military investigations

A Palestinian woman walks past the rubble of a home that was destroyed by Israel during the 2014 war, Rafah, Gaza Strip, July 30, 2015. (Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash 90)

With no justice on the horizon for Gaza, what comes next?

A new report by B’Tselem concludes that the Israeli military’s investigations into its own alleged crimes are little more than a whitewash. So what comes next? Sometimes a seemingly dry bit of research can seem to rise to the level of literature, challenging the status quo in ways that, in the long run, only literature…

By Samer Badawi September 23, 2016

Smoke from an Israeli air strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, July 12, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Resource: The Whitewashing Procedure

The Israeli bodies responsible for investigating the events of Operation Protective Edge are engaged primarily in creating the false impression of a functioning system that ostensibly seeks to discover the truth. In the meantime, those actually responsible for violations are not even questioned, and the investigations have been confined to superficial inspections of a number…

By +972 Resources September 23, 2016

Palestinians drive through a destroyed quarter of Al Shaaf area in Al Tuffah, east of Gaza City, March 21, 2015. The rubble from destroyed apartment buildings is often recycled into low-quality cement. (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

Two years after Gaza war, not a single war crime indictment

The Israeli military’s law enforcement system and its flawed investigative mechanisms appear primarily geared toward protecting the armed forces instead of civilians, thus allowing impunity to prevail. By Muna Haddad Two years after the Israeli military offensive on Gaza, dubbed “Operation Protective Edge,” more than half of the civilian structures destroyed during the war have yet…

By +972 Magazine September 11, 2016

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A Palestinian youth, arrested and blindfolded by Israeli soldiers during the closure on Hebron. (photo: Activestills)

‘Every few minutes, one of them hit us with a rifle butt’

Three Palestinian teens speak about the abuse they say they endured in Israeli military custody after being arrested during a demonstration along the Gaza border. By Yael Marom Israeli military police are investigating the suspicion that over the course of three days, IDF soldiers abused three Palestinian teenagers who illegally crossed into Israel from the…

By +972 Magazine May 13, 2016

Israeli border police check the ID of a Palestinian man (File photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

When an Israeli assaults a Palestinian, justice is hard to come by

A story of assault in Hebron perfectly exemplifies how police investigations fail when the victim is Palestinian. By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz More than five years ago, on July 16, 2010, a young Hebronite by the name of Muhammad Abd Al-Raouf Abdrazeq was attacked by two Israeli civilians without any reason. In his…

By +972 Magazine January 9, 2016

An Israeli border policeman uses pepper spray against a protester during a demonstration marking a decade of popular struggle against the wall in the West Bank village Bil'in, February 27, 2015. (photo: Yotam Ronen/Activestills.org)

An unsettling moment of justice under occupation

Did a Palestinian activist see justice only because the soldier who shot him was an Arab? In a rare piece of positive news, Haaretz reported Saturday that the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court decided that 155,000 shekels ($40,200) should be paid in compensation to Rateb Abu Rahmeh, a Palestinian activist and university lecturer from the West Bank…

By Amjad Iraqi December 13, 2015

License to Kill: Why did the IDF shoot the Qawarik cousins 29 times?

Saleh and Muhammad head out to their agricultural land. A settler stops them and calls the army. Four soldiers arrive. One of them empties his magazine into the two. Three other soldiers claim they didn’t see anything. The IDF says that the cousins attacked the soldier, then retracts the claim. No one is brought to…

By +972 Magazine May 19, 2015

An Israeli soldier fires tear gas toward Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists during a demonstration in Hebron, March 1, 2013. (Photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler/Activestills.org)

Four years, one dead Palestinian and a closed investigation

What does an Israeli military investigation of the killing of a Palestinian look like? An utter waste of time. By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz On Friday, January 16, 2009, stormy demonstrations took place throughout the West Bank, as Operation Cast Lead was in full force in Gaza. The Israeli media did not report the…

By +972 Magazine January 16, 2015

Israeli military police [illustrative]. (Photo: Cherie A. Thurlby / U.S. Department of Defense)

How Israel increases its odds of international prosecution

When the criminal records of IDF war criminals are expunged, the government puts them in danger of being tried abroad. By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz Last week Yesh Din published a new report,”Lacuna: War Crimes in Israeli Law and Court Martial Rulings.” It deals with the way the military justice system handles offenses…

By +972 Magazine October 14, 2013

Illustrative photo: A judge ruling in court (Shutterstock.com)

The double game of IDF military investigations

The military prosecution produces an unseemly requirement in order to allow access to appeal files: a commitment that no one will file a civil suit against the state. By Yesh Din, written by Yossi Gurvitz In the last few days, the High Court of Justice leisurely reviewed a petition that Yesh Din, along with Hamoked:…

By +972 Magazine June 18, 2013