A video released Sunday shows a large group of Israeli soldiers taking turns assaulting a Palestinian detainee in the West Bank city of al-Khalil amid protests against US President Donald Trump’s recent declaration to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The video filmed last Friday by a resident of al-Khalil and released by the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories B’Tselem shows the soldiers forcibly dragging a handcuffed young Palestinian man through Wadi al-Tufah Street.
The detainee is repeatedly kicked slapped and manhandled by the soldiers before being blindfolded. A resident of al-Khalil said he began filming the incident after hearing the man’s screams.
The man was arrested during the Palestinian “Day of Rage” demonstrations across cities in the West Bank and Gaza in response to Trump’s declaration leading to the death of a number of protesters. Hundreds of others were wounded by live fire rubber bullets and tear gas across the occupied territories.
The above incident is reminiscent of one described by Breaking the Silence Spokesperson Dean Issacharoff who was recently attacked by top Israeli leaders after they accused him of lying about beating up a Palestinian who was resisting arrest—also in al-Khalil—during his time as a soldier. The State Attorney’s Office which looked into Issacharoff’s claim eventually closed the case determining that the incident in question never took place and that Issacharoff had lied (according to Issacharoff the State Attorney’s Office interrogated the wrong Palestinian the whole time).
According to a B’Tselem statement by closing the case against Issacharoff the State Attorney “attempted to paint a false portrait of reality according to which Israeli soldiers are rarely violent toward Palestinians and every case always leads to an investigation.”
“This is the violent routine of occupation: dispersing protests whether or not their participants use violence as well as arresting and putting protest leaders on trial” the statement continued. “These are common techniques used by Israel’s security forces which align with the worldview of the authorities according to which Palestinians have no right to resist the occupation not to mention the right to free expression and protest.”
