A young Palestinian was forced to play his violin to pass through an army roadblock in the West Bank as Israeli soldiers laughed, according to Israeli human rights activists yesterday.

The man arrived at the roadblock north of the West Bank city of Nablus carrying a violin case. An officer ordered him to take out the violin and play as part of a security check.

Horit Herman-Peled, a volunteer for the Israeli human rights group Machsom Watch, took a video of the Nov 9 incident and posted it on her website.