NGOs B'Tselem and Yesh Din on Wednesday filed a petition with the High Court of Justice asking it to compel Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein and the IDF to reopen the closed investigation into the killing of Bassem Abu Rahmeh in April 2009 when he was hit by an IDF tear gas canister.
The NGOs filed the case on behalf of Abu Rahmeh’s mother, Subhiya, on a case which gained international attention once it was featured in the film “Five Broken Cameras,” which was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards.
The IDF legal division closed the investigation in September 2013 vaguely explaining that it had not found sufficient evidence to prosecute soldiers involved in firing the canister with additional reports that state attorneys involved also said they had been unable to identify which soldier fired the canister.
But that decision was over four years after the event and came only after a prior petition to the High Court to order the IDF legal division to make an initial decision about whether to file indictments or close the case.
The current petition relates to an appeal of that decision filed in July 2014 to Weinstein and in parallel to the IDF Magistrate Advocate General in a case which has both military and civilian aspects to it since the border policemen involved are connected to both the military and civilian chains of command.
To date, that appeal has not been answered positively or negatively by Weinstein.
The basic premise of the newest petition is that the IDF’s explanation of its closing of the case was so vague that it leaves open questions as to whether all relevant witnesses were questioned, all evidence was probed and whether the petitioners expert reports on the issue were properly considered.
The petition, written by attorneys Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man and Michael Sfard, states that “Abu Rahmeh was killed by shooting carried out by IDF soldiers that was negligent at best, and the case file of the investigation of the circumstances of his death has been wallowing for years under unpardonable foot-dragging by the investigative and prosecutorial authorities.”
The petitioners said that Abu Rahmeh was killed by an extended-range tear-gas canister that struck his chest during a nonviolent demonstration against the Separation Barrier in his village, Bil’in.
They claim that three segments of footage filmed at the demonstration proved that Abu Rahmeh was on the eastern side of the barrier, was not behaving violently, and did not endanger the troops in any way.
The footage also shows that during the demonstration, other soldiers fired tear-gas canisters directly at the protesters, in blatant contravention of open-fire regulations, said the petitioners.
Next, the petition says that soldiers stated during questioning that they were neither trained nor briefed on the use of extended-range tear-gas canisters in the context of dealing with a civilian demonstration.
In initial response, Justice Menachem Mazuz ordered the state to respond by May 25.
September 8th, 2025
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