Testimonies

'Abd al-Hamid Shtiwi, 46

On 26 July, around 5:45 P.M., I was sitting with my brother Muhammad in front of my grocery store, which is in the center of the village. My daughter, 'Aaliya, who is four years old, was next to me. A Border Police jeep pulled up in front of my store. Two policemen got out through the back door of the jeep. One of them told us to go into the grocery store. We went inside and he closed the door behind us. My daughter began to scream and cry. I tried to open the door a few times and go outside, and each time the policemen ordered me to stay inside. Finally, they let me take my daughter home because she was afraid.

'Aaliya went into the house, and a soldier standing with two other soldiers ten meters from me ordered me to go over to him. He asked for my ID card and I gave it to him. Then he ordered me to go with him to the square, which was about fifty meters from my house. When I got to the square, I saw more than fifteen army and Border Police vehicles, and an army ambulance. An army helicopter was hovering over the square. The soldiers took me to the olive press next to the square. I saw Hamadah Shtiwi, a relative of mine. He was sitting next to the fence of the olive press. I asked him, "Where did they take you from?" He relied, "They detained me when I was by the house of my aunt, Umm Nafez." Her house is next to my house.

The soldiers surrounded us, and one of the soldiers asked me about my ties to Hamadah. I replied that he was a relative of mine. We remained there, next to the fence of the olive press, around forty minutes. After that, they took me and Hamadah to the 'Obeid family's diwan (small guest reception structure), which was about twenty-five meters from the olive press. They put us in the living room. A lot of soldiers followed us.

One of the soldiers told me that he wanted to speak with Hamadah alone, and ordered me to wait on the patio. The soldier was tall, shaven, had a moderate build, was dark-skinned, and wore glasses. He spoke with Hamadah for about fifteen minutes. I couldn't hear what they said, because a glass window separated us. Then I saw the soldiers take him outside. At the same time, soldiers took me to the staircase outside the diwan . I stood at the bottom of the staircase, my hands bound and my eyes blindfolded. After a few minutes passed, I saw the soldiers lead a group of men, Qeys Muhammad Hussein Qadumi, Qeysar Muhammad Hussein Qadumi, and Wahid Walid Barham, Muhammad Kamal Saleh Jum'a, Muhammad Saleh Yusef Ashtiwi, Samer Subhi Humamad Qassem, Yehiye Shaqer Subhi Ashtiwi, and Jamil Muhammad Amin Jum'a. The soldiers bound their hands behind them and blindfolded them. They also bound my hands and blindfolded me.

The soldiers began to question us. The guy who questioned me identified himself as an interrogator from the Intelligence Division. He did not give his name. The questioning was done in Arabic and the interrogator removed my blindfold. He asked me what the relations were between me and Hamadah. I told him he was a member of my extended family. He asked me what he does, and I told him that he was in high school until February 2006 and then the Israeli army detained him for three and a half months for throwing stones. He asked me where Hamadah was working now, and I told him that I didn't know what he had been doing after he left school, after the detention.

After I was questioned, they took me and had me sit on the patio of the diwan along with Jamil Muhammad Amin Jum'a who is deaf. He sat with me at the edge of the patio. Hamadah was with soldiers inside the olive press and I heard voices and shouts, which lasted about an hour. I also heard a bulldozer operating near the yard, but I couldn't see it. Around 11:00 P.M., I saw Hamadah Shaqer Shtiwi come out the door of the olive press. He was surrounded by soldiers. I saw a soldier make a movement with his hand as if he were motioning to Shtiwi to start walking.

Hamadah began to walk toward the southern part of the square. About a minute later, when I couldn't see him I heard gunshots, about four to six shots, and I immediately lay down on the ground. The soldiers took Wahid Barham out of the diwan . His hands were bound and his eyes covered. They put him in one of the jeeps. One of the soldiers gave me my ID card and told me to go home.

I left the diwan and saw soldiers spread out around the square. On the way home, I saw, from a distance of about twenty-five meters from the square a bloodstain and bandages around it. The soldiers stayed in the village until 1:00 in the morning. Only the next day did I learn that Hamadah had been killed.

'Abd al-Hamid 'Izzat Yusef Shtiwi, 45, married and father of ten, is a grocery-store owner and a resident of Kafr Qadum. His testimony was given to 'Abd al-Karim a-S'adi in Kafr Qadum on 29 July 2006.