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News :: Regime |
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Israel 'Rewards' a Soldier for Killing a Child in Jenin by 'Public Service' |
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by Sabul Vingrodina
(No verified email address) |
08 May 2004
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The International Press Center (IPC)
The family of Mohammed Zaid, 16, expressed their extreme resentment over the Israeli martial court's decision of two months in actual prison for the Israeli soldier who killed their son Mohammed in a village near Jenin. |
The Israeli soldier Tzvi Kortski, who was convicted of killing Mohammed Zaid in the village of Nazlet Al Sheikh Zaid near Jenin, was demoted from "Captain" to "Lieutenant" and was sentenced by an Israeli martial court to actual prison for two months and four months of "public service", according to media reports.
The family of Mohammed Zaid warned that such light sentences constituted a flagrant undermining of the Palestinian life, pointing out that such decisions by the court would encourage more Israeli soldiers to kill innocent civilians.
"Captain" Kortski was commanding a force that invaded the village of Nazlet Al Sheikh Zaid from the illegitimate Israeli settlement of "Shakid" on October 4, 2003. Kortski stepped out of the military jeep he was in and fired several times from his M-16 automatic rifle at a glass balcony where Mohammed and his cousin were standing in.
Mohammed was shot critically in the abdomen, and died of his wounds shortly afterwards.
The Israeli officer claimed that his force was stoned by a number of teenagers in the village, as they were searching the village for a car "rigged with explosives". He continued by saying he opened fire at the kids who were hurling the stones, and that one of the bullets hit Mohammed while standing in the balcony.
As for the eyewitness accounts in the village, they had another version of the story.
The witnesses, all residents of the Nazlet Al Sheikh Zaid, said that the crime happened when the Israeli occupying forces (IOF) invaded the village and declared a strict curfew on it, and prior to declaring the curfew, the killer-officer fired from his assault rifle at the house of citizen Samir Zaid, Mohammed's uncle, wounding him seriously in the abdomen.
The witnesses asserted that nobody hurled stones at the Israeli patrols, as the curfew prevented anyone from being in the streets, not to mention hurling stones at the invading forces. Relatives of Mohammed said that he was studying with his cousin when he was shot.
Head of Nazlet Al Sheikh Zaid's rural council, Ahmad Zaid, said that punishing the Israeli soldier so lightly was not enough, because he perpetrated his crime without any reasons and in cold blood.
"Sentencing the Israeli soldier so lightly is a reward more than a punishment. When it comes to their criminal soldiers they give them such light rulings, but when it's about a Palestinian who was charged with attacks against Israelis, his entire family is punished by demolishing their homes or even assassinating them," Mr. Zaid told IPC correspondent.
Zaid's father, Ali, was dissatisfied of the court's decision, saying that the soldier who killed his son should have had the harshest punishment.
He also added that following the court's ruling on Tuesday, Israeli attorneys called him to "convey the happy news" that the soldier was sentenced to six months in prison, four of them as "public services".
"I told the attorneys that I categorically reject this punishment, explaining that when a Palestinian does a similar act, he or she is sentenced to life in prison, and his or her family's home gets demolished. Nobody on earth accepts such a punishment for such a hideous crime."
The Israeli human rights organization "B'Tselem" had visited the village of Nazlet Al Sheikh Zaid, and interviewed the family of Mohammed Zaid and gathered eyewitness accounts and facts, before presenting all of them, through the organization's lawyer, to the Israeli martial court.
Deliberations over the case continued until the court's verdict was released, 'rewarding' the Israeli soldier of four months in public service and two months of actual prison, which clearly indicates the collaboration of the Israeli judicial system in giving the green light to the Israeli occupying soldiers to commit atrocities against the Palestinian people, without getting the proper punishment international law demands in such cases. |
This work is in the public domain |
