Rights and Accountability 6 September 2016
It was filmed on 10 August by an international volunteer and published by the human rights group B’Tselem on Monday.
Combatants from the Israeli Border Police enter the house and demand the whereabouts of Maswadeh’s son. Unable to find the child, the soldiers seize two other boys, aged 11 and 12.
The boys are then marched over to a checkpoint where an Israeli settler armed with a rifle is waiting with his son.
The Border Police commander asks the settler and his son if they recognize the Palestinian boys. When they say they do not, the boys are released.
According to B’Tselem, occupation forces later picked up three other Palestinian children, aged 8, 11 and 13, and repeated the same procedure.
This was in connection with a fight that reportedly took place earlier that day between Palestinian children and Israeli settlers.
“Fights between Palestinian and settler children are commonplace in downtown Hebron, where Israel imposes a regime of segregation, causing systematic and extensive harm to the Palestinian population,” B’Tselem states.
Settlers in Hebron habitually harass and assault Palestinians with impunity, often under army protection.
In July, an Israeli soldier was filmed assaulting a Palestinian girl and confiscating her bicycle apparently because she was playing on a street that Israel has designated for the exclusive use of Jews.
According to Maswadeh’s testimony to B’Tselem, the Israeli soldiers later came back to his house at 2am to arrest his 8-year-old son. The father and son were then driven to the nearby settlement of Kiryat Arba where occupation forces wanted to interrogate the boy without his father present. Maswadeh said he refused.
“The video footage – showing Israeli security forces working in the service of the Hebron settlers and launching a night-time raid to locate an 8-year-old boy – highlights the disregard shown by Israeli authorities for the legal rights afforded to minors,” B’Tselem states. “Children below the age of criminal responsibility must not be detained for questioning, and certainly not in the middle of the night.”
The group also condemned Israel’s attempt to interrogate Maswadeh’s son without his parents present.
Sharp contrast
B’Tselem adds: “The immense efforts mounted to locate Palestinians suspected of harming settlers contrast sharply with the near absence of action to protect Palestinians from violence by settlers, be they minors or adults, or to uphold the rights of Palestinian children below the age of criminal responsibility.”
Recently, B’Tselem announced it would no longer cooperate with Israeli investigations into attacks by its soldiers and settlers on Palestinians, calling the military law enforcement system a sham.
“As of today,” B’Tselem executive director Hagai El-Ad wrote on 25 May, “we will no longer refer complaints to this system, and we will call on the Palestinian public not to do so either.”
“We will no longer aid a system that whitewashes investigations and serves as a fig leaf for the occupation.”
Abuse of children
The raid into a family home seen in the video above is routine in Hebron, as are night raids.
Harrowing video filmed last year shows Israeli soldiers raiding the bedrooms of Palestinian children in the middle of the night.
After forcing the children – at least one as young as four – out of their beds, the video shows the soldiers in full combat gear, armed with rifles and hand grenades, photographing and interrogating them.
Former Israeli soldiers have revealed that such raids in villages around the West Bank are often part of “mapping missions.”
Armed soldiers surround a Palestinian family’s home in the dead of night. A squad bangs on the front door, waking everyone up. Once inside, the soldiers gather the residents into a single room.
The family’s ID cards are inspected and recorded, as is how everyone is related, and their phone numbers.
These tactics rarely make headlines, but they are part of the fabric of a regime of seemingly permanent Israeli military rule over millions of Palestinians.
These kinds of abuses against children prompted 20 members of Congress to write to President Barack Obama earlier this year urging him to hold Israel accountable.
The lawmakers wrote of their “profound concern” regarding Israel’s ongoing abuse of Palestinian children, especially during their arrest, interrogation and imprisonment, adding that “ignoring the trauma being inflicted on millions of Palestinian children undermines our American values.”
Comments
heroes of Zion
Permalink tom hall replied on
Searching for an eight year old. Barging into homes and demanding that children be surrendered up to judgement at the hands of a settler child. But for the presence of a volunteer with his camera, this little episode, so typical of the Occupation, could well have involved more forceful methods. One further observation. If this squad represents the quality of personnel on hand in the Border Police, it's easy to see how they got their reputation for casual violence. They appear to be a group of lack-luster, poorly organized, badly led incompetents. Not that I'd advocate improved efficiency as a solution. The only improvement will come with their removal from Palestinian land and communities.
100% agree with you. Nasty,
Permalink Steve Richmond replied on
100% agree with you. Nasty, evil, vile people.
No videos
Permalink Jasper Cato replied on
I can't find any of your videos anywhere?
inaccessible videos
Permalink tom hall replied on
If you live in Israel, they may be blocked by government censors.
Children Wanted
Permalink R Davis replied on
Idle hands do the devils work.
house raid for an 8 year old
Permalink g hawke replied on
"i don't know you, who are you?"
"i'm a tourist, sir."
"enjoy Israel."
a brute, brave Israeli soldier demanding an 8 year old kid be turned over for arrest. the soldier knows full well only zionists are entitled to "enjoy Israel." ( please, always remember that being Jewish does not equal zionist. protesting the crimes of the Israeli state does not equal antisemitism, which is real and abhorrent.)