(Fwd) Prison and the beast - Huwaida released but more action needed

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM  pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 www.gush-shalom.org

Huwaida Arraf was released; here follows her rapport of the disgusting 
scene she witnessed at the checkpoint, before her arrest. 

In the end phone numbers and emails for further action.

------- Forwarded message follows -------
To:             	palsolidarity at yahoogroups.com
From:           	Huwaida Arraf <huwaidaa at yahoo.com>
Date sent:      	Wed, 18 Jun 2003 18:19:40 -0700 (PDT)
Subject:        	[palsolidarity] Prison and the beast

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the calls and the emails. I am embarassed to have taken 
up
your time with my case when there are so many other Palestinians 
that need
your help. The officer filling out my release papers commented that I
"must have many friends all over the world." 

I was put under arrest today for "obstructing the work of soldiers" and
though I didn't go to prison, I'd like to ask a few minutes of your time
to tell you about what happened today, and the larger prison that all
Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are in. 

I arrived at the Huwwara checkpoint at around 12:30pm with a newly 
arrived
American volunteer, Rick; we were on our way to Nablus. The queue 
was
long, at least 70 people, and it didn't look like the three Israeli
soldiers that were manning the checkpoint were letting anybody through. A
few of the Palestinian men, who had already been at the checkpoint for
over an hour, seeing my companion was an international, advised us to walk
around the checkpoint to avoid what would surely be another 3-hour wait,
at least; "If you have an American passport, you'll pass, no problem."
Though we were in a hurry to get Rick to the ISM training in Nablus, there
was no question that we'd refuse to take advantage of the racist system
that would allow an American into Nablus, but require a resident of Nablus
or a surrounding village to wait for hours, to be checked by Israeli
soldiers and then given a verdict of whether he/she could go home, to
work, or to school. So we waited. Soldiers make Palestinians
 stand in a female line and a male line and so our Palestinian friends,
 who were trying to save us time, urged us to at least get into the
 shorter female line. We did. A half an hour later a soldier came over and
 let a handful of women pass. I was one of the ones singled out to pass.
 Rick came with me. When we approched the soldier that was to check our
 IDs, we noticed a family, a man, woman and two children who were standing
 aside. Apparently the soldiers did not want to let the man through (he
 had a British passport) and his wife, a Palestinian from Nablus, was
 refusing to leave without him. They were also refusing to turn back. The
 soldiers kept asking of the Brit, his "hawiyya" - ID, insinuating that he
 had a Palestinian ID (in addition to the passport) and was just refusing
 to show it. I then noticed two yound Palestinian men, in their early
 twenties, crouching up against the cinder blocks that form the
 checkpoint, their hands tied behind their backs. An old woman was
 pleading with the Israeli soldiers, her son (one of the young men), was
 sick and had back problems and was on his way to Rafeedia Hospital in
 Nablus. She was trying to show the soldier her son's papers and x-rays,
 but he wasn't interested. "His back! His back!" she cried, but the
 soldier only yelled at her to go away. I interfered to ask the soldier
 why he was yelling at the old woman and holding the young men. He said he
 wasn't interested. I learned from the two men, Rashed and Ramsy that they
 had been held for 3 hours by that point (since about 9:30am) and the
 soldiers had confiscated their ID cards. They weren't told why. I got on
 the phone with HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization in Jerusalem
 that often turns in complaints of abuses to the Military District
 Coordinating Office, and gave them the names of the young men. Rick and I
 decided that we would stay by Ramsy and Rashed until HaMoked was able 
to
 get back to us. Ramsy stood up to show us that his cuffs were on way too
 tight. It looked like he was losing circulation. I pleaded with one of
 the soldiers to loosen his cuffs, Rick pointing out that the boy could be
 seriously hurt. The soldier screamed at Ramsy to kneel "or else." Another
 soldier, calling himself a beast, said "I want to kill him today." 

The soldiers told me to leave the area, as I was in a closed military
zone.


A young man, named Nael, came through, asked the soldier if he could pass
because he got word that his father passed away last night and he wanted
to visit him before he was buried. The soldier told him to shut up and get
back in line. When Nael persisted, the soldier called him a "son of a
b*tch" and began pushing him. Nael stood his ground and the pushing got
very rough. Another soldier ran over screaming and put his M16 to Nael's
head. They grabbed Nael and pulled him away, one soldier still screaming
and threatening to shoot. Rick and I followed and whipped out our cameras,
"Hey, hey, calm down. Calm down!" Nael was also put in cuffs and told that
he would be arrested and that he "would be seeing a jail cell and not
[his] father." Another call to HaMoked.



The soldiers kept telling me to leave the area, as I was in a closed
military zone and preventing them from doing their job -- really annoying
them. I refused, telling them that there was no way I was going to leave
these guys when it was obvious the soldiers were being very abusive, and
even if they considered serving the occupation as their "job" there was no
reason not to treat the people as human beings. This whole time they did
not let any one through the checkpoint, though every once in a while a
soldier would get on the loud speaker and yell at the Palestinians to form
straight lines and to stand behind the plastic barricades or else the
checkpoint would be closed for the rest of the day. 

By 3:30pm, more pushing, yelling, loosing and tightening of cuffs, Ramsy
(the sick one) was released. One of the soldiers kept saying to us in
English, "I want to kill him today." I asked why he couldn't realize that
we're all human beings like he was. He replied, "I'm not a human being,
I'm a beast. I'm a beast, OK, and I want to kill him." He came up behind
Rashed, grabbed arms and tightened his plastic cuffs until they couldn't
be tightened any more. When I protested, he yanked Rashed away and threw
him behind an area of cinder blocks telling him to kneel so that he was
out of sight. Rashed tried to stand up a few times, "my hands, my hands!"
Another call to HaMoked. Nael, still cuffed, ordered from a young boy
vendor, three colas, for me, Rick and himself. He urged me to leave,
assuring me that he would be OK.

It didn't seem like any of what we were saying was getting through to any
of the soldiers who kept treating the people like they were less than
human, denying entry to into Nablus to a new bride and her husband going
to visit family, a husband and father, trying to enter with his family
(the soldiers only let the wife and kids go) and a half dozen others, as
people were ordered to approach one by one, one every 10 minutes or so.
The self-described "beast" confiscated two bikes and one trolley - things
that Palestinians trying to make a living in an economy with a 70%
unemployment rate, use to transport the bags and luggage of other
travelers for a small charge (as Palestinians often have to walk
distances, owners of trolleys, bikes, and donkeys offer rides or transport
of heavy bags for a nominal fee.)

A young boy came up to me to tell me that Rashed had been released. I
guess I had had my back turned, and at first didn't believe it. But Rashed
came up to the front of the line to wave and confirm that he was let go. I
went up to him, "are you going to try the other way around? Take care." He
smiled, "thanks." Only Nael was left until the "beast" ran after a
Palestinian man who was given to pass, and for no reason, tied his hands
up and pushed him down behind some cinder blocks, where Rashed was only
minutes before. By now the soldiers were getting pretty annoyed with me
(perhaps because the HaMoked calls were working) and a police jeep pulled
up. By 4:30 I was taken away. Rick was given the option to leave and it
seemed best, though I was worried about him traveling alone on his second
day.

I was released at about 11pm from Ariel (settlement) police station. An
anonymous friend (a veteran from the first Intifada who had spent 11 years
in jail for actively organizing the popular resistance) made the 40km
drive in the dark on the windy settler road to pick me up. Rick made it
back OK. HaMoked rang to check up on me. Nael was not released.

If you can, please call or write to inquire about Nael Suwaydi from Abu
Dis, arrested at Huwarra checkpoint on June 18, 2003 for daring to come
from Abu Dis to Nablus, without permission, to pay respects to his father.
I never did give Nael my condolences.

Tel: + (972) 36 080 339
Fax: +(972) 36 080 343

Israeli Minister of Defence, Shaul Mofaz: sar at mod.gov.il  
Israeli Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom: sar at mofa.gov.il  

Contact the Israeli Embassy in your country:
http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.htm  

In solidarity & struggle,
Huwaida

I apologize if any of this in incoherent. I'm a little tired.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT 
www.palsolidarity.org 

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human
history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to
improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends
forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million
different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that
can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Robert
F. Kennedy



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