Former Slaughterer Israeli soldiers detail abuse of Palestinian children

Former Slaughterer Zionist Israeli soldiers disclosed routine mistreatment of Palestinian children during military operations and arrests, pointing to a pattern of abuse.

The Israeli veterans’ organization “Breaking the Silence” released a shocking new report on Sunday in which more than 30 former Israeli soldiers disclosed their experience on the treatment of Palestinian children.

The booklet of testimonies contains descriptions of beatings, intimidation, humiliation, verbal abuse, night-time arrests, and injury.

“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,” says the 72-page booklet.

The booklet of testimonies covers a period between 2005 and 2011 which came after the second Palestinian intifada.

“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 Palestinians.

He said a dozen soldiers with wooden clubs “beat people to a pulp. Finally the children who remained on the ground were arrested,” he said.

The order was to run, make people fall to the ground. A slow runner was beaten, that was the rule,” he added.

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, 9-10 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.”

He describes a chase after the children during which his commander cocked his firearm and aimed in the face of one of them from close range.

“The kid was just freaking out, certain he was going to be killed, and begged and pleaded for his life,” the soldier said.

“A kid has to beg for his life? A loaded gun is pointed at him and he has to plead for mercy? This is something that scars him for life.”

The witness statements were gathered to show the “common reality” of acts of violence by soldiers towards Palestinians, including children, in the West Bank, said Yehuda Shaul of Breaking the Silence. “Sadly enough this is the moral consequence of prolonged occupation of the Palestinian people,” he said.