Israeli NGO to urge troops not to shoot Gaza protesters

JERUSALEM, 05 Apr 2018 [Fik/News Sources]: An Israeli rights group plans to urge Israeli soldiers to defy orders to fire on Palestinian protesters who for the last several days have held mass demonstrations on the Gaza-Israel border.

In a Wednesday statement, B’tselem, an Israeli human rights NGO, said the campaign would be dubbed, “Sorry commander, but I’m not shooting”.

“Demonstrations are set to continue this Friday [on the Gaza Strip’s eastern border with Israel] and Israeli army officials have said that live ammunition would be used [to disperse the protesters],” the rights group said. 

Israel, it added, “like any other country in the world, is subject to international law which restricts the use of weapons in general and live ammunition in particular [against unarmed demonstrators]”. 

The NGO added: “Israel cannot simply decide that it is not bound by these rules.” 

Last Friday, tens of thousands of Palestinians converged on the Gaza Strip’s roughly 45-kilometer eastern border with Israel to reaffirm their right to return to their ancestral homes in historical Palestine. 

Since then, at least 17 protesters have been killed near the border by Israeli army gunfire. 

In the run-up to the protests last week, Israel deployed thousands of troops along the fraught border, vowing to use deadly force against anyone who threatened Israel’s “security infrastructure”. 

Friday’s rallies kicked off a six-week protest that will culminate on May 15, which will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe”.