Compare this with the 8 months that 16 year old Ahed Tamimi received for slapping heavily armed soldiers who nearly killed her cousin
It is of
course extremely rare that Israeli soldiers are punished for any offence
against the Palestinian population.
Normally there is no crime that they commit which is punished. I don’t know the exact circumstances that led
to this group of soldiers being punished but consider that they beat prisoners,
tied up and blindfolded. There was a ‘party’
atmosphere.
Contrast to
the 8 month prison sentence that a 16 year old girl Ahed Tamimi received for
slapping a soldier, barely an hour after her cousin was nearly killed when a
plastic bullet took off part of his face.
The military court in Jaffa cleared for publication on
Tuesday a video showing Israeli soldiers hitting two Palestinian prisoners in
the head after their arrest in the West Bank in January.
Four of the five soldiers documented, all from the
Netzah Yehuda infantry battalion, were convicted
of aggravated
abuse on Sunday and are expected to serve a six-month prison term. The
fifth soldier, whose part in the incident has been dubbed "relatively minor,"
was convicted of abuse and sentenced to two months in prison.
The video, filmed by another soldier, shows soldiers landing blows on the
heads of two bound Palestinian prisoners with covered eyes. The soldiers can be
heard saying "it's your party," and "say hello."
The faces of both the soldiers and the prisoners are pixelated in the
version of the video made public.
According to the indictments filed against the soldiers in January, the
Palestinians, a father and son, were detained on January 8 on suspicion of
aiding a Palestinian who committed a shooting attack at the intersection near
the West Bank outpost of Givat Assaf a month earlier. It turned out that the
pair had not been directly involved in planning or carrying out the attack in
which two soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda battalion, who were friends of the
defendants, were killed.
Netzah Yehuda is an all-male ultra-Orthodox unit of the Israel Defense
Forces that allows soldiers to serve in the army while strictly observing
religious customs. It is part of the Kfir infantry brigade.
After the arrest of the father and son, on their way to the army base
near the settlement of Beit El, the soldiers punched and kicked the two, who
were handcuffed and blindfolded, and hit them with their weapons, causing
serious injuries.
One detainee’s injuries were so severe that investigators could not
question him immediately following the incident. The two Palestinians were
taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where one of them remained
in hospital for three days.
The soldiers’ commander, a lieutenant, was also indicted last month for
not preventing the violence. The officer was charged with failure to prevent a
crime, negligently causing injury and conduct unbecoming an officer.
”The commander noticed his soldiers enacting harsh violence against the
Palestinian detainees, while they were handcuffed and blindfolded, and despite
this did not prevent them from continuing to beat them,” said the indictment.
The officer was suspended from his duties as a result of the incident.
