Mohammed Badwan

Mohammed Badwan
محمد بدوان
13-year-old Badwan chained to the hood of an Israeli armored car in 2004 to serve as a human shield

Mohammed Badwan (Arabic: محمد بدوان) is a Palestinian that became famous at the age of thirteen when a picture of him being used as a human shield by the IDF went viral in 2004, highlighting the everyday abuse of Palestinians, and especially Palestinian children, at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.

Use as a human shield

In 2004, Mohammed Badwan was illegally detained and then chained to the front of an IDF armored vehicle in order to deter other Palestinian children from throwing rocks at the armored truck.

Media coverage

The striking picture of Badwan chained to the front of an Israeli armored vehicle became an immediate sensation when it reached the press, and initiated worldwide outrage and condemnation.

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail article covering the incident. This image has since gone viral.

The April 23, 2004 issue of the UK's Daily Mail featured a copy of the picture with the provocative headline The day Israel used a boy aged 13 as a human shield. Pictures of this Daily Mail article have gone somewhat viral and are often posted and reposted in threads and discussions to illustrate the lack of respect Israel has for the lives of Palestinians and for international laws such as the Geneva Convention, and to contrast with the repeated, yet unfounded, claims voiced by Israel, the United States, and other supporters of the Zionist regime that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields.

Article text

The text of the short article is reproduced alongside the image when it is posted, but has grown difficult to read as the image quality has deteriotated over the years. It is reproduced below for posterity:

THIS is what happened to a Palestinian child who joined teenagers throwing stones at Israeli border police.

Muhammed Badwan was grabbed by officers and tied by an arm to the grille covering the windscreen of their security vehicle (circled).

Last night the 13-year-old's father said the police had illegally used his son as a human shield to try to stop the demonstrators throwing stones at them.

'When I saw him on the hood of the jeep, my whole mind went crazy,' said Saeed Badwan, a 34-year-old labourer. 'It's a picture you can't even imagine. He was shivering from fear.'

Muhammed said: 'I was scared when they got me at first. I thought they would put me in prison. I was scared a stone would hit me.' The incident happened in Muhammed's home village of Biddo, north-west of Jerusalem, which has become a flashpoint for violence between Israeli forces and demonstrators protesting against the building of an Israeli security fence.

The picture was published by an Israeli human rights group trying to expose the behaviour of some Israeli security personnel. Rabbi Arik Ascherman, director of Rabbis For Human Rights, heard about the boy and tried to intervene with the police, demanding he be released. The rabbi claimed he was headbutted by one of the officers and arrested. He said he intended to press charges against the police.

'The boy was sitting on the hood of a vehicle, unsuccessfully trying to hold back his tears, shivering with fright, and with one arm tied to the screen protecting the windshield,' he said.

'We tried to calm him down and reassure him. I asked if he was hurt. He said he had been beaten and was in pain. It is very depressing that we have come to this position where this is what we do.' The Israeli police said they were investigating the incident.