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Israeli soldiers not held accountable for attacking Palestinians
Israeli army arresting Palestinian. [File photo]
Israeli soldiers suspected of harming Palestinians and their property in the West Bank and Gaza are not subject to due accountability, an Israeli human rights group revealed yesterday.
Yesh Din, a volunteer human rights organisation, said in a report obtained by Anadolu agency that “according to Israeli army figures, during 2014 the Military Police Criminal Investigations Division (MPCID) opened 229 investigations of suspected criminal offenses committed by soldiers against Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Just eight (3.5 per cent) of the 229 investigations opened resulted in indictments – a decrease compared to 2013 figures when nine (4.5 per cent) of investigations led to indictments.”
The organisation explained that the data reflects a low indictment rate, which “reveals the deep, ongoing failure to conduct exhaustive investigations which in turn results in near impunity from prosecution for IDF soldiers.” Many of these investigations, the group added, are opened only after a preliminary inquiry has been conducted. In addition, Yesh Din claimed that the IDF usually knows who the suspects are in such cases, an issue compounded by the fact that many Palestinians choose not to report comparatively light cases in the first place.
“The data also demonstrates that although most MPCID criminal investigations conducted in the past few years addressed violence or bodily injury caused to Palestinians by soldiers, most of the indictments served in 2014 concerned property and bribery offenses,” the group added.
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Source: http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=6202
