5) Gunfire: A Very Serious Negative Phenomenon

 

Gunfire is a negative phenomenon that has spread rapidly in the Palestinian community since the coming of the PA. The formation of numerous security branches and services caused the spread of weapons among both militants and civilians, legally and illegally, licensed and unlicensed. More than 20 persons were shot dead by misuse of weapons in the Palestinian Territories in 1999.

 

A) Allowed for them…but taboo for us!

 

The uncontrolled spread of arms, the lack of order and discipline, and the feeling of uncertainty and distrust in the Palestinian community created a trend toward fundamentalism and aggression. As a result, the rights of the people were the victim.

 

It is mentioned in the Laws of Prisons # 2 for the year 1946 that especially in the case of military attacks, raids or chases, “the use of weapons must be on a limited scale as much as possible. If a wound or injury is sufficient to stop a person, there should not be extensive use of guns to kill.” Article # 3 states: “Gun shooting can only take place if that was the only means to stop a crime, or stop the flight of a criminal.” Law # 2 of 1998 states that “Liscencing of weapons must be made by the police. Any breach of the law by possession, carrying or transferring weapons or ammunition is considered illegal. Also, anyone who buys, transports or imports unlicensed weapons is breaking the law.” Yet the existing situation, and the practices of members of the Palestinian security services contradict all these laws. In fact, those laws are considered “acceptable” for some Palestinians and “unacceptable” for others.

 

The “Fateh” movement, the main stream in the PLO and the PA, has on several occasions organised rallies and celebrations in which its supporters used weapons and shot guns into the air with no objection from the police. But some leaders from the Palestinian opposition say that if a party from the opposition thought of doing the same, there would have been extensive use of authority and punishment.

 

B) A state of law, or a military state?

 

Incident #1

Ahmad Jameel Samara is a Palestinian from the village of Burqin, near Jenin, who works for the Palestinian General Intelligence Service. He quarrelled with and beat another citizen from the village of Raba and broke his arm. The citizen complained to the Attorney General of Jenin who tried to enforce the law, and on Thursday 30 September 1999 issued a detention warrant against Ahmad, who got very upset, went outside the Court and started shooting using his gun into the air. At last, the head of the general intelligence service in Jenin came and took Ahmad away.

 

Incident #2

On 19 January 1999, the Attorney General of Jenin himself gave another example of demonstrating power to frighten the people. Members of al-Kilany family, the family of the Attorney General, went out wandering and showing their guns in the streets of Burqin.

 

Incident #3

On 1 July 1999, Two members from the security services went into the Jenin government hospital threatening the doctors, workers and patients by shooting their guns into the air. This made the Minister of Health write to President Arafat complaining about the misuse of guns.

 

The above are examples of the uncontrolled misuse of guns in the PA, which we in the PHRMG summarize as follows:

 

C) Forms of Gunfire

 

1)Gunfire during a break-in or a chase

The legal texts stating the cases in which gun shooting is allowed are very clear, yet the poor consciousness and the absence of supervision has led to the extensive use of guns and weapons by members of the security services in the PA.

 

On Sunday 11 July 1999 at approximately 4 pm the house of Hasan Jibara in Qalqiliya, where three families live, was surrounded by an armed force for eight hours because they wanted his son, Hussein, 29, to turn himself in. But he refused. Finally they broke into the house by force, injuring a few persons and damaging much property. Then the security force arrested 15 persons from the family. Relatives of Hussein said that the reason for all that action was that he refused to go to the police station after being summoned following a quarrel with another citizen in the street, who in turn complained to the police. They explained how the security men started shooting at the walls and property of the house, injuring Khaldiyeh, Hussein’s sister in her right shoulder as she was trying to protect her four children. They also injured Hasanain, Hussein’s brother and his wife during the attack on the house.

 

2) Gunfire for revenge

On several occasions the police, or other security members, or even their relatives, interfere in family disputes trying to solve the problem by using their weapons.

 

On 20 April 1999 Ra’ed Darwazeh, 27, was coming back home with a friend by the name of Tayseer Abu-Shihab, 18, near the President’s Square in Nablus. They met another young man named Nimer Hamameh who, with no understood reason, stared at Ra’ed and Tayseer and quarrelled verbally with them. A few minutes after that, Hamameh and two of his brothers followed Ra’ed and shot him in his legs. He tried to escape into a bakery shop, but they followed him inside the store and shot him again. He was taken to Rafidia hospital, but he died after having been shot in his legs ten times.

 

3) Gunfire in celebrations

Psychiatrists believe that shooting guns during celebrations is a phenomenon that expresses a trend toward aggression and violence that goes back hundreds of years to certain traditions that were carried out during celebrations. Others contend it is simply a way to express joy and happiness. But this phenomenon, which is widely spread in our society demonstrates a negative behaviour that causes sorrow on many occasions.

 

A man is injured at a wedding party in Tallouzeh:

The victim is the main source of living for his family (8 people)

 

“On Wednesday 29 July 1999 at about 11:30 pm I was in a wedding party at some neighbor’s place. People were happy singing and dancing. One of the relatives of the bridegroom, who looked drunk, started shooting from a gun. His name is Amjad ‘Awaiseh. People told him not to do that, but he refused.

 

“Suddenly I felt pain and blood in my right leg, then I fell down. I was hit from a distance of less that 3 meters. People helped me and took me to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, where I knew that the bullet went through my right leg and hit the left. I needed surgery, so they transferred me to Makassed hospital in Jerusalem, where I stayed for 3 months. I need help for my family. The costs of the treatment were paid by the family of the man who did the shooting. As far as I know he was imprisoned for 48 hours and then released on bail.”

 

4) Gunfire as a result of recklessness

A young man is killed in ‘Anabta police station

 

Ramadan Salim Atiyeh Shahin, 19, was killed by a bullet from a machine gun. The weapon belonged to a police officer in Anabta, Tulkarem. Ramadan’s father and two of his brothers told the following story:

 

“On 27 June 1999, at 5:30 am, Ramadan and two of his friends (Osama Amsi, and Mohammad Atallah), who were both arrested in Jericho by the policeman who shot him, went to Tulkarem in a civilian car. We in the family don’t know why they went. At the entrance to Anabta, the checkpoint of the national security asked them to stop and they did. They asked for their IDs and the documents of the car, which wasn’t licensed, so they were suspicious and took the car with the people to the police station where a quarrel broke out between Ramadan and the police officer. Ramadan asked the officer to stop pointing his weapon at the chests of the young people. So the officer asked if they were afraid of his gun, and he came even closer to Ramadan and said, “If I press the trigger I will kill you.” At that moment Ramadan tried to push the gun away when a bullet shot through his hand and through his neck and came out from behind. He fell to the ground.

 

“At about 8:30 pm his family knew of the incident through some men from the camp who work for the security organisations. His body was transferred to a hospital in Nablus, then to the PA’s autopsy in Abu-Dis. Until now we haven’t received the autopsy report. We knew later on that the PA had imprisoned the killer and the two other men who were with Ramadan, but we’ll never rest till we see the killer convicted and sentenced to death. We don’t know if the shooting was intended or not. We don’t think there is a background to this accident because Ramadan didn’t know that policeman.”

 

5) Gunfire as a result of children playing with guns

A child kills a man and injures another using a hunting gun in Oreef village, Nablus

 

Anwar Mohammed Izzat Shihadeh, 25, married with one child, was mistakenly killed by a child playing with a hunting gun. The brother of the victim, Ra’ed Mohammed Izzat Shehadeh, 22, single, who is a construction worker, told the following details:

 

“At 11am on 1 June 1999, I was working for a man called Salman Al-Safadi, an old man in Oreef village in his eighties, with my two brothers: Anwar (the victim who was killed) and Ghassan, 27. The workplace is in the outside of the village to the west of the village where there are no residents around.

 

“I was standing on a scaffold, and every one was busy working when a nephew of the employer Salman appeared holding a hunting gun. The boy was 13 years old and is called Ala’a Yousef Salman. He pointed the gun at us and suddenly pressed the trigger. I felt the injury immediately and fell down and didn’t feel anything until I woke up in hospital in Nablus which is 18 km away. I knew later on that my brother Anwar died on the spot in the workplace because of the various fragments (about seven) that hit him in the head and chest. I myself was hit with one fragment in the abdomen which was removed by doctors.

 

“As for the incident itself, I knew later that Salman took us in the car of the blacksmith who works with us and who is also a relative of Salman. He’s called Fawwaz Al-Safadi. Salman asked Fawwaz to say that the shooting was done by settlers. This is what he told my brother Ghassan.

 

“The Palestinian police did their investigation on the accident, and it is believed that they arrested the boy. Some people tried to interfere and reconcile the matter, but it is not completely over. I don’t really blame this boy, but I blame his grandfather, the old man, who shouldn’t leave his gun like that for kids to play with it.

 

“It is worth mentioning that the negligence of this man, Salman, led to a similar crime 30 years ago. Another one of his nephews, called Yousef, who was then 6 years old, killed his brother Mohammed by shooting from the same hunting gun. But the old man didn’t learn the lesson.”

 

6) Gunfire as a result of adults playing with guns

A military officer wanted to joke with a kid using his gun and injured him in his shoulder.

 

Sami Hatem Abu-Bteihan, 11, in the fifth grade, told the PHRMG how he was shot in his shoulder on Sunday 24 January 1999 at night by one of the neighbours, Riad Abdel-Karim al-Oweis, 45, who is a major in the Administration and Organisation Department of the PA. Riad wanted to joke with the child, so he asked him to come nearer and touch the gun, but when Riad held his gun, a bullet sprang out and hit the child in the shoulder. Sami was taken immediately to a local clinic, and then to al-Shifa hospital where they were assured that the bullet didn’t hit a bone but only went through the flesh. When Riad al-Oweis and his family visited Sami in hospital they asked him and his family not to mention the name of Major Riad, since he was only trying to please Sami when the accident happened.

 

REACTIONS

 

Many people have accused the Palestinian Police for the phenomenon of the spread of weapons in the Autonomous areas, considering the measures taken against the individuals committing the acts insufficient. In an interview with the PHRMG on 20 September 1999, Colonel Mahmoud Asfour, Assistant to the Director of Palestinian Police, said:

 

"The phenomenon of gunfire has been in existence in the Territories since the Intifada (Uprising) for nationalistic reasons. Then, after the coming of the Palestinian Authority, following the Gaza-Jericho Agreement, arms and weapons spread increasingly. In certain accidents we, as the police, can’t interfere. If the individual who shot his gun is a member of another security service, like the preventive security or the general intelligence. But as members of the police, we do have orders. Members of the police force hand over their pieces (guns) to their colleagues at the end of their duty. But members of other security services don’t do the same, because of the unsettled security situation in the area.

 

"There is also a decision taken by the police, that if gunfire happens at a wedding, the police will arrest the bridegroom, if he approved the shooting, for 48 hours. Most of the gunfire accidents that occur during weddings and festivals are committed by members of security services. In that case, we do not arrest the offender, but we take away his gun and hand him over to his superiors to deal with the matter. But if a member of the police did that, he would be punished accordingly. He could be dismissed, his rank could be reduced, or he could even be imprisoned. And there have been many decisions written regarding this issue over the last five years."
CONCLUSION

 

We continue to monitor and document the phenomenon of accidental gunfire, and when a new victim falls, voices will appear once again asking for justice. A few measures will be taken, and decisions against the guilty parties will be made, but not executed.

 

We in the PHRMG demand that:

 

-Restrictions and firm regulations be taken to limit the carrying and use of weapons, whether by members of security services or by civilians.

 

-There be a total observation of and commitment to laws and rules regarding the carrying and use of arms.

 

-Seminars and lectures be organised to enlighten people about the dangers of this phenomenon.

 

-Investigations be conducted immediately on each case, and that punishments be implemented.

 

-The authorities in question be firm with individuals who commit such accidents by bringing them before courts to have just trials.