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THREAD on Israel’s spin around the occupation forces’ killing of Palestinian Ahmed Erekat on the day of his sister’s wedding, and just weeks before his own wedding: (1)
The footage doesn’t settle why Ahmed’s car crashed at the checkpoint, but it shows Israeli authorities lied when claiming he “got out of the car and approached officers.” Ahmed was shot as soon as he stepped out of his car, before approaching anyone & w/out posing any threat. (2)
Israeli occupation forces have an extensive history of lying about the circumstances under which they’ve killed Palestinians. Here are some examples: (3)
When Israeli forces killed an autistic Palestinian man, Iyad Hallaq, in 2020 after ignoring his teacher’s pleas that he was disabled, they claimed they thought he had a gun (he didn’t), then raided his home for incriminating evidence to justify the killing (they found none). (4)
When Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar was murdered by an Israeli sniper in Gaza in 2018, Israeli authorities deceptively edited an interview of hers to claim she was a human shield for Hamas. That was a lie: https://bit.ly/3hX8mpi (5)
When an Israeli sniper killed Palestinian photographer Yasser Murtaja in Gaza in 2018, the LA Times reported that “even before a probe could be launched, Israeli officials began claiming, with no evidence, that Murtaja was a Hamas militant.” https://lat.ms/2Npms4D (6)
When Israeli occupation soldier Elor Azaria was caught on tape casually walking up to a wounded Palestinian and shooting him in the head in 2016, he later implausibly claimed it was over suspicion of having explosives. There were none. https://nyti.ms/2B6nMqH (7)
None of this is surprising to those who have been paying attention. Human Rights Watch says it has “documented numerous serious violations of the laws of war by Israeli forces in the past decade, particularly indiscriminate attacks on civilians.” https://bit.ly/2YwwIyk (8)
Israel tries to justify its violence against Palestinians by claiming it’s fighting terrorism, but the largest terrorist threat is the one posed by Israeli forces, continuously using violence to dominate or ethnically cleanse Palestinians in an effort to take their land. (9)
The first question to ask about Ahmed Erekat’s killing isn't why his car crashed at the check-point, but why are armed Israeli soldiers present on Palestinian land in the first place. The perennial question is: why aren’t Palestinians free from illegal Israeli control? (10/end)
