Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Senior security source raises questions about the death of Jawaher Abu Rahma


Israel Matzav

In a call this evening, a senior security source told me that Jawaher Abu Rahma did not die from inhaling teargas as the 'Palestinians' have claimed.

The source raised several questions regarding Abu Rahma's death. First, the lab test report, which the IDF has obtained, is dated 35 minutes before Abu Rahma arrived at the hospital. The lab test is dated 2:45 pm, whereas Abu Rahma did not arrive at the hospital until 3:20 pm. There is no emergency room report.

The cause of death in the certificate of death is listed as "inhaling gas of Israeli soldier according to the family."

The 'Palestinians' also claim that there was no prior medical history, but the IDF has discovered that Abu Rahma visited the same hospital ten days ago.

On Friday, Abu Rahma was prescribed medications that had nothing to do with mitigating the effects of teargas, but which were medications that are used in the treatment of chronic illnesses such as blood cancer (Leukemia).

The IDF has never heard of anyone in the five years of riots at Bil'in who died of inhaling teargas.

Abu Rahma had been participating in the riots at Bil'in weekly for five years, and did not have any respiratory problems before.

Ordinarily, the 'Palestinians' share all of their information and reports on civilian deaths with the IDF; this time they refused to share that information.

The IDF purchases its teargas abroad and uses the same teargas as other Western countries. The teargas was not remixed or altered.

Jawaher Abu Rachma's brother Rachman is the leader of the demonstrations at Bil'in, but there is no documentation that he was near her during the demonstration. If there had been such documentation, it would have been prominently displayed at the funeral.

Therefore, the IDF believes that Jawaher Abu Rahma may not have been at the demonstration on Friday at Bil'in to begin with.

I asked about the identity of the woman who was in the ambulance at the end of this video. The senior security source did not know who she was. The IDF was told on Friday that two lightly wounded people reached the hospital in Ramallah, and that they were treated and released on Friday. They did not hear about Abu Rahma until Saturday.

I also asked about the rumor that Abu Rahma had been killed in an honor killing. The senior security source was not aware of any evidence to that effect. The IDF believes that Abu Rahma had a chronic illness - we know that she has been in and out of the hospital for the past month - and they believe that Abu Rahma's death is connected to that illness and not to an honor killing. The 'Palestinians' are attempting to take advantage of the coincidence of the time of her death to turn her into a 'martyr.'

The IDF is not aware of any other deaths of 'Palestinians' in riots as a result of inhaling teargas. This riot took place in a large open area. The IDF is not aware of any deaths of rioters from inhaling teargas in an open area. Ever.

The IDF does not use water cannons (The Independent's Donald McIntyre referred to the IDF adding "skunk" to water used from water cannons - the senior security source denied that the IDF uses water cannons).

The IDF has started to move the fence route in accordance with the high court order that it do so, and yet the residents of Bil'in continue to protest. Given that the Bil'in protesters have already 'won' the fence's removal, the IDF wonders why they continue to protest.

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