Israeli govt minister defends trigger-happy army sniper

By Mustafa Deveci

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday criticized the storm of negative reactions that has followed the emergence of a video showing Israeli soldiers gunning down an unarmed Palestinian youth.

Bennett said on social media that he supported the actions of the soldiers shown in the video, which appears to have been filmed through a sniper rifle scope trained on unarmed Palestinians near the Gaza-Israel border.

“Israeli soldiers are protecting our lives,” Bennet said. “And we are protecting them. We won’t let them down.”

And speaking to a local radio channel, the minister asked: “Are we going to judge our soldiers’ way of speaking and if it sounds nice or not?”

The footage was released on Monday by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli rights NGO. In it, an Israeli sniper can be seen shooting an unarmed Palestinian standing near the border fence.

At the beginning of the video, an Israel commander can be heard saying: “The moment he stops clear, you take him down.” When the sniper responds in the affirmative, the commander tells him: “Go.”

Moments later, the targeted Palestinian youth can be seen falling to the ground, where he remains without moving.

Exactly when and where the footage was shot -- and the extent of the targeted Palestinians’ injury -- remains unclear. But the incident is believed to have occurred during mass demonstrations that have remained underway on the border for the past 10 days.

The Israeli army, for its part, says the footage dates back several months.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 31 Palestinians have been martyred by Israeli army gunfire since Mar. 30, when Palestinians began converging along the Gaza Strip’s eastern border with Israel.

The rallies are part of a six-week-long demonstration that will culminate on May 15. That day will mark the 70th anniversary of Israel's establishment -- an event Palestinians refer to as the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe".

Demonstrators demand that Palestinian refugees be granted the "right of return" to their towns and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.