Israel’s self-investigation shields its soldiers
Palestinians participate in Great March of Return protests along Gaza’s eastern boundary with Israel in December 2019
Maureen Clare Murphy writes in Electronic Intifada 26 November 2020:
Only one Israeli soldier has been indicted over the use of live fire against unarmed protesters during the Great March of Return demonstrations held along Gaza’s eastern boundary.
Israeli forces killed more than 215 Palestinians during those protests, which began in late March 2018 and were suspended last December.
The vast majority of those fatalities are still under preliminary review by the Israeli military’s self-investigation apparatus, according to a new report by the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din.
Israel’s failure to earnestly investigate alleged violations committed by its forces may leave it liable to prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
In addition to those killed by Israeli snipers during the protests, nearly 10,000 Palestinians were wounded by live ammunition and survived. Some of the injured are permanently paralyzed or have had limbs amputated as a result.
After filing freedom of information requests, Yesh Din learned that not a single incident of live fire that didn’t result in death has been reviewed by the military’s self-investigation apparatus.
Some 20,000 more Palestinians were injured during the protests by means other than live fire, such as rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas.
Bending the law
The Israeli military permitted the use of potentially lethal force against Gaza protesters who soldiers deemed as “primary instigators.”
Meanwhile, Israel invented a baseless new paradigm of international law in which it treats the Great March of Return as governed by the laws of warfare, claiming that the civilian mass protests were orchestrated by Hamas, the political and resistance organization governing Gaza’s interior.
“As a rule, the [Israeli] military’s own directives set out that in any case of a Palestinian death outside of combat activity, a criminal investigation of the incident must be opened immediately,” Yesh Din explains in its report.
By categorizing the Great March of Return as part of its armed conflict with Hamas, even though demonstrators were unarmed, Israel created a separate legal framework for handling complaints related to the protests.
These complaints have not come under the review of Israel’s military advocate general, as is the typical process concerning Palestinian fatalities and injuries. Instead, they are brought under a separate “fact-finding” mechanism.
According to Yesh Din, that mechanism “appears to be another step the military has taken to counter criticism against it and bring Israel’s internal inquiry and investigation systems in line with the rules of international law.”