Press Release
B’Tselem
20 January 2008
Soldiers assaulted and arrested Issa ‘Amro, a B’Tselem fieldworker, in Hebron yesterday. ‘Amro was arrested while filming a disturbance by settlers in the Wadi Hsein neighborhood in East Hebron.
Yesterday evening (January 19), a group of settlers began throwing stones at a Palestinian home and trying to forcefully enter it. Although a large force of soldiers and police were present, they did nothing to protect the Palestinians and remove the settlers. Two B’Tselem workers were filming the incident from across the street, where they stood along with a number of Palestinians and international activists. The commander of the Shimshon battalion, a lieutenant colonel, came up to ‘Amro and demanded that he stop filming. A group of settler women then gathered around the B’Tselem workers and two of them tried to grab ‘Amro’s camera. A number of soldiers joined in the fray, beat ‘Amro and then arrested him. They then took him to an army jeep and beat him again. Later, B’Tselem was told that ‘Amro was arrested on suspicion of attacking the soldiers.