Mercadera

The 'banal' trauma of Israel's nightly raids on Palestinian children

Despite cosmetic reforms to Israeli military law in the West Bank, Palestinian children and their families are routinely abused

Middle East Eye

A sudden noise pierced the silence of a dark night. 

The infuriated banging on the gate of the blue-painted house terrified not only the family sleeping behind it but the whole neighbourhood. 

The cries of babies alarmed by the shrill noise blended with the ear-splitting sound of fists banging on iron. 

This is not the banal opening of a mysterious fictional story. It is the day-to-day life of Palestinian families in hundreds of villages all over the occupied territories: Israeli soldiers appear at the doorsteps of families in deep sleep, between 10pm and 5am, coming to search, arrest or detain a relative. 

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A 14-year-old boy from al-Arroub refugee camp in the southern West Bank recounted the night of his arrest: 

“I woke up at 2.30 am, when 15 Israeli soldiers broke into our house… Some were masked... The commander told me I am under arrest. They handcuffed me tightly, my hands behind my back... It was painful. I complained, but they just told me to keep quiet... I was detained. Then came the interrogation... They said I threw a Molotov bottle on a settlers’ bus... I did not.  They were very aggressive… After a few hours I chose to admit to it, just to get it over. Deep into the night, a member of the family was waiting for me at every possible checkpoint since they could not know when and from where I would be allowed to enter…”

Another minor whose testimony was shared on International Children's Day recounted a very similar story with slight variations.

“My interrogator made me sign some document... I do not read or write Hebrew but he insisted, so I did. I was released late at night. It was freezing cold and rainy... I was afraid.”

Here’s another testimony of a 40-year-old mother of three from a village in the southern West Bank, Beit Ummar: 

“Loud screaming in Hebrew and banging on the door woke us up at 5am. I opened the door. Six soldiers accompanied by dogs entered the house. I told the soldier my husband just underwent open-heart surgery. It made no difference. My 10-year-old reacted with a severe asthma attack; the eight-year-old has been wetting his bed since the soldiers first came to the house two years ago. Now, he did it again… The soldiers pushed us all into one room. I tried to find a blanket to cover the children but the soldiers threatened me and would not let me... They left about three hours later, said nothing, explained nothing.”

“I do not see how my oppressor could sit in judgment on my response to his oppressive actions against me… If the enemy defines morality and legality in his own terms and decides to apply his ethical and legal doctrines against me because he has the power as well as the means of communications to justify his inhumanity, I am under no moral obligation to listen, let alone obey his dictates. Indeed, I am under a moral obligation to resist and to fight to the death the enemy’s moral corruption.”