This is the type of thing the "liberal" media never reports in the States

[Beet]

Not guilty. The Israeli captain who put 17 bullets into a Palestinian schoolgirl
By: By Chris McGreal in Jerusalem on: 17.11.2005

An Israeli army officer who fired the entire magazine of his automatic rifle into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl and then said he would have done the same even if she had been three years old was acquitted on all charges by a military court yesterday.
The soldier, who has only been identified as "Captain R", was charged with relatively minor offences for the killing of Iman al-Hams who was shot 17 times as she ventured near an Israeli army post near Rafah refugee camp in Gaza a year ago.

The manner of Iman's killing, and the revelation of a tape recording in which the captain is warned that she was just a child who was "scared to death", made the shooting one of the most controversial since the Palestinian intifada erupted five years ago even though hundreds of other children have also died.

After the verdict, Iman's father, Samir al-Hams, said the army never intended to hold the soldier accountable.

"They did not charge him with Iman's murder, only with small offences, and now they say he is innocent of those even though he shot my daughter so many times," he said. "This was the cold-blooded murder of a girl. The soldier murdered her once and the court has murdered her again. What is the message? They are telling their soldiers to kill Palestinian children."

The military court cleared the soldier of illegal use of his weapon, conduct unbecoming an officer and perverting the course of justice by asking soldiers under his command to alter their accounts of the incident.

Capt R's lawyers argued that the "confirmation of the kill" after a suspect is shot was a standard Israeli military practice to eliminate terrorist threats.

Following the verdict, Capt R burst into tears, turned to the public benches and said: "I told you I was innocent."

The army's official account said that Iman was shot for crossing into a security zone carrying her schoolbag which soldiers feared might contain a bomb. It is still not known why the girl ventured into the area but witnesses described her as at least 100 yards from the military post which was in any case well protected.

A recording of radio exchanges between Capt R and his troops obtained by Israeli television revealed that from the beginning soldiers identified Iman as a child.

In the recording, a soldier in a watchtower radioed a colleague in the army post's operations room and describes Iman as "a little girl" who was "scared to death". After soldiers first opened fire, she dropped her schoolbag which was then hit by several bullets establishing that it did not contain explosive. At that point she was no longer carrying the bag and, the tape revealed, was heading away from the army post when she was shot.

Although the military speculated that Iman might have been trying to "lure" the soldiers out of their base so they could be attacked by accomplices, Capt R made the decision to lead some of his troops into the open. Shortly afterwards he can be heard on the recording saying that he has shot the girl and, believing her dead, then "confirmed the kill".

"I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over," he said.

Palestinian witnesses said they saw the captain shoot Iman twice in the head, walk away, turn back and fire a stream of bullets into her body.

On the tape, Capt R then "clarifies" to the soldiers under his command why he killed Iman: "This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the security zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed."

At no point did the Israeli troops come under attack.

The prosecution case was damaged when a soldier who initially said he had seen Capt R point his weapon at the girl's body and open fire later told the court he had fabricated the story.

Capt R claimed that he had not fired the shots at the girl but near her. However, Dr Mohammed al-Hams, who inspected the child's body at Rafah hospital, counted numerous wounds. "She has at least 17 bullets in several parts of the body, all along the chest, hands, arms, legs," he told the Guardian shortly afterwards. "The bullets were large and shot from a close distance. The most serious injuries were to her head. She had three bullets in the head. One bullet was shot from the right side of the face beside the ear. It had a big impact on the whole face."

The army's initial investigation concluded that the captain had "not acted unethically". But after some of the soldiers under his command went to the Israeli press to give a different version, the military police launched a separate investigation after which he was charged.

Capt R claimed that the soldiers under his command were out to get him because they are Jewish and he is Druze.

The transcript

The following is a recording of a three-way conversation that took place between a soldier in a watchtower, an army operations room and Capt R, who shot the girl

From the watchtower "It's a little girl. She's running defensively eastward." "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?" "A girl about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death." "I think that one of the positions took her out." "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."

From the operations room "Are we talking about a girl under the age of 10?"

Watchtower "A girl about 10, she's behind the embankment, scared to death."

A few minutes later, Iman is shot from one of the army posts

Watchtower "I think that one of the positions took her out."

Captain R "I and another soldier ... are going in a little nearer, forward, to confirm the kill ... Receive a situation report. We fired and killed her ... I also confirmed the kill. Over."

Capt R then "clarifies" why he killed Iman

"This is commander. Anything that's mobile, that moves in the zone, even if it's a three-year-old, needs to be killed. Over."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1643573,00.html

Regardless of whether you think the soldier did the right thing or not you have to admit if a palestinian suicide bomber had killed 2 Israelis in some cafe we would not need to turn to foreign sources Haaretz or the Guardian to hear about it.

To take my local paper for example, look at the Washington Post: apparently between February and July there were only two suicide attacks in Israel, the Post devouted at least one 500+ word article to each:
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53984-2005Feb25.html)
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/12/AR2005071200654.html)

Yet the Post is completely silent on this Nov 17 story, from a search of their archives Nov.16-20, word "Palestinian":

1. Preview | Buy     A Demonizing Call
 This Time, Bashing Israel May Backfire Roya Hakakian; The Washington Post; Nov 20, 2005; pg. B.03
  2. Preview | Buy     CIA Runs Joint Operations I ...
 The Washington Post; Nov 20, 2005; pg. A.03
  3. Preview | Buy     Palestinian Youth Dies in Clash of Gaza Clans
 The Washington Post; Nov 20, 2005; pg. A.28
  4. Preview | Buy     The Art of Waiting And Spotting a Sale In Four Languages
 Two Hours in Jerusalem's Old City; The Washington Post; Nov 19, 2005; pg. A.16
  5. Preview | Buy     West Bank Road Vs. Peace
 Stephanie Koury; The Washington Post; Nov 19, 2005; pg. A.25
  6. Preview | Buy     WORLD IN BRIEF
 The Washington Post; Nov 19, 2005; pg. A.20
  7. Preview | Buy     Also Playing A star ({sstar} ...
 The Washington Post; Nov 18, 2005; pg. T.43
  8. Preview | Buy     Foreign Network at Front of CIA's Terror Fight
 Joint Facilities in Two Dozen Countries Account for Bulk of Agency's Post-9/11 Successes Dana Priest; The Washington Post; Nov 18, 2005; pg. A.01
  9. Preview | Buy     New Labor Leader, Sharon Agree on Early Vote in Israel
 Premier Weighs Whether to Stay in Likud Scott Wilson; The Washington Post; Nov 18, 2005; pg. A.16
  10. Preview | Buy     An Eye for Terror Sites
 NSC Puts Scholar in Charge of Middle East Robin Wright; The Washington Post; Nov 17, 2005; pg. A.29
 11. Preview | Buy     Long Integrated, Marseille Is Spared
 Southern Port Was Largely Quiet as Riots Raged in Other French Cities Daniel Williams; The Washington Post; Nov 16, 2005; pg. A.12
  12. Preview | Buy     Ms. Rice's Dealmaking
 The Washington Post; Nov 16, 2005; pg. A.18
  13. Preview | Buy     Rice Negotiates Deal to Open Gaza Crossings
 Secretary Pushes Late Into Night To Win Israeli-Palestinian Accord Robin Wright and Scott Wilson; The Washington Post; Nov 16, 2005; pg. A.12
  14. Preview | Buy     The Puzzle Of the Suicide Bomber
 Anne Applebaum; The Washington Post; Nov 16, 2005; pg. A.19

IMO, this whole situation is terribly wrong on three levels.
(1) That is happened in the first place.

(2) That the US media reporting in that region is so unbalanced the Post never even picked up the story, while it picks up every single time an Israeli gets killed.

(3) While groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which sponsor suicide bombings, are correctly labelled as terrorist organizations, we give $3 billion per year from our own tax dollars to the government of Israel.

[opebo]

Good point factor, where there is smoke there is fire.  Those Arabs, though a tempermental and unpleasant people, wouldn't hate the Isrealis so much if there wasn't a good deal of oppression and child-killing going on.

[Jake]

War is hell.

I'm sure his counterpart checked to see whether there were children in the cafe he was about to blow up.

[dazzleman]

War is hell.

I'm sure his counterpart checked to see whether there were children in the cafe he was about to blow up.

True, the Palestineans indiscriminantly kill innocent civilians.  While this may not be ideal, I tend to think the Palestineans have forfeited the right to complain about things like this when they support the killing of innocents themselves, to a much larger degree.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Right, because we all know every single individual Palestinean is responsible for the actions of the terrorists and thus there is a right to blanketly and indiscrimantely kill any Palestinean.

[Jake]

Again, we all know that the Palestinian bombers target only Israeli troops for attack.

[opebo]

I think we can all agree both sides are atrocious - of course, they're both religious.  However the Isrealis started it.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Again, we all know that the Palestinian bombers target only Israeli troops for attack.

I never disputed that the TERRORISTS are reprehensible, I'm never going to defend terrorists, the point is that you and dazzleman seem to think that every single Palestinean is to blame for the terrorists and thus it's OK for Israeli soldiers to kill Palestineans indscriminately and should never be charged for it, which is pretty asinine. You could use the same logic to defend the terrorists: Israeli military does stuff like this, so it's OK to kill any Israeli.

[Jake]

Um yeah, that's why I said war is hell. Both sides attack civilians pretty much indiscriminantly and neither take responsibility for it. Israel shouldn't punish a soldier, just like Palestine doesn't punish its militant groups. It is, however, an American interest to support Israel simply as a counterweight to our current enemy in the region.

[JohnFKennedy]

However the Isrealis started it.

Not quite.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Um yeah, that's why I said war is hell. Both sides attack civilians pretty much indiscriminantly and neither take responsibility for it. Israel shouldn't punish a soldier, just like Palestine doesn't punish its militant groups. It is, however, an American interest to support Israel simply as a counterweight to our current enemy in the region.

Except there officiially is no war, and if there was it wouldn't make much sense for the US to just give a big financial aid package to the Palestinean Authority with all the aid we give to Israel. There is a conflict against the terrorist groups, and not every Palestinean is responsible for those.

The question that should be asked: Is this girl responsible for the terrorists?

[Jake]

No more than the girl in the cafe is responsible for an IDF rocket attack.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

No more than the girl in the cafe is responsible for an IDF rocket attack.

So? Did I ever defend the terrorists blowing up cafes?

[The Vorlon]

If your point is that there is very little high moral ground in the Middle east, I tend to agree with you...

However....

The terrorist threat directed against Israel by the multitude of terrorist organizations arrayed against it is particularly vile.

These organizations have, and continue, to use women, children, and any and every other tactic they can come up with.

Many of these bombs are detonated by remote control devices such as cell phones, so anybody, or indeed anything is a potential threat.

The child, the pet dog, the abandoned bookbag... these have all been used by the terrorists to kill in the past,  so the operating assumption must be they will continue to use them in the future...

While regretable, the IDF getting a tad trigger happy is more than understandable..

[Virginian87]

Why do you think it is that we don't hear about the atrocities that Israeli troops commit nearly as much as we do about the Palestinians?

And there has to be a better reason than the conspiracy that the Jews control the American media.

[Jake]

Because suicide bombings that kill dozens make better news than shootings and rocket attacks, many of which target senior leadership.

[??????????]

However the Isrealis started it.

Not quite.

Actually I agree with Opebo on this.

[Beet]

Why do you think it is that we don't hear about the atrocities that Israeli troops commit nearly as much as we do about the Palestinians?

And there has to be a better reason than the conspiracy that the Jews control the American media.

Israel is a wealthy democracy, just like us. There are many more well-known Jewish people within this country than Arabs, and that helps put a face on one side more than the other. Most Americans do not live in squalid apartheid towns surrounded by foreign troops, but we do visit cafes, clubs, and malls. Plus, our government leaders take a stance in favor of Israel and many people simply take cues from government leaders' signals on this issue.

I believe journalists find it much easier, and cheaper, to take a passport to Israel and rush to the scene of a suicide bombing, interview Israeli citizens, and receive official government reports, than to venture into Palestinian towns and seek out the Palestinian side of the story. In the latter task they will find it more difficult to get contacts, more difficult to navigate around the culture and language, and more dangerous. While it would be possible to build contacts with Arab news networks, this would require a significant conscious effort, which most news networks do not seem to be interested in. From the journalistic perspective the cost-benefit ratio is not worthwhile to get both sides of the story, even if certain objectivity is sacrificed.

The Guardian and European press are somewhat different, as there are more clearly defined left-wing and right-wing outlets, which due to the nature of their subscriber base have an interest to seek out these stories specifically.

Unfortunately the negative consequences of this is a distorted feedback loop between the media, the masses, and government policymakers, which leads to an unjust result in policy, allowing Israel to get away with greater abuses and even be rewarded than it otherwise would under a more critical American eye.

[KillerPollo]

That is despicable. Those merciless jews who make themselves look good to gullible gringo politicians. Just because the stupid holocaust. It seems that what Hitler attempted to do, really backfired drastically.

[Virginian87]

That is despicable. Those merciless jews who make themselves look good to gullible gringo politicians. Just because the stupid holocaust. It seems that what Hitler attempted to do, really backfired drastically.

Yes, let's blame all our problems on the Jews.  Another great contribution from anti-Semite/Asian fetishist KillerPollo.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

War is hell.

I'm sure his counterpart checked to see whether there were children in the cafe he was about to blow up.

Is that why Rabin was killed?

[Jake]

War is hell.

I'm sure his counterpart checked to see whether there were children in the cafe he was about to blow up.

Is that why Rabin was killed?

If that's a serious question, you need a refresher course in Israeli Politics.

[Serenity Now]

War is hell.

I'm sure his counterpart checked to see whether there were children in the cafe he was about to blow up.

True, the Palestineans indiscriminantly kill innocent civilians.  While this may not be ideal, I tend to think the Palestineans have forfeited the right to complain about things like this when they support the killing of innocents themselves, to a much larger degree.

I think you need to use terms more specific than "the Palestinians" when talking about such matters.