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Double punishment for family of boy shot dead by Israeli soldier

March 1, 2014 at 4:49 pm

On the 18th January 2013 at 3.20pm 15 year old Saleh Elamareen was standing outside a youth centre with a group of friends in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem, when he was shot in the head with a suspected dumdum bullet, fired by an Israeli soldier.


After being rushed to the nearby Beit Jala Government hospital, where doctors treating him said he was close to death, he then was transferred to an Israeli Hadassah. The Israeli hospital reportedly claimed he was stable, but almost exactly a year ago, 5 days after he was shot, his death was officially announced and his body returned to the West Bank.

He had suffered large intracranial bleeding and the CT scan obtained shows the shattered bullet still in his skull. Two doctors who treated Saleh claimed the bullet that hit him was likely to be a dumdum bullet, which expands after impact and is illegal under international law. A third doctor claimed it was definitely a dumdum bullet. Dumdum bullets are internationally outlawed due to their design which is aimed to cause maximum damage and pain to the victim, the use of which, under certain circumstances, is a war crime.

In the days preceding Elamareen’s killing, Aida youth had been protesting after a hole in the separation wall was made, but video footage taken from Lajee Refugee Center’s security camera, the youth center Saleh was standing outside when he was shot, and witness testimonies, confirm that there was no protest happening at the time of the shooting.

As the anniversary of his death passes, the family still await any form of justice. His father, Ahmad, who used to earn his income from working inside Israel, has had his permit to work in Israel withdrawn following his son’s death. Now the family are struggling to make ends meet, alongside the pain of losing Saleh, the moves to withdraw Ahmad’s permit seem like a punishment on top of a punishment. Rather than justice, to add insult to injury, the Israeli authorities have reportedly tried to claim the bullet may have been shot by a Palestinian, contradicting the Israeli Hadassah’s medical report and all other evidence.

According to his father there has been no case in court regarding the killing of Saleh. While some organisations have visited the family and promised to spread the story, his father hopes that his only son’s death can reach the United Nations, and pressure will be applied on Israel to ensure they cannot get away with using these weapons, in any circumstances. Israeli human rights organisation, B’Tselem says that a Military Police investigation was opened on 27 January 2013 and on the 14 November 2013 the MAG Corps informed them that the case was still under investigation.

From their home in Azza refugee camp, his mother said, “We are no different from all the other people who have lost their sons, or members of their family, for Israel we are just numbers. Maybe he is just a number to the Israelis, like all the other Palestinians, but to us he is not just a statistic.”

The IDF spokesperson responded to MEMO’s request for a comment:

“On 18th January 2013, at around noon, an extremely violent and illegal protest took place in the vicinity of Rachel’s Tomb, during which a gang of around 30 Palestinian protesters threw rocks towards the security presence in the area. A Palestinian protester, who was injured during the violent protest, was evacuated with the help of the Red Crescent to a nearby hospital. Upon his death, an investigation was immediately undertaken by the Military Police and the case is currently under the jurisdiction of the Military General Advocate.”

“The protest took place within the context of a spate of extremely violent protests in the prior days, during which Molotov cocktails were thrown and rocks hurled towards worshipers and security forces.”

An Israeli army spokeswoman told Ma’an News Agency she could not confirm whether a dumdum bullet was used to kill Saleh. Asked whether the Israeli army used dumdum bullets at all, the spokeswoman said she was not authorized to provide such information.

The response from the IDF fails to note the time of the incident, rather just says that at around noon protests took place. The official comment does not take into account the video footage demonstrating that Saleh was shot at a time of no clashes. It also does not use the word soldier, rather uses ‘security personnel’ and references the presence of ‘civilians,’ both which obscure the incident in which a soldier shot a child, posing no threat and without any civilians in the locality being endangered by his presence. The response also fails to mention the use of live ammunition against a child, let alone the suspected use of the internationally outlawed bullet or that the ammunition was fired by an Israeli soldier.

“Saleh wasn’t a terrorist, Saleh didn’t have a gun. Saleh was a child playing,” said Ahmad.

“My son was shot in a time of no clashes. He had just got dressed for football; he wanted to be a professional football player and had won a place to go to an academy in Spain next year.”

“All the world knows Messi, we wanted Saleh to be the Palestinian Messi. We, as Palestinians, always look for our chance to show the world we are not terrorists, we love life and we have hopes that our children have better lives than us,” he said.

“If I said to you I lost my life, it is not enough. I have only one son, and I built hopes with him. I am the father of the family, I am meant to be strong. I seem strong but inside I am destroyed. When I walk through the camp little boys takes my hand and say you are my father, we are all your sons. This gives me strength to keep going,” said Ahmad.

Saleh’s father has almost given up hope of an individual court case on his son’s death and punishment for the soldier responsible. Instead he says, “I want Saleh’s case to go to the United Nations, I want pressure on Israel to change it weapons, to not use these weapons on our people.”

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.