MAIN | REPORTS
Huwaida Arraf is one of the initiators of the
International Solidarity
Movement
Wednesday, June 18, 2003 9:19 PM
Dear Friends,
Thank you for the calls and the emails. I am embarassed
to have taken up your time with my case when there are so many other
Palestinians that need your help. The officer filling out my release
papers commented that I "must have many friends all over the
world." I was put under arrest today for "obstructing
the work of soldiers" and though I didn't go to prison, I'd
like to ask a few minutes of your time to tell you about what happened
today, and the larger prison that all Palestinians in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories are in.
I arrived at the Huwwara checkpoint at around 12:30pm
with a newly arrived American volunteer, Rick; we were on our way
to Nablus. The queue was long, at least 70 people, and it didn't
look like the three Israeli soldiers that were manning the checkpoint
were letting anybody through. A few of the Palestinian men, who
had already been at the checkpoint for over an hour, seeing my companion
was an international, advised us to walk around the checkpoint to
avoid what would surely be another 3-hour wait, at least; "If
you have an American passport, you'll pass, no problem." Though
we were in a hurry to get Rick to the ISM training in Nablus, there
was no question that we'd refuse to take advantage of the racist
system that would allow an American into Nablus, but require a resident
of Nablus or a surrounding village to wait for hours, to be checked
by Israeli soldiers and then given a verdict of whether he/she could
go home, to work, or to school. So we waited.
Soldiers make Palestinians stand in a female line
and a male line and so our Palestinian friends, who were trying
to save us time, urged us to at least get into the shorter female
line. We did. A half an hour later a soldier came over and let a
handful of women pass. I was one of the ones singled out to pass.
Rick came with me. When we approched the soldier that was to check
our IDs, we noticed a family, a man, woman and two children who
were standing aside. Apparently the soldiers did not want to let
the man through (he had a British passport) and his wife, a Palestinian
from Nablus, was refusing to leave without him. They were also refusing
to turn back. The soldiers kept asking of the Brit, his "hawiyya"
- ID, insinuating that he had a Palestinian ID (in addition to the
passport) and was just refusing to show it. I then noticed two yound
Palestinian men, in their early twenties, crouching up against the
cinder blocks that form the checkpoint, their hands tied behind
their backs.
An old woman was pleading with the Israeli soldiers,
her son (one of the young men), was sick and had back problems and
was on his way to Rafeedia Hospital in Nablus. She was trying to
show the soldier her son's papers and x-rays, but he wasn't interested.
"His back! His back!" she cried, but the soldier only
yelled at her to go away. I interfered to ask the soldier why he
was yelling at the old woman and holding the young men. He said
he wasn't interested. I learned from the two men, Rashed and Ramsy
that they had been held for 3 hours by that point (since about 9:30am)
and the soldiers had confiscated their ID cards. They weren't told
why. I got on the phone with HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization
in Jerusalem that often turns in complaints of abuses to the Military
District Coordinating Office, and gave them the names of the young
men. Rick and I decided that we would stay by Ramsy and Rashed until
HaMoked was able to get back to us. Ramsy stood up to show us that
his cuffs were on way too tight. It looked like he was losing circulation.
I pleaded with one of the soldiers to loosen his cuffs, Rick pointing
out that the boy could be seriously hurt. The soldier screamed at
Ramsy to kneel "or else." Another soldier, calling himself
a beast, said "I want to kill him today." The soldiers
told me to leave the area, as I was in a closed military zone.
A young man, named Nael, came through, asked the soldier if he
could pass
because he got word that his father passed away last night and he
wanted to
visit him before he was buried. The soldier told him to shut up
and get back
in line. When Nael persisted, the soldier called him a "son
of a b*tch" and
began pushing him. Nael stood his ground and the pushing got very
rough.
Another soldier ran over screaming and put his M16 to Nael's head.
They
grabbed Nael and pulled him away, one soldier still screaming and
threatening to shoot. Rick and I followed and whipped out our cameras,
"Hey,
hey, calm down. Calm down!" Nael was also put in cuffs and
told that he
would be arrested and that he "would be seeing a jail cell
and not [his]
father." Another call to HaMoked.
The soldiers kept telling me to leave the area, as I was in a closed
military zone and preventing them from doing their job -- really
annoying
them. I refused, telling them that there was no way I was going
to leave
these guys when it was obvious the soldiers were being very abusive,
and
even if they considered serving the occupation as their "job"
there was no
reason not to treat the people as human beings. This whole time
they did not
let any one through the checkpoint, though every once in a while
a soldier
would get on the loud speaker and yell at the Palestinians to form
straight
lines and to stand behind the plastic barricades or else the checkpoint
would be closed for the rest of the day.
By 3:30pm, more pushing, yelling, loosing and tightening of cuffs,
Ramsy
(the sick one) was released. One of the soldiers kept saying to
us in
English, "I want to kill him today." I asked why he couldn't
realize that
we're all human beings like he was. He replied, "I'm not a
human being, I'm
a beast. I'm a beast, OK, and I want to kill him." He came
up behind Rashed,
grabbed arms and tightened his plastic cuffs until they couldn't
be
tightened any more. When I protested, he yanked Rashed away and
threw him
behind an area of cinder blocks telling him to kneel so that he
was out of
sight. Rashed tried to stand up a few times, "my hands, my
hands!" Another
call to HaMoked. Nael, still cuffed, ordered from a young boy vendor,
three
colas, for me, Rick and himself.
He urged me to leave, assuring me that he would be OK.
It didn't seem like any of what we were saying was getting through
to any of
the soldiers who kept treating the people like they were less than
human,
denying entry to into Nablus to a new bride and her husband going
to visit
family, a husband and father, trying to enter with his family (the
soldiers
only let the wife and kids go) and a half dozen others, as people
were
ordered to approach one by one, one every 10 minutes or so. The
self-described "beast" confiscated two bikes and one trolley
- things that
Palestinians trying to make a living in an economy with a 70% unemployment
rate, use to transport the bags and luggage of other travelers for
a small
charge (as Palestinians often have to walk distances, owners of
trolleys,
bikes, and donkeys offer rides or transport of heavy bags for a
nominal
fee.)
A young boy came up to me to tell me that Rashed had been released.
I guess
I had had my back turned, and at first didn't believe it. But Rashed
came up
to the front of the line to wave and confirm that he was let go.
I went up
to him, "are you going to try the other way around? Take care."
He smiled,
"thanks." Only Nael was left until the "beast"
ran after a Palestinian man
who was given to pass, and for no reason, tied his hands up and
pushed him
down behind some cinder blocks, where Rashed was only minutes before.
By now
the soldiers were getting pretty annoyed with me (perhaps because
the
HaMoked calls were working) and a police jeep pulled up. By 4:30
I was taken
away. Rick was given the option to leave and it seemed best, though
I was
worried about him traveling alone on his second day.
I was released at about 11pm from Ariel (settlement) police station.
An
anonymous friend (a veteran from the first Intifada who had spent
11 years
in jail for actively organizing the popular resistance) made the
40km drive
in the dark on the windy settler road to pick me up. Rick made it
back OK.
HaMoked rang to check up on me. Nael was not released.
If you can, please call or write to inquire
about Nael Suwaydi from Abu Dis, arrested at Huwarra checkpoint
on June 18, 2003 for daring to come from Abu Dis to Nablus, without
permission, to pay respects to his father. I never did give Nael
my condolences.
Tel: + (972) 36 080 339 Fax: +(972) 36 080 343
Israeli Minister of Defence, Shaul Mofaz: sar@mod.gov.il Israeli
Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom: sar@mofa.gov.il
Contact the Israeli Embassy in your country:
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.htm
In solidarity & struggle,
Huwaida
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