Nasser Nawaj'ah

I live in Khirbet Susiya, which lies east of Yatta. Recently, I started working as coordinator of B'Tselem’s project “Shooting Back.” The organization gave me a camera, with which I document events, mostly settlers’ acts of violence against Palestinian farmers.

On 15 March, I joined members of the organization Ta’ayush in helping farmers get to their land. 15 farmers and 10 members of Ta’ayush took part in the activity. We walked to the land, which is situated east of Khirbet Susiya. After we got there, at around 9:00 A.M., two masked settlers arrived, and then an army jeep arrived too. Then about another 15 settlers, without masks, appeared. One of them was Michael, Susiya’s security officer. About an hour later, two Border Police vehicles, a police vehicle, and two army jeeps, also arrived.

The soldiers and the Border Policemen tried to throw the farmers off their land and I began to film what was happening. A Border Police officer came over to me and demanded to see my identity card. I showed it to him, along with my B'Tselem card. He told me that I was being detained and ordered me to get into the jeep. I handed over my identity card to him. The others were concerned for my safety and didn’t understand why he had called me over to the police jeep. The settlers were standing next to the jeep.

The officer ordered me to stop filming but I answered that I was allowed to film. Then he ordered me to give the camera to somebody else. I agreed and tried to hand the camera to my brother Mahmoud, 27, who had come over to where we stood. The officer didn’t wait for me to walk to the jeep with him, and began pulling me along roughly. The Ta’ayush people saw what was happening and grabbed hold of me, but the officer wouldn’t let go. Together with two other Border Policemen, he dragged me 50-60 meters from the Ta’ayush people and their cameras. When we were far from them, he kicked me hard in the knee, knocked me down onto the ground, and then sat on my chest.

When I got to my feet, the officer took me to the Border Police jeep. When we were about 200 meters from the place where they had first detained me, the officer said to me in Hebrew that they recognized me. He pushed me in the back twice while we were walking toward the jeep. Then he punched me twice, hard, in the chest, kicked me in the left leg, and pushed me roughly into the jeep. The jeep remained parked for about 10 minutes, during which the settlers opened the back doors and looked at me. One of the settlers said to me, in the presence of the officer who had detained me: “Every time you come here, you’ll get beaten up like you did today.”

Then I was taken to the police station in Kiryat Arba for questioning. They accused me of assaulting a policeman, attempting to escape, and obstructing the security forces in their work. I denied the accusations and refused to sign a statement saying that nothing had been stolen from me and that I hadn’t been beaten during the detention.

At the station, I saw my brother Mahmoud. When they finished questioning him, they put him in the room where I was being held. We spent the night and the next day there, until we were released on a 500 shekel bond. They gave Mahmoud and me a summons to appear in court.

Then I went to the ‘Aliyah Government Hospital. I had bruises on my chest, back, and leg. I was treated and discharged the same day.

Nasser Muhammad Ahmad Nawaj'ah, 26, is a local coordinator of B'Tselem’s “Shooting Back” project and a resident of Khirbet Susiya, in the Southern Hebron Hills. He  gave his testimony to Musa Abu Hashhash on 19 March 2008 in Hebron.