By Ahmad Al-Rajabi – Palestinian journalist
This article was originally published in Daraj Media on 18 June 2023.
Palestinian journalists are targeted by a series of arbitrary measures at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). They are harassed, subjected to movement restrictions, prevented from doing their work, and fired at with live ammunition of all kinds, noxious tear gas, and sound bombs. They were even targeted in the eyes, seriously injured, or killed, as was the case of Shireen Abu Akleh last year.
The 2022 Press Freedom Report of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) highlights various forms of Israeli violations. The most common form was detaining crews and preventing media coverage, which amounted to 320 cases. In addition, 51 bullets hit the bodies of journalists, who were deliberately killed, arrested, and targeted by live ammunition. Journalists were also subjected to travel bans, court trials, summons, beatings, as well as other violations that aim to prevent them from carrying out their work.
This investigative report sheds light on sniper attacks by the IOF against several journalists during the coverage of peaceful marches across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We will show beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Occupation Army is targeting the eyes of journalists, who indeed lost their sight subsequently.
Nowhere to Hide!
When photojournalist Moath Amarneh (35 years old) decided to visit the town of Surif, west of Hebron in the West Bank, to cover a weekly event during which Friday prayer was observed on land seized for settlement purposes, he did not know that his trip would cost him his eye. Amarneh lost his eye despite having taken all the necessary precautions and positioned himself behind a berm, as all journalists do while covering such events.
Amarneh reached the event location in Surif at the onset of protesters’ repression by the IOF. “I arrived a little late to the event. As the Occupation [Forces] chased young male protesters, journalists were left behind the military patrols. From the beginning, the unwarranted brutal repression of attendees and journalists alike by the military forces gave me a bad feeling. Also, an IOF officer kept sarcastically asking passing journalists where they worked. And that made me even more suspicious,” said Amarneh.
Amarneh is completely aware of the nature of his work in event coverage. He had filmed hundreds of Israeli violations. During the incident, he had taken position behind a berm. “Confrontations took place in the street and I sought shelter on the side of the road with the press flak jacket protecting my chest. The [Israeli] forces always aim for the limbs. I crouched behind the berm leaving only my upper body exposed. Nevertheless, I was hit!” Amarneh recalls.
Deliberate Attack
Moath Amarneh was not spared although he had taken all the necessary precautions against potential dangers and studied well his work field. He was shot in the eye by an Israeli sniper. After a long journey of treatment and recovery, his natural eye was replaced by a prosthetic one while the bullet still sits in his face, as its removal would put his life at risk.
Amarneh didn’t expect to be injured in the face or head. “I had put on my press helmet and vest and had taken all possible precautions. I was clearly visible to the military forces. I believe I was deliberately shot,” indicates Amarneh.
An Order to Snipe
Less than 30 metres separated Moath Amarneh from the IOF sniper who shot him, which means the photojournalist was visible to him. Amarneh is becoming increasingly convinced that he was intentionally targeted. Following an altercation between Amarneh and the IOF officer in charge of the military unit, the latter spoke in Hebrew to the sniper, probably giving him the order to fire at the photographer.
“I was deliberately shot. There is no room for error with snipers. I was not hit by a stray bullet, but rather a targeted one fired by a sniper of the (Border Guard) unit armed with a Ruger rifle, the weapon usually used by IOF snipers. The way the military forces treated me and other fellow journalists before and after the injury also proves that the attack was intentional. Besides, I saw the same sniper 20 minutes before I was hit. He had a Ruger rifle on him and no other soldier or sniper had the same weapon,” adds Amarneh.
The Mere Feeling of Danger is Enough to Shoot-To-Kill!
An Israeli soldier doesn’t need a solid justification to shoot live rounds at any Palestinian. In the words of Nadav Weiman, Deputy Director of Breaking the Silence who is a former Israeli Army soldier in the sniper squad who served in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank between 2005 and 2008, a soldier can shoot to kill any Palestinian even when aiming at lower parts of the body is a possible alternative, which rarely happens. “Feeling in danger” is enough justification for a soldier to shoot and kill any Palestinian.
Breaking the Silence is an Israeli organisation founded in 2004 by soldiers discharged from the Israeli Army who served in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It is an anti-occupation organisation that seeks to bring to light the violations committed by Israeli Army soldiers against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of 1967. Its goal is to “raise awareness about the daily reality of Palestinians.”
Israeli soldiers enjoy wide leeway to do what they deem fit. “When I was a soldier, there was something called to ‘spice up.’ In other terms, an Israeli soldier can add any details to describe an incident to his direct superior,” says Weiman.
“For instance, a soldier can describe a Palestinian standing in front of him and puffing a cigarette as hiding something dangerous under his clothes while smoking. And perhaps, based on this description, his commander would order him to shoot and kill the Palestinian. It is also permissible that you shoot at a window with a moving curtain under the pretext that someone is hiding behind it,” the veteran adds.
According to Weiman, in most of the shoot-to-kill cases, Israeli soldiers were not supposed to fire at Palestinians. None of them was prosecuted for killing a Palestinian, under the pretext of lack of evidence. Investigations are often initiated at the end of the soldier’s military service in order to cover up the actual facts. Soldiers know that they won’t be held accountable for their acts, despite having knowingly killed journalists and children. “Even when evidence was gathered, we did not see any soldier imprisoned or sent before the grand jury,” he says.
It is worth noting that, in very rare cases, soldiers were brought to justice for assaulting Palestinians, resulting often in sanctions that are disproportionately lenient to the offences committed. This was particularly the case of Elor Azaria who was convicted of premediated murder over the fatal shooting of Abdel Fatah Al-Sharif in Hebron city in 2016, whom he killed out of “revenge”. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, reduced to 4 months
Commenting on Amnesty’s 2014 report “Trigger-happy: Israel’s Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank”, Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, says, “The report presents a body of evidence that shows a harrowing pattern of unlawful killings and unwarranted injuries of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces in the West Bank.”
“The frequency and persistence of arbitrary and abusive force against peaceful protesters in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and police officers – and the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators – suggests that it is carried out as a matter of policy,” notes Luther.
No One is Immune in Gaza
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli military service seems to be different. “There are no rules of engagement there,” explains Nadav Weiman. “For instance, soldiers used to shoot at anything moving during the peaceful Return protests. No one was immune.”
On 14 December 2018, another photojournalist Attiya Darwish was hit near the eye. The circumstances surrounding the attack prove that he was shot on purpose. During his coverage of the Great March of Return protests in the Gaza Strip, he was shot directly in the face (under his left eye) by a tear gas canister, despite wearing press gear and being 300 metres away from the fence along which the IOF soldiers were deployed. Over one year after the injury and despite multiple surgeries, Darwish lost all vision in his left eye.
The medical report of Darwish’s injury states that the photojournalist sustained a 7-cm-deep hole in his facial bones and serious damage to his jaw and left eye and ear. Two days after the incident, he underwent surgery to remove bone fragments and splint his fractures. His tests in the Specialised Eye Hospital indicated that his case required surgery due to the damage sustained to the left eye retina.
Following his injury, Darwish suffered a temporary loss of hearing and sight on the left side as well as speech problems, due to damage to the jaw. One year after the attack, doctors confirmed that his left eye cannot be treated and that he has lost sight in it irreversibly.
A few months later, on 9 July 2019, Al-Aqsa TV photojournalist Sami Jamal Taleb Misran was the next target of the IOF. While covering a peaceful Return march in eastern Gaza, he was hit in the left eye by shell fragments of an explosive bullet that inflicted serious damage to his eye, particularly his cornea. As a result, he completely lost vision in his left eye.
Evading Legal Responsibility
When the medical condition of photojournalist Moath Amarneh stabilised and he started to get used to his new prosthetic eye, he contacted his lawyer to file a lawsuit against the military unit that shot him. As soon as he submitted the complaint to the Israeli Police, which was duly addressed by his lawyer through competent legal authorities, he received a response claiming that the Police had conducted the necessary investigations and concluded that the complaint did not fall within their jurisdiction, as the incident had taken place in a war zone where they have no competence to investigate or follow up on such acts.
“When a person hit with a bullet is hospitalised, the police should at least take their statement. But no one asked me a single question! I filed a complaint to the Israeli Police within 90 days of my injury. And they immediately informed my lawyer that my case was dismissed, alleging that they lack jurisdiction and that the injury was not inflicted by the Israeli military forces despite not having summoned any eyewitness, not even the injured himself!” said Amareh.
Recourse to International Justice
Photojournalist Moath Amarneh points out that the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) intends to refer his case – along with the cases of four other journalists – to the International Criminal Court (ICC). He already provided the ICC with the required mandates.
The four Geneva Conventions of 1949 guarantee the protection of journalists as civilians and during armed conflict. Articles 52 and 79 of the Additional Protocol I of 1977 provide for the protection of journalists during armed conflicts and the general protection of civilian objects.
The serious breaches of international humanitarian law and international criminal law inflicted upon journalists wearing press uniforms that identify them as such amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute (ICC Statute of 1998).
This investigation was carried out by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights as part of the project to investigate impunity for crimes committed against journalists in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Photo credits: Daraj Media
