VIDEO REVEALS THREATS AND INNUENDO IN ISRAEL QUESTIONING OF AHED
▶ Israeli Justice Ministry investigating complaints of improper conduct during interrogation of Palestinian teenager by military intelligence agent
The family of the teenage Palestinian protester Ahed Tamimi yesterday released excerpts from a video in which an Israeli interrogator threatens the 16-year-old with the arrest of her relatives if she refuses to co-operate.
The interrogator also comments on her body, fair skin and “eyes of an angel”.
The interrogator, said to be an agent of the Israeli military intelligence branch, at times moves within inches of the teenager, who does not respond and repeatedly asserts her right to remain silent.
The Israeli military said a complaint of improper conduct by the investigator, filed by Ahed’s lawyer, was being “thoroughly examined” by the Justice Ministry.
Ahed’s father, Bassem Tamimi, told reporters that the video is evidence of Israel’s failure to break his daughter. He portrayed Ahed as a symbol of resistance to Israel’s 51year military occupation. Her silence under pressure shows that “we are not victims, we are fighters for the cause of freedom of our people”, he said.
A West Bank rights group said most arrested minors had reported being verbally abused, intimated or humiliated while in Israeli custody.
Ahed is serving an eightmonth prison term – the result of a plea deal – for slapping and kicking two Israeli soldiers outside her West Bank home in mid-December.
The teenager’s arrest and prosecution by Israel has gathered international attention. It has also touched on broader issues, such as the detention of Palestinian minors by Israel – currently 356 – and the debate on what constitutes legitimate resistance to Israel’s rule over millions of Palestinians.
Her supporters see a brave girl who struck the soldiers in anger after having just learnt that Israeli troops seriously wounded a 15-year-old cousin. In Israel, she is seen either as a naive youth manipulated by her elders or a threat to Israel’s military deterrence.
The interrogation video was part of the case file handed to the defence after Ahed was indicted, said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli activist who is helping to co-ordinate her legal strategy.
Ahed’s lawyer filed a complaint with the military’s judge advocate general over the interrogation tactics, including apparent threats, coercion and sexual innuendo, said Mr Pollak. The interrogation took place on December 26, a week after the teenager’s arrest, at an Israeli police station in the West Bank, Mr Pollak said. One of the interrogators was a police officer and the second belonged to Israel’s military intelligence branch, he said.
At the beginning, Ahed is asked whether she had spoken to a lawyer, and she nods her head. From then on, she refuses to answer questions.
The military intelligence agent, who sits in a chair close to her, attempts to get her to speak, at times threatening her, then telling her that with her blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin she reminds him of his younger sister.
“When I think of my little sister, her eyes look like your eyes,” he tells her. “She is white like you. In the sun, she looks like the hamburger. And what about you? What do you look like in the sun? Red, red, red? When I see your eyes, I say, it’s a shame (haram), you are here (in detention),” he says.
At another time, he tells her she has the “eyes of an angel”.
He also threatens her, mentioning names of family members, and telling her that “we will take everyone if you don’t co-operate”.
Rights groups say Ahed’s experience is typical of what Palestinian minors experience in Israeli custody.
“The majority of Palestinian minors experience a wide range of serious rights violations from the moment of arrest through to the conclusion of their trial proceedings,” said Ivan Karakashian of the West Bank group Defence for Children International – Palestine.
He said the assessment is based on affidavits collected last year from 137 minors who had been in detention. Mr Karakashian said that between 500 and 700 minors are prosecuted and convicted in military courts each year.
Under Israeli military law applied in the West Bank, minors can consult with a lawyer before an interrogation, but do not have the right to legal representation during questioning, defence lawyers have said.
Even the right to prior consultation is often not honoured, said Yael Stein of the Israeli rights group B’Tselem and Farah Bayadsi of Defence for Children International.
If the minors do not have the phone number of lawyers, or the lawyers are unable to get to the location in time, interrogators can start questioning without them.