- Yolande Neal
- BBC News – Jerusalem
The Israeli soldier was photographed holding Amr’s neck.
The Israeli army jailed a soldier for 10 days following he assaulted a Palestinian activist who was trying to escort an American journalist in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
The soldier was seen, in a video clip published by Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker, grabbing Issa Amr by the neck and arm and throwing him to the ground.
Then he kicked Amr before another soldier pushed him away.
Israel’s national security minister expressed his full support for the soldier.
Lawrence, whose post has more than 7 million 500,000 views, wrote: “No one I meet has ever been attacked in front of me until today, when an Israeli soldier stopped my interview.”
Lawrence is also a bestselling author who won a Pulitzer Prize for The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.
The story of the Israeli army
The account given by the IDF of the incident differs from Wright’s.
The Israeli military said the soldier was guarding a military post in Hebron and told a Palestinian who had approached him to move away.
And the Israeli army added, “In response, the Palestinian began filming with his mobile phone and insulting the soldier, and this was followed by a verbal confrontation that quickly turned into a physical confrontation, during which the Palestinian soldier was hit.”
Wright commented that the statement “misrepresented” the events leading up to the assault.
He said, “The soldier started the confrontation. Amr did not curse or intervene, but only asked him to call his commander.”
He added: “Before the attack, the other soldiers were afraid to intervene, although I warned them that it might get out of control.”
Several other videos posted by social media users show parts of the encounter.
What did Amr say?
Amr said on his Twitter account: “I did not touch the soldier, and my hands were behind my back, so as not to give him an excuse.”
The Israeli army did not comment on these contradictions.
“The soldier did not behave as expected, nor did he abide by the Israeli army’s code of conduct. The Israeli army, despite the provocations, will not hesitate to uphold its morals and values,” said the army’s international spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht.
The Israeli military said the soldier was imprisoned following an initial interrogation in a military prison, and would be suspended from active combat duty. He added that his service record in his current unit will appear in it.
The Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, who is on the far right and lives in a settlement on the outskirts of Hebron, described the verdict in a comment on Twitter as a “disgrace”.
“I support the soldier who did not remain completely silent. Soldiers need support, not imprisonment,” he said.
He described Amr as “anarchist, often harassing IDF soldiers in Hebron”.
The city of Hebron often witnesses tension, which makes it a hotbed of violence. Hebron is the only Palestinian city in the West Bank with Jewish settlers living in the heart of the Old City, which is part of an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians signed in 1997.
It divided Hebron into two areas called H1 and H2. About 200,000 Palestinians live in the H1 area, which is under the full control of the Palestinian Authority.
But Israel has security control over H2, where several hundred ultra-Orthodox settlers and more than 30,000 Palestinians live. The Palestinian Authority is solely responsible for the civil affairs of the Palestinian population, who face severe restrictions on their movements through a series of permanent checkpoints in the area run by Israeli forces.
Hebron includes a disputed religious site, the Ibrahimi Sanctuary – or the Abrahamic Tomb. It is the second holiest site in Judaism and the fourth holiest site in Islam.
Amr is known in Hebron as an anti-occupation activist. He speaks fluent English and frequently organizes tours of the H2 area for Israeli and international journalists and NGOs.
The Palestinian Authority also arrested him for his social media posts that are said to be critical of the Authority, and Israel has arrested him repeatedly.
Late last year, an Israeli military court ruled that Amr be removed from his home in Hebron for a week following he recorded a video clip of an Israeli soldier threatening protesters and telling a left-wing Israeli activist: “Ben Gvir will bring order to this place, and you will see what happens to you.”
On the same day, another Israeli soldier threw an activist to the ground and punched him in the face.
The two soldiers were sentenced to serve short sentences in military custody, and Ben Gvir defended the soldier who made the sarcastic remarks.