Israeli soldier to do service for killing

[lindsayg]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/59DCC598-F1BB-4405-9953-22CE400BFC7F.htm

An Israeli military court has sentenced an Israeli soldier to four months of the military equivalent of unpaid community service for killing a three-year-old Palestinian child nearly two years ago.

The incident took place on 25 July 2003, at an Israeli occupation army roadblock outside the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

According to Israeli and Palestinian sources, a soldier manning a military vehicle opened fire on an approaching Palestinian car in which Mahmud Jaradat, 3, was riding with his mother, grandmother and the driver.

Mahmud died instantly after he was hit by several bullets.

[mike_c]

1. he probably would have gotten a stiffer penalty...

...for animal cruelty than for murdering a Palestinian child.

[LSU_Subversive]

2. sickening.

and it's even worse that it took two years for the judgment.

[eyl]

3. The aljazeera version is not quite accurate.

They didn't deliberately open fire on the vehicle, according to Ynet (no English version up yet). In a nutshell, the officer in question did not properly check the MAG machine gun at the site was properly safed; it was left with the safety on "auto" instead of "safe", and as a result, when someone bumped it, it fired the fatal burst

[Guy_Montag]

4. Perhaps the Ynet version is not quite accurate

Just a thought - I have never come across Ynet before, I know nothing about it, but I felt in the interests of balance I should point that out.

[Englander]

5. I've not really looked at Ynet....

in any detail before,& having had a look at their
opinion pages,& what they've said in realtion to
previous incidents I'd say they print whatever the IDF tells them to;
Ynet is claiming that -

"When the car pulled over, one of the soldiers’ weapon accidentally fired in the direction of an automatic machine gun, located atop one of the armored vehicles. In a matter of seconds, the unlocked machine gun opened fire directly at the infant, who died instantantly in the arms of his mother and grandmother, who were seated with him in the car."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3080880,00.html

Which is hardly possible,never mind credible.

[eyl]

10. mistranslation

The Hebrew version says the machine gun's trigger was bumped by another weapon (the Hebrew word "paga" simply means "hit", and the translator apparently took this to be "hit by a bullet"). Also, in the original, he wasn't killed "instantantly in the arms of his mother and grandmother", but was "killed in front of the eyes of his mother and grandmother, who were with him in the vehicle" (the original also doesn't say death was instantaneous, only that the injury was "lethal"). I should note that Ynet's English version (which is relatively new) has come under a lot of criticism, both for bad translations and a sparsity of them.

And frankly, saying that Ynet (the online version of Yediot Ahronot) just "print whatever the IDF tells them to" is ridiculous to anyone familiar with their coverage.

[Englander]

12. So,that's bumped by a weapon instead of being...

bumped by a bullet?

Why not admit it was bumped by a soldier?

As for my previous comment I was going by the Ynet coverage
of James Miller,& what happened;
Ynet are continuing the bollix about there being "crossfire",
& "Palestinian gunmen" in the area.

[eyl]

13. First of all,

what's the difference if it was bumped by a soldier or his weapon (unless you're implying it was deliberate, in which case the word "bump" wasn't really apply, and the article direclty contradicts you*); and given the trigger guard, it's more likely for a weapon barrel to cause this than a body (I suspect what happend was that the tip of a rifle barrel swung into the trigger guard and against the trigger from the front).

*Ma'ariv's article (again, no English) is pretty much the same in the fundamental details

[simcha_6]

14. But maybe it is

Let's not assume it's incorrect- just that the story has more than one side to it.

[Guy_Montag]

16. My point was that there were two reports

& eyl assumed that Ynet was accurate & Al Jazeera was inaccurate.

I was just questioning that assumption.

[eyl]

19. Since there are (so far) three articles

Ynet's, Ma'arivs (both by different authors, that is it's not a single report by AP or such being propogated in multiple newspapers), and al-Jazeera's; given that both the former articles agree on the salient facts; and given al-Jazeera's less than pristine reputation of truth in reporting; I'll go with the former two, thanks.

[Guy_Montag]

20. Oh for goodness sake

at the time I wrote that there were two articles being cited. There are now multiple reports, so we can read several & make our descisions from that. Excellent, are we all happy now?

[simcha_6]

21. Oh, sorry n/t

[bennywhale]

17. shooting dead bodies

does anyone know what happened to that isreali army captain who was exposed by the members of his unit for killing a palastinian girl and then riddling her dead body with bullets about a yeay or so ago?

[eyl]

18. I think it was less then a year ago

anyway, the trial is still going on (there's a thread somewhere around here on the subject)

[Englander]

6. As has been said before;

"Any theory that fits into a nutshell..."

And you probably know the rest..:)

[Guy_Montag]

7. I don't

no seriously, I don't.

Tell me!
*grabs Englander by the lapels*
For god's sake TELL ME!
:crazy:

[Englander]

8. "Any theory that fits in a nutshell belongs in a nutshell"

Hows that?:toast:

[Guy_Montag]

9. Thanks n/t

:applause:

[eyl]

11. Oh, you wanted the long version?

Just ask.

[number6]

15. wow tuff sentence

:wow:

"four months of the military equivalent of unpaid community service for killing a three-year-old Palestinian child nearly two years ago."