Lost among the global headlines of a fast raging pandemic, the coronavirus or Covid-19 are the depraved acts by state-sponsored criminals who call themselves the Israeli Army. In a harrowing expose on how sick and twisted the minds of their soldiers are, an Israeli journalist offers a glimpse through his talks with some of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
All those he spoke too were involved in gunning down Palestinian protesters involved in the ‘Great March of Return’. A non-violent movement by a people long-oppressed who had started the march for freedom two years ago this month, and a march that was beginning to gain exposure on the world stage of their dire conditions.
The Israeli authorities set loose upon this peaceful crowd snipers with long-range firepower to mow them down selectively. They started with medics who were administering necessary first aid to injured Palestinians. They then went on to target children and women. More than 200 Palestinians were murdered in the process, while another 8,000 were severely injured, many becoming disabled according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. When the heat began too much to take on the deaths of the protesters, the Israelis began to go in another direction. They would maim these people for life.
Knees in the crosshairs
An Israeli journalist recently interviewed some of these Israeli snipers who seemed callous and indifferent to the enormity of their deeds. One of them a sniper in the Golani Infantry of the Israeli forces who made it a fashion to target the knees of protesters and permanently disable them boasted: “I kept the casing of every round I fired at the Palestinians. I have them in my room. So, I don’t have to make an estimate — I know 52 definite hits. There were incidents when the bullet didn’t stop and also hit the knee of someone behind the one I was aiming at. Those are mistakes that happen. I haven’t really thought about it. It’s not hundreds of assassinations like in the movie American Sniper: We’re talking about knees. I remember the view of the knee in the crosshairs, bursting open. I remember the view of the knee in the crosshairs, bursting open.”
The Israeli soldier continues: “From the point of view of hits, I have the most. In my battalion, they would say: ‘Look, here comes the killer.’ When I came back from the field, they would ask, ‘Well, how many today?’ You have to understand that before we showed up, knees were the hardest thing to rack up. There was a story about one sniper who had 11 knees all told, and people thought no one could outdo him. And then I brought in seven-eight knees in one day. Within a few hours, I almost broke his record.”
They [Israelis] have rained a holocaust on the defenceless Palestinians for decades and will not understand that dead protesters or amputated limbs cannot snuff out the movement for Palestinian freedom.
Another sniper added: “I broke the ‘knee record’ in the demonstration that took place on the day the new US Embassy in [occupied] Jerusalem was inaugurated, on May 14, 2018. I did it jointly working with a partner who is a locator and is also a sniper by training, and whose task is to give his partner precise data on the target. On that day, our pair had the largest number of hits, 42 in all. My partner wasn’t supposed to shoot, but I gave him a break because we were getting close to the end of our stint, and he didn’t have knees. In the end, you want to leave with the feeling that you did something, that you weren’t a sniper during exercises only. So, after I had a few hits, I suggested to him that we switch. He got around 28 knees there, I’d say.”
Israeli crimes against humanity
Shocking as these confessions may sound, they are nothing new and the Palestinians have been bearing the brunt of it for decades. Their crime? Asking for what is rightfully theirs from the Israeli occupiers of their lands.
As far as for Israel, a country so desperate to garner support from Arab countries while it continues to kill and maim Arabs within their own lands, the sell is not going to be easy or forgiving. These are state-sponsored criminal acts by a country that has steadfastly ignored every international resolution on the books to settle the decades-long dispute with the Palestinians.
The Israelis have had a long history of crimes against humanity against the Palestinians. Their more recent modus operandi is a macabre form of depravity, one bent on striking fear among those protesting for what is rightfully theirs. They have rained a holocaust on the defenceless Palestinians for decades and will not understand that dead protesters or amputated limbs cannot snuff out the movement for Palestinian freedom.
— Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Twitter: @talmaeena
