Detained and Assaulted by Israeli Soldiers
Assault by Soldiers
Dear friends,
Bad news, I’m afraid. I have been assaulted again by Israeli soldiers and Border Police. No lasting damage though. It all started with a silly dispute over my passport. I came through the checkpoint from the market and the soldier asked to see my passport. I showed it to him but refused to let go of it. Soldiers have the right to see passports but not to take them away. I told him that. He said he would detain me. I told him to call the police. Only they have the right to take passports and detain internationals. I walked away. One of the soldiers ran after me and stopped me. He let go again so I carried on walking up the hill. He stopped me again and I told him I needed to be with the soldiers at the top of the hill. It was time for the children to come out of school and I needed to watch them safely past the settlement. He walked with me up the hill. At the top he said something to me in Hebrew and I told him wher I would sit down. He kicked me. I sat down. The other two soldiers came over and they insisted on handcuffing me with a plastic cable tie.
At this point I realised I had made a mistake. I had mislaid my mobile that morning and there were no other internationals in sight. I waited for the police to arrive. It was very quiet and there were no Palestinians going past that I could ask for help. Finally a small boy came by whom I did not recognise. He was surprised to see me handcuffed. I tried to explain to him to notify the internationals from EAPPI whom I had left at the checkpoint. I was not sure if he understood my broken Arabic. He must have done though because soon after Gillian arrived with a camera. I asked her to take photos of me and the soldiers. Another Human Rights Worker arrived with a video camera, having seen me from the roof of their flat.
Soon after two Border Police arrived from the direction of the settlement. One of them cut me free from the plastic tie. I thanked him for that but then he wanted me to put my hands behind my back so he could handcuff me again. I asked why I was being arrested. They argued a bit but eventually they said it was because I refused to stop when ordered to do so by the soldier. Fair enough. I let them handcuff me again. They were threatening violence if I did not co-operate. Then they blindfolded me. One of the Border Police asked permission and very gently took off my glasses and hooked them into my sweater. Then two of them started to push me up the hill towards the settlement and the military camp. They were quite rough and were trying to rush me. Since I could not see what they were pushing me into and I did not want to lose my feet and fall over I resisted them and walked at a steady pace. Further up the hill one of them hit me quite hard in the left side and I stumbled and almost fell.
At the top they stood me against a wall and told me to sit down. They pushed me and I sat, not knowing if there was anything to sit on. There was not and I squatted against the wall with my hands tied behind me. They started to slap me and hit me around the head. I ducked my head down as far as it would go towards my knees to protect myself. I could hear voices in Hebrew and laughing and it seemed there were about 12 people around me all quite excited. One of them was a woman’s voice.
Next someone on my right hit me with a big stick, probably a baton. He hit me on my right side and just below the knee, quite hard. More punching and slapping around the head and then someone on my left kicked me hard in the chest and knocked the breath out of me. I was hit again with the stick across the back of the neck and slapped around the head and face.
Fortunately at that moment the police arrived. They ordered me to be released. Many of the soldiers left as soon as they saw the blindfold being removed. It took a wile to saw the tie free and in the process my wrist was cut. Once I had my hands free I started to take photos of the disappearing soldiers. They all got themselves out of sight. The police ordered me to stop taking photos. I told tem I had just been assaulted by these soldiers and wanted to file a complaint. I asked them if they were going to take the names of those involved but they refused to do so so I carried on photographing those who were still there. A settler told me to stop and threatened me. He made gestures as if to slit a throat and pointed at me. I photographed him. The police then asked me to get in the back of their APC. I asked them to move the settler back as he was blocking the way and looked as though he were about to hit me. They moved him back a little way and I got in the APC. They took me back down the hill to the checkpoint where this all began. I asked them to take me to Kiryat Arba police station to file a complaint. They refused. I asked them to take me to hospital to see a doctor. They refused that too. I asked them for the names of the soldiers who had beaten me. They said they would report the names to the investigating officer and he would give me the names. (He never did.) I asked them for the names of the soldiers who were standing next to their car, who had asked me for my passport. Again he said I could get those names from the police station. I asked him for his own name and number. He told me Saleh but refused to give any more details. In the end I got out of the APC.
ICRC had been called and were there. Gillian from EAPPI kindly agreed to accompany me to the hospital and police station. We took a taxi to al Ahli Hospital where I had been before. It is well equipped and the staff are wonderful. They don’t make a charge if people have been attacked by Israeli security forces or settlers.
From there we went to the Police Station. We spent 6 hours that day and 5 hours the next day just to file the complaints against the soldiers, border police and the settler who made a death threat. On the last day I asked to leave and come back later as I had a class to teach. I was refused so effectively I was detained for an hour at the police station. We were locked in so I had no way to leave. I will file complaints at the embassies also.
