It’s your company commander, so like who are you supposed to report it to?
Rank: Lieutenant
Unit: Nahal Anti Tank Unit
Area: Hebron area
period: 2012
[ Arrests ]
[ Humiliation ]
[ Separation Barrier ]
[ Stake out ]
[ Violence ]
There was this one time I remember really well, where a few [Palestinian] teenagers came to steal metals [from the separation barrier] and really by chance they fell into an ambush. They were a few brothers and they brought their little brother with them, who was about eleven, something [like]… really a little kid. So the ambush caught them (the older brothers), and the kid managed to run away. He started running away back to the village and we were called up as the available force already in the area in order to catch him. Now, at that moment we didn’t know it was a little kid. We were just told, “There’s a suspect and he’s running away in this direction,” and we’re with him (following him) on the cameras of the scouts. So we run, full gear, ceramic [armors], helmets, things like that. [We] get to the location and we’re told, “Okay, you’re very very close, about ten meters from him.” We spread ourselves into a straight line, really walking with our weapons ready [to shoot]. We might have cocked [the weapons], I don’t remember, and we’re really getting ready [to shoot] in a straight line. Those who had a laser started lasering on the…
It was at night?Yes. The officers [point] with their lasers at the bush, and I’m like sure I’m about to arrest some mega-terrorist now, like Bin Laden at least. Suddenly something moved, I didn’t see exactly. My company commander just made a few steps forward and [then we saw that] it was a kid. And he just gave him a kick that shot him into the air. The kid started crying and the company commander like knelt over him. Like, an eleven-year-old boy.
What do you mean by knelt over him?Leaned on him with his knee, pointed his weapon at him. And then [they wanted] to handcuff him with a zip-tie, and the zip-tie wouldn’t even close on his hand because he was such a small child. So he’s crying, [we] pick him up and walk with him back to the patrol jeep, and the kid is crying. I was shocked by the whole thing. [And] then we took him back to the base with all [his] brothers.
And what did they do with them afterward, from the base?I think they were handed to the police or the Shin Bet [Security Service], something like that. They (the older brothers) were already waiting inside. They were waiting on the Wolf (armored transport vehicle) until we return [with the little brother]. They asked really bad, “What’s going on with the little boy?”, “What’s going on with the little boy?” Our guys really stressed them out on that matter, threw around all sorts of remarks. And that’s it, it’s like another story that demonstrates really well, because on the one hand you have this awful company commander who kicked a little kid, and on the other hand you’re so angry with the older brothers for bringing their little brother to a place where he could easily get hit by a bullet, and you don’t know exactly where to direct your anger. On the other hand, it’s just cool for you to have had some action, there’s something to tell the guys. And I remember that even then I knew that something there wasn’t right. On the one hand not right, on the other hand it’s your company commander, so like who are you supposed to report it to?
Did you ever ask, for example, in this context, if it’s okay to arrest an eleven-year-old child?No, because there’s a very clear sense there that it’s you who determines the law, or your commander. Things happen quickly and you don’t have time to debate now over human rights and judicial implications, and you’re also, at the end of the day, a nineteen-year-old kid who gets all excited about his weapon and thinks he’s chasing terrorists. And you’re still really into this thing of “I’m now protecting the homeland,” and self-sacrifice, and all the good things that you enlisted for, and they’re simply exploited in order to occupy a population who just isn’t interested in it.
Former IDF testimony from a few years back.
Rank: Lieutenant
Unit: Nahal Anti Tank Unit
Area: Hebron area
period: 2012
[ Arrests ]
[ Humiliation ]
[ Separation Barrier ]
[ Stake out ]
[ Violence ]
There was this one time I remember really well, where a few [Palestinian] teenagers came to steal metals [from the separation barrier] and really by chance they fell into an ambush. They were a few brothers and they brought their little brother with them, who was about eleven, something [like]… really a little kid. So the ambush caught them (the older brothers), and the kid managed to run away. He started running away back to the village and we were called up as the available force already in the area in order to catch him. Now, at that moment we didn’t know it was a little kid. We were just told, “There’s a suspect and he’s running away in this direction,” and we’re with him (following him) on the cameras of the scouts. So we run, full gear, ceramic [armors], helmets, things like that. [We] get to the location and we’re told, “Okay, you’re very very close, about ten meters from him.” We spread ourselves into a straight line, really walking with our weapons ready [to shoot]. We might have cocked [the weapons], I don’t remember, and we’re really getting ready [to shoot] in a straight line. Those who had a laser started lasering on the…
It was at night?Yes. The officers [point] with their lasers at the bush, and I’m like sure I’m about to arrest some mega-terrorist now, like Bin Laden at least. Suddenly something moved, I didn’t see exactly. My company commander just made a few steps forward and [then we saw that] it was a kid. And he just gave him a kick that shot him into the air. The kid started crying and the company commander like knelt over him. Like, an eleven-year-old boy.
What do you mean by knelt over him?Leaned on him with his knee, pointed his weapon at him. And then [they wanted] to handcuff him with a zip-tie, and the zip-tie wouldn’t even close on his hand because he was such a small child. So he’s crying, [we] pick him up and walk with him back to the patrol jeep, and the kid is crying. I was shocked by the whole thing. [And] then we took him back to the base with all [his] brothers.
And what did they do with them afterward, from the base?I think they were handed to the police or the Shin Bet [Security Service], something like that. They (the older brothers) were already waiting inside. They were waiting on the Wolf (armored transport vehicle) until we return [with the little brother]. They asked really bad, “What’s going on with the little boy?”, “What’s going on with the little boy?” Our guys really stressed them out on that matter, threw around all sorts of remarks. And that’s it, it’s like another story that demonstrates really well, because on the one hand you have this awful company commander who kicked a little kid, and on the other hand you’re so angry with the older brothers for bringing their little brother to a place where he could easily get hit by a bullet, and you don’t know exactly where to direct your anger. On the other hand, it’s just cool for you to have had some action, there’s something to tell the guys. And I remember that even then I knew that something there wasn’t right. On the one hand not right, on the other hand it’s your company commander, so like who are you supposed to report it to?
Did you ever ask, for example, in this context, if it’s okay to arrest an eleven-year-old child?No, because there’s a very clear sense there that it’s you who determines the law, or your commander. Things happen quickly and you don’t have time to debate now over human rights and judicial implications, and you’re also, at the end of the day, a nineteen-year-old kid who gets all excited about his weapon and thinks he’s chasing terrorists. And you’re still really into this thing of “I’m now protecting the homeland,” and self-sacrifice, and all the good things that you enlisted for, and they’re simply exploited in order to occupy a population who just isn’t interested in it.
Former IDF testimony from a few years back.