Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody

Israel arrested 9,000 Palestinians last year, 700 of them children

 

A former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC’ s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank.

“You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he’s really shaking… Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the circulation.

“He doesn’t understand a word of what’s going on around him. He doesn’t know what you’re going to do with him. He just knows we are soldiers with guns. That we kill people. Maybe they think we’re going to kill him.

 

They dragged me from my home by the scruff of the neck. The more I cried the more they choked me… They pulled me along on my stomach. My knees were bleeding. They beat me with their guns and kicked me all the way to the jeep Mohammad Khawaja, 13

“A lot of the time they’re peeing their pants, just sit there peeing their pants, crying. But usually they’re very quiet.”

Eran Efrati is a former commander in Israel’s army. He served in the occupied West Bank.

In a discreet park in Jerusalem we meet to discuss allegations that soldiers like him often mistreat Palestinian minors, suspected of throwing stones.

Mr Efrati – who left the army five months ago – says the allegations are true:

”I never arrested anyone younger than nine or 10, but 14, 13, 11 for me, they’re still kids. But they’re arrested like adults.

“Every soldier who was in the Occupied Territories can tell you the same story. The first months after I left the army I dreamed about kids all the time. Jewish kids. Arab kids. Screaming.

Violations of International Law

Israel’s attempt to close much of the West Bank to news reporters and human rights monitors has prompted concern that its army is seeking to operate without oversight or accountability.

These violations of international humanitarian law by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) include:

• The use of military force without sufficient regard for the safety of civilians.
• Deliberate damage to civilian property and infrastructure.
• Refusal to allow medical personnel access to the wounded, and detention of medical workers.
• Failure to ensure adequate food and medical supplies for civilians under occupation.
• The coercion of Palestinian civilians into assisting with the operations of Israeli forces.
• Execution of captured Palestinian fighters
• Deliberate targeting of journalists in order to intimidate them