Palestinian Who Filmed Hebron Shooting Faces Threats To His Life

[Purveyor]

Ever since he filmed an Israeli soldier executing a Palestinian man in Hebron, Emad Abu Shamsiya has been subject to violent threats. Things became so bad his family had to leave their home. So why do the police refuse to help?

By John Brown*

Ever since a video showing Israeli soldier Elor Azaria executing an immobilized Palestinian attacker in Hebron was published, Emad Abu Shamsiya, the man who captured the incident on video, has been subject to threats against his life by right-wing activists and settlers. The latter even threw stones at his home, according to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, where Abu Shamsiya works.

Last week B’Tselem filed a complaint with Israeli police, claiming that Hebron police prevented Abu Shamsiya from submitting his own request following threats he received on the internet.

Abu Shamsiya describes how last Sunday he arrived at the police station in Hebron to file a complaint about the threats, which included comments such as “I will kill you, you disabled asshole,” “your time will come,” and threatening videos. After a lengthy wait he was told that the station was too busy and that he should return the following day. The next day, after another long wait, he was told that he could not file a complaint, since the only officer who could deal with issue was not present. Abu Shamsiya returned for a third day, waiting a number of hours to be helped. When he approached one of there investigators, he was told to go home and threatened with arrest should he refuse to do so.

In her letter to the police, Abu Shamsiya’s attorney, Gaby Lasky, wrote the following:

There are not enough words to describe the severity of Hebron police’s behavior, which vehemently refuses to fulfill its basic obligation and accept my client’s urgent complaint, under various, changing pretexts, while treating him with blatant disrespect. There is no doubt that the police’s behavior amounts to severe disciplinary offenses toward my client, including the criminal offense of using police force for the wrong purposes.

more...

http://972mag.com/palestinian-who-filmed-hebron-shooting-faces-threats-to-his-life/121696/

*John Brown is the pseudonym of an Israeli academic and a blogger. This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call where he is a blogger. Read it here.

[oberliner]

1. Imad Abu Shamsiya: A lifetime of resistance

A little more about this individual can be found here:

https://palsolidarity.org/2016/05/imad-abu-shamsiya-a-lifetime-of-resistance/

[Purveyor]

2. Right on cue...

[oberliner]

3. His story is pretty inspiring

I'm not sure where the humor was found.

[shira]

4. He's part of the terror supporting ISM so not very inspiring. n/t

[oberliner]

5. I don't think he is part of the ISM

He is a volunteer with B'Tselem who then started his own group, called Hebron Human Rights Defenders.

The ISM are just supporters of his, I think.

[shira]

7. Vintage Palestinianism. n/t

[Shaktimaan]

8. Hang on, what?!

The Palestinian in the video I saw was prone on the ground and was a threat to no one when he was executed by a soldier in broad daylight in front of at least a dozen people. This is less a "victory" for terrorism than it is an indelible black mark on Israel. The fact that the bystanders in the video react so nonchalantly in the face of such abhorrent brutality speaks volumes to the normalization of oppression the Palestinians and Israelis have experienced.

The way the police are acting now, in refusing to even speak to him, demonstrate their complicity in the violence the Palestinians experience daily from the settlers.