AbuLaish to Sue Israel over Killing of His Daughters

They Do Not Want to Know the Truth

from DailyKos, by Assaf, who posted the video of Abulaish talking with the Israeli journalist. Assaf also posted some comments of his own, below the transcript.

Transcript of first 2 minutes:

Eldar: ...we have on the line Dr. Abu El-Aish, we have been talking with him over the past period... he [his home] was just shelled, his family is wounded, maybe I can replay...

Dr. Abu El-Aish: No one can get to us... (unclear)... Ya Rabi, Ya Rabi (my god).. [he continues to cry throughout while Eldar talks to the audience]

Eldar: They killed his family, over the past few days we have been... I think I'm a bit overwhelmed too because,... (tearing up) Dr. Abu El-Aish is a Tel Hashomer physician, [to the doctor] Abu El-Aish we are now in the studio, [back to the audience] and he kept fearing his family would get hurt, once this week he went on air to Gabi Gazit [another anchor], because this was the only way [apparently referring to the previous near-miss incident].... In short, he was now hit, who was hurt Abu El-Aish?

Dr. Abu El-Aish: My girls, Ya Allah, Ya Allah

[around 1:00 into clip]

Eldar: He has eight children whom he has protected throughout the war, at his home in Beit Lahiya, maybe the only thing we can do is to ask someone who can, maybe in the IDF, Abu El-Aish can you tell me where your house is, maybe they will enable ambulances to get there

Dr. Abu El-Aish: (unclear) ...to save them, to save them, but they are dead already they were hit in the head, it was in their heads [died] on the spot, on the spot, Shlomi, Ya Allah, ... what have we done, what have we done [repeatedly]... they killed the family... [more screams in the background]

The elipsis (...) marks in the anchor's speech are mostly not ommissions, rather Eldar was himself shaken and kept jumping mid-sentence to start new ones.

An IDF infantry regiment apparently responsible for the shelling,
has quickly claimed that there was sniper fire from the doctor's house. Previous such claims during this war (most notably with the UNRWA shelter
bombed a week ago killing from 30 to 40 civilians) have turned out to be bogus. They appear to be little more than a standard cover-all designed to hold until public attention turns elsewhere.

Meanwhile, as if on another planet, Israel Foreign Minster flew to the US in order to sign a cease-fire agreement with... Secretary Rice. I wonder how this is supposed to help stop the killing.

Please help stop this. Call your Senators. Call your House members and ask them to support the Kucinich bill to end the fighting. Call your Israeli consulate: apparently America is the only place whose opinion might matter to them, so please let them know what you think.

Please help stop this. There is no reason for this to go on even one more second.

UPDATE:

At the end of the clip Eldar asks to leave the studio and continue talking with the doctor in private. If I am not mistaken this happened Friday night (tonight) which is prime time news time of the week in Israel.

I understand there may be tech difficulties playing the clip. Mine didn't auto-play because of some missing media player upgrade, so I had to click a link inside the video frame (second link; the first one goes to a download page).

Also if there's anyone Youtube-savvy enough to cut the clip and post it there and bring the link here, that would help - thanks.

Also, if you are a native Arabic speaker and think I made a mistake transliterating the doctor's name, please let me know.

UPDATE 2:

My friend Tom to whom I sent this story, sent me back a related story running today on Democracy Now: Palestinian NASA astrophysicist from Gaza, whose 10-year old son was killed. This happened on the 3rd day of bombing - but the story is first aired today. He was just making arrangements to bring his family to America.

Thanks to the hands that brought this story to the rec list. I post this story here, because the world - and that includes the DKos world - needs to know what is happening,and that the people getting killed in Gaza are people just like you and me, stuck between the hammer and the anvil. The reality is complex, every reality is complex. The Israeli anchor was visibly shaken almost beyond words, and tried to help the doctor and his family, regardless of his own opinion about the war, Hamas, who's to blame, etc.

To the shrill few who have nothing but "Hamas fault, Hamas fault" to say to all these stories: even my 3-year-old toddler is beyond the stage of denying any responsibility for his actions.

I have been an IDF combat soldier, I have been to Gaza, there is no way in heck the IDF and Israeli government should be allowed to explain away all of this. The IDF spokesman unit in particular has lost all credibility over the past 8 years.

So grow up already.

(and to those who think this is a great occasion to say how Israel is the worst thing that happened to mankind: besides being wrong, you are not helping, in case you haven't noticed)

Y Net


Bereaved Gaza doctor to sue Israel

Izzeldin Abuelaish, who lost daughters in Operation Cast Lead, says state leaves him no choice

Uri Misgav
Published: 12.23.10, 20:31 / Israel News

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, who lost three daughters when the IDF fired shells at his home during Operation Cast Lead, will file on Sunday a massive damages claim against the State of Israel.

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"I didn't want to file the lawsuit, and until now I didn't want to discuss it," he told Yedioth Ahronoth in a phone interview from Toronto, Canada, where he immigrated following the tragedy. "I tried to take every step that would allow me to close this with love and goodwill, but they didn't leave me a choice. According to the law, the statute of limitations will apply to this case within a few weeks – but there is no statute of limitations on the blood of my daughters. It will stay with me forever. It's a catastrophe that's impossible to forget."


Abuelaish, a Palestinian gynecologist, has worked in Israeli hospitals for nearly two decades. On January 16, 2009, in the height of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF fired two shells into the window of his home, killing three of his daugters: 20-year-old Bessan, 15-year-old Mayar and 14-year-old Aya. His 17-year-old niece Nour was also killed in the attack, and his 18-year-old daughter Shada and other family members were injured. The Israeli public heard the horrifying incident in a live broadcast, as Abuelaish was preparing at that moment for a phone interview with an Israeli television channel.


Abuelaish instructed his lawyer to avoid a lawsuit and reach a settlement with the security forces, which would include recognition and compensation. But no such settlement was reached: The Defense Ministry's legal adviser, Ahaz Ben-Ari, announced this week that Abuelaish does not deserve compensation.



"Despite the severe outcome, from a legal standpoint our stance is that the operation during which Dr. Abuelaish's family members were hurt was an operation of war," Ben-Ari said. "Therefore, the State of Israel does not carry the responsibility for the damage it caused."



'Palestinians and Israelis are Siamese twins'

Attorney Michael Sfrad, who represents Abuelaish, called the ruling a disgrace. "The Defense Ministry's decision does not only demonstrate cruelty and insensitivity, it also lacks wisdom," he said. "The State of Israel will suffer an immense blow from such a lawsuit, and eventually it will have to pay compensation. I am not just angry as Dr. Abuelaish's lawyer, I am ashamed as an Israeli."


Abuelaish told Yedioth Ahronoth that he has not lost hope for reconciliation and peace. "I wake up in the morning and hear my daughters telling me, 'don't be angry, turn the anger into something positive. Save lives, continue with the message that you brought us up with,'" he said. "I swear to God and swear to my daughters that I will not stop until I meet them and can tell them, 'I brought you justice, and your blood wasn't (spilled) for nothing but changed something in the world.'


"The situation will not change if we don't change something in our heart, thoughts and soul. We need to think of our children and our future," he added. "Palestinians and Israelis are like Siamese twins – attached at the heart and at the head. We must move forward, build bridges and get over barriers. We have no choice."



A Defense Ministry spokesperson said in response that "The Defense Ministry's hearts go out to the family that was stricken by the tragedy. Unfortunately, we can only act according to the law, and we will gladly assist Dr. Abuelaish as much as we can correspondingly."

Just take a look at the photo of Abu Laish that YNet chose/cropped/published: it makes him look like an animal. God damn Pisrael.

But it gets worse:

Report: Hamas may have murdered children of Gaza doctor

* Posted by Israel Insider on January 20, 2009 at 10:00pm
* View Israel Insider's blog

Medical evidence indicates that the shrapnel that hit a member of the family of Gaza gynecologist Ezzaldeen Abulaish came from a terrorist weapon, not the military-grade ordnance used by the Israel Defence Forces.

Abulaish lost three children and a niece in an explosion that he ascribed to an Israeli tank shell.

Channel 1 Israeli government television reported Sunday night that medical imagery taken at Barzilay Hospital, where his wounded niece was taken, indicates that a round object that appeared to be a ball bearing was lodged in her brain. Ball bearings are used by Hamas in their munitions along with other sharp objects to maximize their lethal effects. The IDF uses nothing similar in its tank shells.

The IDF admitted that shells were fired at a sniper in or near the building. However, it is also conceivable that the Gaza Doctor, who was an outspoken critic of Hamas, and on excellent terms with Israeli reporters and medical personnel, was in fact targeted along with his family, by the Islamic terrorist organization.

Hamas used the fighting as a cover for settling scores with political enemies and what it termed "collaborators" by summary executions. At least 8 Fatah activists were reported lynched by Hamas, and the possibility that Hamas might have set off a bomb to kill an Israel-friendly peace activist and get Israel blamed for the event can hardly be discounted. Similar murderous actions are suspected of having been carried out near the UN school where victims were killed by an explosion not considered consistent with an IDF shell that fell near but not on the school.

Hezbollah is believed to have exploited a similar incident in the village of Kana in the 2006 to get Israel blamed for killing women and children, some of whom may have been dead before the explosion.

The possibility that Abulaish may have been targeted by Hamas is increased by the fact that the Doctor had been featured prominently on Israeli TV just a day or two before worrying that an Israeli tank was near his house. In that case the IDF moved the tank and marked the house as not being a target.

The evidence has been turned over to the military's ballistics experts, and a final determination is expected to be issued in the coming days.