Slain Palestinian boy’s dad says Israel diminishing his death

The father of a Palestinian teenager shot dead by Israeli soldiers who were pursuing rock throwers on Wednesday accused the army of what he said was the army’s belittlement of his son’s death.

Israeli troops shot dead Mahmoud Badran, 15, and injured several others who were initially suspected of throwing rocks at Israeli motorists. The IDF later acknowledged that they had not been involved and said they were shot in error.

“You declared that you made a mistake, but the bottom line is that you killed a boy,” Rafat Badran said to Army Radio. “You cut short the dream of a boy who dreamt of being a doctor, of playing for Real Madrid. And you just say you made a mistake, like one who says he made a mistake counting a little money. That’s how you see this issue in your army.”

The military said it opened an investigation into the incident, which occurred on Route 443 near the Palestinian village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, an army spokesperson said.

Three Israelis were injured when their car was pelted with stones and Molotov cocktails, the IDF said, and several other vehicles were also damaged.

The father of the killed teenager said the boys were returning from a night swim in a nearby spring when the fatal shooting occurred. They were celebrating the fact that their cousin from Qatar was in town, he said.

Palestinian boy 'mistakenly' killed by Israeli forces while driving near stone-throwing https://t.co/jFW4wkr7NF pic.twitter.com/f7bSKpzqpm

— Ma'an News Agency (@MaanNewsAgency) June 21, 2016

According the Badran, the car his son was in was shot through the roof as well as through the rear window. The Army Radio interviewer, Niv Raskin, apparently quoting the army, asserted that the soldiers fired on the vehicle only after the driver refused to stop, and aimed for the wheels, but missed.

He then grilled the father about his current career in the Palestinian foreign ministry and his criminal past.

Badran said he was imprisoned for trying to carry out an attack in 1985, and was released in 1999 under the terms of the Oslo Accords, which saw many Palestinian prisoners freed as part of a multi-year peace process.

“I tried to carry out an attack a long time ago. That was before Oslo. During Oslo we believed in peace. We extended our hands in peace. We hoped to work together so that each one of us could have a state. But your government turned the thing into a joke,” said Badran.

Asked whether he thought there could be peace between Israelis and Palestinians in the near future, Badran responded, “Do you know what I told [PA President Mahmoud Abbas], who pays a dear price among his people for his peace efforts, yesterday? I told him I’m willing for my blood to be the last incident.”

“This is not the real world,” Badran lamented. “This is a world that lives off of the selling of weapons that turned our region into a big war.”

“So you don’t see any chance for peace in the near future?” Raskin asked.

“Not until Israel stops voting in right-wing governments,” Badran replied.

The interviewer then pointed out that not everyone is as peaceful as Abbas; for instance, the Gaza-based Islamist group Hamas, which has vowed to destroy Israel.

“So make peace with the West Bank,” Badran retorted.