- Global Voices - https://globalvoices.org -

Execution of Palestinian Fadi Alloun, 19, in Occupied East Jerusalem Causes Nationwide Outrage

Categories: Middle East & North Africa, Israel, Palestine, Human Rights, War & Conflict

A video showing the murder of Fadi Alloun, a 19-year-old Palestinian man who was shot dead by Israeli police in Musrara neighborhood beside Jerusalem’s Old City, is sending shock waves around the world as clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians escalated over the past three weeks.

According to witnesses, Alloun was being followed by around 70 Israeli Jewish settlers [7] surrounded by the Israeli police on October 4. Moments later, we hear the mob yelling at the police, ‘It's a terrorist, shoot him!’ and ‘Don’t wait! Shoot him!’ followed by his execution. Alloun is not seen as posing any threat in the video, being surrounded by numerous armed men, and the settlers are seen rejoicing in his death, repeating ‘Yes! Yes!’ and ‘Son of a bitch’.

The video below (warning: graphic content) shows what happened in the moments before Alloun was shot and how he was killed:

While Alloun was accused by Israelis of having stabbed someone, Ali Abunimah [8] of the Electronic Intifada points out [9] that a police officer had asked one of the mob, after shooting Alloun, “Did he stab anyone?” to which the youth replied that he did not. While details of the alleged stabbing remain disputed, his execution is being credited as having caused further outrage among Palestinians.

The mentioned separation from his mother was reported by activist and journalist Budour Hassan for the Electronic Intifada [13] as yet another consequence of Israel's apartheid system. To quote parts of the story:

Last week, Fadi Alloun [14] celebrated his 19th birthday with friends in Issawiyeh [15], a village in occupied East Jerusalem [16]. He was thrilled that he had recently obtained a driving license. As a birthday gift, his father promised to help him buy a car.

Fadi had no stable job but was eager to find enough paid work so that he could realize this dream.

The Israeli police claim Fadi had tried to stab an Israeli teenager. But video evidence [9] from the scene of Fadi’s killing on Sunday does not corroborate this claim.

Rather, the videos show the Israeli police executing Fadi in cold blood. A group of Israeli Jews was filmed rejoicing at his death.

Fadi’s experience with Israel’s apartheid [17] system began when he was less than two years old.

His mother, who carried a Jordanian passport, travelled to Amman [18] at that time to visit her sick father, taking Fadi’s younger brother with her.

The Israeli authorities banned her from returning to Jerusalem, tearing the family apart. For nearly 18 years, Fadi was unable to see his mother and brother. He could only talk to them on the phone or via the Internet.

Even after his death, the Israeli authorities have not yet granted his mother and brother a permit to pay Fadi a final farewell.

Because of the ban imposed on his mother, Fadi was raised by his father as an only child. His father, in his turn, refused to marry again, entirely devoting himself to his son, whom he described as “my heart and soul and everything in my life.”

The Electronic Intifada also talked to Alloun's father Sami, who said [13]:

He was everything to me, the most precious thing in my life. I was his father, his mother and his best friend. Our relationship was very special.

The horrifying video, translated by Israeli activist Ronnie Barkan [19], is being widely shared online, prompting Mondoweiss to call it [20] the video that ‘shocked global audience’.

For the past several days, residents of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods have described being terrorized as far-right Jewish mobs march through the streets with their infamous “Death to Arabs”, “A Jew has a soul, an Arab is a son of a whore [21]” and “Kahane [notorious ultra-Zionist rabbi and member of the Knesset] was right” chants. Once again, the Electronic Intifada has led the way in documenting these rarely reported events with this article [22] by Rania Khalek [23].

As reported by several Palestinian and Israeli activists:

Among the crowd were members of Lehava, notorious for their practice of ‘anti-miscegenation’, meaning denouncing marriages between Jewish women and non-Jewish, particularly Palestinian, men. Lehava is short in Hebrew for LeMeniat Hitbolelut B'eretz HaKodesh, literally “Organization for Prevention of Assimilation in the Holy Land.” They were among those yelling “burn them in their villages” barely weeks after a Palestinian family was burned to death [29] by settlers in the occupied West Bank, including 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh.

As of Saturday, October 10, at least nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza, including 12-year-old Marwan Barbakh and 15-year-old Khalil Othman, as hundreds of Palestinians there took to the streets in protest against Israeli policies. On Monday, a 13-year-old Palestinian from the Aida refugee camp died after being shot by Israeli soldiers. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 1,600 Palestinians [34] have been injured since October 3. In the first week of October alone, there have been over 122 attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians (a list was compiled by Mondoweiss) [35] and the mayor of Jerusalem has called for Israeli citizens to militarize themselves. At least four Israelis have also been killed between October 1 and October 3. A round-up of the past 24 hours was made by Natasha Roth for 972mag [36].

Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers — residents of Israeli settlements built in occupied areas of Palestine often surrounded by Israeli police and the IDF that the international community considers to be illegal — have been ongoing for three weeks following Israel's decision to restrict access for Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Mosque during Jewish and Muslim holidays.