Two American boys, one of them Jewish, see the true face of Israeli “democracy” when visiting Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.
Tariq Abukhdeir: American boy visiting East Jerusalem
Fifteen-year-old Palestinian-American Tariq Abukhdeir is the cousin of Muhammed Abu Khudair, who was killed in a revenge attack by Israeli settlers after the murder of three Israeli youths.
Tariq’s family lives in Tampa, Florida. They had been on vacation in Palestine since early June 2014, and were scheduled to return to the United States on 16 July.
On 3 July 2014, as recorded in the video below by a neighbour’s mobile phone, Tariq was brutally beaten by Israeli police in the Shuafat neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. He was beaten so badly that he lost consciousness. But that didn’t stop the Israeli forces from arresting Tariq without charge and preventing him from receiving medical treatment for five hours.
Young American Jew visiting Israel
Tariq Abukhdeir is not the first American whose brutal attack by the Israeli police was recorded on video. In 2011, A young American Jew visiting Israel was watching an Israeli demonstration march past. As he did, he quietly and calmly voicing his opposition to Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians, both in the occupied territories and in Israel itself. As this video shows, he is attacked by the Israeli police, who beat him, drag him along the road face down and throw him into a police van.
This is the the true face of the supposed “only democracy in the Middle East”. And, truly, If Israel can do this to two young American citizens, one of them Jewish, imagine what Palestinians face every day.
