Bil'in : IOF Kidnap and Terrorize "Confession" Out of 13 Years Old Boy

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Thursday June 10, 2010 10:32

by TD - Free Palestine Campaign

Some 700 Palestinian children are arrested annually by Israeli Occupation Forces

Not sated with the wanton butchery of nine human rights activists aboard the Mavi Marmara and the brutalisation of Huwaida Arraf aboard Challenger 1 - another Gaza flotilla ship bound for Gaza - the Israeli army came back for second helpings last Friday in Bil'in, this time, thankfully, with murder not in mind, just with appetite for wanton arrests, child kidnapping and terrorization. Huwaida Arraf, one of the leading lights from the Free Gaza Movement was again on their target list and she was arbitrarily arrested along with villager; Ashraf Abu Rahmah and an Israeli Anarchist Against the Wall at the peaceful demonstration against the nearby Aparheid- Annexation Wall in Bil'in that morning.

That evening, thirteen year old Fadi Al-Khatib, whilst tending his families olive grove that adjoins the Wall with his father, Fathel, was literally kidnapped in front of his distraught parents and carted off for interrogation - the modus operandi of the Israeli Occupation Forces in Bil'in is to lie in wait, often on comfortable camping matts, in the olive groves so as to ambush and spirit away unsuspecting children and teenagers and terrorise false confessions out of them. On 25th May last, the IOF burnt down an olive tree in a nearby grove of 20 trees- coupled with the many trees torched at the weekly Friday demonstration, a wanton act calculated to damage the already fragile economy of the village.

Prior to being carted off to a detention centre, the lightly clad youth was handcuffed in a stress position and left in the chill air for two hours. Before his interrogation, he was kicked a number of times and struck on the neck, Without the presence of a legal representative during the interrogation, he was threatened with torture and literally forced to sign a false confession admitting to throwing stones at the IOF- the offending soldier grabbed his wrist and forced the signing. According to Ayed Abu Eqtaish, Unit Coordinator with Defence for Children International, Palestine Section, since the start of the second intifada some 700 Palestinian children are arrested annually by Israeli Occupation Forces, routinely tortured or terrorized with threats of torture, sexually abused or threatened with sexual abuse to force false confessions which the corrupt Israeli judicial system then use to incarcerate the minors or adult activists striving against the Occupation.