“It is the military’s way of teaching children a lesson, inflicting a sort of psychosocial handicap from a young age.”
By Annelies Verbeek: Muhammad Tamimi sat on the couch, occasionally laughing nervously as he described what had happened to him.
“Not that many journalists have come this time,” he said. “Just you and a Palestinian film crew. Hopefully there will not be any more.”
The 15-year-old has been held in military detention three times now, an experience that many Palestinian children suffer and that has healthcare professionals warning of lifelong trauma.
Muhammad’s latest detention came on the morning of Sunday, 20 May, when he went to the supermarket in Nabi Saleh, his village in the occupied West Bank, to buy groceries. He noticed a white car in front of his uncle’s house from which two young men emerged.
When Muhammad approached, the men grabbed him from behind and pulled him into the car.
“They pointed a gun at me, so I would not scream or call for help,” Muhammad said, recounting the short but frightening drive. When they stopped at the military watchtower near Nabi Saleh, he understood that he had been taken by Israeli undercover forces.