Israel probes mob assault on African bystander shot amid latest violence

[Cheese Sandwich]

Source: Washington Post

An African asylum seeker was shot by an Israeli guard who mistook him for an assailant and was then kicked by a mob as he lay bleeding before he died, according to a video posted Monday amid a wave of violence that has left the nation on edge.

While images of the growing Arab-Israeli tensions have dominated the news here for weeks — showing Israeli soldiers in residential streets and Palestinians facing checkpoints and searches — the video from Sunday’s assault offered a vivid tableau of Israelis’ anger and frustration at their inability to quell the violence.

It also appeared to display increasing hard-line reactions from Israeli security forces and guards, whose tactics have drawn harsh criticism — especially from Palestinians — that Israel is using excessive force instead of trying to apprehend suspects.

Since the start of October, eight Israelis have been killed by Palestinians in nearly 30 attacks that have raised fears that a wider Palestinian uprising could be looming. At least 18 of the assailants were shot and killed on the spot by police, soldiers or security guards.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/sunday-stabbing-and-shooting-attack-in-negev-desert-leaves-two-dead/2015/10/19/79767c0e-7637-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html

[Purveyor]

1. Video news report covering this incident and more...

[Divernan]

2. Local media describe it as a lynching.

The Israeli police launched an investigation into what local media described as a “lynching” Sunday against an innocent man — shot amid the chaos of an attack that left an Israeli soldier dead. It was not immediately clear whether the African man died from the gunshot, the beating or a combination of the two.

In an apparent reflection of soaring tensions after weeks of violence and bloodshed in Israel, the wounded Eritrean was kicked and beaten by an Israeli mob as he lay bleeding.

A few people dropped a line of bus station seats on the man. Others placed a chair above him as crowds closed in.

[geek tragedy]

3. as the spiral continues downward, both sides manage

to provoke the other side into degrading themselves

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. That's my Israel! Extrajudicial executions and lynch mobs.

[red dog 1]

5. K&R...Thanks for posting

Although the Israeli people, as well as the Israeli Army, have every right to protect themselves from the daily attacks by knife-wielding Palestinians, this totally innocent Eritrean asylum seeker should not have been shot by the Israeli soldier, and he certainly should not have been kicked and beaten by that mob as he lay on the ground bleeding.
He might well have survived the accidental shooting by the soldier had he not been kicked and beaten by the mob, who then picked up a bus station bench and dropped it on the poor guy's head.
I hope those responsible for his death are brought to justice.

Also, don't Israeli police and soldiers have non-lethal weapons they can use against Palestinian attackers?

Wouldn't that be a better way to apprehend those Palestinian attackers?

The actions by that murderous mob are inexcusable.

I wonder what ordinary Israeli citizens think about this incident?

[Blue_Tires]

6. Shameful....

Racist, plain and simple...

[Igel]

7. Watch out for confounds.

Eritrean = black, so it's racist. And there's a strain of that in Israeli thought, to be sure.

But Eritrean = Muslim in the Israeli context, I'm guessing, and when one Muslim opts for massacre and another's nearby, it's a different kind of mistake. Still a problem, but unless we want to decide that Muslim, like Xian, is a racial term ...

It's where the inherent good will that was at the heart and core of progressive thought runs up against with the ill-will and hostility that seems to have eaten away at it like a cancer. Given two choices, empathy and compassion dictate that we pick the one that obliges us to think the worst of others and the best of ourselves.

[geek tragedy]

8. All they saw was the color of his skin.

So, yes it was pure racism, along with primitive rage.

[Blue_Tires]

9. Well, if Jewish Ethiopians have gotten the treatment they have

I can only imagine what happens to black Africans who aren't Jewish...