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Palestinians Report More
Israeli 'Lottery Punishment'
1-24-3

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Wassim Sha'rawi, 14, was out shopping for groceries three weeks ago in Hebron when an Israeli border police patrol stopped him and ended up breaking one his fingers, his father, Nijati, says.
 
"Don't you know the place is under curfew?" they barked at him, says the father.
 
Sha'rawi, as in the case of other beaten Palestinians, lives in the West Bank town's H2 quarter, which is controlled by the army and has been subjected to curfews for most of the 28 months of the intifada.
 
A policeman asked him to draw one out of four pieces of paper, each inscribed with a different punishment, he says.
 
Sha'rawi says the man bent the middle finger of his son's right hand backward until it broke.
 
"I took him to the hospital and the doctor confirmed the injury," he says.
 
Hijazi Abu Sneineh, 43, says he was forced to play the same "game," which Palestinians have come to label "the lottery."
 
"I work as a night watchman at one of Hebron's stone quarries. On December 28, two border police jeeps packed with eight men drove to the plant's entrance," he says.
 
"One of them asked me to choose among several pieces of paper in a small cardboard box. I first refused but he started beating me until I gave up and picked a piece of paper," he says.
 
"I couldn't read it because it was in Hebrew but soon enough they went on with the beating, hitting my legs, hands and back," he says.
 
Abu Sneineh complains his back is hurting to this day.
 
"After 15 minutes of intense thrashing, they threw me in a ditch," he said.
 
The policemen were momentarily distracted by a car driving by the factory and he seized the opportunity to flee.
 
On December 2, Fadel Al-Rajabi, 29, and his two brothers were driving in Hebron's Jabal Johar neighborhood when they were stopped by a border police jeep.
 
"They asked me what kind of death I would like to die. Allah will decide I answered," recalls Al-Rajabi.
 
"We'll take your car keys and let you slide down this slope until you crash, wouldn't you like that?" he says he was asked.
 
"Instead, they made us stand hands up against a wall for five hours during which time they beat us up before taking all our money and letting us go," he added.
 
Omran Abu Hamdieh, 18, was not so lucky: he was beaten to death on December 30, Palestinian medical sources said.
 
He had been picked up by an Israeli border police jeep and later found with serious head wounds and taken to a hospital where he died.
 
An army spokeswoman told AFP an investigation into Abu Hamdieh's case had been opened.
 
As for other cases of beatings, including those under the "lottery" system, Sharon Feingold said "we failed to find substantial evidence that would justify opening an investigation."
 
Palestinian lawyer Azem Bishara told AFP such cases had close to no chance of ever being investigated. "Soldiers protect one another and often claim they were acting in legitimate defence."
 
Ronen Shnayderman of the Israeli rights organization B'Tselem says "eight cases of severe beating by soldiers or border policemen have been recently documented."
 
"Reports say Palestinians are often taken to Hebron's industrial area, preferably in the evening, and beaten there," he says.
 
"Medical reports show that several men were found with cracks in their skulls and ribs," he says.
 
"Hebron is a unique case in that the settlements are inside the city, which means that soldiers and border policemen live in the midst of the Palestinian population," he explains.
 
Some 600 radical Jewish settlers live in enclaves among 120,000 Palestinians, and an ever-widening strip is being emptied of its Palestinian population to allow for residents of neighboring settlements to safely reach the Cave of the Patriarchs there, holy to both Jews and Muslims.
 
According to B'Tselem, Palestinians in Hebron believe the army has become harsher on the civilian population since nine soldiers and a border policeman, as well three settlers, were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen as Jewish worshippers walked to the holy site last November.
 
"Palestinians believe the army and border police are trying to avenge their dead colleagues," he says.
(AFP) - Wassim Sha'rawi, 14, was out shopping for groceries three weeks ago in Hebron when an Israeli border police patrol stopped him and ended up breaking one his fingers, his father, Nijati, says.
 
"Don't you know the place is under curfew?" they barked at him, says the father.
 
Sha'rawi, as in the case of other beaten Palestinians, lives in the West Bank town's H2 quarter, which is controlled by the army and has been subjected to curfews for most of the 28 months of the intifada.
 
A policeman asked him to draw one out of four pieces of paper, each inscribed with a different punishment, he says.
 
Sha'rawi says the man bent the middle finger of his son's right hand backward until it broke.
 
"I took him to the hospital and the doctor confirmed the injury," he says.
 
Hijazi Abu Sneineh, 43, says he was forced to play the same "game," which Palestinians have come to label "the lottery."
 
"I work as a night watchman at one of Hebron's stone quarries. On December 28, two border police jeeps packed with eight men drove to the plant's entrance," he says.
 
"One of them asked me to choose among several pieces of paper in a small cardboard box. I first refused but he started beating me until I gave up and picked a piece of paper," he says.
 
"I couldn't read it because it was in Hebrew but soon enough they went on with the beating, hitting my legs, hands and back," he says.
 
Abu Sneineh complains his back is hurting to this day.
 
"After 15 minutes of intense thrashing, they threw me in a ditch," he said.
 
The policemen were momentarily distracted by a car driving by the factory and he seized the opportunity to flee.
 
On December 2, Fadel Al-Rajabi, 29, and his two brothers were driving in Hebron's Jabal Johar neighborhood when they were stopped by a border police jeep.
 
"They asked me what kind of death I would like to die. Allah will decide I answered," recalls Al-Rajabi.
 
"We'll take your car keys and let you slide down this slope until you crash, wouldn't you like that?" he says he was asked.
 
"Instead, they made us stand hands up against a wall for five hours during which time they beat us up before taking all our money and letting us go," he added.
 
Omran Abu Hamdieh, 18, was not so lucky: he was beaten to death on December 30, Palestinian medical sources said.
 
He had been picked up by an Israeli border police jeep and later found with serious head wounds and taken to a hospital where he died.
 
An army spokeswoman told AFP an investigation into Abu Hamdieh's case had been opened.
 
As for other cases of beatings, including those under the "lottery" system, Sharon Feingold said "we failed to find substantial evidence that would justify opening an investigation."
 
Palestinian lawyer Azem Bishara told AFP such cases had close to no chance of ever being investigated. "Soldiers protect one another and often claim they were acting in legitimate defence."
 
Ronen Shnayderman of the Israeli rights organization B'Tselem says "eight cases of severe beating by soldiers or border policemen have been recently documented."
 
"Reports say Palestinians are often taken to Hebron's industrial area, preferably in the evening, and beaten there," he says.
 
"Medical reports show that several men were found with cracks in their skulls and ribs," he says.
 
"Hebron is a unique case in that the settlements are inside the city, which means that soldiers and border policemen live in the midst of the Palestinian population," he explains.
 
Some 600 radical Jewish settlers live in enclaves among 120,000 Palestinians, and an ever-widening strip is being emptied of its Palestinian population to allow for residents of neighboring settlements to safely reach the Cave of the Patriarchs there, holy to both Jews and Muslims.
 
According to B'Tselem, Palestinians in Hebron believe the army has become harsher on the civilian population since nine soldiers and a border policeman, as well three settlers, were shot dead by Palestinian gunmen as Jewish worshippers walked to the holy site last November.
 
"Palestinians believe the army and border police are trying to avenge their dead colleagues," he says.


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