Far Right Accused Him of Being Secretly in League With Terrorists

The Israeli military medic caught on video shooting and killing a wounded Palestinian will no longer face a murder charge, and is simply confined to his base pending lesser charges of manslaughter, which also seem increasingly unlikely to stick.

In the end, the only person who gets in real trouble over the incident might be Emad abu-Shamsiyah, the Palestinian member of leftist NGO B’tselem, who is being investigated by Israeli police for filming the incident in the first place.

Though filming the extrajudicial execution does not appear illegal under Israeli law, far right activists who have lionized the medic as a national hero have vilified Shamsiyah for filming in the first place, complaining to the police that the fact he was in a major Palestinian city (Hebron) to film the military killing someone proved he, and B’tselem in general, were secretly in league with terrorists.

B’tselem is harshly critical of the Israeli settler movement, and has long been a documenter of the excesses of the Israeli occupation. With Israel’s far-right government increasingly turning on NGOs seen as unfriendly to the settlement enterprise, they seem increasingly a target.

None more than Shamsiyah, however, who has repeatedly received death threats since filming the killing, and last weekend had a group of settlers attack his home, throwing rocks and chanting “death to Emad.” Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene, but did not interfere with the settlers’ attack.