Israeli Border Police Humiliate Palestinian

LOL? Not.

It's a 45-second video. The young Palestinian man alone is visible. He's frightened. He's being forced to slap himself, again and again, while repeating lines fed to him by the Israeli border police, two men whose voices croak with the laughter of predators toying with their prey.

As the young man slaps himself, his tormentors yell out in Hebrew and Arabic, "Yallah, start, do it hard!" He complies. They laugh. "Say 'Ana behibak Mishmar Hagvul' ["I love the Border Police"] Say it!" He obeys. Do it again. He obeys, all the while slapping himself as ordered. Then he's ordered to sing a rhyme, "Wahad hummus wahad ful," which means "one is hummus one is fava beans," and rhyme it with 'I love the border police." Then his tormentors tire of the game and send him on his way, the camera briefly catching a glimpse of the border police jeep.

The video was uploaded to YouTube, apparently one of many in the genre that Haaretz discovered and analyzed over the weekend. "Haaretz found several others like it, in which Palestinians are seen being abused and humiliated by Border Police troops. The faces of the tormenters are rarely seen, and it's also not clear where the clips were filmed - but what is clear is the atmosphere in which this cruel theater is played out," writes Uri Blau.

He goes on, describing another video:

"Hey, there's an illegal − I want to show how I catch an illegal," the policeman says, and starts to chase the Palestinian. The photographer is heard chortling and sniggering as he documents the event. The clip ends as the policeman returns to the Jeep with the youngster he has caught and says, "A Hamas terrorist has just been captured. Wow!" Standing behind him, the Palestinian, obviously fearful, intones, "No, I am not Hamas, I am not Hamas."

There is more than passing bigotry in that Hamas branding. There is a long and official tradition in Israel, dating back to 1949, of equating Palestinians and Arabs at borders "infiltrators" or "terrorists." The Israeli military adopted a policy in 1948 of shooting any Arab who crossed the line, resulting in the killing of between 2,700 and 5,000 "infiltrators," according to Israeli historian Benny Morris, "mostly unarmed, during 1949-56." Who were those people called "infiltrators?" Most, Morris writes, "crossed the borders to harvest crops left behind, to plant new crops in their abandoned lands, or to retrieve goods. Many others came to resettle in their old villages or elsewhere inside Israel, or to visit relatives, or simply to get a glimpse of their abandoned homes and fields." For that, they were shot on sight.

That was then. Today of course the situation is a bit different. The humiliations (and the periodic killings) are not. Uri Blau again:

From conversations with Border Policemen who recently completed their service, it turns out that the "Wahad hummus, wahad ful" chant remains very popular. A. is an officer who served in the Border Police for 10 years, mainly in the Jerusalem area and along the separation fence. Asked whether this is a widespread phenomenon, he replies, "Yes, because the Arabs also know this song and, you know, laugh."

Sometimes, A. notes, when Border Policemen detain a Palestinian for a check, "until he [the policeman] records his ID number, [in order] to amuse the guys they bring in a new recruit to run the show - They line them up in a row and udrub" (get going).

Isn't there anyone who says this behavior is wrong?

"No, who would say that? They take it as clowning, you know."

Don't you think it's humiliating to make people do that?

"From that point of view, yes, but it's a relative thing, which is still at a higher level than the other things they do, which are more humiliating."

Such as what?

"A lot of things. Blows, 'sit on my knees,' 'lower your head,' 'pull down your pants,' 'strip.' In my opinion, those are worse things than singing."

And who are these Palestinians at "border check-points" (the words have to be put in quotes, considering the enduring subjectivity, and illegality, of those checkpoints), if not descendants of those nameless Palestinians Morris wrote about, noting wryly: "Victims cannot talk and the perpetrators do not usually want to." But videos say enough.

See Also:

• When Settlers Terrorize Palestinians
• Israel and Gaza - A Withdrawal That Did Not End Israel's Occupation
• It's the Settlements, Stupid
• Israel's Security Fence and Separation Barrier
• Biden, Palin and the Obliteration of Palestinians
• The IDF’s “Environmental” Tank