Reasonable Doubt: Who/What Killed Jawaher Abu Rahmah ?

Further to my previous post:-

I am not a forensic specialist or a medical examiner and in any case, the body of the Bilin woman, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, is not available for a post-mortem examination. So, let's be clear, if the body is not to be studied, we will never know exactly what caused her death or whether anything was a contributory cause to her death.

Nevertheless, since there are people who are intent upon creating a narrative they claim to be truth and in doing so, seek to create a martyr while pillorying Israel and the IDF, one cannot but try to marshall the various assertions and ask the public: does this sound/appear logical to you?

And if there is a reasonable doubt, then don't allow anti-Zionists to sway you or be influenced by crass Arab propaganda.

Let's start with the scene (thanks to Haaretz - hardcopy edition only):

You will notice two things immediately:

(a) the soldiers are far away and on the other side of the fence. in order for the tear gas to have been used, the Arab side needed to approach the fence and to throw stones, aka, act violently. According to Haaretz, she was 150-180 meters away from the tear gas - still a very long distance for tear gas to have any toxic effect.

(b) they did indeed do that, twice.

So, it started when the Arabs acted violently.

What follows are various comments and observations I've collected and as at the moment not necessarily in any pertinent order other that being relevant to my claim: that there is resonable doubt not to believe the Arab version.

1)
If you look at the video you see that there is no cloud hanging over the valley whatsoever, that's because of the wind.(It was a winter day last friday) If you are at a distance of say 150 meters from where the cannister is falling in such circumstances there will be rarefaction. In the video you can see that a cloud is formed only at the places where the cannisters were falling and only for a few seconds. We have several witnesses who testified that the woman was at least 150 meters away. By the time the gas reached the spot where the woman was standing it would be (I estimate) 10 % gas and 90 % air.

And, when viewing the video but in retrospect isn't it interesting that none of the protesters seem to be running for their lives? They might walk fast through the clouds of tear gas. Some covered their faces. One or two picked up the grenades and threw them back at the soldiers. These same people who are alleging that the IDF used excessive force or was negligent know full well that they are not in mortal peril.

If they thought they were in danger of losing life or limb they would not be so casual.

2)
the NYT's Isabel Kershner's first article on that demonstrators death dated Jan. 1 placed the woman at the protest itself: "A Palestinian woman died Saturday after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces a day earlier at a protest against Israel’s separation barrier in a West Bank village." In her Jan. 4 follow-up article, she placed the woman at "a distance": "Her mother said she and her daughter, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, were watching the protest from a distance when a cloud of tear gas wafted their way, causing her daughter to collapse." So she was either there or she wasn't there according to the NYT. If she wasn't there, she was at "a distance" from the event. Does that mean she was 50 feet away, 50 yards away, 1000 yards, half a mile away? We simply do not know. Kershner does not know either since she was physically not there so is totally dependent on the family of the dead woman for information- a family who is not exactly neutral in all of this. How far can a tear gas "cloud" travel anyway before it is dispersed in the air?"

3)
According to Haaretz, she was 150-180 meters away from the tear gas - still a very long distance for tear gas to have any toxic effect.

4)
There is a FB page for Bi'lin, A Village in Palestine, which has photos from the 12/31/10 demonstration. Picture #13 has a guy in an ambulance with blood all over his front, and holding a handkerchief to his nose. Have we heard anything about this?

5)
Her ambulance treatment form.

The report says she was collected from 'home/residential'. Note how long it took the ambulance to get there. She was on a nearby hill, next to her house.

Wrong age.

6)
The Facebook report from the anarchists stated that her death was the result of inhaling CS gas mixed with Phosphorus. But there is no such thing.

Note:
CN, CS and CR cause almost instant pain in the eyes, excessive flow of tears and closure of the eyelids, and incapacitation of exposed individuals. Apart from the effects on the eyes, these agents also cause irritation in the nose and mouth, throat and airways and sometimes to the skin, particularly in moist and warm areas. In situations of massive exposure, tear gas, which is swallowed, may cause vomiting. Serious systemic toxicity is rare and occurs most frequently with CN; it is most likely to occur when these agents are used in very high concentrations within confined non-ventilated spaces. Based on the available toxicological and medical evidence, CS and CR have a large safety margin for life-threatening or irreversible toxic effects. There is no evidence that a healthy individual will experience long-term health effects from open-air exposures to CS or CR, although contamination with CR is less easy to remove.

Remember, Israel uses CS.

7)
Another thing related to her health is that I remember seeing reports that she had a CT scan (10 days?) before her death. She was suffering from an ear infection (her family confirmed this). But from my experience I know that a CT scan is only performed when there are indications that there could be a more severe illness (CT Scans are very expensive). In this case I also remember reading a report that she had spots on her skin and was suffering from disturbances of equilibrium at the time. I think that the reason why she had this scan was that the physician thought of the possiblity of a brain tumor.

8)
Joel Greenberg reports on Abu Rahmah

Note he doesn't use the word "cloud" to describe the tear gas. He doesn't treat the anonymity as a reason to doubt the IDF. Finally in the last paragraph he notes that Israel isn't getting cooperation.

9)
it is not at all clear that tear gas had anything to do with her death. Recall that a cousin reported on Facebook that she was at home 500 meters from the riot location. Another version has her watching the riot at a distance with her mother. Could tear gas have any significant effect "at a distance", in particular at a distance of 500 meters? Maybe she just had a terminal condition of some kind.

The tear gas must have set off a preexisting condition because she alone died and because she wasn't even among those who faced the highest concentration of the tear gas. Yes, this does mean that tear gas may have helped to cause her death, but it negates any attempt to argue that there was any intent to do her or anyone else harm. The truth is that the Israelis used a non-lethal crowd control agent and only because of a particular medical problem, the exact nature of which is unknown because the Palestinians did not perform an autopsy, her respiratory system reacted after she inhaled some tear gas that had reached her position several hundred feet away from the demonstration. Hundreds of protesters amid the highest concentrations of the gas did not react to it as Jawaher Abu Rahma did. Her death was an accident.

But if she were "several hundred feet away from the demonstration" the tear gas would have dissipated before it got to her. In my view, if she were that far away, then she would not have been affected by tear gas. We cannot be sure that her death had anything to do with tear gas at all.

10)
There is no way to know, with confirmation, where she was or what caused her death - and that this is what lays bare the hideous nature of what Abbas and the others are doing: they are making definitive libels against Israel and Jews without having the facts in front of them. Then, point out how many times in the past the Palestinians have done exactly this, and far worse, when the facts were known, and they turned them on their heads.

To be updated...

And see The Lede.


11)
There's something else about Kershner's article. Every time she refers to the IDF's response, she points out that the IDF sources are (for now) anonymous, as if that somehow makes them less credible. Since when is a reporter, a reporter for the NYT no less, squeamish about using anonymous sources? She writes about the potency of symbols. Of course that's how she'd frame the narrative. Exactly as the Palestinians would. Israel would frame it that this is one more incident where Israel is being falsely charged with being careless or malicious in causing the death of an innocent. (al-Dura, Jenin, Cast Lead, Mavi Marmara)

A report dated Jan. 2 from the hospital and signed by two doctors and the director, Dr. Muhammad Aideh, said her death was caused by “unknown gas inhalation” after an “attack by Israeli soldiers as the family said.” Dr. Aideh also said the patient “died from lung failure that was caused by tear gas inhalation, leading to a heart attack.” - "As the family said," is not a medical observation. Here's a Palestinian doctor filling a death certificate and he finds it obligatory to stress that everything happened "as the family said." The official Palestinian narrative already was in full sway and this doctor felt obliged to fall in line. Yet, this doesn't register with Kershner that the doctor might have been coached in what he was supposed to write. After all, what reputable medical examiner would go out of his way to signal that his conclusions were based on what "the family said"? Kershner, however, swallows this Palestinian doctor's report hook, line and sinker.

Note: Eye symptoms are treated by rinsing the eyes with water until the stinging starts to go away. Treatment for breathing difficulties involves helping the affected person get more oxygen in his or her blood. Medications that are used to treat asthma (such as bronchodilators and steroids) may be used to help the person breathe. Burn injuries to the skin are treated with standard burn management techniques, such as medicated bandages. IIf Abu Rahma suffered breathing difficulties due to tear gas, why wasn't she given oxygen or albuteral (or similar medication)? Foaming at the mouth is not a symptom associated with tear gas.

12)
There IS something very screwy going on with this woman's medical history. If the family started out by claiming that she had no medical issues - and if documentation trotted out in the early news cycles seemed to collaborate this - why are they now handing out normal CT scans?

If the point is going to be systematic lying, Palestinian obfuscation about the woman's actual medical history is the place to start.

13)
Does Israel kill Arabs with teargas? Response to Lisa Goldman and Joseph Dana.

And here.


And over at The Lede, found this:

Michael
Ohio
January 7th, 2011
12:51 amI would like some real background on this issue, instead of opinions: (1) In other places where this tear gas is used in the open, has it been found to be deadly? (2) is the use of this tear gas standard for other country's security forces? (3) what are the standard procedures recommended for and used for the tear gas? (4) were these procedures followed by the IDF? (5) what are the standard procedures of other forces that use these chemicals? (6) what does the manufacturer claim about toxicity and usage of the product - do they admit the possibility of complications? (6) statistically speaking, given the fact the IDF has to use tear gas every week, is the individual's death considered within the risk level of product usage by the manufacturer? (7) Does the level of violence or activity at the demonstrations merit the use of tear gas and (8) if not what alternatives could be used to tear gas and (9) does the use of tear gas in these instances conform to usage by other countries (e.g. to suppress demonstrators at G8 conference etc.)?

Nice point here.


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