Palestine: Kicking kids

Face-off

Saturday was a chance to have a nice chat with some Israeli soldiers...

Imagine the scene. Around 45 of them and 20 of us. They were armed with riot shields and several guns per person. We were armed with chants ("1234 occupation no more!") and words. Scary, scary words. Proportional response, eh?

Our little tête-à-tête was at the regular Saturday demonstration in Beit Ummar  - a village whose land has been stolen for an illegal settlement (when is Israel going to stop being so predictable eh? Why not steal land for something more interesting, like a theme park?). GB, some other ISMers and I were leaning nonchalantly against their shields (by nonchalantly leaning, I mean "standing on Palestinian land while they shoved us with their riot shields".)

Our conversation went a bit like this:

Us: "Why are you here on Palestinian land?" 
Soldiers: "Errrrr..." 
Us: "Are you so scared of us walking and chanting that you have to come here with your guns and shields to stop us?" 
Soldiers: *all puff up in show of bravado* "NO. 'Course not." 
Us: "Maybe you should find out a bit more about the occupation and why you're here." 
Soldiers: "Errr...Where are you from?" 
Us: "From Britain." 
Soldiers: "HAH. Britain occupied Ireland for so many years - you should sort out your own occupations not look at ours" - (they are past even denying that this is an occupation, yeesh) 
Us: "But we are ashamed of this. We don't act on behalf of our State to occupy anywhere, and we try to improve things by being here. You should stop acting on behalf of your State if you believe occupation is wrong." 
Soldiers: "Errrr.... but how much are you paid to be here?" 
Us: *eye roll* "Some people have no understanding of solidarity." 

The boy who was kicked

Then they carried on shoving us. 

It was shortly after this pleasant exchange that the demonstration was called to an end. We all started to wander back down the hill, away from the fence which separates the Palestinians from their land (which has now become the settlement of Kharme Sur.) And it was shortly after this that a soldier kicked a 12 year old Palestinian kid in the leg, knocking him to the ground.

Immediately the soldiers reacted, tightening their line around us, shoving us with riot shields in the process and effectively stopping us from leaving (which I was under the impression was what they WANTED. Stop changing your damn minds, army.)

The boy wasn't badly hurt - physically at least. But really, who knows the psychological impact of this occupation on the children of Palestine.