The Jerusalem Post reports:
Israel must investigate the brutal assault on a Palestinian teen by right-wing Jewish extremists that took place earlier this month, urged United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland.
“On 17 August, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was attacked in the northern West Bank, during which a group of Israeli settlers kidnapped the boy, tied him to a tree, and brutally assaulted, cut and burned him,” Wennesland told the United Nations Security Council on Monday.
“I am deeply concerned by this heinous act and I expect the Israeli authorities to undertake a swift, thorough and transparent investigation and ensure that the perpetrators are held accountable,” Wennesland told the Council when it convened in New York for its monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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The story of the teen, Tareq Abdel Razzak Mohammed Zubaidi’s attack was reported by the Palestinian NGO, Defense for Children International-Palestine, which filmed him describing the attack in Arabic. It then provided English language subtitles.
The story of the alleged attack on the teen came to my attention a few days ago, after readers Faith pointed out this 972 report, which contains the following glaring inconsistency:
Zbeidi said that he tried to shout at them, but the kidnappers spoke to him in Hebrew, which he does not understand.
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Zbeideh estimates that the attack lasted between half an hour and 40 minutes, during which the assailants repeatedly cursed at him. “They kept verbally humiliating me, talking about my mother and sister, calling me a ‘son of a bitch’ while spitting on me.”
If he did not understand their Hebrew, how did he know the content of their curses to him?
At the time, I told Faith this was not enough to cast aspersions on his account – they may have cursed him in Arabic, and there have been incidences of Jews assaulting Arabs, albeit not as common as the reverse. But now that I have seen the above video, read the 972 report, and read this report from DCI Palestine, I have noticed many more inconsistencies between the versions of events. Too many to ignore.
I have tried to summarize them in the below table. The inconsistencies are both chronological and substantive (like different tools and weapons used, and durations of the attack), and mostly relate to the boy’s own account(s) of events, but also include statements from the boy’s uncle and friend.
| Video | DCI Palestine | 972 (Boy’s version) | 972 (Friend’s version) |
| Boy and his friends bought snacks and hung out. After 20 mins, they heard screaming in Hebrew. | Shortly after, they heard voices speaking in Hebrew and saw two Israeli settlers walking nearby. One of the settlers was armed with a handgun. | Boy and his friends bought snacks and had a picnic. After 20 mins, two people arriving on foot and in a gray car. They spoke to the boys in Hebrew. | The boys went for a picnic. The attackers threw bottles and stones at them. |
| His friends ran away and a car hit him | The boys fled. The settlers chased him in their car and hit him | His friends ran away and a car hit him | The boys ran away The settlers told them to stop in Arabic |
| Settlers tied him to the front of the car and drove towards the settlement | They beat him with wooden sticks as he lay on the ground. Two settlers brought ropes from inside the car, tied him to the car (tying the ropes with long metal chains), and drove to the settlement | Four settlers got out of the car, with three hitting him, and the fourth bringing a cable. They put the boy on the hood, tied him up, and started driving up toward the settlement. | |
| When they hit the brakes, the boy fell to the ground | When the driver hit the brakes, those holding onto the metal chains let go of them and the boy fell to the ground | They pressed the brakes, and the boy was tossed forward because they had loosened the cable during the drive | |
| They tied his hands from behind with plastic ties | The boy around 70 settlers. Once they saw him, one of them hit him than once with a metal bar on the back and legs Another settler pepper sprayed him, while he was screaming | They bounded him with plastic [handcuffs] that the army uses and beat his legs with sticks | |
| They covered his eyes with a shirt, tied him from a tree branch and hung him from it. They also tied his feet. | The settlers blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back with a plastic cord. He remained immobilized as the settlers hit, kicked, slapped and spat on him for around 90 minutes. Then they hung him from a tree with his feet unable to reach the ground | They released the handcuffs and hung him from a tree, with his hands crossed above his head. His feet did not touch the ground. | |
| Someone started hitting him with a stick. At some point they burned his feet using sharp tools, pepper sprayed and tased him | One of the settlers tased him with an electrified baton, scratched his foot with a sharp object, and burned the sole of his right foot | The settlers attacked him with pepper spray and an electric shocker | |
| He tried to shout at them, but the kidnappers spoke to him in Hebrew, which he does not understand | |||
| They brought a rubber belt and beat him with it | |||
| They took him down | He was released from the tree | They cut the rope and he fell to the ground | |
| Four settlers beat him, stomped on him and spat on him | A settler struck him in the head with a wooden stick and threw him onto a cactus | They cut his legs with a knife and used the car’s cigarette lighter to burn him twice on his right leg | |
| He started crying and begged them to let him go | |||
| They laughed, spit, and cursed him | They spit and cursed at him. Attack lasted 30-40 minutes | ||
| The boy lost consciousness and awoke in a military jeep | The boy lost consciousness and awoke in a military jeep | The attackers eventually hit him in the head with a piece of wood, and he lost consciousness, awaking in a military jeep handcuffed and bleeding | |
| Uncle saw signs of trampling on his neck, back, and hands | Uncle saw shoe marks on his neck, and chest, and his legs were bloody and full of scratches |
While some of the chronological inconsistencies might not point towards the boy lying about what happened (he may have become confused, for example), I highly doubt the substantive inconsistencies can be seen the same way.
But clearly the boy was attacked by someone, given he had injuries. It could still be that he was attacked by Jews, but to a lesser extent to what was described and perhaps in retaliation for rock throwing or the like. Reader Faith had another theory:
Yasmine Mohammed has explained in her book how Muslims often abuse family members by striking the bottom of their feet (to hide wounds)
I am not saying he was not attacked by Jews, but what I am saying is the boy seems to be lying. At the very least, Tor Wennesland should have examined the allegations like I have before stating what he did as fact.
