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An Erez Crossing Sergeant said inspections are frustrating and scary. "I know the Border patrolmen take out their frustrations on the Palestinians. They are armed, it's the easiest way out. The slave with the scepter, kind of. I mean, you have the gun, the Palestinian doesn't. Usually he's holding stuff because he's been at the checkpoint since 2 in the morning, and he hasn't seen his wife for three months already and he can't even remember his kids' names." Still the Border patrolmen make fun of them behind their backs. And they humiliate them and tear their belongings. "I think it's horrible. I thought it was horrible then, too."
A Hebron Sergeant said "we were the good guys. The Border patrolmen were the bad guys. They would settle accounts in a big way. As for hitting - they were on jeeps the whole time, less on foot, so they would simply take people into their jeeps and beat them to a pulp. You'd see a jeep pass by and a person thrown out of it suddenly....thrown into the street.....They would check someone right next to me and do it brutally....They were about dominance."
A Seam Zone First Sergeant said another patrolwoman with her talked about women combatants being more violent than men. Some kids came along with bags, and she called them out to come over. "She opened their bags and found this kind of fly-swat inside. So she (told them to run) up and down the hill in ten seconds. They're scared....So they ran (but she) hit him with that fly-swat. The kid began to cry."
But she kept harassing them and threatened to beat them up. Finally she let them go. Guys did it, too, so she asked them "why are you beating up this kid....treat him like a human being so he won't want to blow himself up on you tomorrow. There were guys who did listen, not everyone wants to beat up Arabs. But there was definitely that atmosphere and it was totally routine.
An Erez Crossing Sergeant explained ways of harassing Palestinians, such as saying: "You want to pass tomorrow? Bring me a pack of cigarettes" or food or something else to take from them. "It was the norm."
"You go down to the checkpoint and your bullet-proof vests have "Death to Arabs" written on them. "Stuff like that." You do all sorts of things to humiliate them and brag "about all the loot" you bring back. "The Arabs are the enemy. The more you make them suffer, the better."
A Hebron Sergeant said "There was this one single time I harassed an Arab brutally....There were lots of soldiers punishing Arabs," making them do all sorts of things, including threatening them with pointed weapons or making them wait for hours.
A Jenin Sergeant said she was with her squadron-commander who shot a kid riding a bicycle near the Separation Wall. Other soldiers killed another boy when he got scared and ran away. She related other incidents of firing rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators. She herself was on standby and didn't shoot.
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