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Palestine Monitor
16-Year Old Arrested, Fined After Being Shot By Settler
“I still don’t believe it’s real,” Ibrahim said of the arrest. In the hospital after being shot he had told me that he felt the violent experience was just a dream. On June 6, after encouragement from Israeli police, Ibrahim’s father, Muhammad Al-Biss, filed a complaint about his son’s shooting. Israeli law requires the police to investigate the incident. The family claim without police advice they would have dropped the matter, but they followed it to their cost. On June 21, Israeli police called Ibrahim and Muhammad into Gush Etzion station regarding the complaint Muhammad filed against the settler. When the father and son arrived, the Israeli authorities there sent them to Kiryat Araba, where police handcuffed Ibrahim and held him from 2 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. on charges of throwing stones at settlers on Highway 60. Ibrahim’s father remained with him the entire time. He said that the police told him the settler admitted to shooting the boys without provocation, but that someone from the camp had made the accusation of stone-throwing. Muhammad surmised that police obtained the testimony through intimidation or else made it up entirely. Ibrahim had affirmed before his arrest that he had not thrown stones at the settler’s vehicle. According to a representative of the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, the charges of stone throwing do not legally justify a self-defence argument for a settler’s shooting of the boys, however, a full investigation by Israeli police is unlikely. Ibrahim suffered one bullet wound in the settler attack and underwent surgery on three internal organs. Now in his family home, his convalescence confines him to a couch except for when using the bathroom. At the police station, he was deprived of food, water and education. Muhammad insisted to the police that Ibrahim’s injury should have prohibited them from legally holding his son. A military doctor inspected the boy’s wound and confirmed that Ibrahim should be arrested in a hospital or have a full-time doctor with him. Instead, the police told his father to pay 1500 shekels in bail. When he did, they gave him a military court order telling Ibrahim to appear in trial on October 12. The representative from B’Tselem said that even though Israeli military law allows for children above 16 to be tried in adult courts, Ibrahim is likely to have a juvenile trial. She reported that in 99% cases of stone throwing, the defendant takes a plea bargain and serves between three and five months in jail. Ibrahim’s family has not hired a lawyer for the case.
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