Soldier: At some point a really effective solution was found to stop the stone throwing. Say a kid is caught throwing stones. First thing, if you bring him to his dad, he beats him up like hell.

 

Interviewer: Did you witness this?

 

Soldier: Sure. They don’t care. That father doesn’t care. He sees soldiers bringing his son home, doesn’t talk to him. First thing, he punches him in the face, without a word. Doesn’t ask: 'What happened? Who did what? Did you … Didn’t you …’ First thing, he punches his face. Then he grabs onto the kid and tries to take him from you. He says: 'Better I beat him up, rather than have the soldier hit him, take him to jail or anything else.’ Beats him up. And soldiers, like any human being … it’s really unpleasant, so you begin to pity the kid, I mean his dad beats him with a stick, on and on. So he’s left alone. Basically, the point’s been made. But if a kid is caught and a patrol is alerted, and the kid is taken into the jeep, they drive to the other end of town and throw the kid out there, and he has to walk all the way across town and also be beaten.

 

Interviewer: Inside the jeep?

 

Soldier: In the jeep and on the way. The whole time.

 

Interviewer: Slaps, kicks? Or what?

 

Soldier: Both. I’ve already seen … We had a guy, from the Caucasus, he was on our patrol, got off the jeep for a moment and someone swore at him. He got off, took off his helmet, hit him in the face with it. Literally split his face open. There were also beatings with sticks. Wood sticks, like the handles of a large hammer or ax.

 

Interviewer: You had clubs in you vests?

 

Soldier: We confiscated them from Palestinians. They had them in their shops and stuff. Just the handles without the hammer. No iron, just the wooden stick itself. They would carry them like police clubs. What’s the point? The kid gets hit by the patrol, and he’s thrown out at the other end of town and on his way back through he has to pass the guard posts, pillboxes. So he gets hit on the way back, too. He has to pass Gross Post and Avraham Avinu settlement and his beaten there as well. So not only does he have to make it all the way back on his own, he also gets hit again and again.