This video was shot this morning by the International Solidarity Movement in Hebron. They explain the scene:
At approximately 7 am this morning, Rami Rajabi, a six-year-old child, was 20 meters away from checkpoint 29 when he threw several pebbles in al-Khalil (Hebron).
As Rami walked away towards his school, three Israeli soldiers burst out of an alleyway, grabbed his arm, and detained him in the street.
After approximately 20 minutes of pressure from locals and activists, the child was released and was taken home by a friend of his family.
The video ends by reminding viewers there are currently 230 Palestinian children in Israeli detention.
This is pure sadism.
Who takes a child?!
Clearly the child is a threat to the state of Israel. Truly sad.
Disgust was my first reaction too but, bizarre as this might sound when I was watching the video I suddenly felt a stab of pity for the soldiers. I honestly don’t know why but I recalled a passage from this essay by George Orwell in which he talks about the hollowness and futility of colonial domination and it dawned on me for perhaps the first time that while it is the Netanyahus and Adelsons who make these terrible choices from the safety of their ivory towers, it is more often than not twenty-something kids who get sent to do their dirty work. It must be a truly terrifying, depressing, soul-wrenching experience and I’m glad that on this occasion, the soldiers’ humanity seemed eventually to triumph over racist indoctrination, and they released the child.
(George Orwell essay: http://www.george-orwell.org/Shooting_an_Elephant/0.html)
This abusive treatment of Palestinian children by the IDF (and they are on good behavior because they know they are being filmed) and illegal settlers has been going on for decades….decades. Dear friend Art Gish who used to walk Palestinian children in the Hebron area to school. He witnessed such abuse. He talked about illegal settlers spitting on Palestinian kids.
IDF http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bdbA2Ka3Bo
Many more video’s at you tube
IDF soldiers talk about their training and the abuse of Palestinian children.
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/
Goal to break their spirits. Systematically humiliate and abuse them