I began to shout loudly: “Who are you? You’ve injured my friend!”. I heard someone say in Hebrew: “We’re soldiers”. I understand Hebrew very well. They came up to the taxi holding flashlights that were on, so I couldn’t see them. They grabbed me by the neck from behind, took me and Jihad out of the taxi and dragged us a few meters away. They made us lie face down and stood above us. I tried to lift my head to see what happened to Iyad, but every time I did, the soldiers kicked my head. That lasted for about an hour and a half. I heard the soldiers talking in Hebrew, saying the injured guy was breathing and that he was also wounded in the hand. I shouted to the soldier and said: “Let us sit up, we can’t stay with our faces to the ground, we’re cold.” The soldier sat us up with our backs to the taxi.
Then, a soldier came. He blindfolded me and Jihad. The soldiers put us into a vehicle. We drove for a bit and then they stopped, took us out and removed our blindfolds. I saw that we were at the gas station in Ariel. We stood outside. Then a soldier came. He called us and took us into the hotel at the station. They sat us in the lobby, apart from each other. Two soldiers in uniform and a man in civilian clothes came over and sat with Jihad. I heard them ask him questions and him answering them.
After about ten minutes, a gray jeep arrived and they put us in it. The jeep drove us to Tapuach Junction, where a Civil Administration jeep was waiting. They transferred us to that jeep and the Civil Administration guy took our identity cards
and gave us summons to come to the ISA in Nablus on 15 November 1993.
Near Salfit, 13 November 1993
Testimony of Bilal ‘Amleh, 20, from Qabalan, Nablus District
The testimony was given to Bassem ‘Eid on 14 November 1993
Yesterday, I was with friends at another friend’s house in Salfit. At 6:40 P.M. we rode in my taxi back to Qabalan. Iyad was sitting next to me and Jihad behind me. After we had gone about 1.5 km from Salfit, I drove up the road and at the edge of the rise, I saw a lot of lights and spotlights blinding me, so I couldn’t go on. I stopped because I couldn’t see anything. Suddenly, I saw a man getting out of a vehicle. He was holding a flashlight that was turned on and aimed it at me. At that moment, we came under fire, a lot of shooting. I bent down. I saw blood on Iyad’s face and realized he was injured. I heard the windshield shatter.
I cannot describe my parents’ pain and loss. It’s the worst pain in the world. My mother simply stopped talking. She said very little and didn’t want to leave the house. She began to suffer from illnesses such as hypertension and eventually died of a stroke. When I think of her, I feel terrible pain. Since Iyad was killed, she didn’t have one happy day. She cried all the time, even at events that are supposed to be beautiful, such as my wedding and my younger brothers’ weddings. We haven’t even had a single day of joy. My father tried to stay strong and in control. He was a strong, tough man and he put everything into supporting us, so we could get through this disaster. But over time, he began to suffer from a neurological disease and his condition deteriorated from day to day until he became disabled. He now needs constant care.
About a year after my brother was killed, an Israeli court sentenced the soldiers who killed him to a fine of one agora. It came as a shock to us and reopened the wound of Iyad’s death. That day I felt as if they had killed him all over again. The decision to fine those responsible for his death a single agora angered many people. At the time, all kinds of people, some of them important, approached us, as well as representatives of human rights organizations.
We filed a compensation claim and received 131,000 shekels, a pretty insignificant sum. The money wasn’t our main goal. We wanted to show that Palestinian blood is not cheap and that the soldiers should be punished. If a Palestinian killed an Israeli, would they fine him one agora and let him go immediately, with no sentence?
Until recently, no one in our family could get a permit to enter Israel. We were all “barred on security grounds”. The prohibition was only lifted last year.
Iyad was the second son in the family and they killed him twice – first, when they shot him for no reason, and again when the court decided to fine the soldiers one agora. The family lost a person and it left us with a gaping hole in all our hearts, loss and great pain.
Riyad ‘Amleh, Iyad’s brother, 52 and a father of four, spoke with B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i this year and described the family’s life in the years that have passed since losing Iyad:
My younger brother Iyad was killed in 1993. We found out when my father watched the night news. The news hit us out of the blue, it was unbearable. My brother was an active, working man, he didn’t know what laziness was. He loved life and loved to spend time with his friends and family. He worked with my father in our hardware store. After his death, our lives changed completely. Nothing was the same again. The first five years after his death were unbearable, not just for us but my uncles and grandmother. During those years, we didn’t buy any clothes or sweets during the holidays, we were in mourning. Luckily, we’re a strong, tightly-knit family.
1. As you were previously informed, the circumstances of the deceased’s death were investigated by the MPIU.
2. At the end of the investigation, the case was forwarded to the Central Command Advocate.
3. The advocate’s opinion provides the following facts and conclusions:
a. On 13 November 1993, the vehicle in which the deceased was traveling did not obey the soldiers’ orders.
b. The soldiers opened fire at the vehicle’s wheels. As a result of the gunfire, the deceased was killed.
c. As the soldiers were found to have violated the open fire regulations, the advocate ordered that they be tried in a military court for causing death by negligence under Section 304 of the Penal Code (1977).
Letter to B’Tselem dated 7 September 1995 from Col. Danny Be’eri, Chief Military Prosecutor
[...] During the trial, the array of evidence that the prosecution relied upon from the outset changed considerably, as key prosecution witnesses, Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria, who were expected to appear in court, did not do so, and given other witnesses’ court testimonies. In light of this development, as well as the prolonged proceedings and the delay of justice caused to the soldiers, parties reached a plea bargain in which the soldiers were convicted, based on their admission, of violating the open fire regulations.
IDF Spokesperson Statement, 18 November 1996.
On 17 November 1996, in a majority opinion, the Military Court of the Central Judicial District sentenced four soldiers from an elite unit to a fine of one agora [0.01 of a shekel] for the offense of failing to comply with compulsory army regulations under section 133A, of the Military Justice Law. The military prosecution appealed the sentence and the appeal was heard by the Military Court of Appeals. The appeal was accepted by the Military Court of Appeals. The defendants were sentenced to a one-month suspended prison term for one year. This overturned the previous sentence.
Letter to B’Tselem dated 14 January 1997 from Major Avital Margalit, IDF Spokesperson’s Unit