diamond geezer
Feb 29, 2004, 10:14 PM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1077923412783&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724
GAZA CITY—An Israeli army officer has been suspended after an unarmed Palestinian youth was shot in the back at close range as he waved goodbye to a delegation of visiting United Nations aid workers, the Star has learned.
Yousef Bashir, 15, remains in serious condition at a hospital in Tel Aviv, where he was taken after the Feb. 18 incident at his family's home near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the southern Gaza Strip.
He is partially paralyzed beneath his shoulder blades, with shrapnel lodged against his spine, the boy's father said.
An Israel Defence Forces spokesperson confirmed yesterday an unnamed officer has been suspended in connection with the shooting, pending the outcome of an investigation.
In a conflict marked by a surfeit of civilian casualties on both sides, Palestinian claims seldom result in convictions against IDF soldiers because of conflicting eyewitness accounts.
The Bashir shooting is rare because it happened in plain view of three U.N. personnel who were visiting the family home.
Rarer still, the victim's father, Khalil Bashir, said last night he doesn't want punishment for the shooter.
Instead, he's asking that Yousef's plight become "a turning point for an historic reconciliation with Israel.
"We make a mistake if we let our wounded memory guide our future. Punishment doesn't pay. What pays is a change of mentality," an emotional Bashir told the Star.
"It is time for tolerance and forgiveness. I want the Israelis to know that we, both sides, have no other option. Let us devote ourselves to melting the ice and find a solution to give our children a chance to live."
U.N. field workers are routinely forbidden to speak directly to reporters on security incidents, but the organization has made an exception in this case.
The witnesses were made available to the Star with the approval of their superiors on condition their names not be used.
"The boy was no more than five metres from us, waving goodbye after our visit, with his back to the Israeli observation post," said one of the U.N. field staff.
"It was absolutely quiet. But then a single shot was fired. The boy fell to his knees and then he collapsed on the ground. It was like slow-motion video.
"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind the bullet came from the Israeli army position. They were only about 20 metres away. There was nothing else going on. There is no other explanation."
The shooting comes as the most severe incident in the Bashir family's long struggle with the IDF.
Nearly three years ago, the army confiscated a large swath of the family property to increase the buffer zone for the Jewish settlers of nearby Kfar Darom.
In the process, the family said their greenhouses were demolished, nearly 120 date palms were uprooted and IDF actually moved into the home, establishing military positions on the second and third floors, replete with a closed-circuit television camera and camouflage netting.
Khalil Bashir, a school principal in the nearby town of Deir Al-Ballah, has refused to vacate the home and has moved the family — elderly mother, wife and five children — to a single room on the ground floor.
I was interested to see if this story had played on CNN, so Ii did a search on CNN using the boys name.
The only result was a list from the US Treasury of 10 suspected terrorists.
:-^
GAZA CITY—An Israeli army officer has been suspended after an unarmed Palestinian youth was shot in the back at close range as he waved goodbye to a delegation of visiting United Nations aid workers, the Star has learned.
Yousef Bashir, 15, remains in serious condition at a hospital in Tel Aviv, where he was taken after the Feb. 18 incident at his family's home near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the southern Gaza Strip.
He is partially paralyzed beneath his shoulder blades, with shrapnel lodged against his spine, the boy's father said.
An Israel Defence Forces spokesperson confirmed yesterday an unnamed officer has been suspended in connection with the shooting, pending the outcome of an investigation.
In a conflict marked by a surfeit of civilian casualties on both sides, Palestinian claims seldom result in convictions against IDF soldiers because of conflicting eyewitness accounts.
The Bashir shooting is rare because it happened in plain view of three U.N. personnel who were visiting the family home.
Rarer still, the victim's father, Khalil Bashir, said last night he doesn't want punishment for the shooter.
Instead, he's asking that Yousef's plight become "a turning point for an historic reconciliation with Israel.
"We make a mistake if we let our wounded memory guide our future. Punishment doesn't pay. What pays is a change of mentality," an emotional Bashir told the Star.
"It is time for tolerance and forgiveness. I want the Israelis to know that we, both sides, have no other option. Let us devote ourselves to melting the ice and find a solution to give our children a chance to live."
U.N. field workers are routinely forbidden to speak directly to reporters on security incidents, but the organization has made an exception in this case.
The witnesses were made available to the Star with the approval of their superiors on condition their names not be used.
"The boy was no more than five metres from us, waving goodbye after our visit, with his back to the Israeli observation post," said one of the U.N. field staff.
"It was absolutely quiet. But then a single shot was fired. The boy fell to his knees and then he collapsed on the ground. It was like slow-motion video.
"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind the bullet came from the Israeli army position. They were only about 20 metres away. There was nothing else going on. There is no other explanation."
The shooting comes as the most severe incident in the Bashir family's long struggle with the IDF.
Nearly three years ago, the army confiscated a large swath of the family property to increase the buffer zone for the Jewish settlers of nearby Kfar Darom.
In the process, the family said their greenhouses were demolished, nearly 120 date palms were uprooted and IDF actually moved into the home, establishing military positions on the second and third floors, replete with a closed-circuit television camera and camouflage netting.
Khalil Bashir, a school principal in the nearby town of Deir Al-Ballah, has refused to vacate the home and has moved the family — elderly mother, wife and five children — to a single room on the ground floor.
I was interested to see if this story had played on CNN, so Ii did a search on CNN using the boys name.
The only result was a list from the US Treasury of 10 suspected terrorists.
:-^
