Israel’s War Against Palestine: Documenting the Military Occupation of Palestinian and Arab Lands

IDF officer head-butts Palestinian youth in the face in Hebron (video)

26 July 2012

By Gili Cohen, Haaret -26 July 2012
www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/watch-idf-officer-head-butts-palestinian-youth-in-the-face-in-hebron.premium-1.453864

Human rights NGO B’Tselem reported the incident to army authorities; IDF in response: film does not show the commander being violently assaulted.

An IDF officer with the rank of lieutenant head-butted a Palestinian youth in the face, a video filmed in the city of Hebron on Wednesday and uploaded to YouTube has revealed.

A volunteer for the NGO B’Tselem filmed the video on Wednesday from the window of his home in Hebron, documenting an IDF soldier as he stopped a number of Palestinian youths, thought to be between 10 and 17 years of age, next to the Beit Hadassah checkpoint in Hebron.

While the soldier orders the youths to wait next to a wall, the video shows the 17-years-old standing in front of the soldier in a defiant manner, and a dispute develops between them.

The short film documents the remainder of the incident in the presence of an officer with the rank of captain. The ensuing seconds of video record a confrontation between Palestinian Thair Ghanam and the IDF captain, including blows and mutual shoving. The officer is shown grasping the youth, who says to him “I am balagan” – Hebrew slang for mess and disorder.

In response, the officer asks “Are you a balagan” while grasping the throat of Ghanam, who answers “alright.”

The film stops for several seconds, apparently while the cameraman changes position. When it resumes, the officer is grasping the Palestinian’s throat and choking him.

The film seems to show the Palestinian bleeding from the nose and the officer calling him to stop in Arabic as he follows the youth up the street. The volunteer then descends onto the road itself and continues to film what is happening.

“Move, get rid of the camera,” one of the soldiers in the force tells him. The film continues, showing the officer arresting Ghanam and handcuffing him.

When the video resumes, it shows the officer leading the Palestinian, whose eyes are covered with a piece of cloth, onto a military vehicle.

According to a report by the B’Tselem, the youth was taken to an army base on al-Shuhada Street, and released a short time later, when he was taken to a Hebron hospital and diagnosed with a broken nose.

The human rights group also said that it had reported the incident to the IDF Spokesman’s Office and passed the video documentation on to military authorities and to the Military Police, together with a request for an investigation.

In response, the IDF spokesman said: “During a routine operation in Hebron, a group of Palestinians refused to identify themselves at the request of an IDF force. When their commander arrived at the scene, he was violently assaulted by one of the Palestinians, an incident not shown in the video. On the surface, the video seems to have been edited in a biased manner and it does not represent the full incident. The event is being examined.”

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