UK Citizen Serving in Israeli Forces Identified as Killer of 17-Year-Old Palestinian Boy

January 28, 2021 Blog, News
Pictures of the desk of Atallah Rayyan, the 17-year-old Palestinian student killed by Israeli forces. (Photo: via Social Media)

A British woman serving in the Israeli occupation forces has been identified by the Jerusalem Post as the killer of the Palestinian boy Attallah Mohammad Harb Rayyan.

The 17-year-old teenager from Qawarat Bani Hassan, a town located near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, was shot on Tuesday.

Attallah’s killer was identified as the British female Cpl Lian Harush. The 22-year-old traveled by herself from the UK to serve as a “lone soldier” in Israel’s occupation army. As many as 6,000 such soldiers with dual citizenship belong to the controversial program.

Their recruitment has also been a cause of controversy. An Al Jazeera report found that far-right radical organizations in Europe were recruiting western citizens to serve in the Israeli army. Many of these foreign fighters took part in the 2014 Gaza war.

Organizations linked to the Israeli army are said to be cropping up all over Europe to enlist voluntary recruits. The organizations specializing in bringing individuals to Israel operate branches in major European cities, including London, to provide military experience and also an opportunity to take part in formal combat.

Those that don’t want to join the lone soldier program can take part in controversial fantasy “anti-terrorism” camps in the occupied West Bank. There, tourists are given the opportunity to play the role of Israeli forces in a variety of situations, ranging from an explosion at a Jerusalem marketplace to a stabbing attack and sniper tournament.

According to the Jerusalem Post, after fatally shooting Attallah, Harush called her parents in London from the scene to update them on the attack and told them she was fine. As in many previous cases in which an alleged Palestinian attacker was killed, no Israeli soldiers or civilians were injured.

Attallah is the first Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces in 2021. In 2020, Israeli forces killed nine Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, six of whom were killed with live ammunition, according to documentation collected by Defence for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).

(MEMO, PC, Social Media)

    Learn More     Watch Video
(The Palestine Chronicle is a registered 501(c)3 organization, thus, all donations are tax deductible.)
Our Vision For Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out

Related Articles

4 Comments

  1. Some years ago I was invited to a Passover meal with a Jewish friend (UK).
    During the meal, a teenage boy (member of the family) started a diatribe against the Palestinians.
    As I had previously made a promise to my Palestinian friends in Damascus never to break bread with a Zionist or similar, I made my apologies & immediately left.
    A few years later, the same youth – now more mature – phoned me to apologise, he had performed military service in Israel and was horrified and ashamed at not only the behavior of the military but also having to take part in Nazi like oppression of the Indigenous population of Palestine

  2. I found this story both bizarre and sickening. How can this woman live with herself? How can our British Government allow this to happen? It’s sickening. I wish there was only humanity on earth. I despair .

    • How can she live? Simply by not getting killed in stabbing attack. You know – by succesfuly defending herself. And teenagers trying to kill soldiers indeed are sickening, I can only agree with that.

  3. Have posted to Facebook. This Apartheid Nazism is beyond my comprehension. My heart goes out to Attas grieving family and my home is your home.

Comments are closed.