Palestinian says he was forced to give soldier a ride
Man says he crashed his car because he thought he was being kidnapped by the infantryman; IDF investigating claims
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A Palestinian man claimed to have crashed his own car after an armed Israeli soldier forced him to give him a ride to a settlement in the West Bank on Thursday.
According to the 19-year-old resident of the Palestinian village of Madama, the soldier signaled him to stop as he was leaving his chicken coops near Road 60 in the Northern West Bank, believing the soldier was conducting a routine inspection, Israeli news site Ynet reported Thursday.
The soldier, from the Golani infantry brigade, was attempting to leave his military post in an isolated area of the Samaria region, where Israeli vehicles rarely travel.
The Palestinian man claimed that the soldier entered his vehicle and demanded that he take him to the settlement of Yitzhar. The Palestinian, who feared he had been kidnapped, intentionally crashed his car into a ditch, and escaped.
The soldier, too, abandoned the crash site, and hitchhiked with a bus that was transporting soldiers to a nearby base.
Police and military forces arrived soon after, as the Palestinian called for emergency assistance. Security forces pulled the bus over and located the soldier, identified by a witness of the incident.
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A military investigation was opened following the incident, according to the Israeli Defense Forces’ spokesperson’s office. The military prosecution will determine whether any charges will be pressed against the soldier.
Speaking to news site NRG, an unnamed resident of Yitzhar said the incident could have ended in tragedy.
“What if the Palestinian vehicle arrived with the Israeli soldier at the gates of Yitzhar or any other Jewish settlement? The guard may have opened fire in their direction, thinking it was an attempted kidnapping,” he said.
The Times of Israel Community.