A former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC’ s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank.
“You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he’s really shaking… Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the circulation.
“He doesn’t understand a word of what’s going on around him. He doesn’t know what you’re going to do with him. He just knows we are soldiers with guns. That we kill people. Maybe they think we’re going to kill him.
They dragged me from my home by the scruff of the neck. The more I cried the more they choked me… They pulled me along on my stomach. My knees were bleeding. They beat me with their guns and kicked me all the way to the jeep
Mohammad Khawaja, 13
“A lot of the time they’re peeing their pants, just sit there peeing their pants, crying. But usually they’re very quiet.”
Eran Efrati is a former commander in Israel’s army. He served in the occupied West Bank.
In a discreet park in Jerusalem we meet to discuss allegations that soldiers like him often mistreat Palestinian minors, suspected of throwing stones.
Mr Efrati – who left the army five months ago – says the allegations are true:
”I never arrested anyone younger than nine or… >>>
