Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Abuse of Protester Caught on Tape

On Sunday B'Tselem released a video of a Palestinian protester in Ni'lin being shot at point blank range with a rubber bullet. The man in the video, Ashraf Abu Rahme of Bil'in, is actually a friend of mine from last summer who is active in Palestinian non-violent resistance against the wall. Earlier in the year he was arrested for climbing a crane in order to prevent further construction of the settlement that is confiscating land in his village.

The video of Ashraf was taken by a 14-year-old Palestinian girl as part of B'Tselem's "Shooting Back" program, which has given over 100 video cameras to Palestinians so that they can document settler and soldier abuse. Catching attacks on film can force Israeli authorities to investigate cases of abuse that otherwise would be ignored. More importantly, the presence of video cameras can prevent violence by making settlers and soldiers aware that they can held accountable for their actions.

3 comments:

O R H said...

Totally true, and the more videocameras there are out there the more the world will have to realise the truths of the occupation.

But, although the soldier was arrested he was quietly released two days later. The story was covered by the Maan News Agency (http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=30713)

Anyway, I'm a big fan of your blog just wanted to share what I know with you.

John W. McNeill said...

Interestingly, NBC Nightly News did a story on the distributed cameras this evening.

brooke said...

hi emily -
thanks for writing while you are in Hebron and documenting what is going on there. it's just SO important. i was on a delegation there in may / june (and have recently applied for full time service *crossing fingers* with the cpt). please say hello to marius for me (i'm the short blonde chick that was with pieter's delegation), kathy (not kern, i've forgotten her last name, the very nice franciscan sister), and jean - if they are there right now.

:)
brooke, from logan,ut and rivervision