The 40 Days of U.S. Citizen Anwar Mohamed Under Israeli Interrogation and Torture

By Eugene Bird

Anwar Mohamed is a second-generation Palestinian-American citizen who was born in Ramallah but has lived in Miami near his brother for 10 years.

While visiting his sister in the West Bank, he was arrested by Israeli authorities and tortured for 40 days before international pressure and his own refusal to sign the confessions put before him led to his release.

Excerpts from a recording in which he recounted his experiences follow. They tell a story not only of torture but of an absolute lack of protection for American citizens arrested in Israel. These stories have been circulating for years without effect on either the Congress or the administration.

Signatures extracted under torture from non-Jewish prisoners and written in Hebrew, a language few understand, are a characteristic of Israeli justice. What the Israelis describe as “moderate physical pressure” is applied to Christian and Muslim but not Jewish prisoners, regardless of citizenship, until they sign false confessions. Successive American administrations, dating back at least to the early 1980s, have done nothing effective to stop the practice, which is contrary to international law. In fact, Israel is the only country in the world where torture has been codified and legalized.

At least four and possibly six American political prisoners are now in Israeli jails, and perhaps another four in Palestinian Authority jails.

Excerpts from Anwar Mohamed’s Account of His Interrogation After He Was Arrested While Leaving the West Bank to Visit Relatives in Jordan

The Israeli interrogator said, “So if you are an American citizen, that does not mean anything to us. We could do whatever we want with you! And let me tell you something, We Are America, so whatever we want, we’ll do it. Do you understand…?”

They said, “Come on in. You’re going to tell your story. Come on, we’re very busy. You have to tell us what you have.”

I told him, “What story? You’ve been keeping me here for 18 days. I didn’t do anything. And why are you detaining me in here?”

So he said, “Listen, if you’re not going to talk we could send you to jail for three months and we could put you in jail without a court order....”

So I said, “Why are you doing all of this? What did I do?”

They took me out and I was surrounded by some of their people. They spoke Hebrew. I just could hear that they were shouting and shouting and shouting. And then they took me outside to those little rooms where you could sit down with your lawyer and there were two policemen with their uniforms and they came and talked to me. They brought me a bunch of papers in Hebrew and they said, “Come and sign those papers.”

And I said, “I’m not signing anything.”

And they said, “You have to sign it.”

And I said, “I’m not going to sign it. What do those papers talk about?”

They said, “Oh no, those papers only talk about how you’re now under our authority. You’ve finished from the interrogation place and you are going to jail and we don’t want to have problems or trouble with you.”

I told them, “Why am I going to jail? I have just been in court and they said that in eight days they’re going to set me free....”

He said, “Look, you see this?” And everything was written in Hebrew.

I could just see my picture in it and they said, “Well, this is an order and you’re going to jail for three months....”

After that they took me to an isolated cell. It had a little window open and there was another one opposite from it. They put me in there and I looked from the window and there is the guy they sent when I was in the cell. His name was Bessam Jeshbi, the one who works for them. There he is once again.

And he told me, “Don’t worry, now you are fine. Now you are going to jail so the torture will stop....”

He started asking all these questions. I told him, “I’m innocent, Damn it. I shouldn’t be in here.” He said, “Well, with these people you have to expect the worst.”

I sat down and started talking to him, about how I am an American citizen. And I told him my story. He said, “Okay, you don’t have to say anything until the Prince of Jail comes.”

So, suddenly, there he is. He had a beard, Mr. Prince of Jail....And they run the water in the bathroom so the other guys won’t hear what you’re talking about. So he came to me and told me, “My name is Abu Hamza.” He told me he’s from a little town next to Silwan, which is where I was born. And he told me he’s from Hamas and he is the one in charge of the security of Hamas inside jail...

Something was very strange about this guy. He had a watch and it was such a weird watch. It looked like it had microphones in it, and that it was connected with the interrogation room and that the interrogators could listen to all the conversations in that room. He kept trying to hide it all the time. That was something that took my attention while I was in there....These six guys were in there and they gathered around me and put a plastic bag around my head. And they had a broomstick and they pushed it against my neck and they started to strangle me. Then they just let it go and they said, “Well, now you better listen to us. The Prince of Jail is not happy with you. And you have to tell us what you have. And if we tell you to write something you will do it. If not, we will kill you in here. Do you understand that…?”

I mentioned that to the American Consul in the second visit. I told him, “They tried to kill me in that place. Why is the American Embassy not doing anything about it?... I’m an American citizen. I need help....” He said he can’t do anything about it because it’ll be “your words against their words…”

Forced Confessions

[The interrogator] told me, “You write that you hit a Jewish rabbi with your car while you were outside Israel.”

I said, “I didn’t do such a thing.”

He said, “No, you have to write it. Then you will look big in front of us.”

I said, “Oh my God, what’s wrong with these people?”

And then he told me, “Write that you were a superpower in the intifada and that you always throw stones. And you threw a molotov and stuff like that.”

I said, “I have never done that. So, I’m not going to write it.”

“I Just Wanted to Die”

Well, they took me back to the cell. My body was shaking constantly. Every single nerve in my body was shaking. I just wanted to die. And while they were leading me with the sack on top of my head and in my chain, the prosecutor gave me a kick to my back and he started cursing me because I only got 15 days. He wanted more time for me. I swear to God that’s what happened with those people. I was sweating. I had a fever. I’m losing weight. I could see that. I could feel that. I’m losing muscles. Fatigue. It was very hard on me to breathe. He kicked me again…

The Chair

While they were tying me to the chair, I felt such a pain in my hand. I told him, “Listen, my hands are hurting.” He said, “That’s good. Then it hurts, so you could talk.” And he said, “I’m going to put you there for days and nights until you speak.” And he just keeps on shouting. I felt my elbow was broken.

Other interrogators started coming inside the room. I told them, “I am an American citizen. You can’t treat me this way. I am a human being. Why you are treating me this way? What did I do?”

And they start using the f-word, and “f-Americans,” and they start laughing and making fun of me. And one of them starts pushing where I was hit on my elbow, starts pushing it hard and I could feel the pain in my head. It was such a painful thing.

“Are You Gonna Talk?”

They left me in that room, tied up against that chair. I could see people shouting, screaming from the torture. Such a terrible thing. And the voices were coming from the next room.

And he came back after, I don’t know, one or two days. I was still on that chair. My body was shaking, cold. I could feel the coldness in my bones. And of course they leave the AC on. It’s a way of torture. The pain, the hunger, it came back. And he said, “Are you gonna talk?” And I didn’t answer him.

Boom, Boom, Boom

They took me outside. They tied me against the little chair. The small chair is supposed to be harder. And they put loud music, big speakers right in front of my face....He told me, “A lot of other guys won’t understand what the music talks about, but you will.” It was American music, rock-and-roll and other kinds of music—very loud. They left me for hours with this music, “Boom, boom, boom...” And they just turn the same songs again and again. My ears were going to explode. There was an explosion in my head.

I was getting crazy in that place. I told [the American Consul], please just tell them to put me in a better facility. If you don’t want to get me out, put me in a better facility. He said the longest they could keep me in there was about a hundred days. I told him, I have been here for almost 40 days and you expect me to go on for 60 more days? He said that is the most they could have you in here. I told him, “Listen, you could just come back after a few days and pick up my body.”

When I was leaving [the country] I called the American Consulate and I told them.... “I would like to be escorted to the airport, or you could send someone from the Consulate who could be with me while I am leaving the country.”

And they said, “No, don’t worry, they are not going to do anything to you. The only thing they could do, they could interrogate you one more time for 15 minutes to two hours, the maximum they have. And if anything happens to you, call us.”

It was like, yeah right, are they going to let me make a phone call like the first time when they detained me? So I said, “Thanks a lot…”

Eugene Bird is president of the Council for the National Interest and diplomatic correspondent for the Washington Report.