Emil a-Rimawi, ambulance driver, age 41

I am a resident of Beit Rima and work as an ambulance driver. On Saturday, 16 November, I was at the government hospital in Ramallah. At about noon, I received a call to transfer a female kidney patient by the name of Nada a-Rimawi, from the hospital to her home in Beit Rima. Samer a-Rimawi, a paramedic who also resides in Beit Rima joined us.

My house is situated alongside the main road in Beit Rima, and when I passed by it I saw about six soldiers standing next to it. I thought they were going to break into my house. Approximately forty days ago soldiers broke into my house looking for my brother Tamer, 22. Tamer is wanted by Israel. When one of the soldiers saw the ambulance he signaled to me to pull over, and so I did. One of the soldiers asked if my name is Emil, and I said yes. He ordered me to get out of the ambulance. I told him that I had a patient in the ambulance and requested the soldier's permission to take her home. He let me go, but demanded that I leave behind my ID card. I took the patient home, and also dropped of Samer. I returned to my home in seven minutes.

When I came back, one of the soldiers ordered me to get out of the ambulance and go into Tamer's apartment. Tamer lives with my father and my father's wife. My married brothers and I live in different apartments in the same building. I thought that the soldier who had ordered me to enter the apartment was the commander since he had two bars on his shoulder. He was tall, plump, with light skin and looked about thirty years old. I followed the commander's order and went into my father's apartment. Four soldiers came with me. Two of them entered the apartment and the others stood guard at the entrance. The commander asked me: "Where is Tamer?" I told him I didn't know. He added in Arabic: "If you don't tell me where Tamer is, I will wreck the house". I said: "Do as you please". The commander went on "We'll blow up the house". I said "Do whatever you want". He ordered me to take some chairs that were in the apartment outside. Except for my father's wife, Fatkhiya 'Abd al-'Aziz, 48 years old, there was nobody home. The commander asked her about Tamer, and threatened to wreck the house and blow it up. When I did not take out the chairs, the commander hit me hard on the back after which I did take out the chairs. As I was taking the chairs outside, one of the soldiers ordered me to arrange them in a circle around a small square at about twenty meters from the house. He put a table in the center. When I had arranged the chairs, the commander told me in a derisive tone: "Now we want to smoke a water-pipe".

The school day ends around 12:15 or 12:30 and the students are let out.. As they were passing by on the road, they threw stones at the soldiers. The commander demanded the keys to the ambulance in order to chase after the students, but I refused. He demanded the keys several times, and when I kept on refusing he threatened to shoot me. He pointed his rifle at my legs, cocked it, but did not fire. As the commander was demanding that I hand over the keys, one of the soldiers hit me hard on my left thigh with the butt of his rifle. I felt sick. Again, the commander demanded the keys. I refused and told him that it was an ambulance and that it was forbidden to use it for military purposes. The soldier kicked me and hit me on the back with the butt of his rifle. I fell on my stomach. Three of the soldiers stomped on my back and the commander said derisively "You are going to prevent me from using the ambulance?" The soldiers stomped on my back four or five more times and then ordered me to go into the apartment.

Once inside the apartment the soldiers again asked me about Tamer. I saw one of the soldiers outside going in the direction of the grocery store, which is located at a distance of about thirty meters from the house. He ordered four youths who were in the vicinity to come to the apartment. The soldiers made me and the four youths take the furniture out of the house and deposit it close to the square. We were busy taking out the furniture until 1:00 P.M. Then, the soldiers left us as and chased after the kids who had been throwing stones at them. They went in the direction of the center of the village. They didn't give me back my ID before they left.

When the soldiers chased after the kids, I returned the furniture to the apartment and then I left for some time. When I got back, my father's wife told me that about half an hour after the soldiers had left they returned and gave back my ID card.

On Sunday, 24 November, Emil a-Rimawi notified B'Tselem over the phone that on the weekend, soldiers arrived at his home and confiscated his driver's licesne. According to a-Rimawi, the soldiers told him that they would keep the license until the whereabouts of his brother are made known to them.

Emil Rassem Salim a-Rimawi, age 41, is married and works as an ambulance driver. He is a resident of Beit Rima, Ramallah district. The testimony was taken by Iyad Khadad in Beit Rima on 19 November, 2002.