An affidavit obtained exclusively by +972 reveals what appears to be the first documented case of a ‘human shield’ used by the Israeli military during its invasion of the eastern Gaza town of Khuza’a.Anyone who even glances at this "testimony" objectively can see that it makes no sense. Israelis relying on a 16-year old to search for hidden tunnels? Spending 5 days with him while fighting is going on? Making him dig tunnels with his bare hands?
Ahmad Abu Raida, now 17, was separated from his family by Israeli soldiers on July 23 as he and his family were trying to flee to safety. During Abu Raida’s five-day captivity, an Israeli soldier, who insisted he be called “captain,” repeatedly asked the boy about alleged Hamas tunnels and rocket launching sites in his neighborhood.
“I told him I did not know,” Abu Raida, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident, said. “‘I’m young. I’m 17 years old. How am I supposed to know these things?’ I said to him, but he became angry and started punching and kicking me.”
Abu Raida’s case was documented by Defense for Children International-Palestine, which released a statement Thursday based on the affidavit it collected. +972 spoke with the 17-year-old earlier today.
...Abu Raida described being taken out of the house the following day, at about 1 p.m., by a soldier who “made me walk in front of him and [ordered] me in broken Arabic to [turn] ‘left and right’. He was walking about three meters behind me.”
The soldiers then took Abu Raida to two houses, ordering him to “[g]et in and see if there are tunnels or not,” according to the 17-year-old. He told them that he did not find any, which prompted the “captain” to physically assault the child.
“He started punching and kicking me. He even brought a wire and hit me with it on my back,” Abu Raida told DCI-Palestine.
Here is Abu Raida’s complete account of the abuse:
“I was crying and begging him to stop, but he did not show any mercy. He kept hitting me over and over. He poured a glass of water on my trousers. He insulted me using very dirty words that I am familiar with, and other dirty words that I have never heard of. Even soldiers who did not speak Arabic insulted me as well. They threatened to ‘shove a stick into my … bottom’ if I did not tell them where the tunnels were.”
...On July 26, according to the affidavit, Abu Raida was ordered to climb down into a hole and dig for tunnels. When he replied that the hole was the beginnings of “a sanitation well,” the captain “took off his helmet and hit me with it on my head,” said Abu Raida.
After complaining that he was feeling ill and could not dig anymore, Abu Raida was taken to a relative’s house, where soldiers again interrogated him about alleged Hamas tunnels:
“I told them I did not know anything about the tunnels, so they would slap me across the face or on my neck, or punch me or kick me whenever they wanted,” Abu Raida said.
After a night of repeated questioning and physical abuse – including being forced “to sit and stand up again more than 60 times” – Abu Raida was asked the following morning if he would “work for them as a spy.” After he refused, a soldier “pointed to the police dogs they had with them and said, ‘You see that dog, it’s better than you.’”
According to the affidavit, at around 1 p.m. on July 27, the fifth day of Abu Raida’s captivity, the soldiers allowed him to put his clothes back on and released him.
And yet there are no photos of injuries from his being repeatedly kicked, punched, slapped and hit with various objects like helmets and wires.The charges are so absurd that only a crazed anti-Israel activist could believe it.
Not surprisingly, the original affidavit that +972 received "exclusively" came from DCI-Palestine.
How reliable is DCI-Palestine?
I researched that last month:
DCI-Palestine lied about the number of children killed in Operation Cast Lead, and they consistently report kids killed by Palestinian Arab rockets as being killed by Israel. Even when other NGOs confirmed that children were engaged in fighting during Cast Lead, DCI-P claimed that they couldn't find any good witnesses so they counted them as being innocents.
DCI-Palestine openly admits that it "develops its programs and acts according to Palestinian children's needs and Palestinian priorities."
In other words, its objectivity is zero.
DCI-Palestine describes its methodology here:
Initial identification of potential human rights violations
Al Mezan and DCI-Palestine identify potential violations through two main avenues: victims’ reports and field monitoring. Al Mezan is a well-known Gaza-based human rights organisation in operation since 1999 and victims of human rights violations regularly contact one of Al Mezan’s three offices located across the Gaza Strip for assistance; in addition, Al Mezan’s five experienced fieldworkers based throughout the Gaza Strip use their strong community links to identify potential cases of human rights violations. Similarly, DCI-Palestine receives reports from children and parents in any of its four West Bank offices and through Gaza-based fieldworkers; however, most investigations are initiated following ongoing and proactive field monitoring from nine fieldworkers across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This means that the way DCI (and Al-Mezan) work is that every case of "torture" that they document is either self-reported or they go out of their way to find them. And if there are inconsistencies, what do they do?
Fieldworkers frequently go back to the source in order to verify details and correct any data inconsistency.An organization that admits up front that it is biased says that rather than discard any inconsistent testimony as being unreliable, they go back and massage the reports until they fit together better with the other "facts" that they handpicked to begin with!
This is a fancy way of admitting that they coax the "witnesses" to lie, or at the very least to shade the truth until they fit the agendas of the Israel-hating NGOs.
DCI-P claims that some 75% of under-18s arrested are tortured. But they hand-pick the people who make the most ludicrous claims to come up with this utter fantasy of a statistic.
For some reason, +972 thinks that there is something magic about an "affidavit" that makes it less likely that it is a lie. But the fact is that any kid in Gaza who seeks fame and fortune can go to the DCI-Palestine website, make up a story, and have a team of "professionals" work at making sure that it fits their explicit anti-Israel agenda. You just know they use leading questions to elicit the most insane responses.
+972, of course, eats this all up without the slightest skepticism.
It is not a mystery that the co-founder of +972 just reiterated that he believes Zionism to be racism.