I woke up at around 2:30 a.m. to the sound of a stun grenade exploding. Soon my daughter came to tell me that Israeli soldiers were at our front door and to get dressed. Everyone in our household, nine people, was awake when about seven soldiers entered our home. When I looked out the window I saw about 14 military jeeps in the area.

 

The commander told us to gather in the living room. Then the commander asked to see the identity card of S., our 23-year-old son. The commander then checked a photograph he brought with him and grabbed M., our 14-year-old son, by the neck saying he was under arrest.

 

I asked the commander to allow M. to put on some clothes and he allowed me to fetch them. Meanwhile our youngest daughter told the commander that M. was too young to arrest, but she was ignored. I was too scared to argue and I didn't want the soldiers to become angry and take it out on my son.

 

Then things got out of control and I found myself pulling M. by the arm in an attempt to free him from the soldier's grip. My husband and daughters were also pulling M. The soldiers became very tense and wanted to take M. as quickly as possible.

 

The soldiers then took M. outside. Then the commander showed my husband a document written in Hebrew and told him to sign it. My husband refused saying he wasn't going to sign something he didn't understand. The commander then told us that they were taking M. to the police station in Binyamin settlement and told us we could go there later on that morning to check on him.

 

When I asked the commander why they wanted to arrest our son he said it was because he was a "threat to the security of the State of Israel". When the soldiers left I started to cry; I felt scared and helpless.  We could not go back to sleep and all our neighbours came over to support us.

 

Later that morning, when we went to Binyamin settlement to check on M., the guard at the entrance did not allow us to enter.

 

Last year our house was raided four times by the Israeli army. The army does this systematically because they want to break our spirits, especially the spirits of the young people. Over the years my family has lost more than 25 acres of land to the nearby Israeli settlement of Halamish. The army makes our lives hell through night raids and arrests so we stop protesting against the loss of our land.