By Ihab Rimawi
RAMALLAH, January 11, 2018 (WAFA) – In an unprecedented and bizarre move, the Israeli army is suing a Palestinian family for damages caused to a military vehicle that ran into a wall while chasing its son at high speed and then flipped over him and killed him.
Abdullah Ghneimat, 22, from the village of Kufr Malik, east of Ramallah, was chased by an army jeep in the early morning hour on June 14, 2015 when he was returning home from work. He was surprised to see soldiers in his village and therefore ran away, prompting the soldiers to go after him.
Ghneimat took cover behind a wall, but the jeep ran into the wall and then turned over and fell on him, killing him. Not only that, the soldiers also opened fire at a bulldozer the village residents had brought to lift the army jeep to release Ghneimat’s body and they refused to remove the jeep for three hours, according to witnesses.
The family wanted to sue the army for killing its son in that manner.
Attorney Naela Attiyeh filed a law suit against the army in a military court hoping to bring some justice and comfort to the bereaved family.
However, the attorney and family where surprised when two days ago they got an email telling them that the army is suing Abu Ghneimat’s family for $28,000 to pay for damages caused to the army vehicle that killed its son.
“This is the first time that the army sues a family of a Palestinian its forces have killed demanding financial compensation,” said Attiyeh. “They kill him and then they ask for reparations.”
“If they want reparations, they should first bring our son back,” said Ghneimat’s father, Iyad.
“This case is pure extortion,” he said. “They want to pressure us to drop the law suit against them, but we insist on it regardless of the price even though we know that the army and the court are two faces of the same coin.”
M.K.
