Palestinian/ Israeli update 6/2/2016..We are ready to sign peace treaties with all our neighbors, including the closest to us — Palestine

UN: Some Israeli ministers ‘killing hope’ for peace

Israel Ready to Sign Peace Treaty With Neighbors, Palestine

sputniknews.com/politics/20160601/1040626159/israel-palestine-peace.html

Israel is ready to sign the peace treaty with its neighboring countries, including Palestine and Saudi Arabia, Israeli Ambassador to Moscow Zvi Heifetz said Wednesday.

“We signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. We are ready to sign peace treaties with all our neighbors, including the closest [neighbor] to us — Palestine. We have no reasons to avoid signing the international treaty with Saudi Arabia and other states. We would be glad for that,” Heifetz told the Rossiya-24 television channel.

Palestinians seek diplomatic recognition for their independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which is partially occupied by Israel, and the Gaza Strip. Israel has been building settlements on the occupied territories despite objection from the United Nations.

In April, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced that the ministers of 20 countries would take part in a meeting in Paris to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian officials will be attending the event scheduled for June 3.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian woman over alleged stabbing attempt

Video suggests knife near Hebron assailant killed by IDF soldier was ‘planted’

Video: Knife moved after Israeli soldier executes Palestinian

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-knife-moved-after-israeli-soldier-executes-palestinian

This video, shown in an Israeli court on Wednesday, reveals that a knife was deliberately moved much closer to the body of a Palestinian youth who had just been executed in cold blood.

According to Israel’s Channel 2, the footage “could indicate an attempt to tamper with evidence” in order to give the appearance that the youth “could have reached the knife and constituted a threat before he was shot.”

On 24 March, Israeli soldier Elor Azarya lifted his rifle, aimed and then fired at the head of 21-year-old Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif after he and another youth allegedly stabbed and moderately wounded a soldier in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron’s Old City in the occupied West Bank.

Al-Sharif was lying on the ground, injured and immobilized, when Azarya fired at his head.

The other youth, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, also 21, was shot dead by another soldier.

Azarya’s execution of al-Sharif was documented on video recorded by a Palestinian resident of the neighborhood and released by the human rights group B’Tselem.

A previously unreleased video, one of several shown in court, further undermines Azarya’s claims that the already gravely wounded al-Sharif could have presented any conceivable threat before Azarya fired the fatal shot.

The video shows al-Sharif’s body lying on the ground after Azarya shot him. A knife is visible at a distance from his body.

An ambulance drives by and its wheel moves the knife slightly. Then a person who cannot be seen in the video kicks the knife toward al-Sharif.

At the end of the short video clip a voice is heard asking, “Why did you throw it?”

A voice is also heard in the video referring to al-Sharif as “that dog.”

Testifying about the videos shown in court, Israeli military investigator Major Ran Keinan said, “You don’t need an expert to see that the knife is far and also note that the terrorist’s shirt is half open.”

Keinan referred to a video that showed this to be the case 30 seconds before the fatal shooting.

Keinan’s testimony at Azarya’s trial would appear to refute claims that the immobilized al-Sharif could have reached the knife, or that his body might have been booby-trapped.

Azarya’s lawyers have claimed, as The Jerusalem Post reported, that their client “thought that shooting al-Sharif was the only way to save his life and the lives of nearby soldiers, thinking that al-Sharif was about to attack with a knife and an explosive belt.”

Another witness told the court that the knife was kicked by Ofer Ohana, an ambulance driver.

According to Channel 2, all video clips in the possession of investigators were shown in court.

This includes one which shows Ohana photographing al-Sharif and saying “he’s alive, that dog,” and asking “where’s the knife?”

The knife is visible some ways away, according to Channel 2.

This report from the Mabat evening news program on Israel’s Channel 1 includes several video clips of the events surrounding the shooting that were shown in court:

executes Palestinian

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 1 June 2016

This video, shown in an Israeli court on Wednesday, reveals that a knife was deliberately moved much closer to the body of a Palestinian youth who had just been executed in cold blood.

According to Israel’s Channel 2, the footage “could indicate an attempt to tamper with evidence” in order to give the appearance that the youth “could have reached the knife and constituted a threat before he was shot.”

On 24 March, Israeli soldier Elor Azarya lifted his rifle, aimed and then fired at the head of 21-year-old Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif after he and another youth allegedly stabbed and moderately wounded a soldier in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron’s Old City in the occupied West Bank.

Al-Sharif was lying on the ground, injured and immobilized, when Azarya fired at his head.

The other youth, Ramzi Aziz al-Qasrawi, also 21, was shot dead by another soldier.

Azarya’s execution of al-Sharif was documented on video recorded by a Palestinian resident of the neighborhood and released by the human rights group B’Tselem.

A previously unreleased video, one of several shown in court, further undermines Azarya’s claims that the already gravely wounded al-Sharif could have presented any conceivable threat before Azarya fired the fatal shot.

The video shows al-Sharif’s body lying on the ground after Azarya shot him. A knife is visible at a distance from his body.

An ambulance drives by and its wheel moves the knife slightly. Then a person who cannot be seen in the video kicks the knife toward al-Sharif.

At the end of the short video clip a voice is heard asking, “Why did you throw it?”

A voice is also heard in the video referring to al-Sharif as “that dog.”
No danger

Testifying about the videos shown in court, Israeli military investigator Major Ran Keinan said, “You don’t need an expert to see that the knife is far and also note that the terrorist’s shirt is half open.”

Keinan referred to a video that showed this to be the case 30 seconds before the fatal shooting.

Keinan’s testimony at Azarya’s trial would appear to refute claims that the immobilized al-Sharif could have reached the knife, or that his body might have been booby-trapped.

Azarya’s lawyers have claimed, as The Jerusalem Post reported, that their client “thought that shooting al-Sharif was the only way to save his life and the lives of nearby soldiers, thinking that al-Sharif was about to attack with a knife and an explosive belt.”

Another witness told the court that the knife was kicked by Ofer Ohana, an ambulance driver.

According to Channel 2, all video clips in the possession of investigators were shown in court.

This includes one which shows Ohana photographing al-Sharif and saying “he’s alive, that dog,” and asking “where’s the knife?”

The knife is visible some ways away, according to Channel 2.

This report from the Mabat evening news program on Israel’s Channel 1 includes several video clips of the events surrounding the shooting that were shown in court:

Another witness told investigators that moments before he shot al-Sharif, Azarya had said: “He stabbed my friend, he deserves to die.”

Prosecutors also told the court that they had retrieved a text message from Azarya’s phone.

A minute and a half after the shooting, Azarya texted his father: “We had an attack, a friend of mine was wounded. The friend killed the first one, I killed the second one.”

A military prosecutor told the court that evidence to be presented as the trial proceeds would show that “the defendant’s actions are done calmly, cool-headedly.”…………..

…………….“The unlawful killing was immediately condoned by military commanders and government ministers,” B’Tselem noted.

Security camera footage from a nearby gas station supports B’Tselem’s claim that the soldiers were in no imminent danger when Shomer killed al-Kasbeh.

B’Tselem described the closure of the case as “an integral part of the whitewash mechanism which is Israel’s military investigative system.”

It remains to be seen whether Azarya will be convicted, and, if so, seriously punished.

What is not in doubt is that the attention his killing of al-Sharif has received is the exception, while impunity remains the rule.

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