Killing with CS Gas Practice Makes Certain

Death in Bilin: IDF Doctors Found ‘Prolonged Exposure’ to CS Gas Lethal
by Tikun Olam

Teargas clouds in Bilin: prolonged exposure can cause death (Oren Ziv/Active Stills)

The Forward publishes today an eye-opening follow-up to the Jawaher Abu Rahme story. It seems that the IDF’s own doctors published a study in an academic journal noting that the type of CS gas used in the Bilin demonstrations could be lethal:

A 2003 article published by four Israeli army doctors in Archives of Toxicology noted that CS gas…causes tearing and burning for about 15 to 30 minutes, and this is lessened if people are moved into fresh air. The army has insisted on the safety of CS beyond these immediate effects. But the Israeli army doctors’ article noted, “At high concentrations, enclosed spaces, or prolonged exposures, severe side effects may occur and human deaths…have been reported.”

A 2009 article in the British Medical Journal came to similar conclusions, noting that tear gas is “not a gas at all, but a toxic chemical irritant.”

Instead of examining the circumstances under which the IDF prepared and conducted its teargas barrage on unarmed Palestinian protestors to determine whether something might have led this particular incident to be more lethal than others, the IDF obfuscates by insinuating that Abu Rahme really died of cancer or asthma or that she wasn’t even at the protest (she was in fact 150 feet away near her home, but the massive flow of teargas engulfed her and her mother).

You remember the standard definition of insanity: repeating the same failed action in the belief that next time it will work. In that light, and after reading that the army’s own doctors warned of such lethal effects from CS, we must call the IDF’s approach to policing the Bilin demonstration certified insanity:

The Israeli military source says the army does not plan to change its methods. A statement released by the spokesman noted: “The tear gas used by the IDF, like all other riot dispersal means, is checked rigorously before being put into active use. During the approval process, the device passed all the necessary tests and approvals.” …more