Testimonies

Nasser Dweikat, Taxi driver

Last Friday [1 August 2008], about 3:30-4:00 P.M., I was on my way back to Tulkarm in my taxi, driving along the road that passes Yizhar. In front of me was a Hyundai car rental. About half a kilometer in front of us was a black car with yellow [Israeli] plates. I saw the black car signal a right turn, toward the entrance to the Yizhar settlement. As the Hyundai and I approached the turn to enter the settlement, I saw the black car stop about 20 meters from the turn.

Then I saw a settler, about 1.85 meters tall, who had a light complexion and was heavyset. He was wearing a small hat and had long side curls, and looked about 20 years old. He threw a large rock at the Hyundai, which was about 400 meters in front of me. The Hyundai proceeded another 20 meters or so and stopped. I stopped next to the turn to the settlement. The settler was standing next to the driver's door of the black car. I saw three passengers inside the car. I asked the guy in Hebrew, “Why did you do that?” Then the doors of the car opened. The settler bent over to pick up a stone. I took off fast and shouted to the driver of the Hyundai to do the same. When I reached the Hyundai, I shouted, “To the checkpoint, to the Huwara checkpoint.” The settler swore at me in Hebrew.

When we got to the Huwara checkpoint, we stopped in the middle and beeped to draw the soldiers' attention. I got out of my car and saw the Hyundai's windshield, which had been shattered on the right side, and the passenger whose head was bleeding and had lost consciousness. In the back seat was a child who had been injured in the face. The driver got out quickly, told the soldiers that settlers had assaulted them, and asked them to let him go to Nablus. Five minutes after that, an army vehicle with a Magen David on it and a Civil Administration vehicle pulled up. The medics gave the two wounded passengers first-aid and then a Red Crescent ambulance arrived and took them to hospital in Nablus.

The driver of the Hyundai, Hazem Ma'ali, asked that the woman and child be taken to an Israeli hospital, but the Civil Administration official, who said his name was Mansur, refused and said, “We can't.” A half an hour later, two police patrol cars arrived. I told the policemen what happened in fine detail. Hazem accompanied his wife and daughter to Rafidyah Hospital, in Nablus, and I stayed with their two small daughters, who are eight and two. The two-year-old cried and I tried to calm her. I saw that she had been wounded in the head as well, and I told the policemen. They summoned another Red Crescent ambulance to the checkpoint.

In the meantime, Hazem's brother arrived at the checkpoint and took the children to the hospital. I drove with the policemen to the Ariel police station to make a formal complaint.

Around 7:30 P.M., I finished filing the complaint and asked the policemen to drive me out of the [Ariel] settlement because it is forbidden to Palestinians to move about there. I waited at the station until 11:30 P.M. for the police to take me. Each time I asked one of the policemen to drive me out of Ariel, he replied, “There aren't policemen or patrol cars.”  I saw lots of patrol cars parked outside and felt they were delaying me on purpose.

Finally, they drove me to the Za'tara checkpoint. They said they couldn't go all the way to the Huwara checkpoint. After I got out, they continued on the road to Huwara. I took a taxi to Huwara and there I got into my car and returned to work.

Nasser Fathi Musa Halayel Dweikat, 32, married with eight children, is a resident of Beita, in Nablus District and a taxi driver. His testimony was given to Salma a-Deba'i on 3 August 2008 in Beita.