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Home » Parents »

Testimony - Naifeh N.

 

Name: Naifeh N.
Age: 50
Date: 7 April 2013
Location: Al 'Arrub camp, occupied West Bank
Event: Night raid / child arrest

On 7 April 2013, a 15-year-old minor for Al 'Arrub refugee camp was arrested by Israeli soldiers from home at 3:00 a.m. The boy's mother describes the night raid on the family home and the arrest of her son.

I was asleep when I woke up to the voice of my son telling me Israeli soldiers were at our door. I had no idea why the soldiers had come to our house at 3:00 a.m. My husband wasn’t at home that night as he was on night duty. My son opened the door and found about 30 soldiers in front of our house; some were masked and looked really scary. A television crew from Israel’s Channel 2 was also with them. They filmed everything.
 
One of the soldiers spoke very good Arabic and asked my son for his name. He also asked him who else was in the house. When my son mentioned his younger brother A., the soldier asked him to go and tell A. to come. A., who is 15, and physically small for his age, was terrified to be woken up by his brother knowing he was wanted by the soldiers. The soldier then asked to see my Identity card and checked A.s name on it. I begged the soldiers not to take A. away. I said none of them would like to see their children taken away like this in the middle of the night, but they did not listen to me.
 
The soldiers told A. to get dressed because they were going to take him. A. begged them not to take him that night because he had an school exam the following day, he didn’t want to fail. The soldier didn’t say anything but the commander told A. not to worry because if everything went well he would be home the following day. This was the first time my son A. was arrested. Nobody told us where they were taking him or why. It was a terrible night, I couldn’t go back to sleep.
 
In the morning I received a phone call from the interrogator. He told me to bring money to the Israeli police station in Etzion settlement. He said bring NIS 2,000 to NIS 3,000 shekels so that A. could be released. I borrowed money from friends and relatives and went with my other son to Etzion. At Etzion we looked for A. from one place to another before locating him. I was hoping to take him back home with me but this didn’t happen. The policeman told me they were going to keep him. I felt very sad. I was able to see A. from behind a fence. He seemed o.k.. probably because he thought he was going to be released. When he realised this wasn’t going to be released he started to cry. This broke my heart.
 
Later that night A. was transferred to Ofer prison, near Jerusalem. A lawyer told us there would be a military court hearing for A. on 9 April 2013. On that day I left the house at 6:00 a.m. and didn’t leave Ofer military court until 4:00 p.m. It was a long and exhausting day. In court, when I saw A. in shackles, I cried. He cried when he saw me. The lawyer told him that his file was missing, so the military judge adjourned the case to 11 April 2013.
 
A.’s case was reviewed by a court appointed social worker who recommended that he be released. On 23 April 2013, after five court appearances and 16 days in prison, A. was released on bail. We had to pay NIS 4,000 in bail. The military judge ordered A. to remain under house arrest for a whole year. He is only allowed to attend a court sessions, that’s all. This decision has been devastating; he hasn’t been going to school since he was released. His mind is distracted and he is unable to study at home.  I have asked private teachers to come to our house to give him private lessons because I don’t want him to miss this school year.
 
A. has changed since this incident; he is defiant, doesn’t listen to me and is finding it hard to stay at home while his friends and classmates go to school. The lawyer is costing us a lot of money too, we already paid him NIS 3,000 and it is not clear what he will be able to achieve. I can’t wait for this nightmare to be over and for our lives to go back to normal.