With the Iraqi war going on we must not forget another conflict in the area
Routine torture and theft by Israeli police of Palestinian teenagers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/S...ID=0&listSrc=Y
Last December, Amran Abu Hamadiya, 17, was pushed into a Border Police jeep at the entrance to his home in Hebron. Twenty minutes later, his body was found in the city's industrial zone. The Border Police said the jeep had been parked at headquarters all day. Three months later, the Justice Ministry has a different version: its investigation has turned up a series of cases of severe abuse of Palestinians and a conspiracy of silence. Arrests are expected to be made in the affair, which could turn out to be a case of manslaughter or even murder.
The staff of the Internal Affairs Department is based in the Har Hotzvim industrial zone of Jerusalem in conditions that make it impossible for them to complete investigations of this kind. They travel to Hebron in armored vehicles and have no way to locate Palestinians who file complaints. In the case of Abu Hamadiya, no physical evidence has yet been collected at the place where the body was found - this, three months after the incident. It is impossible to put together a case without this. The only evidence will apparently be testimonies that were gleaned with great difficulty from eyewitnesses, statements by the Border Policemen who were involved, and the results of the autopsy that was performed on the body, which might not have been carried out had it not been for pressure exerted by B'Tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, and media pressure on Internal Affairs.
Among the cases now under investigation is one involving suspicion of physical abuse against Badia Abu Hamadiya (no connection to Amran Abu Hamadiya) in the same industrial zone, last December 18. According to the complaint, he was subjected to severe physical abuse, and NIS 500 that he had in his ID card was stolen. In another case, Alaa Snukrut was placed on a Border Police jeep in the industrial zone and beaten all over his body. He says that the unit that mauled him also filmed the incident and hurled insults at him.
