There must be put an end to the situation where the Army investigates itself and finds itself not guilty. The severe case of a bound Palestinian detainee being shot and wounded at Ni'ilin Village is not exceptional. Every day, severe cases of mistreatment of Palestinian inhabitants take place – only that in the overwhelming number of cases, there is nobody to take photos and bring an objective proof. The army is not seriously investigating complaints of this kind, and had not seriously intended to investigate this case, either. In fact, even after the photos were produced, the army still does not intend to investigate and prosecute the battalion commander, who was present when the detainee was shot and without his order the shooting cannot have taken place.

Nor is it only the responsibility of a single officer, but of the occupation as a whole, The government of Israel has imposed on the soldiers sent to Ni'ilin – as to dozens of other villages – a brutal and despicable mission: to rob from the villagers their land, which is their sole source of livelihood, and transfer it to nationalist and racist settlers, as well as to real estate sharks who make enormous profits from settlement construction. It is no wonder that the Palestinian inhabitants are rising up against the stealing of their land; nor should it be wondered at that the soldiers and officers on the ground take increasingly brutal measures in their effort to fulfill this brutal mission.

Contact: Adam Keller, Gush Shalom spokesperson adam@gush-shalom.org