Israeli soldier shoots a bound Palestinian in Ni'lin

Monday July 21, 2008 02:15

by George Rishmawi - IMEMC NEWS

A video showing an Israeli soldier shooting a bound Palestinian in the village of Ni'lin near Ramallah raised uproar among human rights organizations.

The tape, which was released on Sunday by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, shows an Israeli soldier shooting Ashraf Abu Rahme with a rubber coated-steel bullet at a short range while his arms were bound almost two weeks ago.

B'Tselem said that other soldiers witnessed the shooting but moved no limb to stop it, and demanded an investigation to be opened into the incident.

The shooting took place July 7, during an anti-wall demonstration in the village. The video shows Abu Rahme being taken to the military jeep by one soldier, while the other points his gun form a very short range at Abu Rahme and shooots him in his left foot.

The video was filmed by a Palestinian girl, 14, from a window in her home in the village. Israeli military sources voiced suspicions about the tape, saying that it might be fabricated. However, B'Tselem's spokesperson Sarit Michaeli said the girl had accidentally stopped filming when she was startled by the gunshot and continued as soon as she became aware she had pressed the stop button.

In the background voice of the video, someone asks the girl, “did you film this” to which she replies “yes.” when asked “why did you stop,” she said, I was scared by the shooting.

B'Tselem has distributed about 100 cameras to Palestinians throughout the West Bank over the last year, as part of their "Shooting Back" project.

B'Tselem released a video last month showing the beginning of an apparent assault by stick-wielding Israeli settlers on Palestinian farmers.The footage shows four people holding sticks approaching the farmers near the settlement of Susya outside Hebron.

Dozens of similar violations go undocumented especially in nonviolent protests in remote villages that most media outlets do not reach.