Soldier convicted of negligent homicide of ‘Udai Darawish, a Palestinian entering Israel through gap

[Jefferson23]

The media have reported that on 18 March 2013 an Israeli soldier was convicted of negligent homicide in the death of ‘Udai Darawish. On 12 Jan. 2013 the soldier shot Darawish after the latter crossed into Israel from the West Bank through a gap in the Separation Barrier. Darawish was on his way to work in Israel but had no entry permit. The prosecution reportedly intended to charge the soldier with homicide, but the charge was reduced through a plea bargain. The soldier’s sentence is yet to be given. Indictments of soldiers involved in killing Palestinians are extremely rare. B’Tselem knows of only 15 indictments in such cases since the outbreak of the second Intifada.




According to information obtained by B’Tselem, at around 12:30 PM on Saturday 12 January 2013,, 21-year-old ‘Udai Darawish left his house in Dura to travel to a construction job in Israel. Darawish was in a van taking Palestinians who work in Israel without permits as far as a breach in the Separation Barrier. Once through the gap, the workers would get into another vehicle. At around 1:30 PM, the van reached the opening in the barrier near the village of a-Ramadin, a few hundred meters west of the Meitar checkpoint. The driver stopped and waited until a military jeep, standing stationary on the other side of the opening in the barrier, drove away. Once the jeep was some distance away, the van approached the barrier, its passengers got out and began crossing through the opening. As they were crossing, the workers noticed soldiers who evidently had hidden nearby. The workers began to run towards the car on the Israeli side. The pursuing soldiers shouted for the Palestinians to stop and began firing in the air and at them. Darawish was hit in the lower body and was left behind. After about half an hour, an ambulance took him to Soroka Hospital, Israel, but died of his wounds shortly afterwards.

F.G., one of the workers in the van with Darawish, recounted the incident to B’Tselem:

Three of us left Dura together on Saturday, 12 January 2013, at around 12:30 PM. We got into a taxi that took us as far as the village of a-Dhahiriyah. There, we got into a workers’ transport van that was also transporting women on their way to cross the Separation Barrier into Israel. At around 1:30 PM we got to the border area, about 300 meters west of Meitar. When we got there, I saw a military jeep standing right behind the barrier. We waited about half an hour until the jeep left, and then decided to go in through the opening in the barrier. Right after we crossed, some other workers and transport drivers who were waiting for us there phoned us to wanr us that the soldiers were coming up to us.

We realized that the jeep had apparently dropped off the soldiers in the valley without our noticing. We were flustered. At that point, we couldn’t go back to the other side of the barrier because the soldiers were closer [than we were] to the opening. The three of us started running toward the dirt road where the car was waiting for us. The car was there when we had driven up, but when the driver saw the soldiers, he made a quick U-turn and waited for us about 30 meters away.

http://www.btselem.org/firearms/20130409_soldier_convicted_for_shooting_udai_darawish