Video of Israeli troop stirs Palestine anger

JERUSALEM

A Palestinian protester faces off with an Israeli soldier in this photo. A video of an Israeli border officer kicking a Palestinian boy in Hebron causes an uproar. AFP photo

A video of an Israeli border officer kicking a Palestinian boy while he is held by a colleague in Hebron released July 2 by the Israeli human rights agency B’Tselem has received heavy criticism from activists. 

In the video the officer is seen grabbing the nine-year-old boy, Abd a-Rahman Burqan, by the arm and dragging him as he says: “Why are you causing trouble?” A second officer walks towards the boy and kicks the child as he cries out, Al-Arabiya reported on its website.

According to B’Tselem, the incident took place June 29 close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Ibrahim mosque, a location where clashes between police and young Palestinian youth frequently occur. 

Israel’s Border Police immediately announced they were launching an investigation into the incident. In a statement released shortly after the video was put online, it said they “condemned the police conduct as contrary to its values,” the Times of Israel reported. The incident follows the publication of a British Foreign Office-funded report by British lawyers last week which cited violations of international law in the detention of children in the West Bank.

The area close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Ibrahim mosque has seen recent friction between police and Palestinian boys with some police officers having complained of boys throwing stones. 

In April the Israeli army suspended an officer who hit a foreign activist in the face with his gun. The incident caused uproar in Israel and Palestine. According to video footage the officer is seen suddenly smashing his M-16 rifle into the face of a blonde demonstrator in an apparently unprovoked attack. He was then removed from his post and banned from command positions for the next two years.