There were clashes with Israeli soldiers on a hill near the military base close to our village. It was around 5:30 p.m. Three soldiers ambushed me and immediately started to beat me up. They beat and slapped me on my back and shoulder and side using their guns and hands. They also called me "a son of a whore".

 

The soldiers pushed me to the ground and left me there for a short period of time. Then they made me stand up and a soldier tied my hands behind my back with one plastic tie which he tightened very hard. Then he blindfolded me but I was still able to see. 

 

The soldiers then led me for about 50 meters to where a military jeep was waiting. They pushed me into the back of the jeep and made me sit on a metal box in the middle. The jeep drove to a place I did not recognize where I was transferred into another jeep which drove me to the police station in Binyamin settlement. I arrived there at around midnight. At around 1:00 a.m. a soldier removed the tie and the blindfold and took me for interrogation.

 

The interrogator was in an Israeli police uniform and questioned me via an interpreter because she did not speak any Arabic. She was in her twenties. The interrogator phoned a lawyer for me before she started to question me. The lawyer told me I was going to be interrogated and that it was not going to be a big deal. He also told me I was going to be released if all goes well. He spoke to me for less than two minutes and the interrogator was not listening. 

 

After I spoke to the lawyer the interrogator told me I had the right to remain silent but she warned me that remaining silent may turn against me and implied that remaining silent implies guilt. Then she started to ask me questions. She wanted to know what I did with my time and where I was when I was arrested and what I was doing there. 

 

Then the interrogator accused me of taking part in the clashes with soldiers and showed me a photo and claimed it was me. I denied the accusation and told her the person in the photo had his back to the camera and that it was not me. She was calm but the interpreter was aggressive and spoke to me in a loud voice. He told me if I did not confess I was not going home. He also told me he was going to make me spend the night at Ofer prison. I continued to deny the accusation.

 

I was questioned for about an hour. At the end the interrogator asked me to sign a document in Hebrew. The interpreter translated it for me and I signed it when I was sure it was identical to what I had said.

 

Then I was taken in a military vehicle to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem. I arrived there at around 4:30 a.m. I was strip searched before being taken to section 13. The following day I had a military court hearing which both my parents attended. I was denied bail and the hearing was adjourned. 

 

The following day I was taken for another interrogation at Binyamin police station. It was a different interrogator. This one called my lawyer but he did not pick up. Then he called another lawyer who told me the same thing as the first lawyer. The conversation was less than a minute and the interrogator was not listening.

 

Then, without informing me of my right to silence, the interrogator again accused me of taking part in clashes with soldiers near the military base by our village. He was pretending to be polite and spoke softly. Then, when I refused to answer his questions and told him I wanted to remain silent he became aggressive and yelled at me telling me I had to confess. He repeated the same questions many times but I did not say a word. He wanted me to confess to taking part in the clashes. 

 

The interrogator showed me the same photograph that the other interrogator had showed me. He also told me he had video footage of me but he never showed me the video. He questioned me for about two hours and I continued to deny the accusation. At the end he showed me a document written in Hebrew and asked me to sign it. I refused to sign and until I consulted a lawyer about it. The interrogator called a lawyer for me and the lawyer saw the document on the screen and then told me it was ok to sign, so I signed. After the interrogation I was taken back to Ofer prison. 

 

On 5 July 2022, I met with a welfare officer based on a recommendation by the military court. She was young and did not speak Arabic. She asked me questions about my family and what I did with my life. I answered all her questions. But then she started to ask me questions about the incident I was accused of taking part in. At that point I refused to answer her questions. She was upset and reported me. Then a lawyer, who happened to be there, told her I was not obliged to answer questions about the incident. 

 

I had four military court hearings. At the last one, which was on the day of my release, the welfare officer presented her report to the military judge who took it into account. The judge decided to release me on bail but imposed restrictions on me. He ordered my parents to pay NIS 7,000 and put me under house arrest until the end on proceedings. He told my parents they would have to pay an additional NIS 20,000 shekels if I broke the conditions of my house arrest. I was allowed to go to school, but nowhere else. 

 

I was released on bail on 7 July 2022. I was released at Ofer and I went home with my parents, a couple of my friends and my cousin. I arrived home at around 1:00 a.m.

 

I did not have any family visits while in prison because my parents were not issued a permit in time. 

 

I have attended four more hearings since my release on bail. At the last hearing, which was on 1 October 2022, the judge accepted the plea bargain between the prosecutor and my lawyer in which my parents would be reimbursed 6,000 out of the NIS 7,000 they had paid to bail me out. He also lifted the house arrest. 

 

I found being under house arrest very difficult. I am not the type of person who likes to stay home. In the beginning, my friends visited me quite often, but then they came less and less. I tried to pass the time by studying but I was bored.