Former Israeli soldiers: army routinely abused Palestinian kids

Former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories say that mistreatment of Palestinian children by troops is “routine” and occurs even at times of relative calm. A collection of over 30 testimonies published Sunday by Breaking the Silence, a group of ex-servicemen critical of army practices, says physical violence, often arbitrary, is used against very young children. “The testifiers depict a routine in which Palestinian minors, often under 10 years of age, are treated in a manner that ignores their young age,” the 72-page booklet says. Entitled “Children and Youth: Soldiers’ Testimonies 2005-2011,” it covers a period after the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, of 2000-2005. “Although the events described here took place after the peak of the second intifada, at a time perceived as calm and uneventful from a ‘security’ standpoint, the reality that emerges from the testimonies shows that harsh treatment of Palestinian children continues unabated,” it says. In one example, a former staff sergeant, unidentified like most who give testimony, describes a punitive raid on a neighborhood in the Ramallah area following earlier clashes with a number of Palestinians. He said a dozen soldiers with wooden clubs “beat people to a pulp. Finally the children who remained on the ground were arrested. The order was to run, make people fall to the ground,” he said. “A slow runner was beaten – that was the rule,” he said. Another former staff-sergeant describes an operation against the West Bank village of Azzun, where stones had been thrown from a curve in the road at motorists from the nearby Israeli settlement of Maale Shomron. “We got to the village, drove up to the houses closest to the curve, and then saw a group of children, 9 to 10 years old, running away,” he said. “First they ran, went onto the balcony of some house, and then the commander took a stun grenade and hurled it into that balcony. It blew up. I don’t think it hurt them or anything, but it made them run out of the balcony.” From dailystar