Three soldiers pounce on a shepherd sitting outside his sheep pen. They knock him over and then one of them shoots him to death at point-blank range. Fakher Jaber, a father of four, was suspected of involvement in an incident that probably never happened

On the last day of his life, two and a half weeks ago, the shepherd and his wife got up at 5:30 A.M., as usual, and immediately went out together to milk the ewes. With their flock of 120 sheep, their work is never done. Maryam recalls now that they didn’t manage to eat breakfast before the daily Ramadan fast began. After about two hours they finished milking. Fakher took the sheep out to graze and she began to make cheese from the milk, which they sell in Nablus to help make their living.

After he returned the sheep to their pen, Fakher sat down near it, removed the Quran from his pocket and began to read from it. Maryam finished making dinner. She remembers that everything was normal and relatively peaceful that afternoon, in this beleaguered community, living under the constant threat of invasions by settlers. Suddenly Maryam heard shouting. She rushed outside and saw three Israelis in uniform yelling at and wrestling with her husband. One of the men was masked, which led her to believe that they were settlers – of the type that frequently assault the shepherding communities, graze their livestock on the residents’ lands and water their flocks from their wells.

      • jimbolauski@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        I’m instantly suspicious of any claims that “there they were minding their own buisness reading the bible on the porch”.

        • Deebster@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          It’s Ramadan, fasting and contemplating their religion is what many, many Muslims are doing right now.

        • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          I guess you haven’t been paying attention then. There are too many verified videos to count of people sitting doing nothing being shot by sniper fire, hit with a drone strike, ran over by a tank, bound and executed, etc. There have been numerous cases of children shot by sniper drones while going to and from hospitals.

      • Eheran@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        In a witness vs witness situation I doubt everything, yes. How should we know who is saying the truth? Because of the heart warming story about how they life their live I should route for the shepherd? I do not. I usually doubt everything, always, regardless who says it or what it is about. To me, this is hearsay. The other side was not even asked to tell us their side.

        • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          There’s a fucking corpse with a bullet hole and an eye witness. Plus, settler gangs commit acts of violence pretty much daily. What the fuck else do you think happened if not the thing that happens all the time?

        • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          You’re right. We should make sure that there is a thorough investigation by some kind of neutral third party to reveal the truth. I propose as a first step to establishing all the evidence that the Israelis should get the fuck out of the West Bank. They are obviously a biased party with a vested interest in this. So they should not have any fucking authority in the area just in case they try any shenanigans.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              You mean when they didn’t actually leave? They blockaded Gaza and constantly raided it. So much leaving going on there.

              • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                How about actually learning history instead of spouting bullshit. Israel only had to start taking action, after the constant terrorist attacks out of Gaza.

                • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  Lmao.

                  A. Yep I’ve read the history.

                  B. If they only took action against Gaza after terrorist attacks then why were they in Gaza in the first place?

                  They blockaded Gaza because they didn’t like the resistance movement actually winning the elections. Instead of trying to work with them they declared war right away. And yes that’s what a blockade is, an act of war. Israel has been at war with Gaza for nearly 20 years by that action alone. More if you count the illegal occupation before.

                  They don’t get a pass just for being Israel.

                  • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    Ah yes, revisionist history at its finest. Those are lovely stories you’re inventing there.

                    Actual facts: Israel agrees to give Gaza independence, pulling out all Jews living there, regardless for how long. Hamas comes into power, declaring their mission to wipe Israel off the map and starts sending terrorist after terrorist into Israel. A blockade is established to limit weapons getting into Gaza.

                • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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                  9 months ago

                  Everyone knows that the whole reason for the American Civil War was the Fort Sumter attack. That was when the timeline started, there were no deeper reasons, no history for decades prior. Anyone bringing up things like slavery are just doing it to dilute the crime of the Fort Sumter attack. If only the Confederates had not attacked Fort Sumter, the whole Civil War thing would never have happened.

                  Also, nobody needs a memory longer than a goldfish’s.

            • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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              9 months ago

              You know what, that tired bullshit argument has a point. Yes, to avoid a repeat of what happened after the Gaza pullout, the Israelis should take some additional corrective steps: do not intentionally prop up extremists to undermine the PA, like they did with Hamas, formally recognize Palestine, sign a treaty, pay reparations, give refugees the right to return, and commit to a policy of non intervention while the Palestinians fight out whatever internal civil war will inevitably follow the establishment of their newly liberated society (like the Irish civil war of 1922-23). That should probably do it. But there might be other concessions that they might have to accept, ultimately fair game in the name of establishing a lasting and just peace after 70 years of oppression of the Palestinians.

              • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                That’s great in fairy land. In reality that’s going to cause more terrorist attacks directed at Israel, as said terrorists can now operate freely in the area.

                As for reparations, how about Israel work out a plan to ween the West Bank off the Israeli provided resources they’re already heavily reliant on instead?

                On the right to return, you’re even more confused. They can return to he west bank all they want. What they actually want is to return to where Israel is and for it to stop existing.

                Idealistic bullshit is great online. It gets you plenty of up votes, when applied to reality, you’ll find it quite lacking.

                • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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                  9 months ago

                  Ok buddy. Tell me what you imagine is the basis for a realistic long term peaceful solution. Because the “idealistic bullshit” that I’m proposing is the stuff that actually brought peace in Europe after two fucking word wars and in places like Ireland after many decades of troubles. I.e., if tried and tested solutions are not realistic, tell me what is. Here’s the catch though: you’re not allowed to argue for ethnic cleansing.

                  • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    Hmm, last I checked Europe wasn’t a bunch of countries hell bent on wiping one other one off the map. Have you considered that different situations require different solutions?

                • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  9 months ago

                  What they actually want is to return to where Israel is and for it to stop existing.

                  Why do you think that is? Because where Israel is was their home that was stolen. They have stolen more and more territory, even just in recent days they have annexed land that is according to all treaties supposed to be Palestinian land.

                  • DoomBot5@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    Where Israel is was the homes of plenty of Jews that was also stolen from them. Btw, those treaties were only honored by Israel to begin with. Israel had to fight to maintain any land while the surrounding countries tried wiping it off the map, then neglecting the refugees from the wars they started.

        • kurwa@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Why the hell would they be there on their property otherwise? Just think for a second.

        • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          It’s a news article not a court.

          And the murderers will never be brought up on charges because Israelis don’t see Palestinians as people.

          Don’t be like the Israelis. Have some compassion.

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      They interviewed the wife. Who was literally watching from her window while terrorists murdered her husband.