Shoot to Maim: Israel’s Favored Ammo is
Crippling a Generation of Young Palestinians,
Lamis Andoni and Sandy Tolan, with reporting and investigation by
Aryn Baker, Sara Dunn, Jessie Deeter, Robin Shulman, Chris Smith
and Gavin Tachibana, The Village Voice
Israeli soldiers are crippling thousands of Palestinian young men
and boys with bullet wounds inflicted during the last five months
of stone-throwing protests. And, these aren’t just any bullets,
write the authors in The Village Voice. The Israel
Defense Force (IDF) favors the fragmenting bullets fired by M16s,
an American-made Colt weapon introduced during the Vietnam War.
Used increasingly against Palestinian civilian demonstrators, the
M16 ammunition resembles the internationally banned dumdum bullets,
often breaking into tiny pieces after penetration–causing what
forensic specialists call a ‘lead snowstorm’–and producing
multiple internal injuries. Human rights groups have denounced the
M16 ammunition as an excessive use of Israeli force. ‘Shooting
people with high-velocity bullets to wound them is a form of
summary punishment being inflicted in the field,’ says Dr. Robert
Kirschner of the Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Human Rights.
Although it is not clear yet how newly elected prime minister Ariel
Sharon will handle the controversy, IDF spokesperson Major Olivier
Rafowicz insists his soldiers are operating under the rules of
engagement. ‘We open fire only on people who are endangering our
lives,’ he says. ‘You can kill someone with a rock. A stone is a
weapon.’
–Anjula
Razdan
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