It happened over two weeks ago, but B'Tselem reported it earlier today.
On the 6th of October, while Ansar 'Aasi, 25, was at work at a cleaning products company in al-Bireh, clashes between soldiers and Palestinian youth took place in the area. At a certain point, as 'Aasi was standing at the entrance to the storage room, soldiers spotted him and began to violently arrest him, kicking and assaulting him with their rifles. The incident was captured on the company's security cameras. 'Aasi required medical treatment and was taken to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital on 7.10.2015.
The young man kept saying he wasn't involved in the clashes that occured outside the store, but neither the police, nor the arresting soldiers bothered to hear him out for days. The video is illuminating because it shows how random, and stupid, the actions of the Israeli soldiers are.
'Aasi was held in detention for two days before even being taken for interrogation at the Binyamin police station. Police interrogators there told him that three soldiers identified him as a stone thrower. In spite of his denials, the police did not bother to check his alibi claim, in spite of the existence of footage. Only following an arrest extension hearing at the Ofer military court, was the police willing to view the footage, which was brought to them on Friday, 9.10.2015. 'Aasi was released unconditionally on Sunday, 11.10, after five days in wrongful detention.
Thoughts below the orange checkpoint.
Here's something I think is relevant to the Palestinian situation:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.
What are we doing sending billions in military aid each year and why are our leaders climbing over themselves to call an "ally" a government that systematically denies millions their "unalienable rights" and has done so for the past 48 years?
B'Tselem does not know whether the soldiers who arrested 'Aasi were held accountable for assaulting him and making up false charges.
They won't be. There is nothing their superiors or the system gains by punishing soldiers for beating a Palestinian or imprisoning him for days. Israel sends 18-25 year old conscripts to the West Bank, they police the 72% of the West Bank (Area C) which Israel has full civil and security control over. They man the checkpoints Palestinians have to go through to get anywhere, and their primary role is to provide security for the illegal settlements. A by-product of the occupation is that serving in the army in the West Bank is becoming a badge of shame, which is why many young soldiers have
taken to wearing face masks. Israeli forces hand out beatings, arbitrary arrests on a vast scale in the West Bank all the time. Palestinians can't remove this government which rules their lives via the ballot box, and we have supported this situation for almost 50 years. It is exactly what the term apartheid is meant to describe.