New video exposes provocation leading up to IDF soldiers beating Palestinian man
The unsettling footage shows individuals provoking soldiers as swarms of press photographers follow the group.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: JUNE 17, 2015 20:43Full video of soldiers who beat Palestinian in Jalazun shows intentional provocation
A new video posted Tuesday exposed the full scope of events, including provocations, leading up to an incident on Friday in which four soldiers struck and verbally assaulted a Palestinian man during a violent disturbance in the village of Jalazun.The unsettling video shows individuals, as well as those with press vests, repeatedly approaching the group of Kfir Brigade soldiers even after being repeatedly told to leave. Swarms of press photographers followed the soldiers constantly, waiting to catch the perfect moment, as firebombs are hurled at the soldiers.The 10-minute-long video, posted by a group calling itself the International Solidarity Movement, shows this back-and-forth of provocations which culminated in a man being beaten. The much shorter video circulated by Palestinian media shortly after the incident, showed only the beating itself, without context.An army investigation concluded on Sunday said that the situation occurred in the course of a lengthy violent disturbance that lasted for several hours, during which rioters hurled firebombs and large rocks at soldiers. A platoon commander was injured by a rock thrown at his face and suffered a suspected eye socket bone fracture.The Palestinian man seen in the video approached the soldiers and attempted to create a provocation, the investigation found. “After ignoring calls by soldiers to stop, and grabbing the weapon of one of the commanders, commanders decided to utilize force to arrest him,” the army said.The IDF tried and punished the soldiers involved. Kfir infantry brigade commander Col. Asher Ben Lulu concluded that the decision to arrest the man was correct, but the manner in which the arrest was carried out was wrong. The brigade commander condemned the way in which one of the solders spoke to the man, saying it contravened IDF values and the army’s expectations of conduct by soldiers.Two soldiers exercised disproportionate force during the arrest, Ben Lulu said. A total of four soldiers were tried for the incident. The company commander received a verbal rebuke, a soldier seen cursing the man was confined by his battalion commander to base for 30 days. The battalion commander sentenced two soldiers found to have used disproportionate force to a suspended sentence of 28 days in army prison.Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.