Border Police denies using teen as human shield

NGO accuses Border Patrol officers of using Palestinian teen as a human shield in east Jerusalem.

Officers with bound Palestinian teen 370 (photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
Officers with bound Palestinian teen 370
(photo credit: YouTube Screenshot)
An NGO on Friday accused Border Patrol officers of using a Palestinian teen as a human shield, after video emerged of officers walking the bound teen in front of a protest in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis on Friday.
Agence France Presse quoted the organization Defense for Children International- Palestine as saying that the teen was “deliberately exposed to danger after he had been taken into custody,” and called on Israel to mount an investigation.
Border Police spokesman Idan Iluz said Saturday that the officers were not using the teen as a human shield, and instead had pulled him out of the jeep in order to show the protesters that the boy had not been harmed.
Iluz said that a rumor had made its way among the demonstrators that the boy had been injured, and as a result they began to react violently, throwing rocks at officers.
He said that not long after the boy was taken out of the car and shown to the protesters, the situation calmed down considerably.