21 year old Palestinian tortured in IOF jail
By Johan
On Friday the 18th of November at 15:00, the IOF released 21 year old Hamza Samara from custody on a 10,000 NIS bail. During 25 days in jail, Hamza was subjected to torture and insults on several occasions.
Hamza was arrested at 02:00 in the morning on the 24th of October 2005. The IOF had entered Bil’in, a small village in the West Bank, to abduct him and another Palestinian man. The soldiers tied his hands and blindfolded him, and brought him to Ofer Military Base near Beituniya. When they reached the military base, the soldiers put him on a small chair, where he was kept until the morning, still blindfolded with his hands tied. When Hamza asked the soldiers if he could move to sit on the floor, the soldiers kicked him and insulted him.
The abuse continued. Hamza was not allowed to go to the bathroom when he needed to. After a long while he started crying and kept asking the soldiers to let him use the toilet. At that point the soldiers finally gave their permission, but on the way to the bathroom the soldiers pushed Hamza and hit him, and refused to untie his hands, saying: “Do it as you like, we are not going to take the chains off.” As a contrast to the soldiers, other Palestinians serving long term sentences at the military base supported Hamza by welcoming him and giving him clothes and cigarettes.
Hamza was accused of having destroyed a part of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall. But not until one week after his arrest did the IOF bring him in front of a military court. After postponing the court hearing three times, the judge decided to release Hamza on a 10,000 NIS bail. His father succeeded in collecting the money, with help from friends and various NGO’s.
The UN Convention Against Torture defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind.” The State of Israel has not signed this convention, the reasons for which seem obvious in the light of the abuse Hamza had to endure in jail.
Unfortunately, Hamza’s arrest and subsequent torture is not an isolated event. In Bil’in alone, 16 young Palestinian men have been arrested in nightly raids in the last month. Bil’in is severely affected by the apartheid wall, which has stolen 60% of the agricultural land of the village, and transferred it to the nearby settlement Modi’in Elite.
“It’s our right to destroy the wall”, a friend of Hamza said, “but they think if you destroy it you are a terrorist or something”. And he is indeed right, as is well known. The International Court of Justice in the Hague concluded in 2004 that “the construction of the wall […] and its associated régime, are contrary to international law”.
On Friday the 18th of November at 15:00, the IOF released 21 year old Hamza Samara from custody on a 10,000 NIS bail. During 25 days in jail, Hamza was subjected to torture and insults on several occasions.
Hamza was arrested at 02:00 in the morning on the 24th of October 2005. The IOF had entered Bil’in, a small village in the West Bank, to abduct him and another Palestinian man. The soldiers tied his hands and blindfolded him, and brought him to Ofer Military Base near Beituniya. When they reached the military base, the soldiers put him on a small chair, where he was kept until the morning, still blindfolded with his hands tied. When Hamza asked the soldiers if he could move to sit on the floor, the soldiers kicked him and insulted him.
The abuse continued. Hamza was not allowed to go to the bathroom when he needed to. After a long while he started crying and kept asking the soldiers to let him use the toilet. At that point the soldiers finally gave their permission, but on the way to the bathroom the soldiers pushed Hamza and hit him, and refused to untie his hands, saying: “Do it as you like, we are not going to take the chains off.” As a contrast to the soldiers, other Palestinians serving long term sentences at the military base supported Hamza by welcoming him and giving him clothes and cigarettes.
Hamza was accused of having destroyed a part of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall. But not until one week after his arrest did the IOF bring him in front of a military court. After postponing the court hearing three times, the judge decided to release Hamza on a 10,000 NIS bail. His father succeeded in collecting the money, with help from friends and various NGO’s.
The UN Convention Against Torture defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind.” The State of Israel has not signed this convention, the reasons for which seem obvious in the light of the abuse Hamza had to endure in jail.
Unfortunately, Hamza’s arrest and subsequent torture is not an isolated event. In Bil’in alone, 16 young Palestinian men have been arrested in nightly raids in the last month. Bil’in is severely affected by the apartheid wall, which has stolen 60% of the agricultural land of the village, and transferred it to the nearby settlement Modi’in Elite.
“It’s our right to destroy the wall”, a friend of Hamza said, “but they think if you destroy it you are a terrorist or something”. And he is indeed right, as is well known. The International Court of Justice in the Hague concluded in 2004 that “the construction of the wall […] and its associated régime, are contrary to international law”.
posted by ISM-NC at 6:41 PM
0 comments
