Soldiers Kick Wadea
7 Sep 08 Soldiers Assault Wadea
On Sunday night Two of Arwa’s brothers, Fahad and Wadea left their house to meet their friends and go strolling in the town centre. Around 8.50pm Arwa’s mother got a phone call from Wadea to say that he had been detained at the checkpoint at the top of the hill, just below the house. I was at their house and ten minutes later I set off with a video camera to see what was going on. As I arrived at the junction I saw Fahad arguing with two soldiers and being pushed back down the hill away from me. I started to film immediately and noticed that Wadea was being detained and sitting against the wall on my left. Once the soldiers had pushed Fahad back behind the red line on the road one of them noticed me and very angrily pushed me back behind the other red line up the hill. From here it was not possible to see Wadea as he was against the wall around the corner. While I could see both the soldiers I was not too worried but when they both went out of sight towards Wadea I was afraid they might be violent. We have had daily reports of soldier violence on this corner and at the main checkpoint down the hill. I called the police and asked them to send a patrol.
Apparently the trouble had started because Wadea asked a soldier why it was necessary to check his ID so many times in the same day. For this he was detained. When he objected to the soldier using foul language at him he was kicked and beaten.
When both the soldiers were out of my sight I went forward again and began to film. As I came around the corner I could see that both the soldiers were pushing Wadea up against the wall. They were tying plastic cable ties around his wrists. Then both of them kicked him on the ankle and one of them hit him with the barrel of his gun. Soon one of them noticed me filming and rushed towards me. He grabbed me aggressively and pulled on my kuffiya. I told him he had no right to kick people. He said not to tell him how to do his job. He warned me to stop filming or he would take my camera. He pushed me back towards the red line and said I had to stay there. I pointed out that I cannot see Wadea from there. He said you film from here.
I waited for a long time. Most of the time I could see both the soldiers. Other Palestinians came up the hill and were worried for Wadea. Im Firaz came out of the house on the corner with two of her sons. She went to the soldiers and told them to stop the violence. She had seen two of her own family beaten by soldiers on this same corner a week ago. The soldiers were very rude to her and one of them pushed her back towards her house and told her to go home. Out of my sight Wadea was kicked again.
One of the Palestinians who had seen what was happening to Wadea told me to go into Im Firaz’ house and film from there. I was afraid of being attacked by the soldiers. I waited until both the soldiers were busy away from me and made a dash for it. I went up the stairs and found a good spot where I could see what was happening. The soldiers spotted me and one of them came into the house and up the stairs. He grabbed me and pushed me aggressively down the stairs. He dragged me across the street and forced me into the concrete machine gun post that the soldiers use. He forced me to sit on my bottom. I was terrified I would get a kicking but he surprised me by calmly asking me to open my bag for inspection.
Soon after the police finally arrived. By this time 6 more soldiers and an officer had arrived. I stood up and moved to speak to the police. The soldiers ordered me back into the concrete box but the police told me to stand and wait for him while he talked to everyone else and got their stories. The soldiers showed no respect for the police and continued to order me back into their box but I refused.
The police told me I should not have been interfering with soldiers doing their job. I pointed out that I had never interfered. I was filming from a distance. The army officer told me the same thing. Then he said, “I have seen you before. You cause trouble. “ I said, “what trouble. I just film.”
The soldiers tried to take me away to their base but I refused to go with them. I have been badly beaten there before once out of sight of observers. I hid behind the police and he ordered me into the police car. Eventually the police managed to get all three of us released and we went home.
