RAMALLAH, Wednesday, December 19, 2018 (WAFA) – The family of Saleh Barghouti, from Kobar village north of Ramallah, shed doubt on Wednesday regarding the Israeli narrative of the death of its son, stressing that there was no proof that Saleh was killed.
The Israeli army claimed that it killed Saleh Barghouti, 29, on December 12 after intercepting a car he was in near the village of Surda, north of Ramallah. It claimed Barghouti was responsible for a shooting-attack at Israeli settlers north of Ramallah the week before injuring at least seven.
The Barghouti family said in a press conference in their village that there was no proof that Saleh was killed during the attempt to capture him and there is also no proof that he is in prison.
“If our son is really dead, then the occupation forces have executed him after his arrest, particularly since many witnesses who were in the area at the time of the arrest have confirmed that he was arrested alive,” said the family.
It urged international organizations to help it uncover what has actually happened to Saleh on that day and called on whoever has any video tape of the arrest to present it to the family.
Qaddoura Faris, head of the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS), said at the press conference with the Barghouti family that the Israeli narrative of the events on that day is full of contradictions.
He said there was more than one version of the story, calling for an international probe into Saleh’s alleged death and what he said were other crimes similar by the occupation government.
On his part, Amin Shoman, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Commission, said that initial reports after the incident said that Barghouti was shot in the shoulder and that he was handcuffed in the very brutal manner and arrested. Then there was talk that he was killed without any proof of that.
Lawmaker Issa Qaraqi said the extra-judicial killing of Palestinians in Israel has become a normal phenomenon and the soldiers have become the judges and the executioners at the same time.
“They have become a mobile court,” he said, explaining that more than 150 cases of extra-judicial executions in the occupied territories have been recorded since 2015.
M.K.
