Testimonies

Ahmad Abu Hussein, 23

Until two years ago, I was an auto mechanic. Then I had an accident and became disabled, and now I don't work. I walk with crutches and receive treatment.

On Wednesday, 25 February 2009, around 7:00 P.M., I was on my way to al-‘Eizariya. At a-Zeitun checkpoint, I crossed through the first gate and walked toward the second gate, which has a small booth with a glass window. Soldiers inside the booth open the gate by pressing a button. Inside the booth  were a female soldier and standing alongside her was a male soldier.

Two young men were at the gate, wanting to cross. They argued with the female soldier, shouting and cursing at her. I went up to the window and showed the soldiers my identity card. The soldier looked at it and told me to wait.

After about ten minutes passed, I asked the female soldier to open the gate for me. I told her I can't stand for a long time. She saw I was on crutches. She swore at me and said, “Shut up and wait quietly!” “Why should I shut up? I didn't do anything. Speak to me politely,” I replied. The two young men who were waiting shouted at her. She shouted, raised her weapon, and went to the door. She threatened to shoot us. Two soldiers intervened and grabbed her.

Less than a minute after that, a policeman in a blue uniform [of the regular police] arrived. He had light dark-brown skin. He came with two border policemen, one of them an Arab,  and a security guard, who was tall and thin and had short hair. They told us to go with them to somewhere else at the checkpoint. We went with them and they sat us down on benches. I asked the Arab policeman to put me in the room, because I can't sit outside due to the cold. I told him I had a pin in my leg, and it hurt a lot in cold weather, and that cold is bad for my leg. He said he would take care of it later.

The two young men and I sat on the benches for about five minutes. We were far from each other. The policeman in the blue uniform told me to give him my cell phone. I gave it to him. Then he asked me if I had another cell phone. I said, “Wait, I'll look,” and then I took another cell phone out of my pocket. The policeman slapped me hard in the face and pushed me, and I fell off the bench. I told him I'd file a complaint against him, and he said, “You don't frighten me with the Department for the Investigation of Police (DIP). You and everybody in your family can go to them.”

I got up and went and sat down again on the bench. After sitting there for less than an hour, the policeman returned with a piece of paper. He told me to sign, but I refused. I told him I won't sign anything until my lawyer comes. He asked me, “How'd you speak with him?” “I called him.” “Do you have another cell phone?” I said I did, I have another one in my bag. He got upset, hit me twice in the face, and pushed me to the ground. He kicked me in my bad leg, and in my back and chest, hurting me a lot. I cried out in pain, but he continued to beat me for about a minute. I lay there on the ground for more than half an hour. I was dizzy and in great pain. My leg hurt in particular.

The policeman who beat me, came back with a security guard and told me to get up. I told him I couldn't, and he picked me up and sat me back down on the bench. He told me to go home. I refused and requested that he call for an ambulance. He refused, and the two of them left me sitting there.

Two hours later, two border policemen came and told me to go home. I told them I couldn't and that they have to call an ambulance. They refused and said, “We'll help you leave.” They picked me up from the bench, and I fell to the ground. They picked me up, and again asked me to go.

Then a policeman named Faraj and one of the young men who had been detained picked me up and took me to a police patrol car, a Toyota, sat me down in the back seat. The policemen took me to the police station on Salah a-Din Street. They questioned me and told me I was accused of assaulting a policeman, even though the policemen had previously tried to convince me to go home.

After questioning me, they told me somebody had to come to sign a bond for me to be released. I called my brother and he came and signed the bond. We left the police station around 3:00 A.M. My brother took me home. I was in pain, and that night I went to Hadassah Hospital, Mt. Scopus. My leg, chest, and head hurt a lot. The doctors examined me, gave me tranquilizer pills, and released me.

Four days later, I went to DIP and filed a complaint. I asked the investigators to check the video cameras at the checkpoint. I think the whole incident was filmed.

Ahmad Mahmud ‘Omar Abu Hussein, 23, is an unemployed resident of Jabal al-Mukabber neighborhood in East Jerusalem. His testimony was given to Kareem Jubran in Jerusalem on 8 March 2009.