Monday September 16, 2024

Video shows Israeli harsh interrogation of Palestinian teenager icon

Published : 09 Apr 2018, 23:11

  DF-Xinhua Report
Palestinian girl Ahed Tamimi (2nd R) appears at a military court in the Ofer Prison near the West Bank City of Ramallah, on Dec. 20, 2017. The Palestinian girl who was caught on video slapping a soldier in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has been remanded in custody until Thursday, the police said on Tuesday. Photo Xinhua.

A video revealed on Monday morning shows two Israeli interrogators harassing and threatening the Palestinian teenager resistance icon Ahed Tamimi.

The interrogation came without her lawyer nor a female officer in suspected breach of international standards and laws, according to the two-hour video provided by the family of Tamimi and rights groups.

Her father, Basem Tamimi, told a press conference in Ramallah that Ahed stayed strong despite the physical and psychological pressure.

The video clip was a segment of a long interrogation on Dec. 26, 2017, about one week after 17-year-old Ahed was detained by Israeli forces in an overnight raid on her home over a video of her slapping an Israeli soldier outside her home going viral on the internet.

It was released by the Israeli army to Ahed's lawyer, under an internationally recognized legal obligation to have all children's interrogation recorded on tape.

"What we are dealing with is not an individual practice but a systematic and institutionalized approach," Amani Sarahneh, the information officer of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Xinhua.

"The physical and psychological consequences, especially on children, may appear in the long term as they grow," she added.

More than 12,000 Palestinian children have been arrested since 2000, with over 80 percent of them reported to have suffered verbal and physical abuse, including being beaten and prevented from sleeping, said Fadi Quran, a senior campaigner with Avaaz, a U.S.-based online activist network.

Meanwhile, a report by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Detainees Affairs Commission said over 350 Palestinian minors are being detained in Israeli prisons.