IDF arrests, jails 12 year old Palestian boy, page 1

There were three other Israelis present, who held back their cries as they watched the boy enter, faltering - the chains around his legs clanging against each other, the prisons service coat he wore much too big for him.

It took place in the afternoon hours of Monday, December 21, 2009.

Bassam, the 12 year old boy who was arrested and jailed by IDF soldiers, decided to visit his aunt who lived 14 kilometers from him in Western Ramallah. A narrow winding path links the villages in between the boy and the aunt.

On this fateful day, Bassam took two taxis and then began walking the rest of the way to his aunt's residence. While walking the last leg of the journey, he met a fellow boy who told him to take a shortcut through a valley where Palestians are forbidden to pass through.

As Bassam walked several hundred meters through the forbidden valley, A few Israel Defense Forces (IDF) popped out from between the olive groves and called the boy over, predatorily, saying 'Come, come...' Bassam, frightened, turned away and ran.

The Israeli soldiers grabbed him, boxed him on his ears, covered his eyes, and put plastic handcuffs on him before tossing him onto a jeep and driven away, being told to say that he was 'throwing stones' if questioned.

Bassam was taken from place to place before finally coming to his last stop, where he was interrograted by a policeman, being asked if he was 'Throwing stones on Route 443' of which Bassam said yes, having been told to say so by the soldiers in the jeep.

Most creepingly, Bassam was taken away again to another place where a DOCTOR ASKED HIM IF HE HAD ANY OPERATIONS. Bassam said no, was blindfolded again, and and taken to the Ofer Prison, inmate number #1336183 and thrown in a cell with hardened criminals who most fortunately, did not assault him.

The next morning, at around 3PM December 22, Bassam was herded into court with other prisoners before Judge Major Shimon Liebo, who smirked lecherously as he realized that he had a young prisoner in his charge. An observer in the court named Misk fortunately stepped in to declare his represenation of the boy.

A prosecutor, a Police officer named Asher Silver, obviously with a 'Jackpot' thought bubble over his mind, decided to keep this 12 year old boy a little bit longer by slapping on a NIS 1,500 fine (a months and half times the wage of a Palestian's monthly wage) just... to... keep... him... in... a... bit... longer... eh?

Misk argued against this, since the 'suspect' obviously did not have the 1,500 bits, and the family members of the boy was not even present- the family of the boy didn't even know Bassam was kidnapped.

Meanwhile, Bassam's parents were beside themselves with worry. When he did not return home in the morning from his aunt's home, they started searching for him throughout the surrounding areas in the orchards, at the checkpoints, on the roads, at army posts. "I walked through the mountains looking for him and crying," his father, who is a welder, recalls. In the evening, one of Misk's friends found the father and informed him that Bassam would be spending a second night in detention. The following day, December 23, the father appeared at the military tribunal.

So the father comes back the next day.

He held back his tears as he watched his son enter the caravan. The jacket reached his knees and his hands were buried inside the long sleeves. "Take a look at him," the father told the judge, Major Sharon Rivlin-Ahai, in fluent Hebrew. "Is this what the great Israel Defense Forces are needed for - to arrest this boy?"

Judge Major Sharon Rivlin-Ahai again smirked, and said 'That's the law' and reduced the deposit to NIS 200, along with a guarantee that his son would appear again in this kangaroo court if a charge is brought against him.

As long as there is no indictment, no one will know what the soldiers who took in Bassam are claiming. It is their word against the word of a Palestinian boy.