ISRAEL: The wounding of an Israeli Jewish civilian by army gunfire during a weekend demonstration against the security barrier Israel is building in the West Bank has prompted a heated debate on the rules the army follows when resorting to live fire.
Gil Na'amati, who recently completed his army service in a combat unit, was hit in both legs by bullets fired by an army sniper as he and other demonstrators rushed the fence and tried to break through it from the Palestinian side during a protest at the West Bank village of Mascha on Friday afternoon. Eyewitnesses claim soldiers then refused the protestors' calls for an Israeli ambulance to be permitted to evacuate Mr Na'amati, who was badly injured, and a second protester - an American tourist, who was lightly wounded - to an Israeli hospital. Mr Na'amati, who said he joined the protest because he opposed the fence's routing through Palestinian lands, was taken instead to a Palestinian hospital for initial treatment, lost a great deal of blood, and is now in an Israeli hospital in a stable condition.
The army has ordered an investigation into the shooting, which has prompted a national outcry. Centrist and leftist politicians are castigating the army's purported "over-readiness" to use live fire, and a number of ex-generals and ex-army legal officers are asserting that the order to fire on the demonstrators was "plainly illegal" and should have been disobeyed.
Joseph Paritsky, the Israeli minister of infrastructure, said that the use of life fire was indefensible and one of the gravest incidents in years. The wounded man's father, Uri Na'amati, declared: "Today they shot my son, tomorrow they'll shoot yours."
Military sources said the soldiers' initial testimony was that they saw a large group approaching the barrier wearing Arab headgear and waving Palestinian flags, and feared they were about to be overrun.
The army's chief of staff, Lieut Gen Moshe Ya'alon, visited Mr Na'amati in hospital. "I explained to him that it wasn't right that they shot me," Mr Na'amati said later, "and he said it also wasn't right that I cut the fence."
Gen Ya'alon also blamed the Israeli protesters, who were demonstrating along with Palestinians and members of an international pro-Palestinian group, for "masquerading" as Palestinians and attacking the fence after crossing illegally into Palestinian territory.
Ilan Katz, a former army prosecutor, said that even if, as they have claimed, the soldiers issued a warning before opening fire, there was "no justification" for it. "Why didn't they use less grave ammunition, such as tear gas?" asked Mr Katz, adding: "The answer is simple. They didn't have it."
Other critics said they feared there had been innumerable similar incidents, with fatal consequences, during confrontations with Palestinians in the past three years. "For some time now, soldiers have been allowed to open fire in cases where no clear mortal threat is posed to them," wrote the Ha'aretz newspaper's columnist Amos Harel.