‘Israeli laws against stone throwers are a licence to kill them’

Director of the Jerusalem Centre for Israeli Studies Alaa Al-Rimawi slammed the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decisions against Palestinian stone throwers saying they give a licence for Israeli soldiers to execute Palestinian children.

Al-Rimawi explained that the decisions are very serious because they transfer the responsibility for shooting at demonstrators from the officer in charge to the Israeli soldier in the field, restrict Israeli judges’ mandate, raise the punishments against stone throwers and allow courts to issue huge fines to the parents of stone throwers and imprison them if they refused to pay.

During an emergency security cabinet meeting earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a series of decisions against stone throwers including “tightening measures against Palestinian youths who throw stones and Molotov cocktails, the possibility of changing the shooting instructions at Palestinian youths from the officer in charge to the soldiers in the field, setting a minimum  judicial sentence on them as well as the imposition of high fines on minors and their parents.”

Al-Rimawi explained that the decisions are very serious and require action by the international community which should bring the case to the United Nations because they threaten the lives of Palestinian children.

He said the case should be moved to the International Criminal Court and that international media campaigns must be organised to expose the real face of the occupation.

He stressed that the Palestinian Authority must take the Israeli decisions seriously especially as they come at a time when the Al-Aqsa Mosque is targeted, calling on the PA and Arab and Palestinian human rights groups to take immediate action to curb Israeli criminal policies against the Palestinian people.