Hassan Ja'afra, age 20, resident of Tarqumiya, Hebron District
I live in Tarqumiya, which is about twelve kilometers west of Hebron. I am a student at the al-Quds Open University. My family has a store that sells telephones in the center of Tarqumiya, near the municipality building. When I return from the university, I usually go to help my brother Muhammad in the store.
On Tuesday [20 May], between 10:30 P.M. and 11:00 P.M., I left the store to go home. It was not safe to keep telephones in the store, so I took around twenty cell phones with me in a bag. On the way, two Border Police jeeps came to our street and stopped in front of me. Around ten border policemen got our of the two jeeps. They told me to back up a bit and empty out the bag. They also demanded my ID card. I explained that there were cell phones in the bag, and that I did not want to empty it out because I didn't want to break them. I opened the bag and one of the officers checked it with his gun. Then he started throwing the phones on the ground and the rest of the officers picked them up. I tried to take the phones out of their hands, but every time I tried to grab a phone from the hands of one of them, he would hit me on the back. One of them told me that the phones were stolen and that he was taking them. I wouldn't give him the phones and I explained that we own a telephone store. I told him he could come to the store with me and see for himself. I told him that each of the phones has an identification number so you can tell whether they are stolen or not.
Apparently some of the officers were convinced by what I said because they got into one of the jeeps and left. I heard one of the officers, I think it was the commander, telling the officer that took my ID earlier to give it back to me and leave me alone.
After the first jeep drove off, the driver of the second one asked me to give him a Cellcom phone. I told him I didn't have Cellcom phones. He told me to give him an Orange instead. I refused. Two officers got out through the jeep's back door and started beating me. One of them hit me with the butt of his gun and the other kicked me. They hit my back and demanded that I give the officer the phone. I refused again. Then they got back inside the jeep.
Before the jeep left, I asked for my ID back. One of the officers said he'd give it back to me if I gave him a phone. I refused. Then the officer. told me I wouldn't get my ID back and started swearing at me. The jeep drove off and I went home. They still have my ID.
Hassan 'Izat Muhammad Ja'afra, is 20 years old. He is a student and resident of Tarqumiya, Hebron District. The testimony was taken by Musa Abu Hashhash at J'afreh's store on 23 May 2003.