Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Israel allows Palestinian's to choose punishment

Binyamin Perle | 24.01.2003 09:06

Israel allows Palestinian's to choose punishment

By The Palestine Monitor (www.yellowtimes.org),
January, 15, 2003

On the 12th of January, Firas al-Sarfandi, 23, was stopped by Israeli soldiers on his way home to the Jalazone refugee camp. Witnesses reported that soldiers stopped Firas at around 5:00 pm, presented him with some papers, forced him to choose one and then proceeded to beat him for approximately half an hour. The soldiers then left him lying on the ground, unconscious and covered in blood.

Medical sources in the Sheikh Zayed hospital in Ramallah, say Firas suffered from a fractured femur as well as bruises and wounds all over his body.

This is not the first time such "lottery" acts have been carried out. A few weeks ago reports came out of Hebron concerning the then new and bizarre form of cruelty inflicted upon Palestinians detained by Israeli soldiers. A number of Palestinian youths reported on the Voice of Palestine Radio station, and other media, that Israeli soldiers stopped them, and then forced them to choose from various pieces of paper. Written on the paper were body parts; the soldiers would then break whichever body part the youth had chosen.

Apparently the soldiers then changed their mind, and offered the youths choices between nose, leg or arm. They chose their noses, and so they were broken

One youth said, "I was taken from inside my shop in Bab al-Zawiya to a settlement, then they forced me to choose a paper, and then they broke my shoulder and beat me with their machine guns."

Palestinian newspapers reported that Hussein Shyoukhi, a lawyer investigating Israeli soldiers participation in the "lottery," said the choices "vary from a spit in the face and eating soap, to pulling out teeth and breaking bones."

Victims of earlier incidents include Said Baker Al-Zary, 22, from Hebron, who ended up with a broken arm as well as sixth grader Waseem Al Sha'rawi, also from Hebron, who was stopped by soldiers when he left his home to buy a few things at the local shop. The soldiers stopped him, forced him to choose a piece of paper and his finger was broken.

In another incident in Hebron, Israeli soldiers stopped Wael Suleiman, 22, in the industrial area, and beat him until he agreed to choose a piece of paper. "Hitting and burning the car" was written - so two of the soldiers hit him, while the two others set fire to the car.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, the president of UPMRC, said "Israeli soldiers have always acted with a great deal of impunity in the occupied towns and cities, and now we see them sinking to new depths. This torturous form of a lottery reflects that the soldiers know no one will investigate their behaviour, nor will they be punished for it. Basically they have been given a licence to act however they want, and to terrorize further a captive civilian population."

Binyamin Perle

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech