Asaf Hikmat, a West Bank Palestinian teen, can hardly concentrate on his upcoming exams, as he has been on the lookout for Israeli soldiers ever since he found his face on an IDF wanted poster.
Asaf is one of several youngsters who took part in their
village’s weekly protests against Israeli settlement expansion.
Such demonstrations would regularly end in tear gas and rubber
coated bullets, but the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has recently
come up with something new - posters with kids’ faces, reading
‘We are the army. Be careful. We will catch you if we see
you.’
“We got very afraid when they put our pictures up, they are
threatening that they will arrest us and they will come and take
us from our homes,” Asaf relayed his fear to RT correspondent
Paula Slier, who is reporting from the West Bank.
The posters depicting the children as outlaws with a bounty on
their head are just part and parcel of the IDF’s intimidation
techniques, argues Murad Shtaiwi, Coordinator of the Popular
Resistance Committee.
“Every night, nearly, they come and shoot tear gas and sound
bombs toward the houses to frighten and to let the children live
in very bad psychological situation,” Shtaiwi told RT.
The Israeli settlers have been justifying the harsh measures
taken by the military against the protesting Palestinian
youths. The head of the local council for the Karnei
Shomron settlement, Herzl Ben Ari, says every day when he gets
into his car, his life is put in danger.
“What would usually happen is they would come stand on the
road, pick up a brick or a large stone and throw it directly, and
from a short range, at the cars. Many of our residents were hurt.
Three months ago a baby got hit and she is now in a vegetative
state. Stones kill and that is why we expect the military to do
what it takes in order for it to stop.”
Israeli statistics say rock throwing incidents are up by 110% over the last several months. And the military insist they are helpless against them as they are clearly prohibited from targeting noncombatants. It becomes murky when they feel threatened.
“There is a chain, which begins with soldiers being afraid to
act because they are not backed up by us, it continues with the
Palestinians understanding that the soldiers will not act, the
Israeli deterrence is weakening, the terror is growing, Israelis
get hurt and Israel is not protecting its citizens. We need to
give our soldiers the freedom to act and to back them up when
needed,” says Mordechai Yogev, Parliamentarian & Member
Of Knesset Foreign Affairs And Defence Committee.
The IDF’s alleged inability to act when faced with noncombatants,
however, does not save Israel from a dismal track record in terms
of dealing with Palestinian children.
The UN Committee on the
Rights of the Child issued a report in June, finding that thousands of
Palestinian children were systematically injured, tortured and
used as human shields by Israel. During the 10-year period
examined by UN human rights experts, up to 7,000 children aged 9
to 17 were arrested, interrogated and kept captive, the report
said.
Just last week, a video was released showing a 5-year-old
Palestinian boy being detained by the Israeli military, allegedly
for having thrown stones at soldiers.
Violence has recently been mounting in the occupied West Bank, as
Israeli settlement construction has reached a seven-year high, according to Peace Now, an
Israeli NGO.
Palestinians see Israelis stopping their settlement construction
in the West Bank as a major pre-condition for peace talks, while
the Israeli keep reiterating they have no intention of doing so.