Ali Abunimah
On Monday, Israeli forces shot a 15-year-old Palestinian teenager, Hassan Manasra, and deliberately ran over his cousin, Ahmed Manasra, 13. According to family members, the two boys were attacked by Israeli settlers while going to a mall near their family house. Hassan died due to his bullet wounds, while the 13-year-old is in a serious condition.
A video that has emerged shows Ahmed Manasra gasping for breath, bleeding and crying for help after he was run over.
Israeli settlers, police and emergency medical services – instead of assisting the young Palestinian boy – hurl insults and swear at him, call for his murder and even stomp on him to prevent him from getting up.
Between January and September, Israel killed and injured, on average, 45 Palestinians a week. This month alone, since October 1, according to the human rights organisation Defence for Children International, Israel killed 24 Palestinians, including eight children, and injured at least 1 300. In addition, Israel has arrested more than 400 Palestinians– about half of those arrested are aged between 14 and 20.
Hundreds of Palestinians took part in the funeral of Fadi Alloun in the occupied East Jerusalem village of Issawiyeh on Sunday. It had been delayed for a week as Israel had refused to hand over the youth’s body.
The 19-year-old was shot dead in cold blood by Israeli police in Jerusalem a week ago while being chased by an Israeli mob.
Video footage of the incident shows Israeli youths inciting police to shoot Alloun, then celebrating with such chants as “Death to the Arabs!” when he is killed.
Israeli reports claimed that Alloun was armed with a knife and had earlier injured an Israeli teenager. No evidence was ever presented linking Alloun with any stabbing.
A new video of Alloun’s killing confirms he presented no danger when the Israelis police killed him. No knife is visible as the teenager attempts to avoid the mob but finds all directions blocked.
Before and after he is shot dead, more voices are heard demanding his death, then scolding police for not executing him quickly enough. The video includes earlier footage and new footage (see link at end of story). The videos were synchronised and subtitled by Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan.
An Israeli academic, who uses the pseudonym John Brown, wrote about the new video on the Hebrew website Local Call. His post was translated by +972 magazine.
Israeli media claimed that Alloun was shot while “trying to escape from the security forces that began chasing him. After refusing to release his grip on the knife, the forces shot and killed him”.
“However, a new video that captures the scene from a different angle shows that Alloun wasn’t holding a knife when he was shot, and therefore did not pose a threat,” John Brown writes.
He adds: “This was the reason an officer who stood near the person filming the incident chose not to shoot Alloun. He chose neither to shoot nor (threaten him with his weapon) as Alloun walked by him.
“He didn’t shoot when the teenagers nearby yelled ‘Shoot him, bitch!’ or ‘Pepper spray? What kind of policemen are you?’, while warning Alloun that he was ‘about to die’.”
After Alloun was gunned down, the police officer who refused to shoot was targeted with verbal abuse by the mob.
But other officers “did not even yell at Alloun to throw down the knife – that’s because there was no knife and Alloun posed no threat.
They did not even yell at him to give up or to let him know that he was under arrest”, John Brown observes.
Instead, they shot him down in cold blood to celebratory cheers.
Fadi Alloun, a talented singer, photographer and athlete, had been forced to live apart from his mother since the age of two.
His mother and Fadi’s brother were forcibly exiled in Jordan as Israel refused to allow them to return home after a visit to Amman to see Fadi’s dying grandfather.
For nearly 18 years, Fadi was unable to see his mother and brother. He could only talk to them on the phone or online.
Alloun’s killing happened in East Jerusalem. Israel claims Jerusalem as its capital and therefore applies its civilian laws, despite the fact that all other countries consider the city militarily occupied.
According to the Local Call writer, Alloun’s killers should be put on trial for murder, even by Israeli law.
“Obviously this will not happen,” John Brown states, “since the killing was in line with the instructions that permit the shooting of Arabs suspected of terrorist attacks.
‘This is how these events must end’, say the police chiefs and government officials.
“This is exactly what the officer did. But they conveniently forget to mention that this order only applies to Arabs.”
In other words, not only are Israeli forces granted impunity, they are actively encouraged to kill Palestinians. One of Israel’s most prominent clerics last week added his voice to the calls for extrajudicial executions.
Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safad, whose salary is paid by the government, demanded that police officers who do not summarily execute Palestinians after they have been arrested should themselves be put on trial, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.
The government-backed rabbi has a long history of genocidal incitement, including his call in 2007 for a million Palestinians to be slaughtered.
l Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.
To view the original piece and the video go to https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abuni mah/palestinian-youth-was-unarmed-when-killed-israel-new-video-confirms