The Independent article. Pal Solidarity.
The following is an excerpt from the journal of an Israeli anti-occupation activist named Dorothy:
Before ending, I want to return to the youngster who in the picture is sitting on the hood of the jeep; he apparently is also the boy that was beaten. While we had been at the police station, someone phoned me and asked me to verify the shocking news that Rabbi Arik Asherman was being held as a human shield. I phoned Arik, but he did not answer, and I was unable to get hold of anyone else who could ascertain the truth. It was unbelievably appalling, if true. As it turns out, events were even yet worse. Successive attempts to talk to Arik failed. Finally, upon returning home, I phoned his home, and learned that he’d been arrested. Only this morning after speaking to him did I get the full details.
Arik been among those who’d gone to help the boy, and though he’d not seen the beating, he’d found the 12 year old youngster strapped to a jeep, being used as a human shield to curtail rock throwers. Arik and two others, while trying to convince the soldiers to let the child go, while telling them that the practice of using human shields was illegal, were themselves detained and made to stand in front the jeeps. They were not strapped to the jeeps, nor were they told in so many words that they were being used as human shields, but for all practical purposes, they were for the next 2-3 hours. During this time, Arik was butted in the face by the helmeted head of a border police. When I spoke to Arik this morning, he was coming out of the doctors office. In addition to suffering a cut near his nose, he had pain in his shoulder. The child was eventually released, but Arik and the other 2 men were taken to the Givat Ze’v police station. Arik and an international were released around midnight, but the third man, a Palestinian was sent to Offer prison, where he remained this morning (if letter writing is required to release him, I’ll inform you). Arik said that he’d been charged with so many offences that he couldn’t remember them all. One of the offences is so inconceivable from Arik that it would be laughable if the situation were not so tragic: he was charged with spouting foul language at the soldiers.
Links via Rafah Kid Rambles & Meria Heller.