Video: Israeli soldiers brutally beat Palestinian dad

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 13 June 2015

This video shows Israeli soldiers brutally beating and taunting a Palestinian man near Jalazone refugee camp near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Friday.

It was broadcast by the Palestine Public Broadcasting Corporation and has been shared widely on social media.

According to Al Jazeera Arabic, the victim of the attack, Shadi al-Ghobashi, had come out of his home in the refugee camp to tell the soldiers to stop firing tear gas that was causing suffering to his family, including his children.

Occupation forces were reportedly using tear gas to suppress protests by local youths against Israeli land theft in the area.

Blows and obscenities

The video shows three Israeli soldiers confronting al-Ghobashi as he speaks to them. One of them strikes him with his rifle. Al-Ghobashi, unafraid, raises his arms to defend himself. The soldiers begin shoving him and shouting obscenities at him in Arabic and Hebrew.

A soldier begins to kick him. The situation seems to calm down momentarily, but then one of the soldiers runs at al-Ghobashi, striking him and shouting more obscenities as al-Ghobashi raises his arms in self-defense.

The soldiers repeatedly shout at him to “shut up” and “don’t touch anyone.”

“One more word and I’ll fuck up your mother,” a soldier shouts.

A video still shows an Israeli soldier beating Shadi al-Ghobashi on the head with what appears to be a rifle.

Al-Ghobashi then walks away and that might have been the end of it. But the soldiers go after him, continuing to shout at him that he is a “son of a whore.”

This angers al-Ghobashi, who turns around, wags his finger and responds, “you are the son of a whore, you understand?”

The video then shows no fewer than six soldiers kicking and beating the man, even as he lays on the ground with his head bleeding. One soldier smashes him on the head with a rifle.

As they attack al-Ghobashi and handcuff him, the sound of tear gas grenades or gunfire can be heard in the background. The video then shows the soldiers leading al-Ghobashi away.

Religious unit

Some of the perpetrators of the attack have their faces covered. One repeatedly calls another by the first name Menachem.

The attackers also appear to be aware that their deeds are being recorded. As the half dozen soldiers attack al-Ghobashi, a voice can be heard shouting in Hebrew, “There are soldiers, there are soldiers! Get the photographers away! Get the photographers away!”

Israeli media has identified the soldiers as belonging to the Netzah Yehuda Battalion – a religious unit from the Israeli army’s Kfir Brigade.

The Israeli army has acknowledged the incident, but offered justifications, claiming that the soldiers had earlier been pelted with rocks.

“Those [soldiers] involved in the incident were summoned to meet with the brigade commander [Sunday] morning for a clarification and debriefing of the event,” an army spokesperson told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “If need be, disciplinary action will be taken against them. From a preliminary probe it seems their behavior does not befit that expected of an IDF [Israeli army] soldier.”

Given the systematic impunity Israeli soldiers enjoy, including for killing Palestinian children, there is little reason to believe they will face any serious consequences for their actions.

With thanks to Dena Shunra for assistance with Hebrew translation.

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Comments

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Anonymous replied on

18 year old kids acting like drunkards at a rave with automatic rifles..
Thats the most moral army??
Thats an army whose soldiers think palestinians are sub-humans and know there are no reprecussion.

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Erick replied on

Cowards!!! Is easy to hide behid a rifle. This soldiers are cowards. If one of them reads my coment I hope seats back for a minute and ask himself "what did I acomplish with this actions" Well if this soldiers don't know what they acomplish is to look like dam ass in front of all world. I used to tell my kids and friends how great the Israely army was,but what desapoitment. The reputation of this disgraful army is one of the worst around the world.Shame....shame

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maggie replied on

Good for him for standing up against 8 armed thugs. Good for him. I must wonder, however, why no onlookers came to his assistance.

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Dean Olson replied on

They handcuffed him and led him away. What happened to him? Was he released? Is he still being held? Yah, definitely my heart and feelings go out toward him and how he was being treated, then beaten by thugs. But, is is now okay?

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Tony g replied on

Could someone please put English subtitles on this video for wider distribution. It is disgraceful conduct and should be viral

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David Mivasair replied on

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Isra...

The IDF claims the victim tried to snatch a commander's weapon and that justified arresting him. This seems entirely bogus. Just watch the video.

And it is 100% certain that if they had not been caught on video which went viral worldwide, the IDF would have done nothing at all about this incident, the likes of which and worse are repeated over and over again.

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mwk replied on

How pathetic those stupid israeli cowards are. Well to the REAL MAN who stood up to those pathetic rabble who call themselves israeli soldiers

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Ahmed replied on

Stop defaming Israel you guys, they only beat unarmed civilians and subjugate them to humiliation. Don't you see that this man represented a terror threat to a dozen fully armed soldiers? Seriously you guys are such anti-Semites because you mention the obvious which is a type of slander.

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Erick replied on

I'm glad you love the sarcasm that means that at least you have time to read our coments. Deep inside you know that the Zionist are bad

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.