Israeli military disciplines three officers in death of elderly Palestinian American

Nazima Abdullah, the widow of Omar Assad, is comforted during his funeral Jan. 13 in Jiljilya, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. (Alaa Badarneh/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Two Israeli military officers were being removed from their positions immediately and a third will be formally censured over the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian American man who was detained at a checkpoint in the West Bank earlier this month, the Israeli military said Monday night.
 
The death of Omar Assad, a former Milwaukee grocery store owner, on Jan. 12 was the result of “moral failure” and poor decision-making by the soldiers who detained him, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The statement Monday summarized an internal army investigation of Assad’s treatment after an autopsy conducted by the Palestinian Ministry of Justice revealed that he suffered a stress-induced heart attack that was probably brought on by being bound, gagged and held by Israeli forces at a cold construction site.

The investigation, overseen by Israel’s Central Command, was presented Monday to IDF Chief of General Staff Aviv Kohavi, who “accepted the conclusions … and determined that the incident showed a clear lapse of moral judgment,” the statement said.

It centered on the conduct of a group of soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, which has been dogged by allegations of abuse against Palestinians, according to Israeli media reports.

Assad, who suffered from a coronary condition, was dragged from his car at a roadblock near his native village of Jiljilya, witnesses said. Soldiers then tied his hands, blindfolded and gagged him, leaving abrasions on his wrists and leaving him bleeding on the insides of his eyelids, according to the Palestinian medical exam.
 
The Israeli investigation said that after 30 minutes, Assad and other detainees were “released and freed from all constraints.”

The soldiers, however, assessed “that Assad was asleep and did not try to wake him,” the Monday statement said. “The soldiers failed in their obligations by leaving Assad lying on the floor without the required treatment and without reporting the incident back to their commanders.”

The inquiry concluded, however, that “there was no use of violence during the incident apart from when Assad was apprehended.”

Israel has occupied the West Bank for more than five decades and routinely subjects Palestinian residents to discrimination, harassment and violence, including unlawful killings, human rights groups say.
 
Israel’s Central Command is responsible for military operations in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. A separate probe by the Military Police has not yet been concluded but will determine whether criminal charges are filed against the soldiers.

According to the statement Monday, the commander of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion will be reprimanded and the platoon commander and company commander will be removed from their positions. They will be barred from serving in commanding roles for two years.