Anarchist provocation in Hevron leads to detention of Jewish minor

Wednesday, December 9, 2015, 18:52 Minutes after witnessing an Arab stab an IDF soldier right outside her doorway in the Beit Hadassah neighborhood of Hevron, Ettie Meidad saw policemen detaining her 13-year-old son on suspicion of clashing with European anarchists at the scene of the attack. The anarchists arrived at the scene of the attack in order to film the actions of IDF soldiers.
“We heard shouts and immediately ran to the window,” recounted Ettie Meidad. “I saw the Arab stab the soldier over and over again, and then a young man from the [Jewish community of] Hevron arrived and ran towards the Arab in order to rescue the soldier, but the Arab stabbed him in the leg also. Immediately after that our head of security shot and eliminated the Arab.
“Immediately after the attack we, the residents and soldiers, gathered, and then European anarchists from the TIPH [Temporary International Presence in Hebron] Organization arrived. The children filmed them and demanded that they be removed and the soldiers formed a barrier between them. The anarchists came to cause a provocation after the attack, on our street. And the police officers fearlessly defended them. My son was filming when they [the police] jumped on him and detained him.”
The boy was unconditionally released after being interrogated by the Hevron Police. During interrogation he was accused of pushing one of the anarchists while he filmed them. The boy’s father, Shmuel (Zangi) Meidad, the director of Honenu, was present during the interrogation.
Meidad leveled severe criticism on the conduct of the army and the security system of Hevron, as attacks are occurring one after the other: “The army, all of the ranks, are playing here with the lives of the soldiers and the civilians under their command. After an attack they close the area to Arabs for a short time and then they immediately open it and say, ‘We’ll see what happens,’ and not surprisingly what happens is another attack, and another attack. This conduct of the army, which is costing the lives of soldiers and residents, must be stopped.”