For Those Who Don't Believe Israel Shoots Innocent Farmers
By Tim King
10 May, 2010
Salem-News
(SALEM, Ore.) - It was late February in 2009, when Israeli forces shot a twenty-year-old Palestinian farmer as he worked his land in the village of Al-Faraheen, east of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
Weeks earlier, on Tuesday 27 January 2009, in Al Faraheen, Israeli forces shot at several farmers, killing a 27-year-old man whose job in life was that of a farmer.
We are told this happens often, though Israelis deny it.
As it turns out in the February case though, International Human Rights Activists were accompanying the group of farmers at the time as they worked approximately 500m from the Green Line.
They were rolling when the shots were fired. To underscore the real responsibility for these actions, the camera shows that the Israeli Defense Force soldiers, murderers in this case, driving a HUMVEE - just exactly like U.S. forces.
I'm sure the Palestinians always see a hint of Americanism in the bullets that slay their families, from far away, from a military force with no courage, but plenty of violent hostility toward an unarmed, defenseless populace.
20-year-old Mohammad al-Breem, was shot in the right leg as the farmers worked together with the international Human Rights Activists. There were more shots as they attempted to leave the area having worked on their land for 2 hours in full view of the Israeli forces situated along the Green Line.
There was no surprise, no provocation; the IDF let them think they could work their own land, and then after a while they opened fire.
Farmers of every persuasion, from every corner of the globe, should condemn this ongoing genocide of the Palestinians by Israel's unaccountable government forces.
In case you were curious, the farmers' crime, that Israel deemed open season over, was the loading of parsley and spinach from the agricultural lands.
The shots were fired from Israeli forces on the border. Mohammad was shot in the right leg and evacuated, while still under fire, to a hospital.
International Human Rights Activists have repeatedly witnessed Palestinian farmers being shot at by Israeli forces as they attempt to work on agricultural land situated within 700m of the Green Line.
Learn more:
In Gaza - ingaza.wordpress.com/
International Solidarity Movement - palsolidarity.org
Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.
Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. You can send Tim an email at this address: [email protected]
