In 1997 an Israeli settler beat an 11 years old Palestinian boy to death, with his rifle butt. His verdict? Six months in prison. Oh, and a fine of 70.000 shekels. Again: He beat an 11 years old boy to death and was sentenced to six months in prison, and a fine. The reason the settler clubbed the boy to death was that the settler was on the hunt for children who had been throwing stones at cars. Witnesses said that the settler pinned down the boys head with his foot before beating the boy in the head with the rifle butt. Still, he only got six months in jail because he was convicted of "manslaughter by negligence". In court, the settler claimed that he did not intend to kill the boy, and tried to revive him.
In 2016 a dozen masked settlers wielding knives and clubs and yelling "Death to Arabs!" and "We will kill you!" attacked five Palestinian farmers who were harvesting olives. The masked settlers seem to have beat the Palestinian men with clubs and iron pipes only because they were Palestinians. The Palestinian were older men who hadn't done anyting in particular that day, except harvesting (their own) olives, so the reason for the pogrom remains a mystery. The settlers could be seen on a video making their way home after the pogrom, but no one was arrested.
In 2017 96 Palestinians (of whom 20 were children) were killed by Israelis. During the same time 17 Israelis were killed by Palestinians. The youngest victim, on the Palestinian side, was Abdul-Rahman Barghouthi, 18 months old, and the oldest victim was Suleiman Salah, 81 years old. No, all of the Palestinians were not "innocent", but what do you do when you see no future? And what justifies killing an 18 months old baby?
This is the "normal Israel" that Sylvan Adams is talking about. This is
one of the reasons the Giro d'Italia should not have three stages in
Israel. This is one of the reasons I am boycotting the Giro d'Italia
2018.
Free Palestine and ride safe!
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