Palestinian student killed as protesters confront Israeli troops near Ramallah

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Date: 03 / 03 / 2008 Time: 11:29

Bethlehem - Ramallah – Ma'an – A Palestinian student was killed on Monday morning after Israeli forces opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in the West Bank against the Israeli mass killings in the Gaza Strip

19-year-old Muhammad Shreitih was killed at the student rally in the village of Al-Mazra'a Al-Qibliya, near the city of Ramallah.

Palestinians across the West Bank took to the streets for a second day on Monday, confronting Israeli troops and expressing solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Relatives of the deceased told Ma'an that students marched to the Israeli settlements near the village. Clashes erupted between the students and Israeli soldiers near the Talmon settlement. Shretih, a student in his third year of secondary school, was shot in the head and died on the way to Khalid Hospital in Ramallah.

A funeral procession for Shreitih is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Israeli media reported that an Israeli settler named Moshe Benbenishti, a student in a Jewish school in the settlement opened fire at the Palestinians.


http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=28123

[subsuelo]

1. Not a peep of condemnation or anger all day

[subsuelo]

2. No bitter condemnations, no angry blogging about the crime

No blame games, no analysis, no political spin, no grieving family stories, no UN denunciations, no protests, no wall to wall news coverage.

Just silence.

Why?

Because the student was Palestinian.

[msmcghee]

3. You missed the part about . .

. . "confronting Israeli troops".

In this country when a group confronts the cops or the National Guard, throws rocks at them, starts fires in the street, etc. - and someone gets shot - it's generally considered part of the process of keeping the peace and the danger of violent confrontation. People don't get too upset about that here either - except the demonstrators of course.

It's not like the IDF went into a Palestinain school and started shooting students. People generally take those factors into consideration and have less sympathy for those involved in violent public demonstrations - no matter their ideological motivation.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong - just human nature.

[subsuelo]

4. A settler picked up a gun and murdered him

Palestinian opens fire on Israelis = wall to wall news coverage.

Israeli opens fire on Palestinians = silence.

That may rest ok with you, but it doesn't with me.

[msmcghee]

5. I should have read the story.

I think it's bad when anybody is killed - especially kids.

[hifalutin]

6. Here's a

snippet in case you misseed it.....

Israeli security sources commented on the incident, saying, "The settler felt he was endangered when 200 Palestinians were pelting his car with stones, so he fired at them."

http://maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=28123

200 to 1, what are the odds he would have escaped safely?

[msmcghee]

7. It's interesting that the story . .

. . definitely makes it sound as if the IDF shot the kid. Then at the end they add the comments by the IDF which offers a completely different take on it - making it appear possibly as self defense. Thanks for that info.

Also interesting that subsuelo forgot to mention that part. But that could certainly account for the lack of sympathy - at least until the facts are brought out clearly.

[oberliner]

8. There are some conflicting news reports regarding what took place here

These excerpts are from Ha'aretz.

From the Israeli settler:

The 30-year-old paratroops commando reservist says he was walking from his home to the yeshiva where he studies on a Ramallah-area road that links only Jewish settlements. There, he encountered a group of Palestinians, who were taking part in a demonstration against the violence in the Gaza Strip.

The man says members of the group, some of whom were masked, began throwing stones at him, and that he believed he was in danger of being lynched. He drew his weapon and shot - first into the air, and when the stone-throwing didn't stop, at the assailants' feet. He says the 18-year-old resident of nearby Mizra al-Kabliya was struck and killed by a ricochet.

From a Palestinian resident of the village:

However, the Palestinian version of events varies greatly. A 17-year-old resident of the village told Haaretz that the demonstrators happened to pass a bus between the settlements of Talmon A and Talmon B, and that people threw stones at it.

"The settler got off that bus and fired many shots, one of which wounded Mohammed Shreitah. He fired at least 10 shots, if not more. We didn't see which way he ran off. We grabbed the injured man and hurried to the village," the teen said.

From the Israeli police:

The police detectives emphasized that unlike the Israel Defense Forces, they have not closed the case and have asked their Palestinian counterparts for the body or for a pathology report that indicates the circumstances of the death. The Palestinians have refused to provide such evidence.

"The Palestinians have only agreed to say that they have a body and that it has entry and exit bullet wounds, but that no bullet was found," a police source said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960414.html

More varying accounts of the events can be found in this Ynet article:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3514152,00.html