Life in Palestine

Friday June 26th
I had always felt that to write about Palestine, and the reality -- and often brutality -- of life there, I also have to be there. I have since decided this is not true. There are a number of reasons for my change of heart. First, I watch the news and read the media and am frustrated by some of the interpretation and analysis of current events affecting the region. Second, and more importantly, my nephew was forcibly removed from his home by the Israeli army over three weeks ago.

Amir is currently being held in the notorious Russian Compound (al-Muskubīya) in Jerusalem, under interrogation. He is, along with many thousands of Palestinians, being deprived of his liberty and his rights. He will also be tortured. Torture is routinely used to gain information or confessions. Most often, any information obtained is useless. After all, when you are suffering excruciating pain and mental anguish, you’ll say whatever you think will make them stop.

You may be thinking, what has he done? Amir is a quiet and thoughtful young man who has never been politically active, nor has he ever had any affiliation with any party. Amir’s current situation is fundamentally about a sequence of events over which he had no control. No Palestinian has complete control over anything, especially their own life. The story started a few years ago, when Amir accepted a university place in Tulkarem. If you know the West Bank, you will understand how difficult the relatively short journey between Bethlehem (south of Jerusalem) and Tulkarem (the north) is. Amir’s course was Islamic studies. Within the first week he had been detained and beaten at one of the checkpoints. This happened a few times and after less than a month, Amir quit his studies. Students are regularly targeted for the simple reason that Israel fears an educated Palestinian population.

The Israelis are very good at gathering and compiling data on Palestinians. And so, because of his checkpoint experiences, Amir’s record is likely to indicate that he as an “Islamic sympathiser”. A few years passed, and the tension between Fatah and Hamas in the West Bank increased. The Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority started a campaign of harassment against members, or alleged members of Hamas. Amir’s home was raided by the PA and he was detained for a few days of “questioning”. I have no doubt that the techniques used by the PA do not differ much from those used by the Israelis. Amir was subsequently detained on a number of occasions over the following two years.

It is also likely that someone, maybe another innocent Palestinian unable to bear the horror of torture, said Amir’s name to make them stop. Or maybe it was a collaborator who had no information to give but their handler was demanding something from them. It happens more often than you might think.

And so, this sequence of events has led to Amir’s imprisonment. There is no doubt that what he is experiencing now will affect him for the rest of his life: he’ll never be the same person again. Who knows how anyone can accept being the target of groundless accusations and suffer physical and mental abuse. I know many Palestinians who have been through this, time and time again. Most rarely speak about it, especially with one another. Often this is because they know that all their friends have suffered in similar way, so why should they make a fuss about it? What’s the point of discussing something that is such an integral -- and abnormally normal -- part of every day life?