[Marxism] Israeli Solder Murders Young Boy in Cold Blood

["M. Junaid Alam" <junaidalam@xxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1077923412783&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724

U.N. staff see boy shot in back
Israeli officer suspended after incident

`Time for tolerance, forgiveness:' Father

MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

GAZA CITY—An Israeli army officer has been suspended after an unarmed
Palestinian youth was shot in the back at close range as he waved
goodbye to a delegation of visiting United Nations aid workers, the Star
has learned.

Yousef Bashir, 15, remains in serious condition at a hospital in Tel
Aviv, where he was taken after the Feb. 18 incident at his family's home
near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the southern Gaza Strip.

He is partially paralyzed beneath his shoulder blades, with shrapnel
lodged against his spine, the boy's father said.

An Israel Defence Forces spokesperson confirmed yesterday an unnamed
officer has been suspended in connection with the shooting, pending the
outcome of an investigation.

In a conflict marked by a surfeit of civilian casualties on both sides,
Palestinian claims seldom result in convictions against IDF soldiers
because of conflicting eyewitness accounts.

The Bashir shooting is rare because it happened in plain view of three
U.N. personnel who were visiting the family home.

Rarer still, the victim's father, Khalil Bashir, said last night he
doesn't want punishment for the shooter.

Instead, he's asking that Yousef's plight become "a turning point for an
historic reconciliation with Israel.

"We make a mistake if we let our wounded memory guide our future.
Punishment doesn't pay. What pays is a change of mentality," an
emotional Bashir told the Star.

"It is time for tolerance and forgiveness. I want the Israelis to know
that we, both sides, have no other option. Let us devote ourselves to
melting the ice and find a solution to give our children a chance to live."

U.N. field workers are routinely forbidden to speak directly to
reporters on security incidents, but the organization has made an
exception in this case.

The witnesses were made available to the Star with the approval of their
superiors on condition their names not be used.

"The boy was no more than five metres from us, waving goodbye after our
visit, with his back to the Israeli observation post," said one of the
U.N. field staff....

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1077923412783&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724


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