‘Dignity’ for both peoples — State Dep’t has no answer for stripping of Palestinian boy at checkpoint

Here’s an incident widely reported by Palestinian media and leaders in the last few days that has not been reported in the western press: Israeli soldiers stripped a three-year-old Palestinian boy of his shirt at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank because the shirt had a picture of a rifle on it.

A photo of the incident shows mother and son at a cage-like crossing in the northern West Bank. And the State Department was asked about the matter at its briefing two days ago.

Youssef Sanad Youssef, 3 years old, was traveling with his family from his home in a village to a relative’s home in Jenin. The two homes are separated by an Israeli checkpoint. At the checkpoint of  Ya’abad, known as Mevo Dotan, Israeli soldiers observed the child with his t-shirt. 

“We felt like something huge is happening,” Mohammed Qaba, Youssef’s uncle, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera. “A group of soldiers came toward us at the checkpoint, the guns at the watchtower pointed at us. Barbaric voices came from the soldiers shouted at us: Stop, don’t move, get back, freeze. We thought that we did some crime and we are not aware of that, we start asking each other what is going on and the kids start to cry.”

The family asked the Israeli soldiers about the wrong they had done, and the soldiers said, “The child is not allowed to enter the checkpoint.” 

“Do you not see the image on his t-shirt?” Israeli soldiers told the family. “It is violence and encourages killing and terror.” 

The soldiers shouted at the child, and he cried and did not understand, and wouldn’t remove his shirt. The uncle tried to explain to the soldiers that it is fashion and the t-shirt is available at the markets, but they insisted, that the boy must take his t-shirt off to pass the checkpoint.  

The Israeli officer was clear, “you will not leave unless you take off the t-shirt.” Mohammed Qaba said.

His mother hugged him and tried to calm him down saying that some dirt from the road got on his t-shirt and he should take it off to get a new and better one, but the boy did not want to take off his shirt.  

“The boy was detained for more than an hour with his mother,” the uncle said. “He was calling us: uncle, grandpa, please let me out, but we stood paralyzed watching his suffering in front of the armed soldiers.”

“They make us feel that this child is going to kill them. It is ironic that such an army is afraid of a 3-year-old child with a gun on his t-shirt,” Mohammed said.

Gideon Levy mocked the policy last month: the “farce of Israel confiscating M16 tshirts… All the rage among the occupied, M16 fashion; all the rage among the occupiers, forbidden fashion.”

The matter came up at the State Department briefing two days ago. Said Arikat of Al Quds newspaper said “the whole world” saw the incident, which exemplifies the occupation.

Yesterday marked the 55th anniversary of the ’67 war. That’s 55 years of occupation for the Palestinians that they had to endure and still endure. I think over a period of 24 hours, four Palestinians were killed. They held a three-year-old child and they made him take off his t-shirt at a checkpoint. The whole world saw that.

So my question to you – I mean, I know you don’t want to express any optimism or pessimism – how long this should – this thing should go on? I mean, hasn’t – is it time for this occupation to end? I mean, morally speaking, how much should this military occupation go on, generation after generation?

Ned Price of the State Department responded by talking about the two-state solution and the need for Palestinian “dignity.”

Said, our goal from the first day of this administration has been to do everything that we can to promote and to advance a two-state solution precisely because a two-state solution, we believe and successive American administrations have believed, is the most effective means by which to secure Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state, but also to fulfill the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people to live in dignity and security and peace in a country of their own.

Arikat persisted, “Can you tell us at least one thing that you have done to bring this solution, this two-state solution, a bit closer in the last six months?” Price cited “humanitarian funding” for the Palestinian people.

Said, we have also been clear that we are not on the cusp, unfortunately, of a two-state solution. We’re likely not even on the cusp of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians to discuss the contours of a two-state solution. Our goal since the very start has been to set the stage to create an environment in which diplomacy, including diplomacy toward – between Israelis and Palestinians is more likely to be effective.

Arikat noted that the Biden administration has not followed through on a promise to reopen the consulate in Jerusalem and then cited statistics on killings and detention:

Since the beginning of the year, 14 Palestinian kids – children – have been killed by the Israelis. Over the past 55 years, 1.5 million Palestinians have been imprisoned, most of them unfairly – most of them unfairly, including administrative detentions. Can you at least tell your allies, the Israelis, that they should end this practice of administrative detention?

Price deflected that question. “We believe Israelis and Palestinians deserve equal measures of stability, of security, of freedom, and importantly of dignity.” 

Philip Weiss
Philip Weiss is senior editor of Mondoweiss.net and founded the site in 2005-06.

Tareq S. Hajjaj
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of Palestinian Writers Union. He studied English Literature at Al-Azhar university in Gaza. He started his career in journalism in 2015 working as news writer/translator at the local newspaper Donia al-Watan. He has reported for Elbadi, Middle East Eye, and Al Monitor. Follow him on Twitter at @Tareqshajjaj.