The conduct of Israeli forces in the West Bank have once again come into question after two Israeli police officers were filmed terrorizing an 8-year-old Palestinian girl, before stealing her bike and throwing it in the bushes.
The video was released by B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, earlier this month. In the footage, an Israeli police officer can be seen approaching a young girl and her siblings as they innocently played in the street.
Terrified, Anwar begins to scream and drops her bicycle, which the officer then proceeds to stomp on. As the armed officer begins to shout at the girl, the youngster flees from the scene, tears streaming down her face.
A second Israeli officer can then be seen picking up the bicycle before disposing of it in a nearby bush. The young girl in the video has since been identified as Anwar Burqan, an 8-year-old Palestinian girl who had been playing with her 11-year-old sister and brothers’ aged seven and four at the time of the incident.
The incident is said to have taken place on a paved part of Hebron’s al-Ibrahimi St, a road that leads up to the Tomb of the Patriarchs/ Ibrahimi Mosque holy site on July 25. Currently, this paved road is closed to Palestinians – an unsurfaced pathway on the other side of a fence has been designated to Palestinian use.
Anwar and her family, who live in a nearby flat, had often played in the divided street as they lack their own garden. However, since the incident took place, Anwar has become too frightened to leave hear house, her mother told the Haaretz newspaper.
“It was a trauma that will stay with her for her whole life. I don’t know for what reason that soldier attacked her. Even if she entered a place she wasn’t allowed to enter, what danger or threat did she pose – she’s only an eight-year-old girl.”
Raed Abu Ramileh, the B’Tselem cameraman who lives in a house overlooking Hebron’s al-Ibrahimi St, explains what compelled him to film the incident and share it with the world: “I saw that soldier coming toward the girl and I decided to document it. It was very difficult to watch, especially when you hear the girl crying and wailing.”
Ramileh added that when he uses his camera on the street, police officers and settlers in the area sometimes violently confront him. However, as he was able to capture the incident from the safety of his own home, Ramileh was able to film the event unhindered.
Since the video’s release, a spokesperson for the Israeli Border Police force, which guards Hebron’s many checkpoints, has announced that an officer has been suspended for their involvement in the incident.
“The Border Police views the incident with severity and is sorry for it,” a statement said.
“At the close of the initial investigation the Border Police commander ordered that the combatant be immediately removed from active duty.
“All investigative material was handed over to the Police Investigation Department, which began its investigation of the incident.”
According to B’Tselem, the incident is an example of “daily life” for Palestinians living under military occupation in the city. Hebron is currently divided between Palestinian Authority and Israeli control. A wave of violence swept over the southern West Bank city last year.
Since September, 34 Israelis and two American citizens have been killed in Palestinian attacks. In comparison, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in the same period. According to officials, the majority of these killings were a result of the individual carrying out or attempting an attack. The rest are said to have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces.
In fact, the recent wave of violence has also become a concern for Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, the Israeli army’s deputy chief of staff.
“If there is anything that frightens me in the remembrance of the Holocaust, it is discerning nauseating processes that took place in Europe in general, and in Germany specifically back then, 70, 80 and 90 years ago, and seeing evidence of them here among us in the year 2016,” Maj. Gen. Yair Golan said during the country’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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