IDF arrests 2 for attacking Druze soldier
Grandfather of the Druze soldier who was beaten until unconscious last week on his base in northern Israel by fellow soldiers says 'this isn't the army I served in 30 years ago.'
A Druze soldier was attacked by fellow soldiers this past Wednesday in a base in northern Israel where he's stationed, his family said in a Facebook post.
Earlier, the IDF confirmed the soldier was beaten and said, "A Criminal Investigation Division (CID) inquiry is underway. We denounce any incidences of violence.
"He was savagely kicked and punched by two soldiers for refusing to vacate his dorm. The following day, they attacked him again, until he lost consciousness and lay prone, bleeding and humiliated on the ground," his family wrote and accompanied the post with photos they said showed the aftermath of the beating.
The assaulted soldier’s grandfather, Sa'id Hussein, slammed the attack against his grandson, saying in an interview with Ynet: “To beat a soldier in the IDF until he loses consciousness requires an investigation. This is not the army I served in thirty years ago. I didn’t send my grandson to the army for this kind of thing.
“Everyone on the base responsible needs to be held to account. It doesn't matter whether he was a Druze soldier, a Muslim soldier or a Jewish soldier. He is a soldier in the IDF," the grandfather said.
According to victim’s family, he was denied his request by the base commander to be taken to for a checkup in a military vehicle by the doctor after complaining that he was experiencing extreme pain.. The commander reportedly said he could go, but he had to make his own way there.
Only hours later, did the commander finally budge and agree to use a military vehicle. The soldier was also reportedly summoned back to the base despite being told by the doctors that he had to rest at home.
“The soldiers who attacked him were not given ny discipline whatsoever,” the family complained, “and they stayed with the soldier who had been attacked.”
The grandfather expressed concern that a discriminatory element guided the commander’s decision.
“I am not sure that if he was Jewish they would have done this to him,” he said. “Instead of calling a doctor after he lost consciousness, the officers and soldiers gathered around and no one tried to separate the attackers until he lost consciousness. Only then did they stop hitting him. Instead of evacuating him in an ambulance, they put him in some other vehicle.”
“Look at the pictures. They speak for themselves. I wouldn’t say these were punches. I would say this was an attempted murder,” the grandfather vented.
The soldiers, he claimed, beat his grandson with a rock wrapped in a rag. “They broke his nose, and made him swollen until he fainted. They didn't stop until he fainted.”
