http://www.voanews.com/content/doctor-says-fatal-shooting-eritrean-israeli-police-unjustified/3016378.html
Doctor: Fatal Shooting of Eritrean by Israeli Police 'Not Justified'
Salem Soloman
October 20, 2015 9:01 PM
The shooting death of an Eritrean who was mistaken for an attacker
Sunday in Beersheba's Central Bus Station has exposed a fault line of
tension concerning race, immigration and human rights in Israel.
The incident began with a terrorist attack. A gunman barged into the
station, killed a 19-year-old Israeli Defense Forces soldier and shot
indiscriminately at the crowd, injuring 10 other people. The suspect
was later identified as Muhanad Alukabi, 21, an Israeli-Bedouin from
the village of Uqbi.
As terrified passengers and onlookers at the bus station ran for their
lives, the police saw Habtom Woldemichael Zerom, originally from
Eritrea, who was crawling out of a corner and trying to avoid the
bullets. Security camera footage at the bus station shows Habtom
became a target as Israeli police officers mistook him for an attacker
and shot at him repeatedly.
Wrong place, wrong time
Habtom grew up in Shambuko, a small town in the Gash-Barka Region of
western Eritrea. He came to Israel in search of a better life. That
day, he was heading back from Beersheba, the largest city in the Negev
desert of Israel, after coming to the town to renew his temporary
living permit, a document that must be renewed every two months.
Israel has granted refugee or asylum status to very few immigrants,
about 0.07 percent of thousands of claims from Sudanese and Eritrean
refugee and asylum cases filed.
An injured man receives treatment at the Beersheba central bus
station, where a Palestinian gunman went on a stabbing and shooting
rampage, October 18, 2015.
Habtom’s friend Yohannes Arefaine, known commonly as Wedi Keshi John,
was traveling with Habtom at the time and said that they heard bullets
as they were sitting and waiting. Their immediate reaction was to run
outside. Yohannes ran outside and realized immediately he didn’t see
“Mila,” Habtom’s nickname. When he couldn’t see Habtom among the
crowd, he said that he immediately told the authorities that he was
Habtom’s brother. The Israeli police said they needed to talk to him
in private.
“They said that he was holding a knife, and I said that he wasn't. I
told them that he is someone who works hard and lives here, just like
me. He is my brother ... if you are saying he has a knife, it also
means I have a knife,” Yohannes told VOA’s Horn of Africa service in
his native language, Tigrigna.
An amateur video later showed that after Habtom was shot, a crowd of
vigilantes beat him and stomped on him as the wounded man fought for
his life.
Very poor condition
Yonhanan Baizel, a surgeon who is the deputy director general of the
Soroka University Medical Center, spent three hours trying to save
Habtom’s life. He said Habtom came to the hospital in “very, very bad
condition," with wounds to his chest and abdomen, a fractured femur
and a great deal of blood loss. Baizel said he thought Habtom died as
a result of the gunshots, which pierced his lungs and abdomen, and not
as a result of the beating he suffered afterward.
Baizel said terrorist attacks aren't common in the area. Most attacks
of this nature occur in the Jerusalem area or in the Afula area in the
northern part of Israel.
Baizel added that there are no specific tensions with the Bedouins, a
minority that numbers about 200,000 in the Negev area. “The Bedouins
around us are equal citizens. ... We provide them equal services in
all the wards in our hospital, and we really try to do our best to
provide them with the best medical treatment possible. There is no
discrimination whatever,” he said.
Death ‘not justified’
Baizel said that in addition to Habtom, the Soroka University Medical
Center had provided care to some of the victims from the bus station.
But Habtom’s death in particular had moved him.
“I can tell you that I really mourned his death. His death was not
justified. ... You know, the situation is very tense situation in
Israel and the threshold where people react is inadequate, but the
threshold is very low and people feel threatened. ... This is a
behavior of the mob under the present circumstance of Israel,
unfortunately.”
Received on Tue Oct 20 2015 - 23:09:54 EDT