News / Interviews

'Israel’s shoot-to-kill policy aims to force Palestinians from homes'

Wednesday, 04 January 2017 11:22 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 04 January 2017 11:22 AM ]

A Palestinian woman lying on the ground is attended to after she was shot and wounded by Israeli security forces while approaching the Qalandia checkpoint, between Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on December 30, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Human Rights Watch has taken the Israeli regime to task for its controversial “shoot-to-kill” policy, based on which Israeli forces are ordered to open fire on Palestinians during confrontations even in cases where they can be captured. The international rights body has released a report documenting numerous statements by Israeli officials, calling on police and military to use lethal force. We have asked Paul Larudee, the cofounder of Free Palestine Movement, to share with us his opinion about this policy.

Larudee believes that this “dangerous” and “deadly” strategy is meant to force Palestinians off their land.

“It is meant to make Palestinians disappear; it is meant to make Palestinians leave their home and everything that they have and everything that is important to them other than their family and go somewhere else. This is the idea,” the activist said.

He also noted that Israelis resort to all kinds of schemes to remove Palestinians from their land. However, he said, nothing they have done has moved them closer to their goal.

Larudee further argued that Israel is continuing its vicious atrocities against Palestinians because there is no consequence for any of those actions.

Despite all the bitter condemnation of such criminal activities, Tel Aviv does not punish soldiers who pursue this shoot-to-kill policy; rather; it encourages them to do it.

He also criticized international humanitarian organizations for just reporting Israeli crimes and not taking “effective action” to stop them.

According to the activist, civilians and civil organizations need to take the matter into their own hands.

“We need to take every Israeli criminal and put them in the hands of authorities throughout the world, even civilian authorities that will retaliate. We have to retaliate. This is resistance,” he stated.

Since October 2015, there have been over 150 confirmed instances of Israeli forces lethally shooting Palestinian children and adults allegedly suspected of trying to attack Israelis. Other reports put the death toll at nearly 300.

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