RELEASE

Border |Policeman Burns Palestinian Teacher with Cigarette

Paulette Schroeder

April 8, 2010

            Every day teachers and students from many schools in the Hebron area must pass through several checkpoints on their way to and from school.  These checkpoints most often cause problems for a number of teenage male students and at unpredictable times for teachers and younger students. Detentions of these students and teachers at the checkpoints cause loss of school time and a disruption in the classes when the students or  teachers are late.

            CPT received a very disturbing report from one of the teachers on April 6.  While this teacher was returning through the checkpoint back to his home, a Border Policeman stopped him at the Ibrahimi Mosque checkpoint and insisted that he repeat the phrase: “Yasser Arafat is a son of a bitch.”  The teacher refused this order so the policeman applied his burning cigarette end to the teacher’s chest. The lit cigarette burned two holes (see photo attached) in the teacher’s shirt and left a scar on his chest. 

            After twenty more minutes of detention, the policeman released the man.