[Dryerase] The Alarm!--Nablus horror

[The Alarm!Newswire]

A Nablus Horror

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story was received from the International 
Solidarity Movement, a non-profit organization that works in the 
occupied territories in Israel. One of its members delivers this first 
person account of being in Nablus.

Baha would take your hand and lead you through a crowd, be the first 
person to offer to help, he had a ready smile, and seemed younger than 
his 14 years. Usually Baha Al-Bahsh could be found near the Union of 
the Palestinian Medical Relief Committee’s (UPMRC) main dispatch area 
helping whenever he could, walking with the internationals, etc.  Since 
April he has been a fixture with the local ISM, he was one of the first 
to start helping with the clean-up of the old city after the IDF’s 
gratuitous destruction.  He was the kind of boy, I am told, who you 
couldn’t help liking. (this is the people magazine type set-up, what 
follows is not, the following is very brutal)

Yesterday late morning, walking with 4 Internationals, Baha Al-Bashsh 
was killed by a single shot from an Israeli soldier on an APC.  The 4 
internationals watched helplessly as he bled to death in front of their 
eyes. Blood coming out of his nose and mouth. The bullet was fired from 
about 350 feet, it went through his arm  entered his side and blew 
apart both his lungs and heart.

The APC was partnered with a Merkava tank, the two vehicles had been 
patrolling through the old area of Nablus since earlier in the morning. 
  The soldiers were very familiar with Baha and the internationals. The 
soldiers and the internationals knew each other by site and had seen 
each other together just 45 minutes before.  When murdered Baha and the 
internationals were walking on Al Salaheia st. the tank and apc were 
turning off the same street to the right, but stopped when they spotted 
this group, the internationals did not think this alarming as they had 
some familiarity with the behavior of the IDF in this area. Further, 
any rock throwing by the local children had died down and was a ways 
behind, suddenly, however, a shot rang out, a puff of dust was seen by 
the internationals, Eva asked if everyone was alright and it was then 
that they noticed that Baha  was  lying down. (the shot went completely 
through him, shattering bone).  The APC and tank trundled off 
immediately after, but most are pretty sure who the commander is.

At this point, the IDF is saying that Baha had a molotov cocktail and 
was burned after being shot, Yahoo news reports that a 13 year old in 
Nablus had a molotov cocktail explode in his hands and died.  The 
autopsy reports only that he died of a heamo thorax. X-rays showed bone 
fragments acting like shrapnel in his chest cavity.  There was as much 
evidence that he was burned as there was that he was a unicorn. The 
internationals said that Baha had nothing in his hands, they would not 
be with someone who did.  The IDF in their explanation imply that this 
was an intended murder. Not an accident that will be “looked into.” 
They shot through a group of internationals into the chest cavity of 
Baha.  (one of the internationals was 3 feet away, they were all 
clustered together).

What makes Baha’s death even worse than the usual despicable fare 
(although far from being rare) is that there was simply no “reason” for 
the IDF to fire. (obviously most of the reasons given by the IDF are 
specious and constitute the reasonings of war criminals).  What makes 
this case different also is that he was killed in front of 
Internationals. Usually a child has a rock, or in some other way is 
considered to be threatening some of the most advanced armour in the 
world,  this child, walking down the street with the internationals 
only presented the threat of non-violent resistance.

Perhaps he was targetted because of his relationship to the 
internationals, an example was to be made, who knows.  What is clear is 
that an IDF soldier deliberately murdered a 14 year old boy who’s only 
apparent crime was being a palestinian out after curfew (which is in 
effect 24 hours a day and is really more like incarceration in the mode 
of the warsaw ghetto).  The IDF claims it can shoot anyone it wants 
during incarceration, but like the bank robber who claims the “teller 
made me shoot him”, this is the logic of a criminal mind.

Of course, there are countless stories like this, the IDF cynically 
concocting the most ridiculous reasons for its murderous actions.  This 
death has inspired even more rage here, I heard very mild-mannered 
intelligent people saying that they might as well kill themselves by 
taking as many of “them” as possible rather than be shot down like 
dogs.  Sigh, the terrible cycle will continue I’m afraid.  Ironically, 
a picture of Baha dead at the hospital shows him smiling, like he just 
had his tonsils out.

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