Updates

On 24 April 2013, as has been a frequent occurrence of late, settlers from Giv’at Gal came onto the privately owned land of the Zaro family, of Hebron. The landowners called the police to report the trespassing. Israeli soldiers came to the scene and, rather than sending the settlers away, arrested the Palestinians. Part of the incident was filmed by a volunteer in B’Tselem’s camera project. The detainees were released the following day by a military judge after this footage was presented in court and it was proven that the there was no justification for the arrest, which involved violence towards one of the Zaros.

In March the Jerusalem Magistrate Court handed down a sentence for a Border policeman convicted of attacking a Palestinian child, Yunes Abu Ermeileh, in Hebron in 2009. The Department for the Investigation of Police (PID) opened its inquiry into the incident following a complaint filed by B’Tselem. Indictments of police on charges of violence against Palestinians are extremely rare. Of the more than 280 complaints lodged by B’Tselem of alleged police violence since the start of the second Intifada, we are aware of only 12 indictments.

In January 2013, B'Tselem documented two extremely worrying cases of Israeli military dogs assaulting Palestinian civilians, one in the city of Jenin and the other in the village of Tamun. In both cases, dogs attacked civilians in or near their homes. The dogs were in the company of military forces that entered residential areas. In one case, an 88-year-old woman from Jenin was assaulted inside her home and had to undergo several operations for her injuries. B'Tselem reported these cases to OC Judea and Samaria Division and demanded that the use of dogs in residential areas of the West Bank be prohibited.

On 13 February 2013, an Israeli mounted policeman was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to Fadi Darab’i, resident of Dura, Hebron District. The policeman was indicted in 2008 following a complaint filed by B’Tselem on Darab’i’s behalf. The complaint stated that policemen had assaulted Darab’i in April 2008, seriously injuring one of his testicles.

According to testimonies collected by B’Tselem, plainclothes police detained Amir Darwish, at midday on Friday, 12 October 2012, two days before his tenth birthday. The policemen took Amir to a police station, using force against the boy and his mother, who tried to prevent the arrest. Amir was questioned in his mother’s presence for allegedly throwing stones, and was released following the investigation. The minimum age of criminal responsibility in Israel is 12. The arrest or even temporary detention of a minor under the age of 12 is absolutely prohibited.

On Friday, 17 August 2012, a B’Tselem volunteer filmed the weekly demonstration in Kafr Qadum protesting the closure of the Qadum-Nablus road. Soldiers are seen assaulting journalists with clubs. When media published the clip, the army announced a Military Police Investigation Unit inquiry to clarify the circumstances of the incident.

Testimony collected by B’Tselem shows on 28 August 2012, Sa’id Qiblawi, age 14, chanced on an area near his home in Abu Dis where children were throwing stones at border police officers. On trying to leave, Qiblawi was stopped by a policeman who, he testified, dragged him on the ground and put him inside a jeep, where, lying on the floor, he was beaten by other police officers. More beating followed at the nearby border police base. B’Tselem contacted the DIP demanding an inquiry into his case.

On the evening of 31 July 2012, soldiers stopped ‘Udai Abu Mariah, age 19, at the Beit Ummar checkpoint in the Hebron district, claiming he was wanted for questioning. Abu Mariah was taken by jeep to a nearby military base. The soldiers beat and abused Abu Mariah en route and after arrival, severely injuring him in the abdomen. Instead of being taken to receive medical treatment, however, Abu Mariah was abandoned for several hours, lying on the floor and moaning in pain, with soldiers periodically beating him again. During the night, soldiers finally took him back to the checkpoint and let him go.

On the afternoon of 16 January 2012 B'Tselem video volunteer, Diaa al-Hadad, was detained for a few minutes and released in Hebron. That same night, a unit of soldiers commanded by a first lieutenant came to the family's house and conducted a search. During the search, they made Diaa stand against a wall for quite some time.Diaa and his father, 'Abd al-Karim Hadad, documented the incident with their cameras. B'Tselem does not know the reason for the search, but what is known is that the soldiers did not take anything from the house, and no one in the family was arrested.