Bassem Hamamdah, student

I live with my parents and 9 siblings in Yatta village. I'm a student at the Open University in Jerusalem and I work in Israel without a permit, in the Beer Sheva area. I sleep there throughout the week and come home only on weekends. A couple of my friends(Khalifa Ahmad Mohammad Abu Samra, 22 years old, and Subhi Yousef Abu Fanus, 15 or 16 years old) work with me.

On March 22, 2007 around 2:30A.M., Israeli policemen, some in uniform and some undercover, came into the trailer we were sleeping in. They checked our ID cards then took us to the Beer Sheva police station. There were eight of us, all from Yatta village. When we entered the police station, they made us sign documents, in both Arabic and Hebrew, stating that we had not been beaten.

At 4:30A.M., they separated us and moved me and Subhi Abu Fanus to a secret police station about 20 minutes away from the one in Beer Sheva. They took Subhi into a room and left me in the hallway where I could hear Subhi screaming. I listened to him screaming and felt like my turn was next. I was frightened.

Fifteen minutes later they took me into the interrogation room. The minute I walked in, four men jumped on me and started beating me with police batons. One of them had a badge on his shoulder that said that his name was Bassem, but I could not make out the last name. His skin was dark, and he was short and relatively chubby. He appeared to be in his late twenties. The three other policemen were tall, heavy, and short-haired. They slapped me in the face a few times and then sat me down on a swivel chair and tied my hands and feet to it.

They then attacked me, kicking and beating my whole body. The beatings lasted an hour and a half. They took turns beating me – two by two. The policeman Bassem lifted up a plastic chair and beat me with it on my back and shoulders. I screamed from the pain and asked why they were beating me. Bassem closed the door of a wooden closet on my hand, making it bleed.

The policemen cursed at me and told me to shut up. Bassem loaded his gun and aimed it at my head. Another policeman told me, "You're going to die today". For a minute I was afraid he meant it. Bassem told me that I was the only one of the eight workers under arrest. Two other policemen, who were in the room earlier, came back in. Bassem pulled his gun away, bent down, picked up my shoe and beat me on the head with it. He later put the shoe in my mouth.

I kept screaming, "What do you want from me?" and he said that I was accused of stealing a car and a Motorola cell phone. I said it wasn't true, that the phone belonged to my boss – Jihad A-Shalaldeh from Jerusalem – and that I couldn't drive and didn't even have a license. He also claimed that the car was stolen at 3:30AM and I told him that I was arrested at 2:30AM. He completely ignored me and said that I wasn't cooperating.

The policeman Bassem then took me to another room, took off all my clothes except my underwear, tied my hands behind my back, then tied my arms and legs together and hung me from the ceiling. I was hanging about 1.5 meters above the ground. Bassem and the two other policemen left me hanging and told me I would stay like that until I confessed. Bassem and another policeman then beat me on the neck and the back with a folding stick about 20cm long. I was bleeding from my left eye, my nose, my mouth, and my lip. I screamed and cried from the pain. I tried to tolerate the torture as much as possible. They left me hanging for half an hour and then Bassem came back, untied me, and allowed me to wear my pants and shoes but not my shirt.

Bassem accused me of treason and theft. I told him that he was a traitor for wearing the Israeli army's uniform and interrogating one of his own people. He got very upset and tried again to close the closet door on my hand but I managed to avoid it.

He tied my hands from the front. My legs were also tied. He led me to the investigating officer's room. After I went into the room, Bassem gave me back my shirt. The officer asked me questions in Hebrew and Bassem translated both questions and answers.

The interrogation went on until approximately 1:00PM after which they drove me and Subhi to the police station in Beer-Sheva in a police car with metal bars. Our arms and legs were still tied. Subhi's fingers were bleeding and his face was red from beatings. He told me that they had tried to pull out two of his fingernails. I signed a paper saying that I had in fact stolen. My fingerprints were taken and I was photographed. You can see my injuries in the picture.

They later drove me to the court in Beer-Sheva where I saw my seven other friends. Our trial was postponed and we were taken to the Netivot jail. They transferred Subhi to a jail in the Negev (Ketziyot) because he was a minor. I handed in my belongings: a watch, a wallet, a cell phone, 100 shekels that were in my pocket, a hat, and a wallet with 350 shekels in it. In Netivot, however, they only wrote down taking 100 shekels, a hat, a cell phone charger, and an ID card.

On Sunday, I asked to see a doctor but they refused. I couldn't sleep from all the pain but it was only on Thursday that I was transferred to the Soroka Hospital . After treating me, they sent me to the jail in the Negev where there was a clinic. The doctors there examined me every day and gave me medication.

I was in jail for 11 days before being brought to court, where I was sentenced to 3 months in jail for entering Israel without a permit. I signed a commitment to pay 5000 shekels if I enter Israel in the next 3 years. Twenty-one days after my arrest I was moved to Beer-Sheva.

My six other friends received similar sentences, except for Subhi who was released after 21 days in the Negev detention facility without a trial.

I was released on May 7, 2007. My ID card was returned to me as were my clothes and cell phone. I asked about the remainder of my belongings and the officer told me to ask the Red Cross. I went to the Red Cross that same day and talked to Balal Shareef who said he would try to get my things back.

After I was released, I did not feel well and went to a doctor in Yatta. The doctor treated me, gave me medication and a shot to lower my blood pressure.

Bassem Mohammad Hamed Hamamdah, 23, is a student and a resident of Yatta in Hebron District. His testimony was given to Musa Abu Hashhash in Hebron, on 13 May, 2007.