Palestinian will take son’s murder to ICC as court goes easy on killer

A Palestinian father seeking a longer sentence for the former Israeli paramilitary policeman who killed his teenage son will take the case to the International Criminal Court, after a judge handed down a ninemonth jail term.

Ben Deri shot dead unarmed Nadeem Nuwara, 17, from a distance at a Nakba Day protest in the West Bank town of Beitunia on May 15, 2014.

In a plea deal, Deri was charged with causing death through negligence and severe bodily harm, which carried a maximum sentence of three years. The original charge of manslaughter was changed under the deal.

But Nadeem’s father said his battle for justice would continue regardless of the Israeli court ruling, which was delivered on Wednesday.

“I want to take this case to the International Criminal Court, to pursue justice for my son,” Siam Nuwara, 46, told The National from Jerusalem, before heading to Al Aqsa Mosque for prayers. “We need international control of the Israeli courts.

“All the world must talk of this case and how Ben Deri killed my son, and how the Israeli courts have not punished him.”

He said he would go to the ICC when he has finished “all the details with the Israeli court”.

The rally that the teenager attended was held to commemorate what Palestinians describe as their day of catastrophe, when Israel was created and displaced hundreds of thousands of Arab civilians.

By Palestinian accounts, Nadeem was not a militant, but a normal teenage boy who liked to play basketball and hang out with his friends.

Surveillance footage showed him at the protest appearing to pose no danger to Israeli soldiers when the shot was fired. Deri’s legal team claimed that he accidentally switched a rubber bullet for a live bullet, firing it into Nadeem’s chest.

Mr Nuwara compared the sentence with that of 13-yearold Ahmed Mansara, to express the injustice he felt. Ahmed stabbed an Israeli teenager in East Jerusalem in October 2015 and received a 13-year sentence for attempted murder.

“He didn’t kill anyone but Ben Deri killed a child. An innocent child, with no valid reason,” Mr Nuwara said.

The Israeli court appeared to agree with him. It ruled that the lethal shot was fired after protesters had stopped throwing stones.

“Contrary to regulations, and despite the fact that the deceased posed no threat to the Israeli unit, the defendant aimed his weapon at the torso of the deceased and fired at the deceased with the intent of injuring him,” it said.

Nadeem’s death provoked Palestinian anger and became an obsession for his father, who gave up his businesses – three West Bank hair salons, one near Nablus and two in Ramallah.

Mr Nuwara collected as much evidence as he could about his son’s death, even exhuming the body to prove that his son’s torso had an exit wound from a lethal bullet.

“There is no justice in Israel. I collected all the evidence. I gave them strong evidence,” he said. “This is the strongest case in Israel and Palestine.”

The case has similar tones to that of Israeli soldier Elor Ezaria, who was sentenced to 18 months on a manslaughter charge after being filmed