Israel convicts policewoman who ‘shot Palestinian for fun’

Israeli soldiers stop a Palestinian boy near an Israeli checkpoint in the old city of West Bank city of Hebron, January 21, 2010. Photo by Najeh Hashlamoun/ApaImages

June 9, 2020

Israel’s Magistrate’s Court convicted an Israeli officer yesterday after she pleaded guilty to shooting a Palestinian man in the back, reported the times of Israel.

The 20-year-old policewoman was convicted on charges of physical assault, reckless use of a weapon and obstruction of justice.

The incident, which took place more than a year ago, involved the policewoman shooting 23-year-old Karam Al-Qawasmi in the back with a sponge-tipped bullet at Al-Zaeim checkpoint, situated near the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the occupied West Bank.

The shocking footage, filmed in May 2018, shows Al-Qawasmi falling to the ground screaming in agony, while Israeli occupation forces laughed and joked.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported on the woman’s arrest last year. At her bail hearing at Jerusalem Magistrates Court, Judge Elad Persky said the suspect apparently shot the Palestinian “as a dubious form of entertainment”.

In 2018, the court heard that the policewoman allegedly shot an unarmed Palestinian in the back with a sponge-tipped bullet “without any operational reason”, leaving him seriously wounded.

“The defendant took advantage of her role, status and authority to bear arms and trampled the complainant’s dignity while exploiting his weakness, but only for the sake of amusement,” 

prosecutors said, adding that through her actions she had also damaged public trust in the law enforcement community even though, Israeli violence against Palestinians while on duty is commonplace.