NO ACCOUNTABILITY, NO JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIANS

One Year On for the May 2021 Events

Memorial rally for Mousa Hassouna, Palestinian resident of Lod killed during the May 2021 events / Lod, May 2022. Credit: Shai Kendler
One year after the violent events of May 2021, Palestinians still face almost daily instances of incitement by Israeli government officials, politicians and the media, and provocations by extreme right-wing groups. There has been a grave escalation in Israeli police and military aggressions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem: attacks on worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque, nightly violent raids in the West Bank, and the killing of Al-Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh, and the brutal beating of mourners during her funeral. Added to the ultra-nationalist Israeli flag march through the Old City of Jerusalem, these actions threaten to spark another deadly round of violence. 
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced in early May that the government is advancing the establishment of an armed, civilian national guard in Israel. In Adalah’s view, granting powers and arms to Israeli Jewish citizens and organizations other than law enforcement authorities, to patrol the streets, directly endangers the lives, and liberty of Palestinian citizens of Israel. Instead of carrying out this dangerous plan, the state should act to reduce firearms among civilians and restrict their use of weapons. 
MAY 2021 CASES
Heavily armed police patrol the city of Lod / 13 May 2021. Credit: Israeli police Facebook
Bennett emphasized that the need for armed civilian groups “was born a year ago during the events of Operation Guardians of the Walls [May 2021 events], mainly in the mixed cities.” Encouraging Jewish Israeli civilians to arm themselves was a well-documented phenomenon during the May 2021 events. Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) who took to the streets in Arab towns and mixed Arab-Jewish cities in solidarity against Israeli aggression in the West Bank and Gaza, were met by police brutality and a draconian clampdown on freedom of speech and assembly. Police used excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, bystanders and detainees, conducted mass arrests of PCI, and colluded with far-right, Jewish Israeli extremists. One year on, the Israeli authorities have closed most files of complaints of police violence and have even failed to prosecute Jewish Israelis involved in the killing of a Palestinian citizen of Israel in May 2021.

View Adalah’s designated website page on the May 2021 eventsRead Adalah’s statement: The Deadly Events of May 2021, One Year On
THE KILLING OF MOUSA HASSOUNA
CASES CLOSED AGAINST JEWISH ISRAELI ASSAILANTS

Video footage found in the police investigation files of the killing of Mousa Hassouna
The Israeli authorities’ support or collusion with armed Jewish Israeli vigilante groups is a factor in the case of the killing of Moussa Hassouna, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who was shot dead in Lod (Lydd) in May 2021. Five Jewish Israeli suspects in the case were released soon after their arrests, and the investigation material shows pressure on the police to close the cases against them from prominent political figures, and the district prosecutor in fact did so. In April 2022, Adalah appealed the prosecutor’s decision, on behalf of Hassouna’s family, to the State Attorney’s Office.
THE POLICE ASSUALT ON MAISA ABD ALHADI
CASE CLOSED AGAINST THE POLICE
Left: Photo of Maisa Abd Elhadi in ambulance /via social media. Right: Photo of Maisa Abd Elhadi. Video via social media, posted on Maisa Abd Elhadi’s Instagram account.
During a protest in Haifa against the violence, held on 9 May 2021, Maisa Abd Elhadi, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was severely injured by a stun grenade fired by police while she was filming the events. The injury caused excessive bleeding and scarring, and for 30 minutes the police blocked an ambulance from accessing the location, endangering her life. Adalah filed a complaint on behalf of Abd Elhadi against the police, however, the Police Investigation Department (“Mahash”) decided to close the case. In May 2022, Adalah sent a letter  demanding to receive the investigation material in the case in order to prepare an appeal.
ROOT CAUSES:
GROSS SOCIO-ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION
Demolished homes in the unrecognized Palestinian Bedouin village of Al-Bqea’a in the Naqab (Negev), February 2022. Photo credit: Marwan Abu Frieh. State policies of home demolition and land dispossession result in systemic, socio-economic discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel, as it restricts their development in the long-term. 
Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, the authorities have practiced gross socio-economic discrimination against PCI amounting to socio-economic apartheid, which is one of the underlying root causes of recurrent tensions. A recent example is a new law that grants certain Israeli military veterans a new benefit of 75% of their annual tuition fees for university. Rather than assisting all students based on financial need, the law excludes the vast majority of PCI because they are exempted from performing national military service for historical reasons. The criterion of military service has been used by the state as a proxy for discrimination against PCI, as it is a condition of eligibility for vast economic benefits relating to almost all aspects of life, from education, employment, and the allocation of land and housing.

Read Adalah’s Initial Position on the Amendment to the Absorption of Discharged Soldiers LawRead Adalah’s letter to the authorities against the law (Hebrew)

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