Prisoners Abused, Israeli Charges : Arab Youths Kicked, Beaten Routinely, Reservist Alleges

An Israeli army reservist Monday accused his fellow soldiers of systematically kicking and beating young Palestinian prisoners with plastic pipes and handcuffs while their commander looked on. One youth was raked across barbed wire, the reservist said in a signed affidavit.

The reservist, Ariel Stemker, said the beatings occurred April 20 as an army detail was escorting a busload of Palestinian prisoners from Hebron to Dahariya on the West Bank. Security sources said Monday night that the accusation, the latest in a series of complaints, was under investigation by a special team of military police.

The accusation came as Palestinians in the occupied territories observed the start of a two-day general strike timed to coincide with the Moscow summit.

Sporadic Clashes

Protesters clashed sporadically with troops in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Monday. A 9-month-old baby was hit in the eye with a rubber bullet, and a 28-year-old woman was wounded in the arm by gunfire at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Israeli sources said. Soldiers also wounded two demonstrators in the West Bank city of Nablus.

For the second consecutive day, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin met with moderate Palestinian leaders to hear their complaints about the Israeli administration of the territories. They asked for a softer policy, including the release of prisoners and easing of economic and administrative pressures, according to one of the four Palestinian participants.

Rabin said he would examine the demands and promised future talks on a broader scale with Palestinian representatives.

In making public the affidavit Monday night, Knesset member Dedi Zucker, a civil rights activist, demanded that the Israel Defense Forces establish a commission to protect the human rights of prisoners and appoint more staff members to investigate allegations of abuse.

“This is the most depressing document I have seen since the beginning of the uprising in the occupied territories six months ago,” Zucker said in a letter he sent to Rabin last week along with the affidavit.

In his accusation, Stemker, who is no longer on active duty, said the beatings occurred in the presence of a captain after about 25 prison-bound Palestinian prisoners were tied up, blindfolded and loaded on a bus at the Hebron military headquarters south of Jerusalem.

Prisoners Kicked, Beaten

Soldiers kicked and beat the prisoners with their feet, fists, handcuffs and plastic pipes when they asked for food after their arrival at Dahariya Prison, the affidavit said.

“There was a very young boy, 12 to 15 years old. I tried to defend him. . . . When I took him off the bus, I told the soldier that dragged him out, ‘Be careful, he’s only a kid.’ He didn’t care, and started raking him along the barbed wire. He raked him on the barbed wire in order to injure him.”

Stemker’s affidavit, handwritten in Hebrew, continued: “I again protested, but the soldier didn’t care. On the contrary, he pulled him by the hair with one hand, by the pants with the other. He threw him in the air, trying to cut his face on the barbed wire. Here I yelled loudly, and he was frightened and left him.”

Stemker said he was later told by a company officer, “If you want to be a bleeding heart, this is not the place.”

Zucker said Stemker is about 30 and lives in the Tel Aviv area. His accusation is supported by a second reservist, who has since returned to a kibbutz.

Since the protests began last December, security forces have arrested more than 8,000 Palestinians. About half are still being held. In an appeal to Israeli public opinion and the international press Monday, the mayor and 17 civic leaders from the Christian Arab town of Beit Sahur near Bethlehem asked for help in winning the release of their townsfolk.

“Most detainees were arbitrarily arrested and were not involved in demonstrations. Some were undergoing medical treatment in hospitals; one was arrested on his wedding night; some are teen-agers, and others are ill,” their appeal said.

Monday’s strike, one of a continuing series called by underground leaders, was less successful than most of its predecessors in the Gaza Strip, where, local residents and Israel Radio agreed, many residents were unaware of the strike call.

Shops and businesses shut in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank.