Testimonies

Khalil Matariyeh, house painter

In 1996, I was held in administrative detention for six months. Since then, I have not received a magnetic card [necessary for applying for an entry permit to Israel - B'Tselem]. I submitted dozens of requests and paid five lawyers more than 2,000 shekels to help me. None of them managed to get me a permit.

I have a large family. My wife and I have eight children: the oldest is seventeen and the youngest is three. I am the sole supporter of the family, but I haven't had a permanent job since 1996. Our situation worsened at the beginning of the second intifada. With no income and being responsible for my children, I have to sneak into IsraelI go by side roads and it takes hours before I manage to cross into Israel via the village of Jinba or a-Ramadin. It is a dangerous and expensive route. It costs 200 shekels back and forth. We sleep in the cold at the construction site, in structures without doors or windows. We are afraid that the regular police or the Border Police will arrest us, beat us, or fine us, but we have no choice. I take the risk and undergo the suffering so I can put food on the table and enable my family to live in dignity and not as beggars.

On Sunday, 16 December 2007,, at 9:30 A.M., I was painting a building in Beersheva along with three other workers from al-Fawwar. Also at the site were eight workers from Yatta, who were doing the tiling. Suddenly, I heard someone shout “Police”. I was on the third floor out of five. Everyone started running up the steps, which hadn't been completed. As I was running up the steps, I twisted my leg, which hurt a lot. I could barely get to the fifth floor. The others continued to the roof, but I fell and couldn't continue. Two regular policemen got to me immediately. I am sure they saw I was injured.

They looked younger than me, in their late thirties. I think one of them was Russian. He spoke broken Hebrew and was fair-skinned. They didn't ask me anything. I lay on the floor and the two of them punched me in the face and chest. They kicked me in the waist and in the legs. While they were beating me, they asked me in Hebrew, “Why were you running away?”. I asked them in Hebrew to stop beating me and that I had injured myself when I was running up the steps, but they didn't stop.

They beat me for around five minutes. Then one of them tied my hands in front of me and took me downstairs. One of them held my hand along the way. They put me and the other workers they had caught in the police van, which was a Hyundai. They put twelve workers into one vehicle. It was crowded. I realized that two workers had managed to escape.

The car drove to a small police station. The policemen wrote down our particulars and then took us to the police station in Be'ersheva. We were there for an hour and signed papers. One of them stated that they had not beaten us during the arrest. A policeman told me, in Hebrew, that I was a wanted person. I signed the papers because I feared that the policeman who beat me before would take revenge.

After all the workers signed the papers, two police vans pulled up. The policemen put us and other workers in the vans and drove us to the Sham'a checkpoint [also referred to as the Meitar checkpoint - B'Tselem]. From there, we drove home in a Palestinian vehicle. The workers who were with me helped me get from the car to my house.

I had bruises on my waist from the shoes of the policemen, and my face hurt for four days.

Instead of going to a hospital, I went to a traditional healer from al-Fawwar to treat my leg and he bandaged it. The bandage is still on. I've been lying on my back since then, and even during the holiday I didn't get up. In addition to these injuries, I've been suffering from a slipped disc for a long time. Despite all this, I have to work. My leg still hurts, but I have to go back to work tomorrow or the next day.

Khalil Jum'a Mahmoud Matariyeh, 42, married with eight children, is a house painter and a resident of al-Fawwar refugee camp in Hebron District. His testimony was given to Musa Abu Hashhash at the witness' home on 22 December 2007.