Rights groups say IDF response to kidnapping is collective punishment

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://972mag.com/rights-groups-say-idf-response-to-kidnapping-is-collective-punishment/92236/

Israel has restricted the movement of of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and arrested hundreds in response to the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers. Arrests have included Palestinian parliament members and prisoners released in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit.

Since three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped outside a West Bank settlement six days ago, the Israeli military has placed massive and arbitrary restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in most of the southern West Bank.

The entire city of Hebron has been under complete closure for days, and a number of other major checkpoints in the southern West Bank, everything south of Bethlehem, have been closed to Palestinian traffic. Impromptu or temporary checkpoints have been erected elsewhere, restricting freedom of movement.

Arbitrary travel restrictions were placed on Palestinians whose official place of residence is Hebron, including preventing certain categories of Hebronites from leaving the West Bank to Jordan.

I would like to make two points.

Firstly, I hope that the three youth make it home safe. Violence of any kind is never the answer.

Secondly, I honestly have to add that the difference in press coverage between the three missing Israeli youth and the two murdered Palestinian youth on Nakba day is startling in its uneven coverage.

I just thought I would mention that. Apparently, IMHO, Palestinians are worth nothing to the world.