A Routine Founded on Violence

Police officers assault girl aged 15 in her home and take her for interrogation

23 November 2017

On 22 August 2017, at about 1:00 PM, several dozen Border Police officers and members of the Yasam special patrol unit, some with their faces covered, entered the yard of the S. family home in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, accompanied by four dogs. All the members of the family were sitting in the living room at the time: the father N.S., 39; his wife ‘A.B., 37; and their six children, aged eight through 15. Approximately 20 police officers entered the home together with the dogs, frightening the small children. One officer placed a gun against N.S.’s head while two other members of the security forces pinned him to the floor, shackled his hands behind his back with plastic cuffs, and left him in the living room. A man in civilian clothing ordered the mother and children to go into the kitchen, while the security forces began to search the house, together with the dogs, for approximately two hours.

A man in civilian clothing who accompanied the police officers summoned the oldest son, K.S., 15, and asked him where his father’s telephone was. When K.S. replied that he did not know, the man hit him on the back and face and threatened to send him to rot in jail. The man then turned to the mother and informed her that a female police office would search her.

In testimony taken on 24 September 2017 by B'Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri, the mother described the subsequent events:

An intelligence officer told me in Arabic, “Come with me, the police officer wants to search you.” He shouted at me: “You’d better take out your husband’s cell phone.” I replied, “You already have all the phones,” and he shouted, “Bring the phone immediately!” My daughter W., 15, told him: “Don’t shout at my mother. There aren’t any phones.” The intelligence officer replied, “You’ll be the first one to be searched.” A female Border Police officer dragged my daughter toward the living room. I followed her and stood by the door to the living room and the bedroom. Two police officers threw my daughter on the floor. One of them put his foot on her head and the female officer grabbed her by the neck. I shouted at them, “Shame on you! She’s a young girl!” 

The man in civilian clothing pushed the mother as she was trying to reach her daughter and pushed a bed toward her. The bed hit her and she fell to the floor. The police officers took the shackled father out of the house and later transferred him to the police station at the Russian Compound. His daughter W. was arrested and taken by the officers to the same police station. After the officers left the home, ‘A.B., who had been injured when she fell, was taken to a medical center in Jabal al-Mukabber where she received treatment.

In testimony taken on 24 September 2017 by B'Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri, W., 15, described how she was assaulted:

The policewoman dragged me into the living room while my mother and brothers stayed in the kitchen. They took my father out into the yard. I struggled with the policewoman and refused to let her search my body. At this point two police officers joined the policewoman. They knocked me down to the floor and one of them stood on my head with his shoe. He pressed down hard and it hurt a lot. The policewoman held me by the neck and choked me. Then they found the phone I had been hiding in my pants. Then they tied my hands behind my back.

They took me out into the yard. My mother followed and told the intelligence officer, “My daughter always wears a hijab, it isn’t right that she’s going outside like that.” I didn’t have my hijab on and I was wearing a short-sleeve shirt. The intelligence officer told her, “I want to take her like that”, So my mother gave me a kerchief to cover my arms, but my head was still bare. The policewoman took me out to the street. While we were walking, one of the police officers cursed me and said, “Your mother’s cunt, you whore.” They put me into the detention vehicle, which was white, and the policewoman sat next to me.

They took me somewhere that I later on learned was called “Al-Musqubiyah” (the Russian Compound). They took me out of the car and put me in a room where several police officers were sitting. I asked them to take the cuffs off my hands so that I could go to the toilet, but police officers refused. My hand hurt because the cuffs were tightly fastened. I cried quietly. They put me on a chair with my face to the wall, and after about half an hour a man in civilian clothing came in and told me in Arabic to go with him to another room. I said, “I want to go to the toilet and to drink some water, and before that I want you to take my cuffs off.” He unfastened the cuffs on my hands and a policeman accompanied me to the toilet and waited outside by the toilet door. In the toilet I drank water from the faucet.

After W. returned from the toilet, an attorney for the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan approached her and spoke to her for a few minutes, after which she was taken for interrogation. During the interrogation, which lasted for about half an hour, the interrogator asked her why she had hidden the phone and accused her of assaulting a female police officer. W. replied that the phone contained family photographs, and that it was the policewoman who had assaulted her. W. signed her testimony, which was written in Hebrew – a language she does not speak. Her fingerprints were taken and she was released. At about 6:00 PM she returned home with the assistance of a staff member from Wadi Hilweh Information Center, who came to the police station after she was arrested and waited for her.

The violent behavior of the security forces during this incident was totally unjustified. Dozens of police officers, some with their faces covered, came to the family’s home accompanied by dogs. They arrested the father, who has still not been released, assaulted several members of the family, including a 15-year-old girl, and searched her body. They then shackled the girl and took her to a police station without allowing her to call her family. They interrogated her for half an hour without her parents being present, and obtained her signature on testimony written in a language she does not understand. They then released her and took no further action.

This behavior forms part of the consistent policy of the Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem regarding the detention of minors. Detention is almost always used as the first action, rather than the last resort, contrary to the provisions of the law. Minors’ rights are violated and trampled on throughout the detention process. Detained minors are left entirely on their own for the entire duration of their detention, without the protection of their parents or another adult on whom they can trust. They are suddenly separated from their families and from their daily routine and do not know what will happen to them. These practices are used under the guise of formal legal provisions and exceptions that are employed in a manner that empties them of any meaning and ignores the protections they are supposed to provide for minors. 

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H.R. (on the left) at home with a friend. Photo by Amit Gilutz, B'Tselem, 24 Dec. 2017

East Jerusalem

East Jerusalem: Israeli Border Police officer pepper- sprays Palestinian, 15, at close range for no reason, others arrest the father

On the evening of 20 November 2017, H.R., a 15-year-old Palestinian from the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, was standing by the vending stall where he sells corn in the neighborhood. A few other teens were standing nearby. At around 7:15 P.M., three Israeli Border Police officers passed by, and then one turned around and went back to the stall. In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 26 November 2017, H.R. described what happened next: The officer asked: “Who said ‘wesh’”? Or ‘esh’?” One of the boys said: “We don’t know”. The officer threatened us: “I’ll take all of you to jail”. Suddenly, one of the officers pepper-sprayed me right in the face. Our house is close by, so I ran home and my mother helped me with milk and lotions. I felt like I was suffocating. I couldn’t breath. In a testimony she gave to B’Tselem on 6 December 2017, H.R.’s mother, Rula R., 40, a married mother of four, said: At around 7:25 P.M., the door swung open and my son came in screaming. There was a yellow substance on his face. He yelled: “Border Police officers pepper-sprayed me” and threw himself down on the couch. He looked like he was suffocating and couldn’t breath. I put lotions and milk on his face to calm the stinging. My little girl, who’s eight, stood next to me in shock, watching her brother writhe in agony. She started crying. I didn’t know who to help first. I calmed her down and said: “Don’t be scared. He’ll get better”. At that same time, H.R.’s father, Zuheir R., 46, was leaving the nearby mosque, where prayer had just ended. Neighborhood children told him his son had been pepper-sprayed by a police officer and he hurried home. When he saw his son was being taken care of by his mother, he went out to look for the officer who had assaulted him. He was told the officers had gone to one of the buildings in the neighborhood taken over by settlers, which is known as “Honey House” (Beit Hadvash) and is frequently attended by police. He went to the building and knocked on the door, but no one answered. He then called the police station to complain, and was told to call back later. Zuheir drove his son to a clinic in Silwan, where H. received a painkiller injection and some eye drops. In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri on 26 November, the father described what happened next: After we’d been at the clinic for about half an hour, the police officer called me and asked me to come with my son to the police station. I decided to go on my own and leave my son at the clinic with his cousins, because he was having trouble breathing. I went back home to take a video of the footage of the assault, which had been recorded on the security camera I have installed at my house. About ten minutes later, there was loud banging on the door. I opened it and saw Border Police and Special Patrol Unit officers at the doorway. A Border Police officer told me in Hebrew: “You’re under arrest”! I said: “But I’m about to head to the police station, why am I under arrest”? The commanding officer told me: “You’re accused of threatening a police officer”. They tied my hands in front of me with metal handcuffs and took me to the police station on Salah a-Din Street. At the police station, the officers tied Zuheir’s fee together, too, and left him waiting alone in a room for about 90 minutes. After that, the officers allowed him to call his lawyer and then took him into interrogation. During the approximately hour-long interrogation, which was conducted in Arabic, Zuheir was accused of having threatened a police officer. He denied the allegation and said a police officer had used pepper spray on his son. He signed his statement, written in Hebrew, which he does not read, and the officers then removed his handcuffs and took his photo and fingerprints. Zuheir called a friend who signed a 5,000-shekel bail guarantee for him, and was then released. As previously reported by B’Tselem, this is not unusual conduct for Israeli police in East Jerusalem. Police brutality and false arrests are nothing new in Batan al-Hawa. This neighborhood has been the scene of the largest expulsion effort in East Jerusalem in recent years. More than 100 settlers are already living in the neighborhood, and some 80 Palestinian families who have lived there for decades are facing eviction proceedings. The entry of settlers into the neighborhood has changed life there entirely – lawsuits, violation of privacy and daily harassment by settlers have become par for the course, together with massive presence of Israeli security forces and private security guards who use violence against the Palestinian residents, threaten them, arrest minors and completely disrupt life in the neighborhood.

20 December 2017

East Jerusalem

Unprotected

Joint report with HaMoked, Center for the Defence of the Individual The report reveals broad, systemic abuse by Israeli authorities of the human rights of hundreds of Palestinian teenagers arrested every year in East Jerusalem. Affidavits were collected from 60 such boys: they described being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, handcuffed, interrogated in violation of their rights, then kept in custody under harsh conditions, sometimes for extended periods of time. These practices are part of Israeli policy, which considers the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem unwanted residents.

24 October 2017

Majd Rweidi after his release. Photo by Wadi Hilweh Information Center, Silwan

East Jerusalem

Israel Police and ISA agents severely beat 15-year-old in East Jerusalem

On Tuesday, 28 June 2022, at around 4:00 A.M., about 30 Israel Police officers and Israeli Security Agency (ISA) agents, some of them masked, arrived at the Rweidi family home in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. Several of them entered Majd’s (15) room, waking him in a fright. Majd’s father tried to reassure his son and told him they were police officers. When Majd replied to his father, “What am I supposed to do to them?” one of the officers forcefully pushed him, and Majd pushed him back. Other officers pounced on the teen, beat him and then took him into custody, barefoot and shirtless. The officers handcuffed Majd and continued beating him on the way to the Russian Compound detention facility in West Jerusalem. At the facility, police officers beat the teen until his lawyer arrived and photographed the bruises they left on his face and body. Majd was interrogated and accused of throwing stones at settler and police vehicles. At around 4:00 P.M., he was taken to the Magistrate's Court in Jerusalem, about 12 hours after being rousted out of bed, beaten and interrogated – and given no food or drink the entire time. The judge extended Majd’s arrest by two days, during which he was not interrogated but simply held in a cell. He was released on the afternoon of 30 June 2022, after his father signed a NIS 5,000 (~1,505 USD) bail guarantee, and was put under house arrest for seven days. This incident is not an exception but the rule for many Palestinian families in East Jerusalem. A long line of Israeli authorities are complicit in this violence and enable it. In this case, it was the police officers who came to the family’s home in the dead of night, woke the entire household and violently dragged 15-year-old Majd out of bed; the ISA agents who escorted them; the police officers who interrogated the teen after he was dragged from bed and repeatedly beaten; the guards who imprisoned him; and finally, the judge who approved the extension of his arrest — the purpose of which was unclear, as Majd was not interrogated again — and put him under house arrest without a judicial procedure that would allow him to defend himself. That is how Israeli authorities routinely run the lives of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, enjoying far-reaching powers with no accountability for their actions. B’Tselem field researcher ‘Amer ‘Aruri collected testimonies from the family. In his testimony, Majd a-Rweidi (15) recounted what happened to him that night and in custody: On Tuesday, 28 June 2022, at around 4:00 A.M., I woke up because I heard noises in the house. Suddenly, I saw some masked people in my room. One of them said to me in Arabic, “Get up and come with us.” I was terrified. My dad told me they were police, and I got nervous and started shouting. When I got out of bed, one of them pushed me and I pushed him back. The officers kicked everyone out of the room and started hitting me. They kicked and slapped me for a few minutes, and then they tied my hands behind my back and led me out of the house barefoot and shirtless. My mom handed them a shirt for me to wear, but they used it to cover my face. One of my brothers followed me and handed me shoes. They led me into a jeep and I put my shoes on. I couldn’t see anything because my face was covered with the shirt. During the ride they hit me again, in my face, head and neck. When the jeep stopped, they pulled me out of it violently. I almost fell flat on my face. Later, the lawyer told me I was in Room 4 of an interrogation facility near the Russian Compound. They made me sit in a kneeling position and kept on hitting me from time to time. They slapped me, kicked me and hit me all over my body with the butt of a gun or a rifle. I don’t know how long it lasted. At some point, the lawyer arrived and asked to take photos of the bruises the beating left on my face and body. The lawyer explained to me how the process of interrogation and arrest works. After he left, they took me to the bathroom and I washed my face. Then they took me into interrogation. There were two plainclothes interrogators in the room. I sat on a chair with my hands tied. The interrogators accused me of throwing stones at settler and police cars. I don’t know how long the interrogation lasted. It felt like two hours or so. I could barely talk because I was in such pain from the beatings. I was also very thirsty. I asked for water, but they didn’t give me anything to drink or eat. The interrogation was in Arabic, but they also told me to sign documents in Hebrew, which I can’t read. The interrogator said it was my testimony. I signed, and then they transferred me to a room that was basically a cage with bars. My hands were still tied. I was exhausted, thirsty and hungry, and my whole body ached. At around 4:00 P.M. I was taken to court, where I saw my dad and my brothers, Ahmad (21) and Samir (22). I couldn’t speak to them. The judge extended my arrest for two days, and I was taken back to the Russian Compound. I was taken to a doctor who gave me painkillers. Then they put me in a room with three other boys around my age. Even though I was hungry and there was bread and jam in the room, I fell asleep immediately because I was so exhausted. When I woke up, I ate one slice of bread and drank some juice. I had no appetite. I stayed in the room until Thursday at 5:00 P.M. I wasn’t interrogated again. My dad signed a 5,000 shekels bail guarantee, and I was put under house arrest for seven days. After I was released from the detention facility, I went with my dad and my brothers, Ahmad and Samir, to a clinic in ‘Ein a-Luza in Silwan, where I was x-rayed. The doctors said I had bruising in various parts of my body and dry blood marks on my left ear. Majd’s father, Muhammad a-Rweidi (49), described his son’s arrest and what happened afterwards: I heard loud knocking on the door. I got up with my wife, Islam (43). I asked who it was, and they said, “We’re from the police. Open up.” There were more than 30 officers there, some in plain clothes and some wearing black uniforms. Some of them were also masked. The whole family woke up except for Majd. There was an ISA officer with them and he asked for my children's names. I said I have four children: Rital (11), Majd (15), Ahmad (21) and Samir (22). He asked me where Majd was sleeping, and I told him he was in the room with his two brothers. He ordered me to take him to the room. Five police officers went into the room and the others spread out around the house. Majd woke up and was scared. I told him not to be afraid and that they were police. He replied, “What am I supposed to do to them?” When the ISA agent heard that, he pushed him hard, and then Majd pushed him back. Three Special Police Unit officers hit Majd, knocked him to the floor and kicked him. I yelled at them to stop and told them he was just a kid. My wife and Majd’s sister were standing in the doorway and saw what was happening. They started screaming and crying. Then about 15 more police officers came into the room and kicked me out. I heard Majd shouting in pain. A few minutes later, they brought him out, barefoot and without a shirt on. My wife tried to hand Majd a shirt to wear, but one of the officers took it and covered his head with it instead. Samir ran out after Majd and handed him shoes. As soon as the police left I called a lawyer, Muhammad Mahmoud, and told him what happened. He got back to me an hour later and said Majd was being held in Room 4 and had a hearing scheduled at the Magistrate’s Court in Jerusalem at 11:00 A.M. Of course my wife, our kids and I didn’t go back to sleep after all that. We kept thinking about Majd and what was happening to him in detention. I was very worried about him. In general, I’m very worried about his future, because I’ve also been detained for different lengths of time since 1988 and I don’t want my son to experience that. I don’t want his future to be lost in prison. The lawyer called us later and told us the hearing was postponed until 5:00 P.M. I went to the court with Samir and Ahmad. When Majd was brought into the hall, I couldn't believe it was my son. His face looked completely different. He’d been severely beaten, and his face was swollen and bruised. The judge extended Majd’s arrest for two days, and he was released after I signed unpaid bail of 5,000 shekels. He was put under house arrest for seven days. As soon as he was released, we took him to a clinic in Silwan, where he was examined and given painkillers. Thank God he had no fractures, only bruises and various aches. We’re trying to give Majd the strength to deal with the beatings and the humiliation he went through. He’s doing better now, thank God.

14 August 2022