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This eye witness account of Mustafa, a 15 year old boy, being arrested in a raid on his home in Abu Dis, Palestine was received by CADFA (Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association), London, in early February.
“Last night while I was sitting on my balcony at nearly 11:30 I saw four Israeli military jeeps entered our street. It was very cold & there was heavy raining. The jeeps stopped near one of my neighbors house Emad Ehjazy. Fifteen soldiers went out of the jeeps & surrounded the house. Five of them start to knock at the door in a very angry way, the light above the front door of the house turned on when the soldiers start to shout ordering my neighbor to turn of the light.
When the door opened the soldiers start to enter the house, I saw their shadows on the reflection of the inside light. One of them went out & ask the rest of them to enter. In that tiny house there were 15 soldiers fully armed don’t respecting any sanctuary of that house or the feelings of the people inside.
Emad’s wife start to scream when they went out of the house pulling a civilian. First I thought that they are coming for Emad himself, but when they reach the jeeps & throw the light on the street I discovered that it’s his son Mustafa. They gathered around him beating him before they blindfold him & tied his hands behind his back. His father tried to follow them when one soldier shouted at him to return back home, before the jeeps moved to the old neighborhood of Abu Dis to complete their ugly mission.
Last night new families entered the prisoners club, new families started their suffering journey, their lives will never be the same from now on. They have to get use of all the difficulties, first to know where the children are, then to be sure that they are safe before they can find a lawyer to give them any legal advises, & the long journeys to the police stations & the military Gaols, trying to have any knows about their son or to see him.
In this night everything changed in the houses which these criminals entered, many methods just fail down inside these houses. It’s not easy for a man to see his own house invaded in this terrible way, to see the fear in his children eyes without having any chance to protect them. Last night mothers saw their own sons taken away from between their shoulders without having a chance to hug them or even to say goodbye.
For Mustafa who is 15 years old I believe that this will be the hard night of his life & he will remember it for the end of his life. From now on he is no longer a child, tonight he will face the reality of being a Palestinian, he will see the real face of the occupation. Like the other children whom arrested he will pass through this hell alone. They will use everything against him starting from the weather since they will force him to take off his clothes & to stand all the night under the rain till the morning when he have to obey their orders to sign on a false confessions to spend years inside Gaol & if he refuse they will totter him till he do sign.
This is one of the stories for the children prisoners. Nowaday there are more than 22 children from Abu Dis boys school in the Israeli gaols, all of them between 15-17 years old“ |