by YouTube.
Yuval Azoulay of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this story recently, that B’Tselem cameras pay off for victims of settler attacks.
Three months ago, B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization gave 100 video cameras to ordinary Palestinians living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in order that they might document human rights abuses. One of those cameras recorded an incident in which a nonviolent peace activist in Ni’ilin, while in custody: blindfolded and handcuffed, was shot in the foot by a rubber-coated bullet.
I reported the incident here.
Ashraf Abu Rahme shot by Israeli army while handcuffed and blindfolded was the title of the story from the International Solidarity Movement, and it was carried on numerous other left wing blogs.
July 20th, 2008
In video footage released (see below) on the 20th July by B’Tselem, Ashraf Abu Rahme of Bil’in village, can be seen being handcuffed, blindfolded and then shot at close range by the Israeli army.Ashraf was taking part in a solidarity demonstration attempting to break the siege of Ni’lin when he was detained by the army. While clearly handcuffed and unable to see, an Israeli soldier can be seen shooting Ashraf in the foot with a rubber-coated steel bullet from extremely close range, while another soldier holds him by the arm.
The footage was filmed by a resident of Ni’lin who showed it to international solidarity activists living in Ni’lin on the 19th July. The ISM activists were shocked by the footage and quickly passed it on to B’Tselem who have released it to the local, Israeli and international media. They came upon the video by chance, after paying a social visit to the home of the resident who shot the footage.
Trouble is, after the videoed shooting incident was available on YouTube, after a few days, it was censored and is no longer available. Check it out for yourself: You will receive the message: ” We’re sorry. This video is no longer available.”
It is especially strange since NBC, on its evening news program, reproduced that segment of the video, which showed the peace activist being shot.
This kind of censorship by YouTube is apparently not isolated. Here’s another incident caught on video that You Tube decided to censor after it was made available.
Israeli Soldiers Shoot Two International Peace Activists In The Head at Bil’in
A photographer was hit in the head with a rubber bullet. He was filming when he was shot. The sound of the shots fired is clearly audible in the video.
“I saw blood gushing out of his head, and helped bandage it. As we were getting him into the ambulance an Israeli soldier grabbed his long hair and they all tried to stop him from leaving in the ambulance even though they knew he was injured”, said American eyewitness Zadie Susser who saw Phillip Reiss from Australia sitting in shock immediately after he was hit. At today’s Bil’in demonstration, Israeli soldiers shot seven Palestinians with rubber bullets. One Australian and one Danish demonstrator were hospitalized after being shot in the head with rubber bullets at close range.
(A VIDEO OF THIS INCIDENT WAS REMOVED FROM VIEWING AT YOUTUBE.)
The troubling question is: how many other incidents of violence and injustice were removed by YouTube in order to cover-up Israeli atrocities. And how much does this censorship lead to further ignorance by the America public about the Israel occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands?
UPDATE: Martini at Booman Tribune found another source of the incident on YouTube:
Let’s see how long this one lasts.