Med anledning av IDF:s brutala mord på elvaåriga Mahmoud Al Qarnawi och 43-åriga Farid Abu Thahir har den oberoende parlamentsledamoten Mustafa Barghouti, informationsminister i den tidigare palestinska samlingsregeringen uttalat följande kommentarer:

Israeli Military Killings of Palestinians Go Ignored as Culture of Impunity Prevails

Palestinian National Initiative

Ramallah, 27-08-07: The separate killings of a Palestinian-Israeli child and a Palestinian farmer are yet further proof of the institutionalised culture of impunity prevailing within the Israeli military allowing its soldiers to kill with immunity, said Palestinian National Initiative leader Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP today.

11-year-old Mahmoud Al Qarnawi was killed by Israeli troops in Seida village, near Tulkarem on Friday when they fired a volley of bullets at him as he sat in a fig tree. Mahmoud, an Israeli citizen, had been visiting his relatives in the West Bank village at the time.

In a separate incident, 43-year-old Farid Abu Thahir was shot dead by Israeli soldiers early Monday morning while he was cultivating his land in the central Gaza Strip, near the border with Israel.

Their deaths bring the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks between 16 June and 26 August 2007 to 101 (24 West Bank; 77 Gaza Strip), including 11 children. A further 259 Palestinians have been injured in such attacks over the same period (134 West Bank; 125 Gaza Strip), 29 of whom were children.

Dr. Barghouthi expressed shock and dismay that the Israeli military’s killings of innocent Palestinian civilians, particularly children, consistently evoke no reaction from the Israeli military establishment, the Israeli government, or the international community.

He stressed that ”Israeli soldiers routinely kill and abuse Palestinians with impunity”, adding that such killings were not isolated incidents, but represent the latest, tragic examples of a policy of regular human rights violations on the part of the Israeli military.