The Israeli Newspaper Maariv, revealed on Wednesday that soldiers forced a Palestinian worker choose between drinking their urine or breaking his leg or hand.
The newspaper said that Sameeh, 24 years old, was held by soldiers on Abu Dis checkpoint, near Jerusalem, and was taken to a military post in a building controlled by the army called the “Innâ€Â.
Sameeh spoke about the inhuman treatment he was subjected to along with another worker and said that soldiers picked his identity card and the card of another worker then released the rest of the apprehended workers after barring them from entering Jerusalem.
Sameeh added that soldiers forced him and the other worker to do a poll, conducted by the soldiers “as a sort of entertainment!â€Â, the soldiers wrote on three pieces of paper the “punishmentâ€Â, first paper was to break a leg, second paper to break an arm, then the third to drink urine prepared by the soldiers previously in a bottle, which shows previous intentions to conduct this inhuman act.
The soldiers tried to force the second worker and Sameeh to choose a paper and do what it says, but when Sameeh refused, one of the soldiers hit him on his hand and brought a bottle filled with urine and poured it on his head after splashing the urine at his face.
Whenever Sameeh tried to defend himself or even ask the soldiers why they are doing this to him, he was clubbed again, and again, and told them that he will not do what they want even if they kill him, yet the soldiers attacked him again and tried to force him to drink the urine.
Sameeh, in an act of self defense pushed the soldier away, and then six other soldiers attacked him and pointed their M16 automatic rifle at his head, clubbed him and forced him to drink urine from the bottle until he passed out.
Sameeh was transferred to a clinic in Abu Dis, and received first aide and medication to clean his stomach, then he was transferred to Beit Jala Governmental Hospital were he received treatment until he was released on Monday September 13th, 2004, some days after the incident.
The medical report revealed that Sameeh was in a hysterical condition when he arrived to the hospital, and couldn’t control any part of his body.
Meanwhile, Sameeh said that the other worker was severely clubbed and that he does not know what happened to him.
Sameeh said that he is thinking of pressing charges against the soldiers but at the same rime he is scared of revenge acts or being charged with false accusations as soldiers in the field always do.
Several cases of assaults and inhuman treatment were reported on checkpoints, soldiers on checkpoints, as it seems, have their own rules and regulations, and apparently morals.
The mood of soldiers on checkpoints could easily decide who lives or dies which ambulances is to pass and which is not allowed.
Repeatedly, soldiers assaulted and abused the residents on checkpoints, in many cases forced them to strip under claims of searches and “security proceduresâ€Â.
Men, women and children have to cross the hundreds of checkpoints spread all over the Palestinian territories blocking them from each other; those people have to go through the daily humiliations in their way to their schools or works and even on their way to hospitals and medical centers
