Israeli soldiers pose for photos while abusing Palestinian child

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 9 February 2014

Israeli forces in the eastern occupied Jerusalem village of al-Eizariya were caught on video on Friday posing for trophy photos as they held a wounded, handcuffed Palestinian child in a stranglehold.

The disturbing video, shot by Rami Alarya was published by the Independent Media Center (IMC), however that publication’s website, which regularly documents Israeli abuses in the village, appeared to be down.

The images in this post are screenshots from Alarya’s video.

The International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) which translated IMC’s report provided this description and analysis:

The soldiers assaulted the child during clashes that took place in the [al-Eizariya] town, east of occupied East Jerusalem.

One of the soldiers tried to push the cameraman, Alarya, and his colleague, Amin Alawya, away from the scene, and was yelling at them, “Enough, enough…. go away… what do you want…”

Medical sources said the soldiers shot the child, Yassin al-Karaki, 13 years of age, with a rubber-coated metal bullet which hit the 13-year old in the leg. After he fell, the soldiers began assaulting and abusing him.

The attack took place after soldiers, who hid in a building near the Annexation Wall in the Qabsa area, ambushed a group of children, and one of the soldiers opened fire on the children.

Several soldiers then attacked and assaulted the wounded child before kidnapping him.

The soldiers took pictures of themselves with the wounded child, and one soldier picked up a Molotov cocktail from the ground, while the child shouted in Hebrew, “it’s not mine, it’s not mine”, and a soldier responded, “it’s yours, it’s Ok … it’s yours”.

One of the soldiers was holding him in a chokehold, and was mocking the child by imitating wrestling moves while other soldiers took pictures, although the child was barely able to breathe.

The soldiers then placed the child in their jeep, while one of them was still filming the incident.

Trophies

In his book Goliath, The Electronic Intifada contributor Max Blumenthal writes that such so-called “trophy” photos have a long tradition in many military forces, including Israel’s.

Blumenthal recalls a series of such photographs released several years ago by Breaking the Silence, an Israeli group which documents testimonies of Israeli soldiers while protecting their identities:

Among the disturbing shots culled from Facebook pages belonging to young Israelis was a photo of four smiling troops towering over a blindfolded preadolescent Palestinian girl kneeling at the point of their machine guns; a pretty female soldier smiling winsomely beside a blindfolded Palestinian man cuffed to a plastic chair; two soldiers posing triumphantly above a disheveled corpse lying in the street like a piece of discarded trash; a soldier pumping his rifle in the air directly behind an older Palestinian woman tending to pots on her kitchen stove; a soldier defacing the walls of a home in Gaza by spray-painting a star of David and the phrase, “Be Right Back”; troops in the Gaza Strip playing with and posing beside corpses stripped half nude in acts of post-mortem humiliation; a young soldier mockingly applying makeup from a Pal- estinian woman’s dresser. The Facebook pages were so replete with documents of humiliation, domination, and violence it seemed that army basic training had been led by Marquis de Sade.

Blumenthal sees these images as documents of a “colonial culture in which Jewish Israeli youth became conditioned to act as sadistic overlords toward their Palestinian neighbors, and of a perpetual conquest that demanded indoctrination” beginning “at an early age” and continuing “perpetually throughout their lives.”

The latest shocking images from occupied Jerusalem are proof that this ugly tradition persists.

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Comments

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Philippa replied on

And yes, it happens in many armed forces. The difference with Israel is that it usually leads to comprehensive media coverage, public outcry and military tribunals.

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gabi replied on

No, Phillips, the difference is that Israel declares itself "the light unto all nations" and has the "most moral army in the world." Some light. Some morals . . . And when did the last military tribunal accept the word of a Palestinian against the word of its forces?

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Maree Gunn replied on

Your humanity shines through Phillippa! When was the last time an Israeli soldier went to jail for this type of inhuman behaviour.

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Philippa replied on

Let me try this again:
The difference is that these abuses by soldiers usually lead to media coverage, public outcry and sanction of soldiers, but NOT SO in the case of Israel.

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gabi replied on

OK Phillipa - I get it. Sorry if my earlier reply was insensitive to your real meaning . . .

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Miss Castello replied on

"it usually leads to comprehensive media coverage, public outcry and military tribunals".

And why shouldn't it? Are you suggesting we should condone the fact, because (according to you) it goes on elsewhere? If it does, it would have to go some, to match the scale of Israel's record of well documented abuse of minors. Oh, I forgot; it's the 'chosen ones'- that's alright then. Silly me.

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Blue Pilgrim replied on

I clicked to get to the Youtube video of this and saw the message that it may be inappropriate for some ages and I should sign in. Of course, this is far too upsetting for children to see -- but not for it to be done to children. Youtube has great fun censoring videos of abuse from Israel.

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Peter Loeb replied on

On July 5, 1852, the day following a celebration of American Independence Day,
abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Corinthian Hall, Rochester,NY (USA)
in which he said:

"Go where you may, search where you will... and when you have found the last...
you will say with me that for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy America
reigns without a rival."

We may include Israel as well.

Max Blumenthal's GOLIATH :LIFE AND LOATHING IN GREATER ISRAEL provides
a vital update. Thanks to EI and key EI staff for their input.. It is not pleasant
reading but remains required on Israel and Palestine as of 2013 (Nation
Books, 2013).

There is no sympathy for helpless little Israel. Such protests pretending support for
Palestinian weapons is facetious and absurd on its face.

(Note: The cited statement of Frederick Douglass was 8 years before the beginning
of the civil war in America---1860 to 1865---and farther still from any resolution
following the formal end of that conflagration. What is happening today in
Palestine/Israel is not that different from the lynching of the early 20th century.)

Will Europe join in this "revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy?"

Peter Loeb
Boston, MA (USA)

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Bill replied on

Of course no one condones iltreatment of anybody, I can only imagine if that was a jewish teenager (possibly throwing rocks at them!) and the soldiers were Arabs.

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.