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“So we got hold of just some [10 year-old] Palestinian kid nearby, we knew that he knew who it had been. Let’s say we beat him a little, to put it mildly, until he told us. You know, the way it goes when your mind’s already screwed up, and you have no more patience for Hebron and Arabs and Jews there.
“The kid was really scared, realising we were on to him. We had a commander with us who was a bit of a fanatic. We gave the boy over to this commander, and he really beat the shit out of him … He showed him all kinds of holes in the ground along the way, asking him: `Is it here you want to die? Or here?’ The kid goes, `No, no!’
“Anyway, the kid was stood up, and couldn’t stay standing on his own two feet. He was already crying … And the commander continues, `Don’t pretend’ and kicks him some more. And then [name withheld], who always had a hard time with such things, went in, caught the squad commander and said, `Don’t touch him any more, that’s it.’ The commander goes, `You’ve become a leftie, what?’ And he answers, `No, I just don’t want to see such things.’
“We were right next to this, but did nothing. We were indifferent, you know. OK. Only after the fact you start thinking. Not right away. We were doing such things every day … It had become a habit…
“And the parents saw it. The commander ordered [the mother], `Don’t get any closer.’ He cocked his weapon, already had a bullet inside. She was frightened. He put his weapon literally inside the kid’s mouth. `Anyone gets close, I kill him. Don’t bug me. I kill. I have no mercy.’ So the father … got hold of the mother and said, `Calm down, let them be, so they’ll leave him alone.'”
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“We did all kinds of experiments to see who could do the best split in Abu Snena. We would put [Palestinians] against the wall, make like we were checking them, and ask them to spread their legs. Spread, spread, spread, it was a game to see who could do it best. Or we would check who can hold his breath for longest.
“How do you check that?”
“Choke them. One guy would come, make like he was checking them, and suddenly start yelling like they said something and choke them … Block their airways; you have to press the adams apple. It’s not pleasant. Look at the watch as you’re doing it, until he passes out. The one who takes longest to faint wins.”
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[A soldier] stole a box of tobacco from this Arab…The Arab suddenly said, “Thieves! Thieves! I saw you!” … So that soldier said, ‘You calling me a thief?!” No one knew what happened. He said, “You calling me a thief?!” and started beating him up, really badly. The soldiers said, hey, stop, and we caught him. But they beat him to a pulp.
Who beat whom?
The soldiers beat up this Arab. And he took a wire, that soldier. He was really screwed up. He wound up this wire around and around this guy’s hand, that hand was already…
Around his hand?
Yes. I’m telling you, we tried to stop him. “No, I won’t let him go, he raised his hand at me! He will be punished!” And he wound this wire around and around, and finally cut it as close as he could to the skin. We tried to cut it off for about an hour, we couldn’t. It literally cut into him. His hand got blue in a second. And the guy cries “I can’t feel my hand any more!” I said, he’ll probably have to be amputated.”
Cross-posted at The Heathlander
Full testimonies viewable here and here (.doc).
This B’Tselem report published last year gives an overview of the situation in Hebron.
It describes how,
and notes that as a result of these restrictions and the constant abuse by the settlers and the army, the number of Palestinian households in the city centre has decreased by 41.9% and 76.6% of Palestinian commercial establishments in the same area have closed down.
It concludes that Israel is carrying out a “quiet transfer” (euphemism for ethnic cleansing) in Hebron which constitutes “a breach of the prohibition on forced transfer enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention and is therefore a war crime, for which the persons responsible bear personal liability.”
btw, in case anyone’s concerned about copyright: the first quote is from the Independent, the second is from Ynet and the last is from the original source document, so I think it’s well within the limits of Fair Use.
Thanks for this post. I can’t help but make a connection between this piece and one at Professor Juan Cole’s blog.
a repost of mine in another Entry.
Palestinian Children
something is very wrong.
but you know, we did legitimize torture, so if the U.S. does it, must be OK.
This will not be on CNN
April 18th, 2008
At 3pm on Wednesday, 16th April, the mutilated body of 15 year old Hammad Nidar Khadatbh was found in lands of the illegal Israeli settlement of Al-Hamra by his father, who was out searching for his missing son.
Hammad had left the house at 9am on Tuesday, 15th April to work on the family’s land, located near the stolen agricultural lands of the settlement. As the second eldest son, he was picking cucumbers for the family rather than going to school, to help with the income of his struggling family. At evening he failed to return home, and so his father and other family members immediately went searching for him. They found nothing. They set out again the next day, Wednesday, and found his body in a place they had searched the day before – clearly dumped overnight.
Hammad’s body was naked, bloated, and tortured. His neck was broken, and his face had been smashed in with rocks. One finger had been cut off and there were multiple holes in his torso, seemingly made by a sharp, round implement – something like a pen, his family explained. An Israeli police officer who arrived on the scene to investigate the incident confirmed that Hammad had been murdered, but made no comment as to by whom. Hammad’s body was immediately taken to the coroner in Jerusalem, but the report on the exact cause of his death will not be available for another week.
After speaking to many people in the area, it was established that Hammad had tried to return home via the Al-Hamra (Arabic for “red area”) checkpoint, but was refused passage through as being only 15 years old, he had no identification (IDs are only issued to Palestinians aged 16 years and over). It appears that Hammad was then forced to walk around the long way home, and was taken at this point on Tuesday night.
Given the location of the body – on settlement lands and near an Israeli-only apartheid road – the family are convinced that Hammad was killed by settlers from the Al-Hamra settlement. His father explained that his son was only a young boy, and had no enemies. Also, he explained, there are no Palestinians in that area, only settlers from the agricultural settlement.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2008/04/18/body-of-15-year-old-palestinian-boy-found-
mutilated-in-israeli-settlement/
How can anyone defend Israel’s existence when they behave like this?