According to a report from BBC News, Israeli troops shot and killed a 12-year-old boy during a protest against the barrier being erected in Nilin. Although soldiers shot at other protestors with rubber bullets, injuring up to 18 people, the boy was the only person hit by a live bullet.
The Palestine Solidarity Project explained the incident in detail:
Friday, August 1, residents of Ni’lin, who have buried a 10 year old boy, Ahmed Mousa, and have another youth, Yousef Amira, brain dead in a hospital in Ramallah, returned to their struggle against the confiscation of their land. Palestinians were joined by Israeli and international solidarity activists as they marched towards the site of the construction of the Annexation Barrier and where Ahmed Mousa was fatally shot in the head. More than a hundred meters away from the site several rolls of razor-wire had been set up by the military to prevent access to the construction site after several demonstrations had successfully reached the bulldozers and prevented their work in past weeks. It was this razor-wire that Ahmed Mousa was killed for touching.
Climbing Walls, who describes herself as “an American Muslimah in Palestine,” takes note of Nilin's (Na'alin) prominence in the news of late:
The village of Na'alin has been in the news lately, at least the news here. They have been protesting the construction of the wall which will cut much of the agricultural land from the village. These protests seem to always have a group of foreign or Israeli activists who are committed to nonviolence, but their protests are often forcefully dispersed. That is where the young man was shot in the foot with a rubber bullet while he was bound and blindfolded. The officer who was holding him has been suspended for 10 days pending an investigation into whether he actually ordered the shooting. And today a 9 year old boy was shot and killed. It is so sad.
DesertPeace, an American who lives in Jerusalem, had this to say about the boy's death:
Just remember, the bullet that killed this 11 year old boy was a gift from the United States government….
Jews Sans Frontieres, an “anti-Zionist blog,” expressed anger as well:
What games the mainstream plays for Israel. Oh, by the way Israel killed yet another child today. Or was it yesterday, or tomorrow. Actually this one was today. But look at how CNN reports the crime:
“ Palestinian boy killed during protest, witnesses say
JERUSALEM (CNN) — Israeli soldiers Tuesday fired shots near a group of Palestinian youths during a demonstration in the West Bank, killing a 9-year-old boy, eyewitnesses told CNN.”
They fired “shots near a group of Palestinian youths”. See, if they weren't the most moral army in the world they would have fired at them and that could have been fatal.
Arab-American blog KABOBfest took a cynical view of the situation:
Those poor Israeli soldiers, eh? Dealing with civilian protestors from Nil’in objecting to the theft of their land for the benefit of illegal settlements, the soldiers are becoming increasingly frustrated at the villagers refusal to just shutup and give in.
So they shoot them.
More somberly, the blogger reminds us that:
There have been over 70 Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers in this year alone.
Our thoughts are with the family of Ahmed Ussam Yousef Mousa. May he rest in peace.
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Well, to clarify, I am not “saddened by Nilin’s (Na’alin) prominence in the news of late.” I am glad that their story is getting told and that they are getting some media coverage. What is sad is that it takes a little boy’s death to get the major media to pay attention to the situation. The “security barrier” is cutting the people of the village off from their livelihood and isolating them in a giant cattle pen; the world should pay attention.
My heart goes out to the family of little Ahmed, who was the same age as my youngest son. May God have mercy on them all.
Apologies, alajnabiya - I’m happy to change what I wrote to reflect your true feelings.
I absolutely agree with you - just a case of writing quickly!
i’m just as sad/mad as you are that a 10 year old palestinian boy is killed. or for the palestinian kids whose parents are killed or whose lives are wrecked in other ways.
i suspect the difference between us is that i’m equally sad/mad at the israeli children who are killed or whose lives are wrecked. i’m afraid i don’t subscribe to the theory that they deserve it because of some collective guilt for the policies of their government.
i blame the murderers on both sides. it’ll never stop until people shift their frame of reference from israelis versus palestinians to decent people versus destructive people, regardless of “side”.
This saddens me greatly. To think of any loss of a child through a random bullet - they could not have been targeting a young child surely - is tragic. The effects of such a loss are tremendous. With his family and friends and the effects he his death has on the conflict which will just be fueled further by the death of child.
Surely the similarities between the two conflicting sides can be seen more clearly through the eyes of a child - they surly learn their prejudices through their families - they are not innate.
There is a very interesting history of the conflict at http://www.vision.org called “Triumph and Tragedy in the Middle East - What Happened 60 Years Ago, and Why Jerusalem Won’t Go Away”
I learned a lot from the concise history. worth a read.
I’m being a bit greedy with space here - but I had read an article a while ago that is fitting - in fact your story and report brought it home to me and I had to go back an reread parts of it. Also at http://www.vision.org called “Building Resilience in a Turbulent World” Speaking of resilience - that is what disturbs me most about the continuing conflict expressed here in your story (could be anywhere - so many conflicts). How does one live like that or bounce back??? It makes an interesting point in the article that here in the US, we are not living “in groups of 50 to 70 and [where] there were multiple generations and multiple people we were interconnected with,” - there is more emphasis on individualization (and thereby creating isolation?) - where as I can assume that here there is more of a community and family to surround those affected - after all the protest was concerning a barrier that would divide community.
@gerald,
That’s a rather rude assumption to make (assuming you were making it about me, that is). I am saddened when any child is killed - Israeli children are no more at fault than Palestinian children for this conflict.
Dear Jillian,
It’s reflects from your writing that you care more about Palestinians then for Israelis. When four innocent people were killed by a bulldozer attack, you were focusing on whether we should call the driver a murderer or terrorist. While in thid also sad case you focus on the chiled.
It’s a mattar of focus Jillian
With much regret for the kid’s death,
Tal
Mr. Zuckier, if your comment was directed at me, I assure you that I am as distressed at the killing of an Israeli child as I am a Palestinian child. I have no sympathy for random bombings of civilian targets. I think they are both immoral and counter productive.
Tal,
I do care more about the Palestinian cause, however, we’re talking about two very different situations. The bulldozer incidents both received significant coverage by the international media; but when an Israeli soldier kills a Palestinian child, where’s CNN?
That’s where my outrage comes from; perception.
Jillian
Tal,
I should also point out that Maya Norton has provided excellent coverage of the Israeli blogosphere’s thoughts on the matter (http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/07/23/israel-jerusalem-suffers-copycat-terrorist-attack/)
It’s only fair that we present both (or as many as possible) sides of the story.
Jillian
Dear Jillian,
Why do you think CNN cover the bulldozer incident and did not cover the child death?
waht make you care more about the Palestinian cause? Isn’t the cause is to bring peace and prosperity to all, including to Israelis?
Tal,
I’m happy to share my opinion, but I would really prefer to take this conversation off of Global Voices. If you’re interested in doing so, you can e-mail me (jilliancyork at gmail dot com).
Jillian
Tal,
What is all the ramnbling about CNN for? Why CNN only, why not BBC, ABC, BBD or SCD..and all those CBD’s. Are you saying that CNN is under the zionist spell??? Are you smelling a Zionist conspiracy?? The control of the media… Didn’t they show the point blank foot shooting of a palestinian teen a week ago? Are you that sure that people are going to feel sorry of the little boy or do you want to provide viewers with an instant clip of screwed up mess of politics or how brutal the israeli army is.
Calm down!!! everybody with moral principles deplores death of innocent children. Do not get entangle with the self-righteousness stuff, it is so easy to get a boost out of it, specially when people are TRULLY blind of the effects it has.
I’m not accusing anyone; I don’t believe that I can see into everyone’s heart and motives, and my point is that finger pointing and accusations are what keeps this conflict alive. I assume everyone here would be shocked at the actual sight of a wounded kid, or even a wounded adult, regardless of nationality, or even personal history of violence; therefore, I find it inconsistent when people rouse themselves to post on the atrocities suffered by one “side” and not the other; and assume it’s a subtle manipulation by whoever they have been listening too. No malice suggested, just that we’ve really got to rise above instinctive tribal loyalties or simplistic portrayals of collective guilt or innocence and see that the basic alignment here is, is a person willing to use violence as a tool to get what they feel is their rightful due, or are they determined to reject violence even if it costs them personally. Or, in our case at a distance, which of these two paradigms do we as individuals champion. To me, that question is more important than whether people face Mecca or Jerusalem when they pray.
You did leave out the part were the demonstrators threw rocks at the soldiers - from what i heard. Of course It’s still wrong to shoot bullets at demonstrators, it’s just that the situation is usually more complicated then the way it’s represented here. The demonstrations sometimes turn violent (usually the rocks just injure the soldiers, not kill them. But it happens too), and the soldiers feel threatened.
Dear All,
I have been following this discussion for a while - and would like to shed some light on our coverage.
At GV, we have been trying to cover the ‘human aspect’ of both sides of the confrontation - as much as we can possibly do - reflecting what bloggers and other online citizen journalists are saying.
ALL GV authors are VOLUNTEERS - who take time from their busy daily lives to write the articles which you see appearing here. Accusing Jillian York of being one-sided is a grave misjudgement of the situation as we do provide the other side of the story - on other pages - by other authors: See Maya Norton’s coverage here (http://globalvoicesonline.org/author/maya-norton/) as well as Gilad Lotan’s (http://globalvoicesonline.org/author/gilad-lotan/). Maya and Gilad have both been doing a commendable job covering Israeli blogs in English and Hebrew respectively.
In this particular story, for instance, Jillian’s role focused on covering the Palestinian side of the story. And that is what she did. Thank you Jillian.
The Palestinian and Israeli blogospheres are wide - and span several languages - and it is difficult to find a SUPER volunteer with knowledge of the conflict, the online conversation and where to look for blogs - and the languages in which online citizen journalists reporting in, ie: Arabic, English, Hebrew, Russian and French — and bring all those voices together under one post. If any of you has all those skills - and the time to volunteer your services for free - please contact me and I would be more than willing to work with you.
As far as is humanly possible, we coordinate our coverage, and decide - again depending on the volunteers time and other commitments - who will do what. For instance, Jen Brea will cover French blogs, Jillian York will cover Palestinian English blogs, Maya Norton will cover Israeli English blogs, I will look at Arabic blogs, Gilad Lotan will review Hebrew and Veronica Khokhlova Russian blogs. These voices then appear in consecutive posts on GV - sometimes over several days. In case there is a breaking story - or one with a lot of commentary and posts - we set up Special Coverage pages - as seen here: http://globalvoicesonline.org/specialcoverage/
You as readers are also welcome to help us with our coverage - either by sending us links to blogs (every GV author has an email on her/his homepage) or volunteering to cover specific countries.
Looking forward to your contributions.
Regards,
Amira Al Hussaini
Middle East and North Africa Editor
Global Voices Online
Dear Samir,
I have not said that CNN is under Zionist spell. I just asked Jillian why does she think the media coverage is pro-Israeli, as she suggested.
I believe that in order to have here some improvement in the situation, we first have to listen to each other. We have to behave to each other as humans, in order to work as a team.
Dear Gerald,
I could not get you point. Can you please be more specific.
Good week to you all
This one ‘fair and professional’ reporter from BBC only forgot of informing that “this boy 12-year old was was armed and with explosive devices tied to his body”…
More one journalistic gold from BBC…
[...] waited by the thousands for the funeral of Ahmed Moussa, the young boy killed early this week by Israeli soldiers during a protest in Nilin. A peaceful funeral for the young boy was not to be, [...]
[...] Palestine: Anger at Young Boy’s Needless Death - Global Voices Online.orgWorld Regions › Americas › Central Asia & Caucasus › East Asia › Eastern & Central Europe › Middle East & North Africa › Oceania › South Asia › Sub-Saharan Africa › Western Europe Topics › Agriculture › Arts & Culture … [...]
[...] ожалостени чекаа на погребот на Ахмед Муса, момчето кое го убија израелските војници на почетокот на неделава за време [...]
[...] Gerald dà il via alle critiche, ricordando a Jillian York che anche i bambini israeliani, come quelli palestinesi, patiscono le conseguenze del conflitto, e non possono essere considerati responsabili per le politiche del loro governo. Secondo lui, Tutto ciò non avrà mai fine finché la gente non cambierà la concezione da “Israeliani contro Palestinesi” a “brave persone contro assassini”, e la smetterà di vedere il conflitto per “fazioni”. [...]