The US government has reaffirmed its “deep respect for the Israeli army’s moral code” days after video emerged of the cold-blooded sniper killings of two Palestinian boys.

The boys, 17-year-old Nadim Siam Nuwara and 16-year-old Muhammad Mahmoud Odeh Abu al-Thahir, were killed at a Nakba Day protest near the Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank village of Beitunia on 15 May.

Meanwhile, Israeli television has shown the live bullet recovered from the body of Nadim.

The comments, from US State Department spokesperson Jennifer Psaki praising the Israeli army, came as Associated Press journalist Matt Lee pressed her on her earlier call for Israel to investigate the killings.

Lee asked Psaki about Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman’s rejection of the US call for an investigation and denigrating comments about Psaki herself.

Psaki responded by backing down from any serious demand for accountability. She said Israel should be in the “lead” on any investigation because the incident occurred “on their soil.”

In fact, the incident occurred in the occupied West Bank which no country recognizes to be part of “Israel” and which is subject to the Fourth Geneva Convention – what Israel does there is an international not an internal matter.

Psaki refused to be drawn on the fact that Israel has a long, well-documented record of granting impunity to personnel who commit crimes against Palestinians.

“I’m not going to make a sweeping comment about that. But obviously, they are in the lead, they should be in the lead, and we support their efforts to investigate.”

Israeli fabrications

Haaretz reported that Israeli military sources are now claiming – ludicrously – that “the shots may have been fired by the Palestinian side, rather than by Israeli troops, and senior Israeli officials said a video of the shootings that has that sparked an outcry was likely forged.”

Occupation forces have offered no evidence to support these far-fetched assertions that fly in the face of eyewitness accounts and the images clearly visible on the videos.

Fakher Zayid, the eyewitness whose CCTV security cameras captured the horrifying shootings, told Haaretz that most of the young people on the scene at the time of the shooting were children on their way out of school.

“Most of the people there were school children who had finished their studies and were going toward the Ofer prison,” he said. “I saw [a group of] Israeli soldiers standing by a nearby building, the teenagers were outside of their field of vision. Another squad was standing at a distance of some 250-300 meters from the youths who were throwing stones. [The soldiers were] firing smoke grenades and rubber bullets at them. Despite that, there did not seem to be a full-on, frontal collision between the two groups.”

According to Ziad, Muhammad Abu [al-Thahir], 15, and Nadim Nuwara, 17, suddenly fell to the ground after several minutes of shooting by Israeli soldiers. “For several minutes, live bullets were shot individually … I heard at least four shots, three of which hit the youths including the two seen in the videos.”

Asked if he saw anyone in the area carrying weapons besides Israeli soldiers, Ziad said no. “Israel can say what it wants, but I am the one who stood here and saw what happened.”

In addition to the two boys killed, another teen and a young man were injured.

Wearing a school bag

Siam Nuwara told Israel’s Channel 1 television that his son Nadim was wearing a school bag on his back when he died. He showed Israeli TV reporters the school bag and the live bullet recovered from his son’s body.

Nuwara said he was prepared to spend the rest of his life seeking justice for his murdered son.

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• Muhammad Mahmoud Odeh Abu al-Thahir
• Beitunia
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• Jennifer Psaki
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• Avigdor Lieberman
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Comments

Child Murders in Palestine

Permalink maryc replied on Fri, 05/23/2014 - 04:38

I am deeply sorry for American policy in this region and for our support of these terrible crimes against civilians who have the same right as anyone to be free.

Cold-blooded killing of two Palestinian boys by IDF soldiers

Permalink Yesh Prabhu replied on Fri, 05/23/2014 - 10:53

I am deeply shocked to learn that the US continues to strongly support Israel and IDF soldiers even after the cold-blooded killing of two Palestinian boys by Israeli soldiers was documented by CCTV security cameras. For Jennifer Psaki to say that the killings occurred on Israeli soil is ridiculous and astonishing. Does she even know that the West Bank is occupied Palestine, and that it is not Israeli soil? I don't think any person in the world - except Israelis and American Congressmen and Senators, of course - believes that Israel would conduct a real investigation of this dastardly incident. The UN should do its duty and appoint an independent commission to investigate the whole sordid affair.
Yesh Prabhu, Bushkill, Pennsylvania

Un-Touchable

Permalink AnnaK replied on Fri, 05/23/2014 - 23:21

This is a call for UN investigation, trial and punishment. Isreal is just going to sweep it under the rug like they have been doing for decades. They have gotton so arrogant that they think they are untouchable.

UN investigation

Permalink Tess replied on Thu, 05/29/2014 - 16:57

Unfortunately Anna,the UN is a nonentity whose leadership up till now has not had the courage to take any form of action against the sinister and brutal regime in Israel. It begs the question. "Who is running the U.N.?" We will just have to hope that all those generally small organisations and individuals in defence of the Palestinians, and of all other human beings who struggle for their human rights, will continue to make progress by their selfless and courageous words and actions.