Testimonies

Mahmoud a-Nawaj'ah

I am a farmer and have lived in the village of Susiya all my life. I have a wife and three children - two boys and a girl.

I was born in 1979, in one of the caves in Susiya. At the time, my father didn't take care of registering me with the Civil Administration. When I was about one-year old, he went to the Civil Administration to get a birth certificate for me, but the clerks told him that my name wasn't on the computer. They issued the birth certificate, but without an ID number.

I went to grammar school in Yatta up to fifth grade and then began to work grazing sheep and goats in the hills.

When I turned 16, I went to the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Hebron to get an ID card. They only gave me a Palestinian birth certificate, based on the Israeli certificate. They said that, because I didn't have an ID number, they couldn't issue an ID card. They told me I had to submit a request for internal family unification. They completed the application for me but I never got an answer. Family unification requires Israel's approval.

I always have problems because I don't have an ID card. For example, when I have to cross a checkpoint on my way to Hebron, I ask the taxi driver to stop and let me get out so I can avoid having the soldiers ask to see my ID card. I always graze the flock near the house, and am afraid to go far away out of fear that soldiers will detain me.

About six years ago, I went to work at a moshav [farming community] near Ramle [inside Israel]. The police came and detained all the workers at the moshav. They checked and released everybody the same day, except for me. They held me for two days. The police didn't believe that I didn't have an ID card, and they took me to court. I was released only after a member of Ta'ayush testified that he knew me, and after an attorney became involved on my behalf.

A few times, soldiers have beaten me because they didn't believe I din't have an ID card. Without an ID card, I don't exist; I'm like one of my sheep. I can't work in Israel without an ID card. I earn a living only from grazing, which doesn't bring in enough money to meet my family's needs.

Because I'm afraid of being arrested, I spend almost all my time inside the village, like a prisoner. The difference is that prisoners have some date of release, while I'm serving a life sentence. I can't travel outside Palestine. I don't even dare consider traveling abroad. My dream is only to receive an ID card so that I can leave my village and Yatta, the nearby town, and go to Hebron.

Every time soldiers catch me, they say, “Go to the PA and to Abu Mazen and he'll solve your problem.” But when I go to the Palestinian Interior Ministry, they say my problem is with Israel. I don't know who to turn to anymore..

My children are registered in their mother's ID card. Before we got married, I checked with her family to make sure she had an ID card, to be certain that my children would receive an ID number and not suffer like me.

Three other persons in my village have the same problem as I do.

Mahmoud Muhammad Ahmad Nawaj'ah, 28, married with three children, is a farmer and a resident of Susiya, Hebron District. His testimony was given to Musa Abu Hashhash at the witness's home on 29 March 2008.