This Week Thames TV - The Beatings of Palestinians (1988)

Speaker 1: This week, reports on 2 Palestinians who were not only beaten, but beaten to death. With the hospitals full of injured people, including old women, we ask, are the Israeli troops in the occupied territories out of control? Today, the American secretary of state, George Shultz, is flying back to Israel to resume his attempt to start the process of negotiation towards a settlement of the Palestinian crisis. He does so in the midst of an uprising by those Palestinians who live under Israeli occupation, an uprising in which so far more than 70 Palestinians have died and many hundreds more have been injured in a conflict with the Israeli army that has shocked public opinion around the world. The focus of international dismay has been upon the beatings administered to the Palestinians by their Israeli captors. Our report tonight examines the actions and the policies of the Israeli army in its attempt to crush the uprising in the occupied territories. That is the land seized by Israel from its Arab neighbours in the June War of 1967: the Golan Heights, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. It is here, in the Jabalia refugee camp, where the uprising began, that Peter Gill begins his report.

Peter Gill: Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! A man in a mask challenges Israeli authority over Gaza. This demonstration is illegal. So, too, is the Palestinian flag. The stones they pick up are now emblems of Palestinian revolt. To Israeli soldiers, those stones are a threat and a provocation, a confrontation in the making. Israeli soldiers are angry. Leave the place immediately. Leave the place. Go on. We show you the papers. Well, can you translate it for us? I don't understand nothing. Go out of the place. Surely it's necessary. From a concealed vantage point, we film conduct of which Israel is officially ashamed. A Palestinian teenager has been collared by the army and is frog-marched to the vehicle. Most of the stone throwers, certainly the masked agitators, have vanished. The women of Jabalia refugee camp try to intervene. Behind the trucks, there are now 2 Palestinian balls. One of them receives some rough Israeli justice. In January, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin announced a strategy of force, power, and beatings instead of bullets. The army says beatings can only be used during riots, in hot pursuit, or if arrest is resisted. Leave him alone! Leave him alone! So this beating is illegal.

Bernard Mills: What has happened, I think, since General Rabin's announcement is that whilst it was always done quietly and not necessarily in a public place, now it is being done in a In public and very, very openly. And I think it has given, as they say in this part of the world, the green light to people to do things which maybe they had been inhibited from doing before.

Peter Gill: In the aftermath of demonstrations, casualties start to arrive at the camp's United Nations clinic. This man was beaten and then kicked in the genitals. This man has a fractured forearm. The world knows that when the Israeli army means business, its opponents had better beware. This was left behind in a Palestinian refugee camp when a group of soldiers got involved in a riot. It needs 2 hands to wield, and it's studded with little nails, apparently to prevent splitting. 2 issues immediately arise. The first is simply the extent and severity of the beatings being meted out. The other is whether the Israelis are deliberately exceeding their own instructions and guidelines as to how weapons like this should be used. Gaza's only Roman Catholic church ministers to a tiny community of 200, but the Palestinian revolt and the Israeli response have had their impact here. Elias Tarazi is a hospice He and his wife are still a long way from coming to terms with the death 3 weeks ago of their 3rd son, Khaled. At a modest Christmas lunch, the Tarezi family of 4 sons and 3 daughters was still together. Then, on February 8th, Khaled was shot on his bicycle in Gaza Town. The green truck was And the army was on the lookout for likely troublemakers. Khader was nervous. Khader Terzi had good reason to be afraid. A Palestinian Arab, 19 years old, the wrong person at the wrong age in occupied Gaza today. He got on his bike and fled at speed from the army down there. Khader knew this part of town well, but the soldiers were by now in pursuit. He abandoned his bike and ran on. He burst into this house and hid under the bed, but he was dragged out.

Speaker 4: لا تعامل هيك وعدين مخطفي بالوحدفه بالجيب صار يدعس عليه.

Peter Gill: شفتي هو عندنا.

Speaker 4: آه.

Peter Gill: And what sort of beating were they giving him? كيف كانوا يضربوه كيف الطريقة كانوا يضربوه على رأسه وعامل هيك ومنجرن فيه. We've established that Khader Tarzi was taken to an Israeli prison camp. Known as Ansar Two. According to other detainees, he was desperately injured but received next to no medical attention. His family was frantic.

Speaker 5: لأن عارفين هناك الأنصار برضو مش راضين يفيدونا. قالونا روحوا على الشرطة يسألوا. روحوا على الإدارة يسألوا. روحوا عند الحاكم يسألوا. وعدنا نمشي وروحوا نيجي فيش معنا سيارة وإحنا نمشي من مكان للتاني وإحنا ندور على الولد ولا حد راضي فينا. يعني روحنا عند الحاكم برضو. برضو الحاكم ما ردوش علينا العباد منعونا الخروج.

Peter Gill: After ten hours of semi-consciousness, Khader was transferred to an Israeli hospital. It is still not clear when or where he died. It was certainly a full forty-eight hours after the first beating that the Israelis handed over his body.

Speaker 6: He had big hematomas in the lower limbs and upper limbs.

Peter Gill: What is a hematoma?

Speaker 6: A hematoma is collection of blood after severe injury. He had severe beating in the legs and in the forearms and in the arms. He had cut wound and hematoma in the skull. And at the same time, the testicles, because he had the first trauma to the testicles, most probably it has been ruptured.

Peter Gill: In Gaza's Roman Catholic cemetery, The Tarazi family mourns a lost son. For their part, the Israelis say there will be an investigation. For the Palestinians, there is now a Christian martyr to add to their cause. For a mother, the beatings have brought a terrible new bitterness.

Speaker 4: لربو حتى الموت بعدين إلا غير بس بزيد الحقد والكراهية إحنا ما كنااش نكراهية وبالمرة لهذا الرجل. أما لما أخذوا ابن صرت أكرههم أكيد أنا كنت أحبهم الابن شوهم زي العمى مش قادر أشوفهم مش قادر أمشي بالشارع شو بولنا علي مش قادرين أخذوا بلزة أكبادنا زارت شبابنا أخذوا بريء طاهر ما عملش أي حاجة لو عمل بقول بس أبداً وافرد وافرد إنه هاجري موتوا لما يموت حرام هذا وين حقوق الإنسان؟ يا ناس وين حقوق الإنسان عطونا إياها؟ Military occupation allows for very few rights, and three-quarters of Gaza's population are refugees.

Peter Gill: Living conditions have scarcely improved in a generation. Only the political circumstances have changed, and those invariably for the worse. Gaza has been under Israeli occupation since the '67 war, and even the Arabs. The Israeli state seemed latterly to accept the permanence of occupation. The Palestinians have now taken matters into their own hands. Some in Gaza do have a place in the sun. This beach resort is run by Jewish settlers and specialises in holidays for the Orthodox. On inland settlements, the desert has, of course, bloomed. In one of the world's most crowded territories, Further room has had to be made for 3,000 Jewish newcomers. A third of Gaza is now for the Israelis. 650,000 Arabs must make do with the land that's left. The settlers themselves aren't troubled by the imbalance, and they have the army to support them.

Speaker 7: I definitely believe that the Gaza Strip, so-called, It's a part of Israel, which is my country, and these people who live here, my neighbors, my Arab neighbors, have the option of living side by side with me in peace and harmony or leaving the country. I don't believe this belongs to them. I believe it belongs to the Israeli people.

Peter Gill: So the Arabs can live in peace and harmony here in Gaza, but On your terms, on Israel's terms?

Speaker 7: Definitely.

Peter Gill: It's not their land?

Speaker 4: No.

Peter Gill: How can you be so very confident that it's not their land when you yourself are an immigrant?

Speaker 7: I immigrated to Israel on the strength of my faith, which was that the whole land of Israel was given to the Jewish people by God. It's not even our land, it's God's land, and we're the custodians of it and not the Arabs.

Peter Gill: For many Israelis, the army has been committed to Gaza in defence of that biblical ideology. For others, the army is there to restore order before a settlement can be achieved. On good days, there is relative calm in Gaza. There have been no serious casualties among troops or settlers. But Israeli fighting men made their reputation against Arab armies, not Arab civilians. They were both ill-prepared and ill-equipped for internal rioting. With inadequate protection against even stones or pebbles, They relied on aggression to impose calm. The soldiers themselves see the beatings as playing a big part in their campaign. This man has been in hospital for 2 weeks and nearly died of his injuries. Both his legs and both his arms were broken by soldiers. According to United Nations figures, In the last 2 years, more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza alone have required medical attention after beatings. And doctors stress that the most spectacular injuries are not necessarily the most dangerous. Broken bones will mend. Damage to soft tissue and internal organs can mean permanent pain and disability. The doctor in charge of this case is a Dane who has specialized in war surgery in Africa and Lebanon. His concern is the massive internal bleeding the patient has suffered. The doctor says he could quite easily have bled to death.

Speaker 8: Yeah, for sure, because it is very difficult for inexperienced people to estimate the extent of the damage.

Peter Gill: What is happening to the injuries now?

Speaker 8: More beating is done, more force is used during the beating, and it seems like other instruments than wooden clubs are in use now, for example, some plastic tube sticks, and they are just as bad.

Speaker 7: Right.

Speaker 8: Even worse than the clubs, and we have had indications of iron bars.

Speaker 6: Iron bars.

Speaker 8: Iron bars being used.

Peter Gill: And your personal response to this?

Speaker 8: This is supposed to be a civilized society, this one where we are now. So I am without words. I just don't understand it.

Peter Gill: Israel's army command has repeatedly stressed the limited circumstances where beatings can be used. But on the ground, there is powerful evidence that beatings are being deployed as a form of summary military justice long after a disturbance has been quelled.

Speaker 4: Hey!

Speaker 8: Hey!

Peter Gill: These troops were anxious not to be filmed in the courtyard of a Palestinian home. On this occasion, no beatings occurred. No tear gas canister was fired. But in many of the most troublesome areas, there seems to be a pattern of follow-up raids. Ambulances can afford to keep close to army patrols when wrongdoers are being sought out.

Bernard Mills: What we're seeing now is a minor disturbance. Very quickly put down by the Israelis, and then a punishment of the camp or the village for the temerity of creating a disturbance.

Peter Gill: As a former British Army officer, Bernard Mills has brought a professional judgment to bear on what the Israelis are doing in the camps. It's at night, often under curfew, It's in the early morning hours, however, when some of the worst excesses are committed. On one morning after, Gill says that a UN medical team treated 80 Palestinians with beating injuries. An additional 15 were sent to hospital with broken bones.

Bernard Mills: They come to people's homes, they go into the homes, and they beat the people inside the houses. The only time they're allowed to go in to houses under curfew is when they are going to arrest known inciters. But the vast bulk of the cases that we have had, there has been no arrest. They have gone in, they have beaten up the young people, often the entire family, if the parents and sisters have had the temerity to intervene on behalf of the young people.

Peter Gill: Since the Arab revolt began in December, each of Gaza's refugee camps has been under curfew for up to 2 weeks. No one may move in or out of their homes without the risk of being shot. It's an effective means of restoring quiet. Even the television cameras are kept out, and that can have its uses, too. This was Beach refugee camp on Friday morning, 2 weeks ago. And this was at the Arab Hospital in Gaza the same afternoon. An old woman is being rushed into casualty. She's from Beit She'an. In the next-door room, her grandson is lying badly beaten. Israeli soldiers had come for him because they'd apparently identified him as a demonstrator in news pictures. I'm a journalist. There'd be no arrest, just a punishment beating. And perhaps the old lady had protested too much.

Speaker 9: As you see, she is an old woman. She's about 80 years old, maybe more than that.

Peter Gill: And this was in their house, was it?

Speaker 9: Yes, in their house, yes. Of course, she's not able to move, so she was at her house when she was beaten.

Peter Gill: And was she trying to protect her grandson?

Speaker 9: She's— she could not move. She's not able to walk. She stays most of the time sitting down.

Peter Gill: And what are her injuries, doctor?

Speaker 9: Yeah, she has some bruises here of the left forearm, as you see, some traumas here. Soon we'll just make some X-rays to find out if she has any fractures, because, you know, old people are very easy to get fractures. And she has some here on the other hand. I should be put under observation for possible internal bleeding because they stepped in her abdomen.

Peter Gill: So basically kicked her?

Speaker 9: Yes, they kicked her in her abdomen. بس در أبوك يا حجة. طيب إن شاء الله تصير كويس خبيش.

Peter Gill: Over the past six weeks, the Bhutans have done worldwide.

Speaker 10: So I admit that at the beginning, the first week or 2 weeks, there were some exceptions and deviations from the orders that— under the circumstances that the troops acted. Nowadays, after directives which were published by the chief of staff, I hope, and I think so, that the situation will be stable and soldiers will know exactly when they are allowed to use force and when it is forbidden to use force.

Peter Gill: Brigadier, I have to tell you that from our experience and our time in Gaza very, very recently, this does not seem to be the case. Beatings seem to be extremely widespread. irregular by the standards you've pointed out and used really for the purpose of intimidation rather than to punish in the middle of a riot?

Speaker 10: I don't accept it, that it is to such a large extent as you mentioned. I know about a few dozens of cases and complaints that I got from lawyers or from the Red Cross and other institutions. And that is by no way is not the policy. Those are, in my opinion, exceptions and deviations from the the rules.

Peter Gill: In Buray refugee camp, a family takes tea. On February the seventh, three and a half weeks ago, at around four o'clock, Aziza Akal and her family were also taking tea when the soldiers burst in.

Speaker 4: بيعشرة من الغرفة المطبخ. صاروا كتفي إياد، فصار الدم ينزل من إياد، فأنا خشيت على إياد، أنا وأخته. من ليش طب أنت لا إيه في في الحجاب ولا براجل مرعز؟ صرنا نصوت.

Peter Gill: After being beaten in the house, إياد أكل and another teenager, his cousin Khalid, were thrown onto army jeeps. The beating continued as they were driven through the camp. Khalid is now recovering from his injuries.

Speaker 11: وصاروا يضحكوا يعني ومفسدون. يعني هم يضربين وينزلين ضرب. القديس سواء كان يقول للجنب أضربوا بسرعة، يعني كان يقف وقف على كرسي وينزل فيه في العصا ضرب والجنب يصير دق فيه دق ويضربوا فيه ضرب. عابين وصلون عند البستان هناك.

Peter Gill: The two boys were dumped by soldiers in this cornfield and found later by neighbors from Baraj camp. Ird Aql is now buried close by, but the Palestinian uprising to which he is now considered a martyr. Shows no sign of abating. Even as intimidation, the beatings have failed.

Speaker 11: أنا ما بعتبرش يعني التكسير واضح إنه حيذكر للانتباه لأن هذه الاعتبارات تكون بالفجرات إلا منذ عشرين عاماً. الاحتلال المتواجد عنا فجاء موعد هذه الكمبلات اللي كان فجر وأنا لم تهدأ الاحتلال. مهما بيستعمل من أسليب لا لا تهدأ.

Peter Gill: What does he think of the policy, the Israeli policy of beating young men in particular?

Speaker 11: ندم كسر الشباب عشان يخوفوه ما ولا شيء ويرهبهم يعني الواحد حتى ما الكنيسة وما مثلا في المظاهرات اشترك يشوف الضرب اللي صار فيه أو يشوف جاره لما ينضرب يخاف يصير زيه. فأقول احتمال هذا يعني ما يكونش يعني غادي ممكن بثور الشباب بأكثر وبحمسه أكثر يعني.

Peter Gill: At the United Nations Clinic in Jebalia Camp, fresh Palestinian casualties are arriving. Many of the beatings are illegal. This man has had his head beaten. More than 70 Arabs have died in the past 2 and a half months of disturbances. The official justification for beatings remains that they are surely preferable to live bullets.

Bernard Mills: If I was young Tarazi or young Argo—

Peter Gill: These are the 2 lads who were killed down here.

Speaker 5: Yeah.

Bernard Mills: I think I would rather have been shot than been beaten to death over a period of hours. It's quicker and cleaner and less painful.