There have been more than 150 instances since October 2015 in which the Israeli occupation forces fatally shot Palestinian adults and children suspected of trying to carry out anti-occupation attacks Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Tuesday.
The HRW report said that senior Israeli officials have been encouraging Israeli soldiers and police to kill Palestinians they suspect of attacking Israelis even when they are no longer a threat.
Human Rights Watch has documented numerous statements since October 2015 by senior Israeli politicians including the police minister and defense minister calling on police and soldiers to shoot to kill suspected attackers irrespective of whether lethal force is actually strictly necessary to protect life.
“It’s not just about potentially rogue soldiers but also about senior Israeli officials who publicly tell security forces to unlawfully shoot to kill” said Sari Bashi Israel advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Whatever the results of trials of individual soldiers the Israeli government should issue clear directives to use force only in accordance with international law.”
According to the HRW report international human rights law limits the intentional lethal use of firearms – shooting to kill – to circumstances in which it is strictly necessary to protect life and in which no other less extreme option is viable. The Israeli open fire regulations do not note this limitation.
HRW added that the calls by officials – and the apparent conduct of some soldiers and police – deviate from both international standards and the Israeli rules of engagement.
The organization referred to the West Jerusalem incident on October 10 2015 when police fatally shot a 16-year-old Palestinian suspect.
At the time of the shooting Jerusalem Police District Commander Moshe Edri told reporters that those who carry out attacks should be killed: “The police are doing their job and arriving quickly. Within less than a minute and a half the attacker had already been killed.”
Whatever justification may or may not have existed for shooting the child Edri’s final statement appears to be a call to kill all persons who use violence even after they no longer pose a threat.
In October 2015 a radio interviewer asked Israeli Police Minister Gilad Erdan if he agreed with a statement by a lawmaker from an opposition party that if a Palestinian has a knife or screwdriver in his hand “you should shoot to kill him without thinking twice.”
Erdan said yes: “Definitely. . . . As soon as a police officer feels danger to himself or any other citizen he needs to shoot . . . . Every attacker who sets out to inflict harm should know that he will likely not survive the attack.”
HRW quoted Israeli Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef who holds the state-funded statutory position of Israel’s Chief Sephardic Rabbi as stating in a March 12 2016 sermon that the Bible authorizes a shoot-to-kill policy.
HRW said the Israeli authorities should regulate the use of force by soldiers and police and conduct credible investigations of all cases in which suspicions of excessive use of force including extrajudicial killings arise.
