Testimonies

Nabih Naji , laborer

Two days ago [Thursday, 14 December], around 10:45 A.M., I was working with a group of about thirty laborers restoring an ancient palace in the center of Kafr a-Dik. The project is funded by a Swedish organization. I heard gunshots, but I ignored them. I was standing in the courtyard of the palace when approximately seven soldiers entered the courtyard.

The soldiers had their rifles aimed as they entered. I asked them in Hebrew, which I know well because I worked in Israel for more than thirty years, "What's up, what happened?" One of the soldiers replied that people in the archeological site were throwing stones at the soldiers. I told him that nobody at the site was throwing stones, and that everybody there was working on the restoration project. I told him, "Here are the cement and tools in front of you. This is a construction site." The soldier threatened me: "If I find somebody in the rooms on top, I'll shoot you."

At that moment, Wahib Mislah a-Dik, a young man who was working as a plasterer in the rooms at the top, came out of a second-floor door leading to the stairs to the courtyard. The soldier who was speaking with me saw him coming out the door and aimed his rifle at him. I heard someone say, "Not me, not me," and then the soldier fired a volley of shots at Wahib. A few seconds later, Wahib fell from the top of the stairs into the courtyard. I saw him bleeding from the chest and abdomen. He didn't move after his body came to rest on the ground. Then I saw the two pails, which were empty, that were in his hands when he was shot. They fell in the courtyard.

The soldier who shot him had a dark-brown complexion, was thin, and average height. I told him, "You are happy now. He is a laborer, a plasterer. Are you pleased?" Wahib's father, who is also a plasterer, began to scream when he saw his son bleeding. He asked the soldier to give his son first-aid. I also asked him to help evacuate Wahib, but he wouldn't. He ordered me to call others to remove Wahib, but nobody else was around. I said, "Nobody is here," because most of the workers were hiding in the rooms of the palace or had run away. The soldier told me, "I can't help you, and if there isn't anybody to help you, then he'll die." I told him, "Why don't you take pity on him?" and he told me to shut up.

The soldiers left the site and the village. Then people began to gather, and they put Wahib into a car and took him to the hospital in Ramallah.

Nabih 'Othman Dib Naji, 49, married with eight children, is a laborer and a resident of Kafr a-Dik, Salfit District. His testimony was given to 'Abd al-Karim Sa'adi in Kafr a-Dik on 16 December 2006.