IDF soldiers release attack dog on unarmed Palestinian protesters

Lisa Goldman By Lisa Goldman March 16, 2012 | Edit

An attack dog released on unarmed Palestinians by Israeli security forces sank its teeth into the arm of a Palestinian man and refused to release it for several minutes.

Soldiers released an attack dog on unarmed Palestinians at a Friday anti-occupation demonstration in the West Bank village of Kufr Qaddoum, report eyewitnesses that include an AP photographer. According to a report from Jonathan Pollack, a political activist, Border Police officers released an army dog at a group of protesters who were standing several dozen meters away. The dog chased the protesters, then locked his jaw on the arm of one of them – Ahmad Shtawi – sinking his teeth into the man’s arm. The dog refused for several minutes to respond to his handler’s order to release Mr. Shtawi’s arm.

IDF soldiers release attack dog on unarmed Palestinian protesters
IDF attack dog refuses to release his grip on Ahmad Shtawi's arm (photo: PSCC)

Although he was bleeding, in pain and in need of medical attention, soldiers decided to arrest Mr. Shtawi  after the dog finally released his arm. When Morad Shtawi, a member of the village’s popular committee, tried to reason with the commanding officer and convince him to release the wounded man, he was thrown to the ground, handcuffed and pepper sprayed – as documented in the video below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCyWyIEtr70[/youtube]

Israeli human rights NGO B’Tselem has called several times for the Israeli army to stop using attack dogs on unarmed Palestinians. In February 2012, a 19 year-old Palestinian was attacked by an IDF dog; B’Tselem reported another five such incidents in 2011.

Lisa Goldman

I'm an Israeli-Canadian journalist and blogger, currently based in New York City. Before that I lived in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, where I wrote for the Israeli and international media and maintained a blog, which I launched in 2004. My articles have been published in Haaretz, Time Out Tel Aviv, the New York Times, Forward, Jewish Quarterly, Columbia Journalism Review, Slate and the Guardian, amongst others.

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