A video published today by the B'Tselem human rights organisation shows an unarmed, handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian being shot by an Israeli soldier at very close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet (not, as some would have it, a "rubber bullet").
The incident occured earlier this month during protests against the construction of the annexation wall in Nil'in. The wall, ruled "illegal" by the International Court of Justice in 2004, will separate the villagers of Nil'in from their farmland, with potentially devastating consequences for a community highly dependent on agriculture.
According to B'Tselem, the officer holding the demonstrator down while he was shot was a lieutenant colonel. The soldier who fired the gun was, according to local residents, still serving in the same unit the following day. Such is the culture of impunity that successive Israeli governments have engendered, whereby soldiers feel free to beat, torture and kill innocent people without the slightest fear of punishment.
Cross-posted at The Heathlander