Spank Dat Soldier Boy! *

A Tampa teenager will have quite the story to tell about how he spent his summer vacation in Israel.

Sophomore Tariq Khdeir, 15, was beaten on the ground and kicked while subdued by Israeli soldiers, a beating captured on video. Khdeir was in town for the funeral of his cousin, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 17, whose badly burned body was found after an early morning kidnapping also captured on surveillance camera. The afternoon before his kidnapping, thousands of Jewish Israelis had taken to the streets calling for revenge in the form of collective punishments.

No arrests have yet been made in that crime.

American officials expressed outrage at the beating of the Florida student, whose mother is very well spoken. State Department officials were worked for the child's release to a Jerusalem hospital for medical care. The boy was picked up in a mass arrest, along with 11 others, and beaten behind barriers by uniformed IDF forces.

“We are profoundly troubled by reports that he was severely beaten while in police custody and strongly condemn any excessive use of force,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. A U.S. Consulate General official in Jerusalem on Saturday visited the detained boy.

They'd be wise not to mess with American kids, to pick on someone their own size. Go after the child's cousin's killers, say.



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* apologies to Solja Boy Tell'em -- Crank Dat.