It was during Eid and I wanted to stay up all night and wait for the dawn prayers. So when my parents went to bed I went next door to my uncle’s house.

 

At around 3:00 a.m. I heard loud banging at our front door next door and heard a commotion around the house. Someone was shouting "open up". My father answered the door and a group of Israeli soldiers entered our home. They asked for me and my mother told them I was not home. Then they searched the house and made a huge mess, turning furniture upside down and throwing our possessions on the floor. They told my father they were searching for pipe bombs. They found nothing.

 

Then they asked my father for his identity card. My father told the soldiers that his ID card was in the car. So the soldiers followed my father to the car and took the car keys. They told him they would take the car and his ID card if I did not turn myself in. They told my father they did not want to arrest me but rather wanted to ask me some questions for 10 minutes.

 

My mother sent a message to my uncle’s house telling me to come home and I went home promptly. The commander told me he wanted to ask me some questions outside. He took me outside and asked me where I had hidden the pipe bomb. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about and that I did not have any pipe bombs. He hit me on my head and slapped me twice on my face and repeated the question. I told him I had no pipe bombs. Then he told me if that was the case he was going to arrest me.

 

The soldiers gave my parents a form filled out in Hebrew with details about my arrest. Then they tied my hands to the front with one plastic tie which was painful. They also blindfolded me. I was then taken to a troop carrier and made me sit on the metal floor. The troop carrier drove to the police station in Etzion settlement.

 

On arrival at Etzion I was taken to a room where I waited until around 8:00 a.m. At 8:00 a.m. I was taken for interrogation.

 

As soon as I entered the interrogation room the interrogator asked me about the pipe bomb. I told him I did not have any pipe bombs. He did not remove the tie and the blindfold and when I asked him to remove them he tightened them even more. Then he told me I had the right to make one phone call either to my parents or to a lawyer. I told him I wanted to speak to a lawyer and he called one and allowed me to speak to him. The lawyer told me not to confess. The interrogator also said something about silence but I did not understand what he meant.

 

Every half an hour or so the interrogator would take me outside the room and punch me in the stomach. During the interrogation he named a boy and told me he had confessed against me. I asked him to bring the boy in and he did. The boy said he had confessed against me and later I found out that the boy confessed because the interrogator told him I had confessed against him, which was not true.

 

During the interrogation the interrogator swore at me and called me a "son of a whore" and a "brother of a whore". He interrogated me for a long time, possibly six or seven hours and I continued to deny the accusation throughout.

 

In the end the interrogator showed me documents in Hebrew and asked me to sign them but I refused and asked him to provide me with an Arabic translation. The interrogator did show me the documents in Arabic and I signed. After the interrogation I was searched in my underwear and taken to a prison cell in Etzion.

 

At around 2:30 a.m. I was taken to Ofer prison where I was searched with my clothes on before being taken into Section 13.

 

The following morning I was taken to Ofer military court. My parents were not in court because they were not informed but my lawyer was there and the hearing was adjourned.

 

In all I had about 16 appearances in the military court. During one of my court appearances the boy who confessed against me was brought in to testify and his testimony was in my favour. He explained to the military court that he confessed because of pressure and because he was told I had confessed against him which was not true.

 

At the last hearing, which was about six months after my arrest, the lawyer told me I was going to be released. My lawyer was able to reduce a previous suspended sentence I had from one year to six months and I was released on 20 December 2017. I was also fined 1,000 shekels and I was given an additional suspended sentence of one year suspended for three years.

 

I spent the entire imprisonment in Ofer prison. My parents visited me seven times in prison. My parents, my brothers and uncles and their wives and my grandparents all came to Ofer to take me home. When I hear soldiers in the village now I run home. I don’t want to see them ever again.