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Dear Brothers and Sisters
I would like to express to you all my deepest gratitude and appreciation for your support to me and my family during the horrible days during my arrest, and for preventing the demolition of my home . I am thankful for your trust and your help to get me released from jail.
I was badly affected by the violence. I always knew that anyone could be a victim of the ongoing conflict. In the past the victims were people that you and I don't know; now I have myself become a victim of this terror. Tomorrow it will be other people.
I would like to share with you my experience.
I believe that the Palestinians and Israelis are circulating in a spiral of violence since 2000. Their decisions are based on action and reaction, while every act of terror is a result of an unhealed wound. I believe that I can deal with my wound and I can heal it in a peaceful way.
Therefore I have no plans to ask the Israeli authorities to pay for damages to our house, because it would be an adversarial move that would only engender more ill-will and I feel it will not be appropriate from me as peace activist.
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Getting arrested
What happens when the wrong things happen
Ibrahim Issa
February 2003
On December 17th, 2002 at 5:00 in the morning I was woken up by the noise of explosions and gunfire. It was just under the window of my bedroom. The Israeli army started then to call people by loudspeakers to leave their homes and to give themselves up. At first I thought they were shouting at someone else, because I am not involved in anything against the Israelis - I am peace activist. Shootings continued. Neither I, nor my wife or my mother knew what was going on. Some neighbours started to phone us at home to ask what was going on, and our answer was that we did not know. Then we decided to leave our home to speak to the soldiers. I was in my pyjamas. It was a very cold morning.
The snipers were covering my body with red spots ready to shoot me. They asked me to take off my clothes as soon as I appeared out of the door of my home. They then asked me to raise my hands. I was very afraid and thought the soldiers might shoot me.
When I reached the first soldiers, one of them identified himself as an Israeli intelligence commander. He asked me "Where are the wanted persons?" I said I did not know. He repeated his question again and again, and I said I did not know what he was talking about. Then he asked me who lives in our home and who lives in the apartments next to my mother's home. I answered that I, my wife, mother and three-month daughter lived there. In one of the apartments downstairs lived someone called 'Bilal' who was working as a night guard in a company in Bethlehem, who had rented the place only two days before.
One of the soldiers took me to my neighbour's home. There I saw that the army had already arrested two young men and 'Bilal'. The same Israeli intelligence major took me to one of the rooms and started to ask me about explosives. I was in shock because I did not know anything. The major started to threaten to demolish our home if I did not say where the explosive materials were, saying that the bulldozer was on its way. My answer was that I did not know what he was speaking about. He mentioned that he had found weapons in my home (he meant in the apartment 'Bilal' was renting downstairs). Then the intelligence major said "You will live all your life in a tent, and your home will be gone".
Then the soldiers tied my hands and my eyes were covered. They tied my hands tight and caused lot of pain. I started to shout at the soldiers to ease the tie, and then one of the soldiers beat me. I had a problem with my legs and asked the soldiers to allow me to sit in another way, because my leg started to hurt. They simply refused and attacked me.
I was then transferred to a place I do not know. I remember that I had to get out of the car twice. The soldiers treated me very badly. On one occasion they hit my head against an iron fence while my hands were tied, and my eyes were covered, causing pain for the next two days. I have the feeling that the soldiers enjoyed torturing me. I said I was a peace activist, but that did not mean anything to the soldiers. The major from the intelligence said “I do not care”.
I was freezing in my pyjamas. I never complained again because I knew that complaining is not allowed. I was not allowed to express any human values because I am Palestinian, and Palestinians are all terrorists in the eyes of Israeli soldiers.
I did not know until this moment what really happened, or why they arrested me. The army kept me tied and my eyes covered from 6 o'clock in the morning until 5 in the evening. Then at 5 o'clock I was interviewed by Israeli intelligence (Shabak). The detective asked me about my relationship with someone called Baker Najar. I said I did not know him, but I did know Bilal Najar. Bilal was the young man who rented an apartment from me. The detective did not believe me. I answered that this was the truth, and told the detective I was involved in peace activities and was surprised why they should be arresting me. The man started to laugh and to speak to me in a disrespectful way. I told him ”It is not strange to me that you are laughing, because peace activists have to suffer from Palestinian and Israelis alike”.
At 6 o'clock one of the soldiers took me to jail, where I stayed for the next four days. In a three-by-four room where six people shared the floor, the room was cold, the blankets were wet, it was rainy and the walls were leaking.
The soldiers allowed the prisoners to go three times a day to the toilet, at 9am, 3pm and 9pm, with no exceptions. Sometimes the soldiers did not allow anyone to go to the toilet, so you had to wait. Normally, breakfast was diary products and bread. The prisoners had protested about the diary products on the day before I had been imprisoned, and had asked for something hot to drink. The army had brought tea just once, and never did so again. There was no hot water in the jail. When someone washed his face he got cold. No one could shave, so beards grew long. When I had first arrived in jail I had believed all prisoners were religious Muslims, because of the long beards. But I realised this was not true - the prisoners simply could not shave.
I sat in prison for two days, believing the army had destroyed our home. On the second day the army arrested someone from Al Khader, a village near Bethlehem, and he had seen on TV that the soldiers had destroyed only the garage, the surrounding walls and the garden, American officials had intervened to stop the destruction of my home.
On the fourth day (December 21st 2002), the Israeli soldiers did not allow any prisoners to go to the toilet until 1pm. I was suddenly released at 2.15, before even breakfast had been served. Prisoners were hungry and those who protested were isolated in a single prison chamber (zenzana). The soldiers were tough, especially in the fourth day.
While in prison I thought of my father Hussein, who had been jailed several times because of his peace activities. Once he told me that he derived his power to work for peace from the pain he had experienced. I only understood that feeling when I myself was sitting in prison.
My belief in peace has never wavered. On the contrary I gained energy to work for change. For the first time in my life I felt that Palestinians and Israelis needed peace more than ever. I hated the terror of both sides.
Back at home, the Israeli army had isolated my mother, wife and my three month old daughter in our neighbour's home, searching everything for almost six hours. Furniture were turned upside down and damaged, as well as the refrigerator, some windows and the fax machine. My mobile phone, wallet and diary were taken by the army and never given back.
The most terrible thing was that the army prevented my wife from bringing milk to my three month old daughter, who went hungry from morning to mid-afternoon.
