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An Israeli soldier threw a Palestinian militant to the ground, knelt on his neck and immobilized him in footage recorded this week during protests in the Shofa area in the northern occupied West Bank, sparking widespread anger in the Palestinian territories.
Khairy Hanoun, 60, used to lead the constant anti-settlement demonstrations. The protests in which he participated occurred in the context of the expansion of an Israeli settlement.
On the first Tuesday in September, on a road adjacent to the village of Shufa, between the cities of Nablus and Tulkarm, a march of a few dozen protesters, surrounded by several journalists, turned into a fight between them and the soldiers.
It appears that Khairy Hanoun, who was carrying a Palestinian flag, touched an Israeli soldier while trying to wrest the flag from his hand. At that time, the soldiers shouted at journalists in Hebrew “Ahura … Ahura”, which means “upside down”, while pointing their guns at the protesters.
Another soldier was shouting in Hebrew: “I will shoot”, which means “I will shoot.” Smoke bombs were thrown to disperse the crowd, according to an AFP team at the scene.
“Only the paramedics saved Hanoun from their hands,” said an AFP photographer.
Palestinians compared what happened to Khairi Hanoune to what happened to African American George Floyd, who was killed on May 25 after a white police officer fell on his neck for several minutes in Minneapolis. This sparked widespread protests across the United States.
Saeb Erekat, secretary of the Palestine Liberation Organization, posted the video clip on Twitter and said: “This is how the occupation soldiers brutally beat Hajj Khairy Hanoun, who was trying to defend his land.”
“Meanwhile, the Israelis are celebrating in Abu Dhabi,” he added, referring to the unprecedented visit of an Israeli delegation on Monday and Tuesday to the United Arab Emirates as part of the normalization of relations between this country and Israel.
The Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, confirmed that “such actions” are among the “main causes” of “tensions in the region.”
On Tuesday, the Israeli army said, in a message to the media via the “WhatsApp” app, that “a Palestinian is known to be an instigator who has repeatedly pressured an army officer to provoke him.”
The army added that the soldiers tried to arrest him and were forced to “handcuff” him.
He noted that Khairy Hanoun was provided with medical treatment at the site, and that the commander at the site showed “restraint in these circumstances.”
