J.,'A., 17
I am the eldest child in the family. Before I was arrested, I was in the eleventh grade in a technological school, where I studied air conditioning.
At about 3:00 A.M. on 17 March 2009, a contingent of soldiers came to my parents' house, which is a detached, one-story structure. The soldiers dislodged the front door and came inside. The noise woke my parents, my little brothers, and me.
The soldiers searched the whole house, turning everything over. They removed the clothes and everything in the closets and broke things. They stole NIS 8,000 in cash that was in my parents' bedroom. Later, my father filed a complaint at the Palestinian DCO in Bet El.
The soldiers asked me if I was hiding weapons. I replied that I didn't have any weapons. After a while, they put me into a police truck. My hands were shackled behind my back and my eyes were blindfolded with a cloth. They ordered me to lie on the floor, facing down. There were six soldiers in the truck, three on each side, and they kicked me and stepped on me. Before leaving the house, the soldiers took my identity card and I still haven't got it back.
The truck drove to Bet El. When we arrived, I was kept in the truck for about an hour, lying on my stomach with my hands cuffed. Then they took me to another place, which looked like an army base, that I didn't know. They put me in the lookout tower, in a small room with a soldier who guarded me.
They kept me there, lying on my stomach and my hands cuffed behind my back, for two hours. Then they took me to another army vehicle, sat me in a seat and latched my seat belt. We drove to a few places I didn't know. We got to Ofer Prison. I asked one of the soldiers for the time, and he said it was almost 4:00 P.M. They handed me over to the Nachshon Unit of the Israel Prison Service and took me to the interrogation facility in Petach Tikva. I wasn't given any food or anything to drink the whole day. They also didn't let me go to the bathroom, and I had to restrain myself.
In Petach-Tikva, they asked me about my medical condition, and I told them I was generally healthy and that I didn't; have medical problems. I showed them my hands, which were swollen due to the handcuffs. They didn't give me anything for it, but the swelling went away within two days.
After the examination, they took me to the interrogation room. They sat me on a chair that was fixed to the floor. The legs were made of iron and its seat and back were plastic. They cuffed my hands behind the back of the chair. The cuffs were connected to a ring on the back of the chair so that I couldn't move my hands. My legs were cuffed as well.
The interrogation continued for about an hour. The interrogator swore at me really bad and threatened me, saying that if I didn't confess to what they claimed I did, he would make sure I'd be punished very severely and that they would keep me in interrogation conditions for three months, non-stop, and would arrest my parents and others in my family. The interrogator did not hit me.
When the interrogation ended, they let me go to the bathroom for the first time. They took me to a cell, where I was given something to eat for the first time that day. The cell was 2.5x2 meters in size and did not have a window to allow in air and sunlight. It only had an opening for artificial ventilation. The door was sealed. The ceiling had a light bulb that was kept lit, with weak light, around the clock. On the side of the cell was a hole in the floor to relieve myself, and above it was a lever to flush it. The cell also had a sink with a faucet for washing and drinking. On the floor was a mattress and blanket that really smelled.
The cell was very damp, and as time passed, due to lack of sunlight, I developed a skin fungus. I asked for a medication to treat the fungus, but they didn't give me anything. The fungus went away when they took me from Petach Tikva. The quality of the food was poor. For example, they gave me half-cooked, cold rice and a hard-boiled egg that looked as if it was cooked ages ago. There wasn't enough food and it did not fill me up.
A week passed in Petach-Tikva before they let me shower. That was the first time I was given soap and a towel. Then they let me shower daily.
On 18 March, a day after I was arrested, they took me for interrogation. The interrogation lasted from 8:00 A.M. to about 4:30 P.M. This interrogation was similar to the first one. They brought me lunch while I was in the interrogation room and removed the handcuffs. They let me go to the bathroom, but only an hour after I asked. When the interrogation ended, they took me back to the cell.
I remained in Petach Tikva for two or three weeks, I don't remember exactly. I was interrogated every day, except for Fridays and Saturdays. The interrogation was almost exactly the same each time. At the end of my stay, I was told that the interrogation had ended, and they transferred me to Jalameh [the Kishon Detention Center], where I remained for two days.
At Jalameh, they put me in a single cell. There was a grate between my cell and the one next to it. In the other cell were about nine men who were in their thirties or forties. They spoke to me and said they were responsible for security detainees in the prison. They asked me to tell them about the stages and contents of the interrogation. I refused to tell them or to answer their questions. I realized the men were asafir [collaborators with the interrogators, who tried to get detainees to talk]. After two days in Jalameh, they took me back to Petach Tikva.
The day I returned, they interrogated me for about two hours. Then they took me to a cell. I stayed there for three more weeks, more or less. In the first two weeks, they interrogated me every day, except for Fridays and Saturdays. The third week, they didn't interrogate me at all. In my entire time in Petach Tikva, I was alone in the cell, except for the last two days, when they put another minor, who was about seventeen years old, in the cell with me.
They took me to Hasharon Prison, where I remained for about a month before they took me to Ofer Prison. At Ofer, in the military court, they filed an indictment against me, charging me with throwing stones and a petrol bomb. The hearing was held on 11 August.
I met my attorney for the first time in Ofer Prison, after I had been brought from Hasharon Prison. I met a representative of the Red Cross for the first time about two weeks after I arrived at Petach Tikva, before they took me to Jalameh, where the collaborators tried to get me to talk.
J.'A, 17, eleventh-grade student from Ramallh District, was arrested on March 17, 2009 and interrogated in the ISA interrogation facility in Petach-Tikva. testimony was given to Attorney Hisham Abu Shhadeh, of HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, on 16 July 2009 at Ofer Prison.