Israel confirms video showing soldiers shoot Palestinian
April 10, 2018
A video making the rounds online appears to show Israeli soldiers celebrating after shooting a Palestinian man. Israel's defense minister has lauded the shooter, but said the soldier who took the film should be demoted.
Image: Reuters
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Israel's military on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a video that shows soldiers celebrate after shooting a protester on the other side of the Gaza border.
A number of Israeli ministers, including defense chief Avigdor Lieberman, defended the soldiers in the video, while the military said the Palestinian had been shot in the leg and wounded. It was not clear whether the victim had died.
The military also alleged that the incident took place last December following riots and warnings from troops. "During the riot, means were taken in order to disperse it, including verbal warnings and calls to halt, using riot dispersal means and firing warning shots into the air," the army said in a statement.
Victims of Gaza Strip violence
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In the video, which surfaced on Monday, voices can be heard discussing whether to open fire at a Palestinian standing close to a fence. After the shooter opens fire, knocking the man to the ground, one of the voices says in Hebrew, "Wow. What a video! Yes! That son of a bitch."
The video's release comes at a highly sensitive time for Israel's military, which is under increasing international scrutiny for its use of live fire on the Gaza border. At least 31 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded following the outbreak of protests and clashes at the border since March 30.
Saeb Erekat, a top official with the Palestinian Authority, has described the shootings as "extrajudicial killings."
The video shows an Israeli soldier open fire on what appears to be an unassuming Palestinian standing close to the Gaza border fenceImage: timesofisrael.com
Israeli ministers praise shooter
After the authenticity of the video was confirmed, Lieberman told reporters that the sniper "deserves a medal" for shooting the Palestinian, but that the solider who recorded the incident should be demoted.
The military said the unauthorized filming and distribution of the material would be dealt with accordingly.
Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett of the far-right Jewish Home party also justified the shooter's behavior, telling army radio: "Judging soldiers because they are not expressing themselves elegantly while they are defending our borders is not serious."
Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan downplayed the significance of the video, telling local media that the video "doesn't show gunfire at everyone, but at a terrorist who approaches the barrier in an unauthorized zone coming from an area controlled by Hamas terrorists."
A history of the Middle East peace process
For over half a century, disputes between Israelis and Palestinians over land, refugees and holy sites remain unresolved. DW gives you a short history of when the conflict flared and when attempts were made to end it.
UN Security Council Resolution 242, 1967
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed on November 22, 1967, called for the exchange of land for peace. Since then, many of the attempts to establish peace in the region have referred to 242. The resolution was written in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter, under which resolutions are recommendations, not orders.
Image: Getty Images/Keystone
Camp David Accords, 1978
A coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, fought Israel in the Yom Kippur or October War in October 1973. The conflict eventually led to the secret peace talks that yielded two agreements after 12 days. This picture from March 26, 1979, shows Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, his US counterpart Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after signing the accords in Washington.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Daugherty
The Madrid Conference, 1991
The US and the former Soviet Union came together to organize a conference in the Spanish capital. The discussions involved Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinians — not from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) — who met with Israeli negotiators for the first time. While the conference achieved little, it did create the framework for later, more productive talks.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Hollander
Oslo I Accord, 1993
The negotiations in Norway between Israel and the PLO, the first direct meeting between the two parties, resulted in the Oslo I Accord. The agreement was signed in the US in September 1993. It demanded that Israeli troops withdraw from West Bank and Gaza Strip and a self-governing, interim Palestinian authority be set up for a five-year transitional period. A second accord was signed in 1995.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Sachs
Camp David Summit Meeting, 2000
US President Bill Clinton invited Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat to the retreat in July 2000 to discuss borders, security, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. Despite the negotiations being more detailed than ever before, no agreement was concluded. The failure to reach a consensus at Camp David was followed by renewed Palestinian uprising, the Second Intifada.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/R. Edmonds
The Arab Peace Initiative, 2002
The Camp David negotiations were followed first by meetings in Washington and then in Cairo and Taba, Egypt — all without results. Later the Arab League proposed the Arab Peace Initiative in Beirut in March 2002. The plan called on Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders so that a Palestinian state could be set up in the West Bank and Gaza. In return, Arab countries would agree to recognize Israel.
Image: Getty Images/C. Kealy
The Roadmap, 2003
The US, EU, Russia and the UN worked together as the Middle East Quartet to develop a road map to peace. While Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas accepted the text, his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon had more reservations with the wording. The timetable called for a final agreement on a two-state solution to be reached in 2005. Unfortunately, it was never implemented.
Image: Getty Iamges/AFP/J. Aruri
Annapolis, 2007
In 2007, US President George W. Bush hosted a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to relaunch the peace process. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took part in talks with officials from the Quartet and over a dozen Arab states. It was agreed that further negotiations would be held with the goal of reaching a peace deal by the end of 2008.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Thew
Washington, 2010
In 2010, US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to and implement a 10-month moratorium on settlements in disputed territories. Later, Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all issues. Negotiations began in Washington in September 2010, but within weeks there was a deadlock.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Milner
Cycle of escalation and ceasefire continues
A new round of violence broke out in and around Gaza in late 2012. A ceasefire was reached between Israel and those in power in the Gaza Strip, which held until June 2014. The kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June 2014 resulted in renewed violence and eventually led to the Israeli military operation Protective Edge. It ended with a ceasefire on August 26, 2014.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Paris summit, 2017
Envoys from over 70 countries gathered in Paris, France, to discuss the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Netanyahu slammed the discussions as "rigged" against his country. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives attended the summit. "A two-state solution is the only possible one," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at the opening of the event.
Image: Reuters/T. Samson
Deteriorating relations in 2017
Despite the year's optimistic opening, 2017 brought further stagnation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. A deadly summer attack on Israeli police at the Temple Mount, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims, sparked deadly clashes. Then US President Donald Trump's plan to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem prompted Palestinian leader Abbas to say "the measures ... undermine all peace efforts."
Image: Reuters/A. Awad
Trump's peace plan backfires, 2020
US President Donald Trump presented a peace plan that freezes Israeli settlement construction but retains Israeli control over most of the illegal settlements it has already built. The plan would double Palestinian-controlled territory but asks Palestinians to cross a red line and accept the previously constructed West Bank settlements as Israeli territory. Palestinians reject the plan.
Image: Reuters/M. Salem
Conflict reignites in 2021
Plans to evict four families and give their homes in East Jerusalem to Jewish settlers led to escalating violence in May 2021. Hamas fired over 2,000 rockets at Israel, and Israeli military airstrikes razed buildings in the Gaza Strip. The international community, including Germany's Foreign Ministry, called for an end to the violence and both sides to return to the negotiating table.
Image: Mahmud Hams/AFP
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On the Palestinian side, however, senior official Hanan Ashrawi said the video showed what Palestinians have long decried as Israeli soldiers' everyday behavior on the Gaza border, "but nobody has been listening."
An unwelcome reminder
For both sides of the conflict, the incident presented a stark reminder of a 2016 video filmed by a human rights group that showed an Israeli soldier shooting a prone Palestinian assailant in the head without any apparent provocation.
The Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria, was convicted of manslaughter but the case highlighted Israel's public divide between those who denounced the killing and those who believed it was justified.
Several right-wing Israeli politicians called for Azaria to be pardoned, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He was eventually released after serving half of an 18-month prison sentence.