as she walked towards an army post with her schoolbag because soldiers feared she was carrying a bomb.

But the tape recording of the radio conversation between soldiers at the scene reveals that, from the beginning, she was identified as a child and at no point was a bomb spoken about nor was she described as a threat. Iman was also at least 100 yards from any soldier.

Instead, the tape shows that the soldiers swiftly identified her as a "girl of about 10" who was "scared to death".
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If it weren't for foreign intervention, the murderer of Tom Hurndall would have walked away too, the army insisted it was Hurndall's fault.

All this is part of the MO of Israeli military. Nothin' new...