Israeli Border Police Seize 6-year-old in Hebron, Drag Him to a Checkpoint And Hold Him for an Hour
- Israeli Border Police Seize 6-year-old in Hebron, Drag Him to a Checkpoint And Hold Him for an Hour
by https://www.btselem.org/
The policemen took me into Abu a-Rish Checkpoint (the Pharmacy Checkpoint) and kept me shut in a room there for about an hour. I cried and the soldiers cursed me. Then they put me into a white car. I heard the other boy who was arrested with me asking a woman soldier where they were taking us, and she answered, ‘To prison.’
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The above description was given by Zeid Taha, 6, to B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bri on 27 November 2018, after he was detained by Border Police officers at a checkpoint in the center of Hebron for about one hour.
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On Sunday, 25 November 2018, at about 2:00 P.M., three children went out to play in a-Zahraa Park in the center of Hebron. They were Qusai a-Rajabi, 11, and his nephews Usayed Taha, 10, and Zeid Taha, 6. The park is situated approximately 300 meters south of the Pharmacy Checkpoint. Approximately two hours later, at about 4:00 P.M., Qusai and Usayed left the park. Palestinian youths in the area were throwing stones at Israeli security forces, who responded with teargas and stun grenades.
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A few minutes later, a soldier grasping 15-year-old ‘Abd a-Rahman Abu Daoud by the neck and arm and taking him in the direction of the Pharmacy Checkpoint was captured on video. At the beginning of the footage, a female soldier is seen shoving Abu Daoud, who was already firmly in the soldier’s grip. A few minutes later, two Border Police officers were documented gripping 6-year-old Zeid Taha by both arms and taking him to the checkpoint. The two boys were held at the checkpoint for about an hour. The security forces then transferred Abu Daoud to the police station in Kiryat Arba and then on to Ofer Prison. He was kept in custody as a detainee until 2 December 2018, when he was sentenced to three months’ in prison and a fine of NIS 500. He was sentenced by under the military court system, which does not afford any protections to minors and systematically violates their rights.
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As for Taha, the officers drove him from the Pharmacy Checkpoint in another vehicle and took him to a checkpoint whose name he does not know. They then moved him again, this time to Bab a-Zawiya Checkpoint, where he was handed over to the Palestinian police.
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Taha related the following in his testimony:
I was driven to another checkpoint where they put me in a room where a soldier was sitting on a chair. He opened his computer and showed me photographs of some children. He looked really carefully at my face and at the computer, as if he was trying to find my picture among the photos of the children on the computer. But he didn’t find me there. Then they took me in another car to a road where there was another checkpoint. I don’t know where it was.
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And then they took me to the Palestinian police post at Bab a-Zawiya, and from there to the Palestinian police station (Family Protection Unit). My mom and uncle picked me up from there.
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