Reports from the AP on the findings of the human rights group Yesh Din show up the appalling conviction rate of Israeli soldiers accused of crimes against Palestinians between 2001 and 2007.
Human rights group Yesh Din reports that only 6% of investigations into abuse and unlawful killing of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers between 2001 and 2007 have led to charges.
During this period there were a reported 2000 Palestinian deaths.
78 out of 1,246 investigations into the actions of Israeli soldiers have led to charges and only 5 soldiers have been convicted of unlawful killing. 135 soldiers in total were convicted of criminal offences against Palestinians.
Yesh Din also found a "sizeable gap between the level of maximum punishment set forth by Israeli law for the offences of which the soldiers were convicted and the sentences they were actually granted".
Unsurprisingly, the Israeli army dismisses the findings, saying that "It is not possible to derive any sort of ethical conclusions about the attitude of the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] to illegal behaviour by soldiers from a statistical analysis".
Although to many it will not come as any surprise that murders and other crimes committed by the Israeli army very seldom lead to conviction, the findings have made their way into the mainstream media, and perhaps most importantly, have been reported in the context of illegal acts where killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian property are seen as crimes and not as inevitable 'collateral damage' of what is still framed as a war and not an occupation.
Quotations and statistics sourced from BBC news.
During this period there were a reported 2000 Palestinian deaths.
78 out of 1,246 investigations into the actions of Israeli soldiers have led to charges and only 5 soldiers have been convicted of unlawful killing. 135 soldiers in total were convicted of criminal offences against Palestinians.
Yesh Din also found a "sizeable gap between the level of maximum punishment set forth by Israeli law for the offences of which the soldiers were convicted and the sentences they were actually granted".
Unsurprisingly, the Israeli army dismisses the findings, saying that "It is not possible to derive any sort of ethical conclusions about the attitude of the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] to illegal behaviour by soldiers from a statistical analysis".
Although to many it will not come as any surprise that murders and other crimes committed by the Israeli army very seldom lead to conviction, the findings have made their way into the mainstream media, and perhaps most importantly, have been reported in the context of illegal acts where killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian property are seen as crimes and not as inevitable 'collateral damage' of what is still framed as a war and not an occupation.
Quotations and statistics sourced from BBC news.
