Hamad a-Rimawi

On the night of 8 November 2005, a Tuesday, my wife and I, four of our daughters, the youngest of whom is eleven-year-old Muna, and two of my granddaughters, one eighteen months old and the other three months old, were asleep in our house. My sons were not in our house because they live elsewhere in the village. My sons are Muhammad, 26, who is married and serves drinks at the Palestinian Lawyers Association; Rashad, 31, who is married and is a farmer; and 'Ali, 23, who lives in Ramallah and works with one of the Palestinian security agencies.

Around 2:00 A.M., I was awoken by the sound of stones hitting the house's doors and windows. We all got out of bed. I opened the front door and saw a large group of Israeli soldiers in front of the house. I don't know if there were soldiers behind the house. One of the soldiers ordered me, in Arabic, to go outside. He said: "Come out. We are the Israel Defense Forces." He aimed his rifle at me. The rifle had a sight with night vision. I did as he said and went outside. Before I got to the soldier, he asked me, also in Arabic: "Do you speak Hebrew?" I told him that I didn't. The soldier was tall, of moderate build, and appeared to be about thirty years old. He asked me: "Are your sons in the house?" I replied, "No." Then he said, "Okay, tell everyone in the house to come outside." I said: "There are children inside, have mercy on them." He replied, "No, no. Everyone has to come out." It was very cold, and I was afraid that the children would panic and get hurt, but I obeyed the order, went into the house, and asked everyone to get dressed because the soldier ordered us to go outside. We all obeyed, and even my daughter went outside with her infant daughter. The soldier who had spoken with me previously ordered my wife and the girls to sit on the sidewalk, and he took me to a place about twenty or thirty meters from there, to two army vehicles that were parked on the road.

I saw soldiers next to the house. I subsequently learned that they had entered the house and searched it. Two officers who were standing next to the army vehicles came over to me and identified themselves. One introduced himself as "Ri'ad" and said he was in charge of security in the area. I forget the name of the other officer. "Ri'ad" began to question me about my sons. He asked where they lived, who they worked for, and where they go. He questioned me for more than an hour, and repeated the questions several times. Around 3:30, he gave me four written summonses to appear at 9:00 that morning. The summonses were directed to me and my sons Muhammad, Rashad, and 'Ali. He demanded that we appear on time to meet  with him at the GSS offices in Ofer Prison. I asked him to release me from the obligation to go, because I am sick and have suffered from pancreas problems since an accident I had in 2004. He refused and insisted that I appear together with my sons. He handed me the summonses and left the area along with his soldiers without telling me whether I could go back home.

I stayed outside and looked around to make sure that all the soldiers had gone. I was afraid to go back home without approval. About fifteen minutes later, I decided to go into the house because I did not see any soldiers. My wife and daughters had already gone into the house. When I entered, I found them shaken and frightened. My infant granddaughter was crying. We spent the rest of the night awake and worried. At 7:00 A.M., I went to Rashad's and Muhammad's house, told them about the summons, and related to them what had happened. I also called my son 'Ali and told him about the summons, but he refused to appear with us, and said that he could not get out of work. .

We got to the entrance to Ofer Prison at 9:00 A.M. We showed the summonses to appear to the guard, who took our ID cards and told us to wait under the covering. The covering was composed of tin sheets, about two meters, and it was closed on three sides by plastic with small holes. There is a place to sit that is big enough for three people. Hours passed and nobody spoke with us. We didn't have food or water. I asked the guard for something to drink, but he refused to give me anything. We asked him to hurry things up, and he replied: "It has nothing to do with me. Stay where you are." When we needed to use a bathroom, we had to relieve ourselves there, where we were, on the side.

At 3:00 P.M., the guard called to us, took us into a small room, and conducted a body search. Then he took us to an area in which there were a few offices. I think they were GSS offices. There was a yard in the middle. The guard and another soldier took us into one of the offices, their rifles aimed at us. "Captain Ri'ad" and three other soldiers were in the office. "Ri'ad" sat behind a table and we stood in front of the table. He ordered us to take off our pants. We did that. One of the soldiers passed an electronic device along our bodies. After that, "Captain Ri'ad" began to interrogate us. His first question was" Where is 'Ali?" One of you is missing." I said that 'Ali was in Ramallah, and that he was unable to come because he could not get out of work. "Ri'ad" said that we had to bring him. I said that it was impossible to force him to come. He said that it wasn't his ["Captain Ri'ad"] problem. I told him, "All right, we came. What do you want from us?" He said, "No, I want 'Ali." I replied: "He is not a small child who can be brought against his will." But "Ri'ad" insisted that 'Ali come. And then he began to preach to us, saying: "You Arabs can force the small children, and a father can control his son. The son always remains under the father's control," and other statements like that. Then he asked us about our work and our relationships. He particularly asked about my sons' social relationships.

The interrogation lasted more than an hour. Then he asked again about 'Ali. He said that we had to bring him. When I told him it had nothing to do with us, he said angrily: "Okay, well I'll show you why it is does have to do with you." He gave us four more summonses to appear the next day at 9:00 A.M. I then realized that the summonses were meant to pressure us, to squeeze us, and punish us. I asked him: "Why do you want us?" He replied sarcastically, "I always like to see you. I want to get to know you." I said: "You already got to know us." "No, no," he replied, "I want all four of you together." Then he gave us back our ID cards, handed us the summonses to appear, and ordered us to leave. It was 5:30 P.M. when we left, and we didn't get home before 8:00 P.M. because there wasn't any public transportation. My daughters waited by the windows in great concern. I was tired and totally exhausted.

The next morning, we got up early so that we wouldn't be late. We knew that we had to take three different public transport to get to Ofer: from Beit Rima to Ramallah, from Ramallah to Bitunya, and from Bitunya to Ofer. It cost us NIS 100 each time. At 9:00, we were next to the entrance to Ofer. We handed over the summonses and our ID cards to the guard, and he told us to wait, just like the day before. We waited for hours, and nobody came over to us. I saw other people come to meet with GSS agents and then leave. Some of them waited only a few hours and others waited for many hours. I don't recall that any of them suffered like we did, except for a guy named Muhammad Zuhir Sanaf, who also was from our village. We waited outside the prison and it was very cold. My stomach hurt from time to time. I was very concerned, and thought about what lay behind these summonses. At 6:00 P.M., "Captain Ri'ad" came to us. There were two soldiers with him. He spoke to us from inside the gate and asked about 'Ali. He threatened to arrest us and call our wives if we didn't bring 'Ali with us. Later, he ordered us to go and come back the next morning. He did not give us a written summons to appear, but only returned our ID cards, and then left. We went home, and this time, too, I was tired and exhausted.

The next day, we didn't go to meet him We thought that he wouldn't persecute us any more because he didn't give us a formal summons to appear. Nothing happened for three days, but I was still worried that they might come and break into our house at any minute, and that is what happened. It occurred at 3:00 A.M. on Sunday, 13 November. The rest of my household and I were woken up and startled by the pounding on the door and shouts in Arabic. "Army, army. Come outside, come outside." I went outside. There were more than ten soldiers in front of the house and others were spread out around it. One of them asked me in Arabic: "Where are your sons?" I told him that none of them were in the house, and that they were in their homes. He asked where their houses were, and I pointed at the place. He ordered me to get dressed and go with them to show them exactly where my sons live. I got dressed and walked [toward their houses], with ten soldiers behind me. We walked 150 meters and then they ordered me to get into a jeep. They forced me to sit on the floor of the jeep. A few soldiers guarded me, with their rifles aimed at me. I directed them to my sons' houses. When we got there, I called to Muhammad and Rashad, and they came outside in their pajamas and slippers. The soldiers tied our hands behind ours back with plastic cuffs and blindfolded us with pieces of cloth, but I was able to see through it. I heard my children asking the soldiers to let them change their clothes, but the soldiers refused. Later, they took us by jeep to the Halamish [army] base.

At Halamish, they put us into a small room which smelled like a kennel. One of the soldiers, apparently a doctor, examined us with a stethoscope and asked us if we were suffering from any illness. We stayed in the room until 8:00 A.M., and then they took us to Ofer Prison. At Ofer, the soldiers put us in a yard outside the GSS offices. We were still blindfolded and our hands were cuffed. The guards forced us to sit bent over on our toes, which hurt terribly and was very tiring, particularly for me. I felt that my legs were going numb. Each time that I moved, the guard ordered me to stay still and remain where I was. My sons, who were sitting next to me, were forbidden to move or speak. They requested that the cuffs be removed or loosened a bit because they were so tight, but the guard refused. He agreed to remove my cuffs only when I asked to go to the bathroom, but there, too, he refused to let me go alone and close the bathroom door behind me. I couldn't relieve myself with him standing there looking at me. I twice asked him to close the door, but he refused. Ultimately, he agreed. While I was relieving myself, he opened the door and I stopped – I wasn't able to continue. He took me back to the yard, and I sat down. He cuffed my hands again. It hurt me to sit, as before. My legs began to fall asleep, and I couldn't sit like that any longer. I fell onto the ground. The guard tried to force me to sit. He shouted at me and kicked me, but I refused.

The squat position the father and his sons were forced to remain in for a prolonged period of time. Illustration photo: B'Tselem

Around noon, "Captain Ri'ad" called to my son Rashad. Two hours later, he returned and told us that "Captain Ri'ad" wanted us to go away and come back at 5:00 P.M. We did as ordered and left the prison yard. They took off the cuffs and blindfolds. At 5:00 P.M., we returned to the prison and waited. We told the guard that we had arrived, but nobody came over to us until 6:30, when "Captain Ri'ad" came over and asked us, as usual, where 'Ali was. This time, he threatened to arrest us and kill him. "If 'Ali doesn't come, I will deliver him to you in pieces, just like what happened with the guy from Deir Ghasana, Wafi a-She'ybi ." He continued: "But you didn't come the previous time, and I went to bring you from your houses. The next time, if you don't come, I'll know how to bring you." He gave us back our ID cards and gave us summonses to appear the next day.

Since then, for more than a week, we have been going to the GSS daily, except for Fridays and Sundays. We wait from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., and nobody comes to talk with us. Each time, they give us summonses for my son 'Ali. The situation is intolerable, and I am very tired from waiting outside in the cold and rain hour after hour after hour. I also suffer pains as a result of my pancreas problem. After a few days passed, we started to bring food and water with us, but I don't have any appetite to eat or drink. I worry all the time, and the GSS agent's threats frighten me. I worry more about my wife and daughters, who remain alone with no one to take care of them. Because I am not working, they don't even have money to cover household expenses. Rashad supports us, and because of this daily hindrance, he stopped working and has no income. Muhammad is a laborer and hardly makes enough to cover his family's expenses, and he is also repaying debts to cover the cost of his recent marriage. If the situation continues, the family, our future, and our security will be destroyed.

Hamed Rushdi a-Rimawi, 54, married with eight children, is a resident of Beit Rima in Ramallah District. His testimony was given to Iyad Haddad, on 23 November 2005