A former Border Policewoman in Israel has been charged with assault and reckless use of a weapon for allegedly shooting an unarmed Palestinian man in the back with a sponge-tipped bullet as he walked away from a West Bank checkpoint.
The case has drawn widespread attention since Channel 13 TV broadcast a video of the May 2018 incident earlier this month.
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In the video, the Palestinian is shot in the back nearly 20 seconds after walking away from the checkpoint.
Border Police occasionally use sponge-tipped bullets as a non-lethal tool to disperse crowds, but the bullets are painful and can cause serious injury.
The Palestinian, Karam Qawasmi, said on Thursday that other officers also abused him and should have been charged. He said he fears she'll receive a "very light punishment."
The Israel Police said the female policewoman was removed from the force immediately after it learned of the incident. It said other police involved in the incident were re-assigned.
The TV report quoted the woman's lawyer as saying she did not fire the bullet. It also showed what it said were text messages between a different police officer suspected in the case, in which he bragged of shooting the Palestinian to his girlfriend, who calls him a "hunk" and attaches heart emojis.
Israel's leading human rights group, B'Tselem, stopped cooperating with the IDF three years ago after accusing the army of whitewashing such cases.
"This exceptional documentation shows what, sadly, is an unexceptional event: Israeli security forces hurting a Palestinian for absolutely no reason," said B'Tselem spokesman Amit Gilutz. "Such instances are the direct result of the culture of impunity fostered by Israel, which is crucial to the perpetuation of its military control over the Palestinians."
