Exposing Israeli teens to IDF child abuse

[Jos]

Pointing gun at child's head

The soldier's account is just one of 30 testimonies featured in a new report released by Breaking the Silence, an organization that since 2004 has been interviewing IDF troops about their service in the West Bank. Fresh from the printers, thousands of copies of the report have arrived at group's headquarters ahead of the fast-approaching school year. Next week, they are to be distributed among the next generation of IDF soldiers – high school students in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. "The first time you point a weapon at a 5-year-old kid, you say that it isn't right," the soldier says in his statement. "But that changes when you go into the village and they throw stones at you. If you're in the village, and you pass by a school, you're automatically pelted with stones.



"Once, my driver got out, caught some kid and beat him up, really beat him up, for just sitting there. I think he just resembled some other kid, or maybe he wore the same T-shirt, or perhaps it was the same kid, but that isn't the point. He gave him a severe beating. He didn't even detain him, he just beat him up."

Exposing Israeli teens to IDF child abuse - Israel News, Ynetnews