Testimonies

Rihab Za'ul, mother of six

I am a homemaker and have six children. My husband has been in Damon Prison for three months for working in Israel without a permit. My eldest son, Yihya, who is nineteen, has limited movement because of a traffic accident he was in last year. He has already undergone two leg operations, and the doctors put pieces of platinum in his leg. He can't stand for a long time and is in pain, and he can't work at all. My son Mahmud, who is seventeen, goes to the boys high school in Husan. ‘Omar, who is fifteen, is in the tenth grade. I have three daughters, the youngest is five. Since my husband was arrested, our situation has been terrible. We have no income, and we live on charity.

On 30 December 2008, around 3:00 A.M., I woke up to pounding on the door. I got out of bed and opened the door. Five soldiers came in, to the TV room. One of them asked me where Mahmud was. Mahmud had just woken up and came to see who was banging on the door, and stood next to me. When the soldiers realized Mahmud was standing next to me, they began to hit him with clubs. My small children came from their room to see what was happening. When they saw the soldiers beating Mahmud, they began to scream. I stood between Mahmud and the soldiers and tried to absorb the blows with my body. The soldiers hit me in the head and shoulders with their clubs. Then a soldier pushed me, and I fell to the floor. All the soldiers continued to club Mahmud, all over his body.

‘Omar cried and shouted to them to leave his brother alone, and then a soldier clubbed him in the chest and pushed him to a corner of the room. In the meantime, Mahmud tried to grab the sofa. I got up and went over to him to protect him, and the sofa fell on me and Mahmud. It felt like my bones were breaking. The children began to shout and cry, and the soldiers shouted at them. My thirteen-year-old daughter shouted through the window to the neighbors to come and help us, and one of the soldiers hit her in the head with a club. The soldiers got the sofa off of me and Mahmud and then dragged Mahmud out of the room.

The soldiers squeezed me, ‘Omar, and my three daughters into one room. One of the soldiers held the door handle on the outside to prevent us from leaving the room. We were in the room for ten minutes, and I heard Mahmud shouting. They beat him, and he cried out in pain. After ten minutes, the shouts stopped. I heard the soldiers say he was dead. I tried to open the door with all my force, and it opened. No soldier was on the other side. All five soldiers were around Mahmud. I went over to them. Mahmud was lying on the ground, without moving. His eyes were open, but he didn't see. I thought he was dead. I called to him and hugged him, but a soldier grabbed me had by the arm and moved me away from him.

I heard the soldiers call for an ambulance. More soldiers came into the house. They bound Mahmud's hands with metal cuffs while he was still lying on the floor, not moving. About ten minutes later, the soldiers put him on a stretcher and took him to an ambulance. I tried to follow them and get into the ambulance, but the soldiers pushed me and told me, “Go into the house.” They took him and I didn't know if he was alive or dead. I cried all night. I didn't know what to do.

In the morning, I went to the Red Cross and the Palestinian Prisoner Club. I told them what happened to Mahmud and asked them to help me find out his condition. I called HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, and they told me he was alive and being detained in Etzion . They said they didn't know anything about his medical condition.

The next day, my eldest son, Yihya, was detained and held for five days. He was released after I called the lawyer who handled his traffic accident case, last year. The lawyer sent Yihya's medical file to Etzion and asked him to be released. On 5 January 2009, Yihya was released, and when he got home, he said he had seen Mahmud, and that his leg was in terrible shape, that it had been broken, and that he was taken to Hadassah Hospital, where his leg was put in a cast. He also said that Mahmud can't move his leg at all, and that he doesn't know all the details about his leg.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society lawyer, Jacqueline, told me that they took Mahmud to court in Ofer on 8 January, and that the hearing was postponed until the 15th.

Rihab Muhammad Mahmud Za'ul, 41, married with six children, is a homemaker and a resident of Husan in Bethlehem District. The testimony was given to Suha Zeid at the witness's house on 13 January 2009.