Colonel Aviv Reshef

On July 7 2008 Reshef sent his troops, lead by company commander lieutenant-colonel Omri Burberg, to the Nilin village near Ramallah. The IDF troops captured Ashraf Abu-Rahma, 27, a Palestinian resident of Nilin and well known peace activist while helping some international peace activists who had arrived in the village from the direction of the nearby town of Deir Kadis in order to support the steadfastness of the citizens and to supply them with humanitarian aid in the wake of a strict siege and curfew which had been imposed on them by Reshef for over a week.

After Abu Rahma was detained for a half an hour, he was taken to a military jeep by lieutenant-colonel Omri Burberg, the company commander under orders of Aviv Reshef. Abu Rahma was handcuffed and blinded when Burberg ordered a soldier to shoot him. The soldier shot the Abu Rahma from a distance of about 1.5 meters while Burberg was holding from his arm.

A young girl from Nilin, Salam Kan’an, 18, filmed the crime from the window of her home. The scandal vodei was distributed widely. See the video below

Reshef tried to get the original copy of the film in order to destroy it. Bibi Benjamin, an officer from the DCL office under orders of Reshef called the girl at home. He offered to pay her any price she wanted for the original of the video. When she refused, Reshef sent his troops to terrorize her family at their home, to search the home for the film and to take it by force. The IDF soldiers committed war crimes inside the house of the girl. They shot sound bombs inside the rooms and in the kitchen. They broke the windows and damaged the furniture. They beat her brothers and arrested her old father, Jamal Amira, of age 56.

After the incident, the unjust Israeli military advocate Avichai Mendelblit “investigated” the shooting of Palestinian peace activist Ashraf Abu-Rahma. He issued an order to release the IDF war criminal that shot the handcuffed victim. On 22 July 2008, two weeks after the crime, the criminal soldier was released. Mendelblit also found that Lieutenant colonel Aviv Reshef was guilty, not for shooting a blindfolded victim but for covering his officer Omri Burberg and not informing Gadi Shamni, (the former central commander) about the crime after it happened. Mendelblit took issue because this had hindered a coordinated operation to cover up the crime and issue disinformation in press releases before the media could expose the scandal. The farce of the “investigation” of Mendelblit was ended by completely covering up the crime of Reshef and his company commander.

Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit is a war criminal who legitimized and justified the blockade on the Gaza Strip, the military commando’s criminal actions taken to prevent the “Mavi Marmara” Turkish ship from reaching Gaza. He thinks that the naval blockade, imposed by Israel on a million and a half Palestinians in Gaza since in 2006 was in keeping with international law due to "pure military considerations" and not as a part of "economic warfare" against Hamas. Mendelblit also justified the IDF war crimes in Gaza dropping tons of explosives and phosphors in the middle of populated areas during the socalled “operation Cast lead”.

On Tuesday July 29 2008, Ahmad Husam Yousef Musa, 9 years old, was shot by Reshef's soldiers in Nilin. The child was hiding behind an olive tree when Reshef’s soldiers driving by in a Jeep saw him. One of them jumped from the jeep, stood at a distance of 50 meters, aimed his rifle at Ahmad and shot a bullet in his head. The bullet entered Ahmad’s forehead and exited through the back of his skull.

On July 30 2008, Reshef's soldiers murdered another Palestinian child, Yossef Amira, 17 years old, while standing near his home in Nilin. The IDF soldiers murdered Yossef while they were shooting at peace activists during a demo against the apartheid wall in the village. Reshef was among his soldiers during the murder of Amira. He went to the Palestinian town together with his troops to loot 60 dunums of agricultural lands from Nilin territory. Reshev was implementing the military order No. (06/08/T). The military order was issued on April 16 2008 by the “Central Commander” Gadi Shamni and under orders of the former Brigadier of Ramallah Col. Amir Abulafia (אל"מ אמיר אבולעפיה). The military order announced the confiscation of 18.9 dunums of agricultural land located in the basin No. 9 in the sites Al-Joros, Aqabet Bear Renn and Baten Al-Jaher.

The military order did not indicate the purpose of the confiscation. The order was issued after a declaration of the Israeli war criminal Ehud Barak on March 7 2008 in which Barak stated that he issued a military order to convert the colony of “Modi'in Illit” into an Israeli city on the occupied Palestinian land and that he wanted to open a University in the colony. The Modi'in Illit squatter colony was established in 1991 and is located 8 km north-west of Jerusalem, and the new and illegal borders are now known as the boundaries of the “Modi'in Illit” colonies. Five squatter colonies occupied by 40,000 American, European and Ethiopian zionist jews. It is the largest jewish colony in the Palestinian territories.

Under the command of Reshef it was clear that the confiscation of the Palestinian land serves the plan of Ehud Barak, the so called “defense minister”. It was for the establishment of a crossing, the so-called “Kiryat Sefer” crossing on the territory of Nilin. The crossing serves the boundaries (five colonies) of Modi'in Illit. Reshef confiscated 60 dunums instead of 18.9 dunums mentioned in the military order. This is a war crime and criminal theft, even a violation of the fascist military law. Before that, the IDF central command had confiscated 2500 dunums of Nilin’s land to build the apartheid wall. The length of the Apartheid Wall in the village of Ni'lin is 8.7 km and it separated and looted of 5883 dunums (40% of the lands of the village) from their owners, inhabitants of Nilin.

On January 1 2010-08, Reshef’s soldiers shot the child Motaz Al-Khawaja, ten years old, a student in the fourth class of primary school in Nilin. The child said: “I was alone when I saw that the soldier “border police” approached me. I ran away. The soldier shouted at me, saying: “stop or I will shoot you!” I continued running, and I heard that the soldier fired a number of shots. I felt dizzy and fell on the floor. I put my hand on the back of my head and looked again; I saw my hand filled with blood”. Motaz was hospitalized and recovered, but he still suffers from pain, headache and depression.

On May 2008, Reshef’s death squads operated in the center of Ramallah. They kidnapped the employee of the Palestinian National Security Ali Al-Turmosani in the main street of Ramallah. Mr. Ali Al-Turmosani from Fatah was listed by the Israeli government under the “forgiven” Palestinians during the official negotiations between the Israel and the PA. The forgiveness came after Mr. Al-Turmosani and other members of Fatah activist groups signed an official paper in which they stated that they would never target Israel or ever again take part in the resistance against the occupation. Since then, Al-Turmosani had been working with the PA national security forces as a security man.

On 20 May 2008, eight Israelis from the death squad unit “Al-Mistarvim” were sent by Reshef to Ramallah city center. These Israeli murderers who wear Arab clothes, invaded the Sheikh Zayed Palestinian Hospital in Ramallah and kidnapped the Palestinian security man Arafat Nofal. The PA security man was on duty guarding the hospital when the Israeli death squads wearing Hijab approached him, pulled out a pistol and forced him to go with them. Other eight armed members of the same death squad unit in Palestinian civilian dress surrounded Arafat Nofal, pointing their guns at him. They drove Nofal to an unknown place outside of Ramallah.