Israel accused of shoot-to-kill policy
Human rights groups have accused Israel of encouraging a shoot-to-kill policy after a wave of incidents in which police shot dead Palestinians involved in, or accused of, attacking Israelis.
The alleged practice of killing suspects without trying to arrest them has caused concern after a series of deadly Palestinian attacks also resulted in the perpetrators' deaths -- and not always at the scene.
In a rare move, a Jerusalem court on Sunday indicted a border police officer after he shot and killed, apparently unprovoked, a Palestinian during a May demonstration in the occupied West Bank. For some, the charge of manslaughter in the case was not strong enough, and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch's comments that "a terrorist who strikes civilians should be killed" indicate no further such investigations will take place.
Amnesty International told AFP it had "strong suspicions" about a policy of "deliberate killings", even though "the authorities have the absolute duty to ensure that their forces comply with the law". Rights groups say Aharonovitch's remarks have been instrumental in formulating attitudes in the field, particularly those he made to reporters on November 5 at the scene of the second hit-and-run attack in Jerusalem in a fortnight.
Israeli rights group B'Tselem said it was "extremely disturbed" by Aharonovitch's comments, which it described as "provocative" and encouraging "execution without trial".
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