Israeli border policeman receives minor sentence for killing Palestinian teenager

Israeli border policeman receives minor sentence for killing Palestinian teenager
Nadim Nuwarah, 17, was killed on 15 May, 2014 during protests near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to mark the anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe", of 1948.
2 min read
25 April, 2018
Nadeem Nuwarah, 17, was shot dead in 2014 during protests near Ramallah. [Getty]

An Israeli court on Wednesday sentenced a border police officer to nine months in jail over the fatal shooting of a Palestinian teenager in 2014, an incident documented by video footage.

The sentence was handed down after Israeli border police officer Ben Deri, 24, was found guilty of negligent homicide and also ordered to pay 50,000 shekels ($14,000) to the family of Nadeem Nuwarah, who was 17.

Nuwarah was killed on 15 May, 2014 during protests in Beitunia, south of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, to mark the anniversary of the Nakba, or "catastrophe", of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes during the war surrounding the creation of Israel.

Footage recorded by US broadcaster CNN captured a group of five or six border police officers in the area, one of whom could be seen firing at the time when the youth was hit.

"This is not how justice is done," Nuwarah's father Issam told Reuters after the sentencing.

"I never expected the Israeli court to do justice for my martyred son, but I had to do all I can to present a solid case and to expose the Israeli judicial system before the world and I did."

Prosecutors had originally filed full manslaughter charges against Deri, accusing him of deliberately switching his rubber bullets for the live round that killed Nuwarah at Beitunia village in the occupied West Bank.

Deri was convicted of aggravated injury after the court determined that he had aimed what he thought was a rubber bullet at Nuwara's chest.

A second teenager was killed in the Beitunia incident but Israel did not pursue charges in that case, citing lack of evidence as an autopsy was not carried out.

Following the shooting, several senior Israeli army and political officials claimed that video footage of the killings had been fabricated.

Israel had also denied that live fire was used during the incident.

Israeli soldier Elor Azaria is due to be released from prison next month after serving two-thirds of a 14-month sentence for manslaughter after shooting a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian in the head in 2016.

Of the 186 criminal investigations opened by the Israeli army into suspected offenses against Palestinians in 2015, just four yielded indictments, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.