Sicced by army dog, Palestinian teen Hamza still awaits his freedom

Despite the unusually shocking circumstances of his arrest, 16-year-old Hamza Abu Hashem of Beit Umar has been in detention for almost three months at the Ofer military prison.

About two weeks ago, former MK Michael Ben Ari published a video clip that showed Israel Defense Forces soldiers siccing a dog belonging to the Oketz unit on a Palestinian teen and ordering it to hurt the boy. “Give it to him, give it to him,” voices are heard calling in Hebrew, as the dog grips the terrified boy with its jaws.

Ben Ari was proud of this shocking clip. But after it was published, the IDF launched an investigation and stopped deploying dogs at demonstrations in the West Bank. The commander of the Ayosh Division, Brig. Gen. Tamir Yadai, called it “a grave incident of using dogs, which attests to a low level of professionalism ... and inappropriate ethical behavior.”

However, it now transpires that despite the IDF’s ostensibly energetic response and its disapproval of the soldiers’ behavior, the victim of this incident, 16-year-old Hamza Abu Hashem, of Beit Umar, has been in detention for almost three months at the Ofer Prison, where he is awaiting the continuation of his trial on charges of throwing stones (Gideon Levy and Alex Levac, Haaretz, March 13).

The boy’s parents – who also have another son, Mohammed, 19, who was arrested by the IDF a few weeks ago and whose fate remains unknown to them – have no idea where the legal proceedings against Hamza stand. Moreover, since their son was attacked and injured by the dog, they haven’t been allowed to visit him even once, not even when he was taken for medical treatment after the attack.

His father, who visited the court located in the Ofer Prison, was convinced his son had been sentenced to 10 months in jail and a 6,000 shekel ($1,494) fine, but that wasn’t the case. This fact underscores the helplessness of the boy’s parents, who haven’t even been able to discover the name of the lawyer representing their son.

The boy is presumably suffering from emotional trauma due to his abuse by the soldiers, and it requires an almost monstrous degree of hard-heartedness not to take what happened to him into consideration. Abu Hashem was put on trial for the relatively minor offense of throwing stones. After what he went through, one would have expected the IDF and military justice system to display a smidgen of humanity and release him.

The IDF has been arresting Palestinian minors for years, on a large scale: In January this year, the number of minors in detention or serving jail terms stood at 163. This is happening despite much criticism and widespread condemnations, both in Israel and abroad. But all that criticism is dwarfed by what the IDF is doing now to this young victim.

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.646913