Huwwara: Men beaten for license plates

The Israeli army assaulted two Palestinian men in Huwwara early Monday. The army stopped the men on the main road for driving a company vehicle with an Israeli license plate. The two men, one of whom is a resident of Huwwara, were using the vehicle for work.

The four soldiers asked the driver and passenger why they had Israeli plates when they were Palestinian and told the men to take off the license plates. They then proceeded to beat both of them with their hands and with their guns. After beating them, the soldiers took both the front and back license plates from the vehicles and left.

license plate removed from front of vehicle

The construction company, which the men worked for, had legally purchased the car in Israel and the two men had the papers to prove it. After purchasing a vehicle in Israel, Palestinians have a short time to switch over to Palestinian plates. In the West Bank, only Israelis can use Israeli license plates, so that Israeli authorities can enforce a ban on Palestinians using certain roads. The difference is easy to spot: Israeli license plates are yellow with black numbers, and Palestinian license plates are white with green numbers.

Israeli license plate
(picture from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Israel-license-plate.jpg)

Palestinian license plates
(picture from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Private_vehicle_plate_palestine.JPG&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Private_vehicle_plate_palestine.JPG&usg=__KTVw0ymxyyFM88fLMpJ7vvUy8d0=&h=181&w=287&sz=14&hl=en&start=23&sig2=q09C5knY7vr6Js-9ZDJ3qw&tbnid=TsR1yg4uqLGcgM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=115&prev=/images%3Fq%3DPalestinian%2Blicense%2Bplate%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18&ei=lqVMSvWjH9CysAbxx5CyBA)

The Israeli army does not have authority over the issue of license plates, let alone the right to beat civilians for it. They must call the police to settle the matter. Never were the police called.