I was asleep when an Israeli soldier suddenly woke me up. It was around 4:00 a.m. He removed my blanket and asked me for my name. He told me to get up, then checked my identity card and took me to the living room where I saw about 15 other soldiers all wearing masks. It was a scary and chaotic scene. 

 

The soldiers gathered all of my family in the living room, took our mobile phones and kept telling us to shut up. Then a soldier pushed my mother away and took me to a bedroom. My father insisted on accompanying me. My mother asked the commander why I was being taken aside and the commander told her she would soon find out. 

 

Inside the bedroom the soldiers told me to put my clothes on because I was under arrest. Then I was dragged outside our house. My family were not given any documentation. 

 

Once outside a soldier punched me in the chest and then tied my hands to the back with one plastic tie. The tie was tight and very painful and left marks on my wrists for a long time. I was also blindfolded.

 

I was then led on foot to the military watchtower at the entrance to my village. At the watchtower a soldier slapped me hard while I was still blindfolded. I was then left outside in the cold weather for about 15 minutes. The soldiers made me sit on a thorny bush and then led me towards the nearby settlement of Halamish.

 

At the settlement I was put in the back of a military jeep where I sat on the metal floor. The jeep then drove to the police station in Binyamin settlement. 

 

At Binyamin I was taken to a cell where I was left by myself on the floor without food or water for about six hours, still tied and blindfolded. Later I was taken to see a policeman who asked me for my name and took my father’s telephone number. He turned a voice recorder on and asked me whether I needed anything. Then he shackled my feet and tied me to the chair and replaced the plastic ties with metal handcuffs.

 

After I was tied the policeman phoned a lawyer and allowed me to speak to him. The lawyer told me to remain silent and not to confess. He warned me against informants in prison and cautioned me against talking to anyone. He told me again to remain silent while the interrogator questioned me and advised me not to answer his questions.

 

Then the policeman started to question me about throwing stones without informing me of my right to silence. He told me there were confessions against me and gave me a specific date and accused me of throwing stones at soldiers on that date. I denied the accusation. Then he showed me photos of boys and wanted me to give him their names. He raised his voice at me and thumped the table aggressively when I refused to confess or give names. He swore at my mother and called her a whore. I continued to deny the accusation.

 

The interrogation lasted for about one-and-a-half hours. In the end the interrogator showed me documents in Hebrew and asked me to sign them but I refused to sign. He told me it was my statement but I did not trust him and refused to sign. 

 

Then he took me to another room and took my figure prints. He slapped me on the face and caused me pain. There were no cameras or voice recorders in that room and I was scared. Then I was taken to a room where I waited a short while before being taken to Ofer prison. 

 

I arrived at Ofer, near Jerusalem, at around 5:00 p.m. I was strip searched and then taken to Section 13. I ate and then I slept. The following day I was taken to Ofer military court. There was no lawyer in court and my hearing was adjourned. I had more than 20 hearings. 

 

My last hearing was on 11 July 2018. During that hearing I was sentenced in a plea bargain to six months in prison based on a confession by another person from my village. I was also fined NIS 1,500 and was given a suspended sentence of four months in prison valid for five years. I accepted the plea bargain because my prison sentence would have been higher had I not accepted it and because I was offered the plea bargain three weeks before my release date. Not accepting it would mean I would remain in prison longer.

 

I spent my whole sentence in Ofer prison. My parents visited me three times. In prison I slept a lot and played table tennis. I also attended some classes but they were useless and the standard was inadequate. 

 

I was released on 3 August 2018, and I went home with my father, my uncle and my grandfather. We arrived home at around 2:30 a.m. My mother nearly passed out when she saw me at home, she was ecstatic.