Footage of Israeli Soldiers Beating Palestinian Children Proof that Checkpoints are Sites of Ongoing

Footage of Israeli Soldiers Beating Palestinian Children Proof that
Checkpoints are Sites of Ongoing Human Rights Violations

Ramallah, 19-08-07: Footage captured by an independent American
filmmaker on Wednesday 15 August, showing Israeli soldiers beating,
spitting on and throwing stones at three Palestinian children offers
yet further proof that Israel's 543 permanent and 610 'flying'
checkpoints "are sites of systematic torture and human rights
violations against Palestinian civilians", said veteran human rights
activist, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi MP at press conference held in
Ramallah today.

The footage was captured at the Ras at-Tira checkpoint in the
Qalqiliya District, and shows the three children attempting to cross
the checkpoint in a horse cart when they are stopped by two Israeli
soldiers. The female soldier is clearly shown beating the boys before
spitting on them and sending them back the way they came. Her male
colleague is then seen picking up stones from the ground and throwing
them at the children as they drive away.

Dr. Barghouthi said the beatings were reminiscent of the physical
assault of 18-year old university student Mohammad Jabali by Israeli
soldiers near the notorious Huwwara checkpoint in Nablus on 18 March
2007. Four Israeli soldiers punched and kicked Jabali in the face,
head and genitals, causing bleeding and a blood clot in his right
testicle. Jabali was forced to undergo surgery and to have part of
the testicle removed.

Footage of both attacks is available from the Palestine Monitor:
Contact Bahia, Tel: +972-599-940073.

Checkpoints: Barriers between Life and Death

Israeli checkpoints are the settings of less overt yet equally
insidious human rights violations, tragically illustrated by the death
of 18-year-old Radi Alwahash, who died at a checkpoint between
Bethlehem and Jerusalem on 29 June 2007. Alwahash was being
transferred to hospital in Jerusalem in an Israeli Magen David Adom
ambulance after being critically injured in a traffic accident.
Israeli border police and civil administration staff refused to let
the ambulance cross the checkpoint and held it there for an hour and a
half while Alwahash's body systems failed, claiming that the teenager
was a 'security risk.'

Dr. Barghouthi stated that Israeli checkpoints are the frequent scenes
of Palestinian deaths. Since September 2000, 69 Palestinian women
have given birth at Israeli checkpoints. Five women and 35 newborn
babies have died as a result.

A recent study on perinatal and infant mortality published together
with the John Hopkins University found that four out of every 1,000
Palestinian children born die before the age of one, a factor linked
to Israel's matrix of movement restrictions in the West Bank.

Human Shields

Dr. Barghouthi underlined that Palestinian children are the victims of
other forms of violations by the Israeli military, citing the case of
14-year old Rena Mufid who was used as a human shield by an Israeli
unit during a raid on Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip on 12 July 2007.
Troops from the same unit fired on the girl after their colleagues had
sent her into a house they had surrounded, hitting her in the stomach
and leg.

Dr. Barghouthi stressed that this was not an isolated incident, but
just one facet of a policy of consistent human rights violations on
the part of the Israeli military. He referred to another incident
whereby 11-year-old Jihan Daadush was also used as a human shield by
Israeli soldiers during an incursion into Nablus in February this year.

The practice of using human shields is illegal under both the Fourth
Geneva Convention and under Israeli law itself. [2]

Child Deaths and Injuries

The vulnerability of Palestinian children and youth to the deleterious
effects of the occupation is further evident in conflict-related
mortality and morbidity statistics, which reveal that 959 Palestinian
children have been killed by the Israeli army since 28 September 2000.
In addition, over 20,000 have been injured in the same period, of
whom some 1,500 have sustained life-long disabilities because of their
injures.

Of the 76 Palestinians killed between 16 June and 15 August 2007, 6
have been children. In addition, 24 of the 210 Palestinians injured
during the same period have also been children. No Israelis have been
killed during the same time period.

Dr. Barghouthi called urgently on the Palestinian Authority to take
decisive measures in protesting these violations, stressing that what
Palestinians need is not VIP passes for some politicians and
businesspeople to cross checkpoints, but freedom of movement for all
Palestinians in safety, particularly schoolchildren and those
requiring healthcare.

Notes

[1] The village of Ras at-Tira, with a population of 445 people, lies
near the Israeli settlement of Alfe Menashe. It is surrounded by the
Apartheid Wall on three sides, while the planned construction of a
further section of the Wall will completely imprison the village,
leaving three Israeli military-controlled gates as its only exit points.

[2] Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that "The
presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain
points or areas immune from military operations."; In a ruling by
Israeli Supreme Court on 6 October 2005, Judge Aharon Barak stated
that "You cannot exploit the civilian population for the army's
military needs, and you cannot force them to collaborate with the army."