IDF commander involved in shooting bound Palestinian evades jail term
Despite prosecution's request for active prison service, IDF court rules Lt. Col. Omri Burberg will not be eligible for an upgrade in military rank for two years and cannot serve in a commander position for one.
By Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news West BankAn Israel Defense Forces court on Thursday rejected the prosecution's request to jail a commander involved in shooting a bound Palestinian at close range in the West Bank city of Na'alin two years ago.
According to the sentence issued by the court, Lt. Col. Omri Burberg will not be eligible for rank promotion for two years and is forbidden from serving as a commander for one year.
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Video clip shows Ashraf Abu Rahme bound and blindfolded before being shot with a rubber bullet by an IDF soldier, in Naalin on July 7, 2008. |
Burberg was convicted in July after he was caught on tape holding a blindfolded and bound prisoner and ordering a soldier, Staff Sgt. Leonardo Korea, to fire a rubber bullet at his leg.
The prosecution had sought an active prison sentence for Burberg and had demanded that he be demoted.
Burberg and Korea were both charged with unbecoming behavior after a military-police investigation into the affair and convicted in July.
Burberg was transferred following the incident from his post in Battalion 71 to the armored corps training grounds at Tze'elim.
In response to those relatively light charges, four civil-rights organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice on behalf of Abu Rahme, requesting that the court order the Military Advocate General to change the charge to something more serious.
Military Advocate General Avichai Mandelblit responded by adding attempted threat and behavior unfitting for a commander to the charges against Burburg, and illegal use of a weapon to the charges against Korea.
Burberg arrested Ashraf Abu Rahme on July 7, 2008 for his "involvement in disrupting the peace." The prisoner was taken to the entry of the village, where he was bound and his eyes were covered.
Burberg, who had known Abu Rahme because of his role in previous demonstrations, allegedly said: "Now you will stop demonstrating against the IDF." Abu Rahme responded in Arabic, which suggests he might not understand Hebrew.
The officer suspected that Abu Rahme was lying, and turned to Korea, a soldier on his staff, and asked him: "What do you say - should we take him aside and shoot him with a rubber [bullet]?"
Korea said in response: "I have no problem to shoot him with a rubber [bullet]."
Burberg stood the prisoner on his feet, led him to a nearby jeep and told Korea to prepare a rubber bullet. "I already have one in the barrel," Korea responded.
At that point, Korea aimed at the Palestinian's foot and fired a rubber bullet from a very short range. Burberg allegedly pushed the soldier and shouted at him for shooting a bound prisoner. Korea said he thought he had received an order to shoot.
"As a result of the shooting, Abu Rahme suffered superficial injuries on his left toe, was treated by a medic and did not require further care," the chief prosecutor, Colonel Liron Liebman, wrote in the original indictment.
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I relinquished my citizenship in January 2009 because I understood that the Blitzkrieg on Gaza and the phosphorous spelt a new, dark era for Israel. The ruling today has confirmed my worst fears.
you are kidding about why you are here?
Your missing the point. The soldier was on duty in the "most moral army in the world" he should have know better. The fact they you condone this brutal act means you have become desensitised just like these soldiers.
convince your fellow travellers but your actions show what you are really made of.
Young recruits will draw the logical conclusions. Can you blame them?
That's Israeli justice for ya.. shooting someone in the foot: no upgrade in rank. murdering someone in his sleep: only the sack
DOES iSRAEL HAVE THE DEATH PENALTY---SURE --BUT IT IS APPLIED BEFORE TRIAL.
It would be interesting, how an Israeli court would have jugden a Palestinian for the same crime. At first he would be considered as terrorist, then he would be imprisoned for several years, if he would not be killed by the most moral army IDF before judgement.
I think you also do not believe but you have a long expierience in propaganda and hasbara. But believe me, it does not work any more. Only ruling "elites" pretend to believe you because they are afraid. We , the people, can say what we think
very interesting story based on teh stanford prison experiment. you can extend this to soldeiers as well i guess. some human beings tend to loose all notion of right or wrong when placed in a position of "superiority". scary, innit?
For shooting a captured and bound prisoner, a senior army officer is sentenced to ... not being promoted for two years? Words fail me.
For superficial injuries to his toe! WAR CRIME they will shout! Of course, shooting rockets into kindergartens is "legitimate resistance."
Thank you for putting words in our mouths. Oh, btw, shooting a bound prisoner is a war crime. (And so is firing rockets indiscriminately.)
The warcrime is not that his toe was hurt, the war crime is the action that lead to the toe being hurt.
and killing 1500 people, razing houses, maintaining the biggest open-air jail in the world, using phosphorous bombs, leaving thousands of cluster bombs in Lebanese farms to maim children, stealing land for settlements, evicting families, killing a doctor's family, killing peace activists, the list goes on... is this all self-defence? If Palestinians had done this rubber bullet shooting to an Israeli, he would have been called a terrorist kidnapper, so don't try such a stupid argument.
No, shooting rockets into kindergartens is not legitimate. But hey, on your logic it would be fine so long as you only caused superficial injuries to the kids. For the very stupid: the argument is not about the seriousness of the injuries, the argument is about whether this conduct is tolerable.
I know that Israel killed hundreds of Palestinian children during the Gaza op but I never heard about the kindergarten thing. Please tell me more.
Which takes away theimmunity opf the cfivillians as those cowards and heroes of the uberleft knew
I am an Israeli soldier and I have never witnessed an incident even remotely like this. We are trained and educated to act with compassion, understanding and restraint.
Golani, I believe you, BUT many other IDF soldiers treat Palestinian civilians with total disrespect, are often very arrogant and cruel. But it's good to know that there are also many decent soldiers out there like you.
Was it compassion or the understanding or the restraint that killed all those hundreds of civilians and flattened all those buildings. There's only so much 'compassion, understanding and restraint' people can take before they start begging for mercy.
They are hardly rare, they come up often enough and plenty enough is documented in various forms and spread all over the world. IDF might be defenders of Israel proper, but they are known as immoral aggressors most everywhere else but pro-zionist circles...
when your foriegn minister is under investigation for harassing a witness, bribery, money laundering---all of your leaders in some point in time were investigated for criminal offenses and war crimes.... I do not think you should say that IDF was trained and educated to act with compassion
N O O O O O O O O O O O T
there is only one problem in the world,terrible Israel sorrounded by humanitarians.
Its like we are going to beleive you ...
Israel is best at delegitimizing itself! Maybe the groups studying anti-semitism should consider also study what actually brings forth the anti-semitism and delegitimization of Israel. Maybe we should take the problem by the roots?
Do you see any irony?
Here I'm referring to release from Cypriotic jail of 4 British soldiers ,sentenced for rape and murder(by burrying alive) of a Danish turist girl on the island. British soldiers throwing Iraqi teenager into Tigris to drown(he wasthrowing stones at their tanks) went free too ,despite witnesses stating the boy and others were screaming "I can't swim!!" In other cases too British courts relesed their servicemen accused of murdering civilians and British colonel commented it on BBC " Our soldiers must be able to do their duty without overzealous officialdom watching over their shoulders!" It was a case of murder ,mind you ,not a swollen big toe.
I mean really, justice in medieval Europe seems to be more logical than Israeli justice... keep the "light" upon the nations coming....
where did the state of Israel claim to be a "light"? The exact words and source will do.
By the way, the British and Americans etc. should also get rid of THEIR crooks in uniform .
What a joke is this sentence?! It is obvious that he shot him for "fun", not for any security related reason. In my country, this person would - at least(!) - never serve again in the armed forces!!! ...