The Israeli officer who reportedly ordered one of his soldiers to shoot a bound-and-blindfolded Palestinian demonstrator is being reassigned.
Lt. Col. Omri Borberg requested - and received - permission to be sent to a new unit after he became the focal point of the latest abuse inquiry to hit the Israeli military.
Last month, an Israeli human rights group released video showing Borberg holding the prisoner by the arm while one of his soldiers fires a rubber bullet at a demonstrator who had taken part in a protest against Israel's separation barrier.
After the video came out, the incident generated a lot of public attention, especially since it was the second questionable shooting to be videotaped and since two young Palestinian boys have recently been killed by Israeli soldiers during West Bank protests in the village of Naalin.
Yesterday, Israeli papers reported that Borberg and the soldier would both be indicted on relatively minor charges that will allow them both to avoid prison time.
“I see myself serving for many more years at the heart of the military activity," Borberg told Israel's Maariv newspaper. "I see the act (leaving the battalion) as an educational, moral act, which was in my view called for in light of the event.”
Human rights groups are denouncing the apparent plea bargain.
“This case proves once again that the military judicial system views harming innocent citizens as a public image problem and not as a moral issue," said the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. "If the brigade commander had been caught smoking a joint, for example, he would be dishonorably discharged after a prison sentence.”
Maariv's Amir Rappaport said the incident "proves that there is a highly severe cover up culture in the IDF."
"The images from Naalin are harsh, even intolerable," wrote Rappaport. "But the investigation of the Investigative Military Police presented a chain of events that was more similar to a ridiculous comedy of errors in a weary army than a case of storm troopers shooting their prey with terrible cruelty."
"If this were an isolated case of covering things up—that would be one matter," he concluded. "The problem is that this is a fairly representative case of the culture of military inquiries."
Americans, we have to ask is the "reassignment" of this officer an appropriate response to shooting and unarmed, blindfolded, prisoner; even if only with a rubber bullet? Is this a "just" act?
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