Testimony - "Did you swear at the soldier?"
Name: | Anonymous |
Rank: | First Sergeant |
Unit: | Kfir Brigade |
Location: | Hebron, West Bank |
Date: | 2006-2007 |
A former Israeli soldier provides a testimony to Breaking the Silence in which he describes how a soldier accuses a boy of swearing at him so that the boy's father will hit him.
Soldier: When I was a commander at Gross Post (in Hebron), sometimes out of boredom, you know, there are more soldiers there so you sit and chat. I recall once some soldier caught an Arab kid and said: 'You swore at me!’ or something like that. His grandfather or father came, some adult, and he told them: 'The kid swore at me. You don’t know who you’ve messed with, I’m a maniac,’ begins to curse him, threaten him.
Interviewer: Who?
Soldier: The soldier yelling at the kid and his father. Grabs him like this, holding him by the neck to the wall. So the father says to the kid: 'You swore at the soldier?’ Boom, slaps him. The father slaps the kid, you know, paying his dues. 'You swore at the soldier …’ You’re looking on and saying to yourself, wow, I don’t know. I mean, cases of real humiliation.