A Day in an Israeli Prison

By Samir Z. El-Sayed

As a participant in Bir Zeit University's international work camp from July 29 to August 12, I was among 70 European and American volunteers privileged to view Palestinian life in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Through meeting and working with students, farmers, refugees in camps, civic leaders and others, we discovered that Palestinian nationalism and culture continue to flourish, despite Israel's 20-year military occupation.

I also witnessed firsthand the Israeli strategy to intimidate Arabs visiting from any country, and non-Arabs who seek to aid the Palestinians. The lessons started the moment our group of 10 Arab Americans and one Irish American stepped off the Allenby Bridge from Jordan onto the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

We were immediately separated from the flow of tourists proceeding on to Israel. The 10 Arab Americans were strip-searched. The Irish American was not. A customs official took my tape recorder/walkman, batteries, a clock and several cassette tapes from my baggage and instructed me to send them back to Jordan "for security reasons." When I protested and attempted to call the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, I was told by a soldier that my possessions would be "burned" at 3:30 p.m. (closing time) if I refused to send them back. When I asked if we were being discriminated against because we were Arab Americans, the soldier in command of the passport control area responded "something like that." Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come.

Volunteer Work Camp Raided

At 1 a.m. on August 12, the last day of the work camp, 10 uniformed Israeli soldiers and three detectives in civilian clothes entered Bir Zeit University's new women's hostel, the living quarters for international volunteers and the site of the camp's farewell party. The Israelis ignored a Bir Zeit University official's request for the written military order required for military authorities to enter university property. The soldiers searched the dormitory, detained three male Palestinian students, and confiscated identity cards from seven others.

When volunteers began to follow the soldiers as they led the detained students off the campus, the soldiers struck two Norwegian women in the face with batons, punched an American woman in the chest, and aimed machine guns at anyone who protested. We learned later in the day that two of the Palestinian students were released at 3 a.m., and that one of them had been beaten on the way to jail. The third detained student, Jamal Abu Kweik, remained in Ramallah prison.

Students Peacefully Protest Israeli Harassment

The next day, August 13, 38 European and American volunteers from the camp marched from the Damascus gate of the Old City to the American Consulate General in East Jerusalem to file a formal affidavit and statement with a representative of the United States government.

It was planned that volunteers of other nationalities would then proceed in smaller groups to file their own complaints with the consular representatives of Belgium, Norway, Great Britain, Switzerland, Italy, and Denmark. Unfortunately, they never got past the US Consulate.

An American consular officer told us that since our group was blocking pedestrian traffic into the consulate, he would ask the 20 to 25 Israeli police surrounding us to arrest us if we did not move. Although we were not blocking the entrance, we complied by moving across the road, where we chanted slogans such as "Shimon Peres, take your weight, off the students at Bir Zeit" and "Free Jamal now."

The police told us to disperse, but this time we argued that, as a group of fewer than 50 peaceful protestors, and therefore not requiring a permit under Israeli law, we had the right to stay.

As I began to make a statement to the gathering crowd—including a television crew that had been filming American-Jewish immigrants in Israel and would-be Israeli emigrants to the US at the consulate—I was suddenly pushed to the ground by police. They struck others with rifle butts and batons, and fired at least one canister of tear gas into the crowd. Some demonstrators fled into the YWCA building adjoining the consulate.

An Arab-American woman and I returned to the consulate to file a protest. As we approached, an Israeli guard gave orders to lock the gate and radioed the police, who had also fled the cloud of tear gas. We were still showing our passports to prove we were US citizens entitled to enter when the police grabbed both of us. I was lifted into the air by eight policemen or soldiers and put into a police van. Meanwhile, other police or soldiers regrouped and forced their way into the YWCA, despite the protests of the director, where they severely beat four male volunteers. One handcuffed Belgian was struck repeatedly with batons. He and two others were hospitalized. Six of us were arrested and, as I looked back at the now empty street from the police van, my last view was of a pool of blood outside the YWCA.

At a West Jerusalem jail, an officer informed me I was a suspect and told me to sign a statement in Hebrew that I "understood" the charges: Illegal demonstration and assaulting a police officer. When I asked to have the paragraph translated from Hebrew, the officer state that it referred to a "confession." I was aware that this tactic is common procedure in Israeli interrogations of Palestinian prisoners, and that such a statement in Hebrew could later be introduced in court as an admission of guilt. I asked to see a lawyer and a consulate official. After my lawyer arrived, a detective produced a new form and allowed me to write my own statement in English, which I did.

At this point I was taken to another section of the prison where my belongings were taken away. Prison guards then attempted to separate me from the other male European work camp volunteers who had been arrested. After I complained, I was put in a cell with the others, but on two other occasions guards came into our cell and tried to remove me. They offered no explanation, but in talking to the others, the guards referred to me as "the Arab."

Israeli Police Intimidate Suspects

The following morning I was taken out of the cell and told I must be fingerprinted. I complained that, as a suspect not yet charged with a crime, I should not be fingerprinted and should be allowed to see my attorney. I was told this was not possible and, if I refused to be fingerprinted, I would be taken before a judge and sentenced to 40 days in jail for my refusal. A British volunteer who refused to allow his fingerprints to be taken was threatened with batons. Several hours later we were told that if we agreed to leave the country, we could go "freely" and without facing charges. We departed with no regrets, but aware that our treatment paled in comparison with that of Palestinians who are arrested daily in the occupied territories. Like the rest of the visit, however, this experience vividly illuminated still another aspect of daily life for the Palestinians in the occupied territories.

Samir Z. El-Sayed is a Texas-born American graduate student at the London School of Economics and a former staff member of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.