Testimonies

Khaled Jaradat, 22

For more than a month, I have been doing aluminum work for a contractor in the Tel Aviv area. I return home, to Jerusalem, every night after work. The contractor assigns me to work at various building sites. Lately, I've been working near the stock exchange, in Ramat Gan. Three other men from Jerusalem work with me: Ahmad a-Darawish, 24, Muhammad a-Darawish, and his brother, Zakaria a-Darawish. We travel together to Tel Aviv every day.

Yesterday [4 January], I went to work with my friends, as usual.  When we finished work, around 4:00 P.M., we decided to go to Jaffa to walk around and eat something. We went in a company car. We walked around Jaffa for a few hours. Around 7:00 P.M., we drove towards the Old City. On the way, a large GMC police patrol van passed us. It stopped near us, and two policemen wearing Special Patrol Unit uniforms got out. They had grey pants and black shirts and each had a pistol and handcuffs. One of them was tall, full-bodied, and light-skinned. The other was shorter, full-bodied, had a brownish skin color, and wore a black woolen hat with a red stripe. I think he had a bit of a beard.

They asked us where we were from. We told them, and they told us to give them our identity cards. The tall policeman searched us. He told me to take off my shirt. I said: “Why are you doing this in the street? People are watching us and it is degrading.” He replied: “If I don't search you here, I'll take you to the station.” I said: “Better to get it over with here, then.” After the search, he went over to the car. The other policeman stood next to us. A little while after that, Ahmad sat down on the pavement, a few meters from us, and lit up a cigarette. The policeman next to us shouted at him, “I haven't finished with you!” Ahmad immediately came back, and the policeman grabbed him and pushed him against the van. Then he pushed him inside it. I asked the tall policeman, “Where are you taking him?” “You want to join him?” he replied. “Yes!” I said. He grabbed me, pushed me inside the van and gave Muhammad and Zakaria their identity cards. The tall policeman got into the van from the back and the other policeman sat in the driver's seat. The tall policeman, who sat next to us, told us to get off the seat and sit on the floor. We asked why we should sit on the floor if there was a place to sit. Then he hit us hard with a black, plastic club all over our bodies. We got off the seat and sat on the floor, but he continued to beat us the whole way, which lasted more than twenty minutes. I was cold and felt humiliated. I couldn't respond. I just covered my face with my hands to protect it from the blows.

The van stopped. The tall policeman grabbed me from behind and the other policeman grabbed Ahmad, and they pulled us out and took us to a building, beating us on the way. We got to an elevator, and they continued beating us. When the elevator door opened, they told us to walk toward the stairs. They beat us on the stairs too.

We entered a long corridor, about twenty meters from one end to the other. They stopped beating us there. We got to a large room that had a computer, benches, and about six policemen from the Special Patrol Unit. After a few minutes passed, a policeman grabbed me and took me out of the room. I think he was Russian. Three policemen followed him. He took me to a corridor that had a small room at the end. I think it was a shower room, because there was water on the floor.

He and the tall policeman who had brought me to the station stayed with me alone in the room. The other policemen closed the door. The two policemen beat and kicked me for a while. Then they told me to take all my clothes off. When I did, the Russian policeman slapped me hard and told me to dress quickly. He continued to beat me while I got dressed. Then he pulled my hands behind me and cuffed them. He washed his hands, led me outside the room, and took me back to the room where I had been previously.

He shackled my feet and sat me down on the floor with my face to the wall. Policemen brought Ahmad into the room and sat him down, in the same position, next to me. We were kneeling with our knees on the floor. We remained in that position for more than two hours. It hurt a lot, and my legs fell asleep. I asked the policemen to let me get up, but they wouldn't.

Then they took us to an interrogator, on another floor. He was wearing civilian clothes. He questioned me. He told me I was accused of assaulting policemen. He told me that I had said I hated Jews and that they should be thrown into the sea. After thirty minutes of questioning, he told me to sign a few pages. They took me to another room, where they fingerprinted me, and then they took me back to the room where I had been previously.

All the time, the policemen swore at us and at Muslims in general, saying that Arabs should be burned. They took me back to the interrogator, and he told me to sign a piece of paper. When I asked him what was written, he told me it was an order prohibiting me from entering Tel Aviv for five days.

Then they removed the cuffs and let Ahmad and me go. It was already 1:00 A.M.. As we left the building, I asked the guard where we were, and he said “2 Salameh Street.” I got home around 3:00 A.M.

Today, I went to the health fund clinic to get treatment, because I'm in pain.

Khaled Muhammad Hammad Jaradat, 22, is a laborer and a resident of a-Tur neighborhood in East Jerusalem. His testimony was given to Kareem Jubran at the witness's home on 5 Jan. '09