A shocking video released this week by Defense for Children Palestine (DCI-Palestine) shows two Palestinian children being gunned down by IDF soldiers while walking near the site of a May 15 Nakba Day protest outside Israel’s Ofer Prison in the West Bank.
IDF officials originally claimed that the two young men were throwing stones and firebombs and that Israeli soldiers had fired no live bullets. “They [IDF soldiers] used nonviolent means to try and disperse the crowds,” IDF spokeswoman Libby Weiss told The New York Times.
DCI-Palestine’s video, however, reveals that the IDF’s version of events is an outright lie. The video footage clearly shows that Mohammad Mahmoud Odeh Salameh, 16, and Nadeem Siam Nawara, 17, were not holding any rocks or weapons, nor were they showing any aggression or posing any security threat when IDF soldiers shot them assassination-style.
The disturbing video shows one of the young men peacefully walking down the street with a backpack on his back when he suddenly collapses as a result of a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. The other young man is walking in the vicinity of tear gas when he falls to the ground after being shot in the back.
Tragically, the May 15 incident is representative of Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinian children. Israeli authorities routinely arrest and torture Palestinian children. Indeed, DCI-Palestine reported earlier this month that an increasing number of Palestinian children are forced to endure solitary confinement after being arrested by IDF soldiers. According to the group, 21.4 percent of Palestinian children report undergoing solitary confinement as part of the interrogation process.
We must let our elected officials know that we will not accept Americans’ tax dollars being used to support an Israeli military that harasses and kills innocent children. Contact your representatives today and tell them how you feel.
For more information on the 1,652 children—Palestinian and Israeli—killed since 2000, see www.RememberTheseChildren.org.
Read “As Pawns of the Occupation, Palestinian Children Face Regular Abuse and Torture,” By Dale Sprusansky in the June/July 2014 issue of the Washington Report.
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